My made-up lesson plan based on Alex’s Islamabad class exercise:

Students: Advanced-Intermediate from varied cultures.

Goals: Introduce students to key vocabulary in context. Engage and maintain their interest by the gradual unfurling of the story and by placing events into a physical and emotional context to which they can relate.

Materials Required: Cuisenaire rods, blackboard or paper (& chalk or pen) for writing keywords; a good sense of humor, memory and verbal creativity

Description: Present selected keywords through an oral story about the teacher’s experience. Activate students’ visual imagination as a way to trigger the recollection of new words. Evaluate their understanding during pauses in the telling (students repeat a word or phrase they’ve heard, but cannot introduce a new word). At the conclusion, students write a sentence from personal experience using one of the keywords, to verify comprehension.

Process:

Steps	Theoretical Basis	Anticipated Outcome
Section I (pre): 5:00. Introduction and context-setting: pull rods out and start to construct a scene while explaining the scope of and directions for the exercise.	Context- and schema-setting; establishing the idea that the story is about the teller gives students a personal tie to the story, since they know the storyteller.	Engage students’ curiosity; provide clear explanation of their role and task.
Section II (during): 15:00. Begin telling the story in simple language, embedding a keyword along with a subtle presentation of its definition, so it doesn’t jump out as a vocabulary item.	Hook students into the story and lay foundation of understanding of process to follow; keep affective filter low.	Activate careful listening.
Invite student response.	Evaluate students’ comprehension.	Keep students engaged and alert.
Begin another section of story, repeating keyword from prior section and then moving on.	Repetition.	Help memorize word.
In each section, include vocab that students are likely to know well.	Colors, types of stores and other nouns are high-frequency.	Comprehension increased and affective filter lowered.
Increase complexity of grammatical, lexical and conceptual elements as the story unfolds, inviting student response between each section of story.	Once foundation is set, students can handle more complexity; details of setting are those students can relate to or know.	Enrich listening experience with new details; describe experiences that they may relate to personally.
Section III (post): 10:00. Finish story. Show students list of keywords. Have peers or other students explain them. Ask Ss to get notebooks and write a sentence from their own experience using one of those words	Check for comprehension; personalize the information.	Students will be able to recall a word’s meaning by visualizing the context in which it was mentioned.
Students share sentences	Verify comprehension collectively; group-building