Poder Learning Center
A Visit To The Doctor
The following lesson is for intermediate to advanced ESL students or Spanish Literacy (2 hr. lesson)
Objective: To feel comfortable when visiting the doctor.
Vocabulary
Headache, pain, hurt, stomachache, toothache, earache, backache, and
the various parts of the body.
Introduction
Begin the lesson by introducing the parts of the body with an overhead
projector. Using a picture on the overhead, point out the parts of the
body while practicing pronunciation.
Sample Activities
1. Get the students out of their chairs and play “Simon Says” or invite students to go to the front of the classroom while the others practice identifying the parts of the body.
2. Prepare questions in advance for a specific topic to look up on the Internet. A suggestion might be, where to find a doctor and the type of insurance they will accept. Other options might be diseases that affect a particular community or a specific ethnic group and how to prevent those diseases.
3. Gather questionnaires from local doctor’s offices that are filled out at the initial visit and have the students fill them out in class for practice.
Create scenarios where there is a doctor and a patient. Begin by having the students practice how to make an appointment. You can extend the activity by having students invent conversations/scenarios of situations that they have experienced and then invite them to the front of the classroom to role-play: one is the doctor with the other the patient.
To further encourage mastery of the subject, invite a guest speaker to talk about a specific topic on health or arrange a visit to a hospital/clinic. The focus of the visit will be on learning new vocabulary.
4. To conclude the activity the teacher brings a picture where
somebody has gone to see a doctor. The idea is to create a story based
on the picture.
Example: One day Jose went to see the doctor…
Follow up
Throughout the course the teacher can do actual reviews if a student or
their child has to go to the doctor. How prepared is the student to
explain that specific situation? The teacher can role-play with the
student and give them new vocabulary if necessary.
Evaluation: Students will be
evaluated based on their participation and responses during the
different activities.