TALK TO ME!

Lesson 6 : Confidence and Focus Mentor Guidelines : Please send the text (The Story of Edmund Hillary) the grammar exercises, the points of discussion and homework as well as the short poem to your mentee. Have your mentee read the story aloud, ask questions based on the story, encourage him/ her to be creative with the theme and above all, get your mentee to speak in full sentences as much as possible. The Story of Edmund Hillary Edmund Hillary was born on July 20, 1919 in Auckland, New Zealand. As a young child, he lived in a tiny village. He described himself as “a small and rather lonely child.” Indeed, he was shy and studious, often buried in books. He discovered his love of snow and climbing at the age of sixteen, during a school trip to the mountains. On May 29, 1953, at 11.30 a.m. Hillary and the Nepali Sherpa mountaineer, Tenzing Norgay, were the first to reach the summit of Mount Everest, the highest mountain in the world. They stood there for about fifteen minute...

Lesson 5.  Friendship Note to mentor: Please send the entire lesson, EXCLUDING these instructions to your mentee. This week’s lesson consists of a story on friendship, a fill in the blanks exercise which uses verbs from the story and a poem. Please explain the new vocabulary contained in this story to your mentee. It is up to you and to your mentee, but they might like to memorize this poem on friendship. The poem is called Talk to Me! Paragraph . Hari’s Restaurant Aakash loved telling jokes. They weren’t very funny, but his best friend, Hari, thought they were. Hari would laugh so hard at the jokes that tears would roll down his cheeks. But one day, Aakash said to his friend, “Do you want to hear my new joke? Hari didn’t reply. His thoughts were far away. Again Aakash asked, “Do you want to hear my new joke? Hari replied, “Do you think you could tell it to me later? I’m rather busy just now. I’m making important plans.” “What could be more important than hearing my n...

Lesson Plan 4.  Kindness and Sharing The proverb for the week: A joy that is shared is a joy made double. The Story of Stone Soup Three monks travelled along a mountain road. "What makes one happy?" asked the youngest monk. "The wisest monk replied, " Let's find out." They stopped at a village. It had gone through hard times. The villagers were poor, tired and suspicious of strangers. "Today we will show the villagers how to make stone soup" announced the monks. They lit a fire and placed a pot on it. They filled the pot with water from the well. A little girl asked, "What are you doing?" They said they were making stone soup and needed three round, smooth stones. They put them in the pot. "Of course, stone soup tastes much better with salt and pepper, " said a monk. An old villager brought salt and pepper and put it in the pot. One of the monks tasted the soup and said that carrots would improve the flavour o...

Lesson Plan 3.     Cleanliness Please send the mentees the text and ask them questions related to the theme of the week: Cleanliness. You can also ask them to write a few lines on this topic. OUR INDIA, CLEAN INDIA In a village there were three best friends – Mohan, Latif and Arjun. They studied in the same school. All the three were good in their studies. They all liked the school. It was the place where they all met. They never missed school. Once Arjun didn’t come to school for five days. Latif and Mohan were worried. They decided to visit Arjun. They were shocked to see the place where he lived. It was very filthy. There was stagnant water on the roads where they saw mosquitoes breeding. Waste was thrown all around. When they reached Arjun's house they saw that he was down with very high fever. His mother told them that he had malaria. She was sobbing. Arjun looked very pale and tired. He could hardly talk. Malaria is a disease that is spread by mosquitoes. It affec...

Lesson  2.   Courtesy, Politeness and Good Manners The quote of the week: All doors open to courtesy. Passage: A wise man was sitting outside his village. A traveller came up to him and asked him "What kind of people live in this village? I'm planning to move to a new village." The wise man asked, "What kind of people live in your present village?" The traveller replied, " They are mean, rude and cruel." The wise man said "The same kind of people live here too." After a while another traveller came by and asked the wise man the same question. Again the wise man asked him "What kind of people live in your village?" The traveller replied, "The people are very kind, courteous, polite and good." The wise man said, "You will find the same kind of people here too." Questions: These are only examples. What does this story teach you? Why do you like polite people? How do they make you feel? Phrases:...

Lesson Plan 1: Please send your mentee the following short paragraph. Please ask them to read it carefully and several times before the lesson. Please ask them to read it aloud to you. Correct pronunciation relentlessly! The theme is Punctuality. Here is the paragraph on punctuality: Ask questions based on the paragraph-- what was a mistake?  What could she have done to avoid the mistake? Etc.  Substitute 'hot' with 'cold' or 'freezing' or 'it was raining hard' or 'it was drizzling.' Again, insist on complete sentences.  My friend's parents had invited me to go to the swimming pool a few kilometres away. They told me to be at their house by 1.00 pm to ride with them. It was a 10 minute bike ride to my friend's house,  so I decided to leave at 12.50 pm to be on time. That was a mistake. My bike had a flat tyre and so I had to walk over, which took much longer. Her mother and the entire family were already in the car wai...