Rapport in action

Knowing your learners better is the first step towards building rapport. By building a relationship with students and finding out about their needs and interests, you can make English more relevant to their lives, and plan lessons and activities which engage them more. Now you’re going to watch part of a lesson where a teacher is introducing the lesson topic to her teenage learners. While you’re watching, consider the following questions. How has the teacher built this lesson around her students’ interests? What do you think about the relationship she has with this class?

OK, now tell me, here we have a woman, J.K. Rowling. How many of you have heard of her? OK, who will tell me, who is she? [NAME], J.K. Rowling? She is a famous writer. And she wrote Harry Potter book. I think seven parts. And she is famous. OK, [NAME], anything to add? Yes, I think she wrote seven books, not five. OK, he said seven. [LAUGHTER] OK, fine. Now, you can close your workbooks and open your books on page 54. So page 54. So you said Harry Potter. Who is Harry Potter? Dario? Harry Potter is a child. He is a magician. A wizard. OK, a wizard. He is a wizard. And he is going to school at Hogwarts.

And he’s famous child. His parents died then. If his parents died, how do we call these children whose parents died? Martin? Orphans. OK, good. Voldemort killed them. Yes, very bad man. OK, so here you have the list of all seven Harry Potter books. How many of you have read any Harry Potter books? All of them. All of them? All seven? OK, how many of you have seen the films? Oh, OK. All seven. I don’t like to read. You don’t like to read. OK, so you just watched– you just seen the films. OK, so which book or part is the best to you? Dario? Uh, seven. Number seven. OK, then.