A check-up with the dentist

Learn the basic vocabulary needed to speak with a dentist during a check-up.

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Making an appointment with your dentist

This lesson plan for beginner ESL students teaches basic vocabulary for making a dentist’s appointment.

The lesson plan includes activities such as role plays, comprehension tasks, video and audio activities, and reflection questions to…

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by ESL Directions

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Lesson plan overview

Task	To learn the basic vocabulary needed to speak with a dentist during a routine check-up.
CLB level	CLB Stage I (CLB 1-3)
Delivery method	Online
Class size	10-15 students (vary the number of activities according to your class size)
Estimated time	1.5-3 hours (depending on whether you complete all parts of the lesson)
CLB Skills and Competencies	*Speaking:* Interacting with others Getting things done Sharing information *Listening:* Interacting with others Comprehending instructions Getting things done Comprehending information *Reading:* Comprehending information
Language focus	Learn the vocabulary needed to understand this topic. Complete the optional “Part B: Building Sentences” activities below to help your students move from understanding vocabulary to using that vocabulary to produce simple sentences. Use the appropriate grammar structures and vocabulary to respond personally to the reflection questions. (Encourage students to respond in full sentences.)
Cultural focus	Students understand the questions and answers expected and politeness formulas used during dentist’s check-ups in Canada. Students understand more about dentists’ role in the Canadian health care system.
Specific task learning objectives	Students learn basic vocabulary related to a dental visit. Students understand the process for a typical dental check-up, including the difference between dentists and dental hygienists. Students discuss the differences between a dental visit in their current and first countries.
ESL Directions original video (🎥) and audio (🔊) activities?	This lesson includes original video (🎥) and audio (🔊) activities.
Resource attribution	ESL Directions original resources are marked below with an asterisk (*). Feel free to use these, but please give credit to ESL Directions.

Part A: Vocabulary acquisition and practice
This is a self-contained, complete lesson plan (about 1.5 hours) focused on vocabulary.

Part B: Building sentences
Part B takes your students further by giving them some tools to build simple sentences (using the vocabulary they learned in Part A).

Use Part B (about 1.5 hours) if you want to focus on:

Sentence production.

Specific lesson-related grammar points. Note: Every lesson also includes similar practice exercises for subjects, verbs, and objects — the basic building blocks of most English sentences.

Part C: Reflection Questions
These topic-related discussion questions work at the end of either part A or B.

Lesson plan

Part A: Vocabulary acquisition and practice

Warm-up: Introducing the topic and defining our terms

Today, we’re going to learn some of the words you need to speak with your dentist during a check-up.

What is a dentist?
What is a dental hygienist?
What are some words you might use at the dentist?

Skill-building activities

Vocabulary flashcards*
Listen to the vocabulary again* 🔊 (Pay attention to how to say the words and what they mean.)
Label a diagram*
Visiting the dentist* 🎥

Skill-using tasks

Listen and read* (Audio and transcript.) 🔊
Comprehension questions* (Listen to the text again. Ask students to answer comprehension questions.) 🔊
Unjumble activity* (Unscramble the sentences to see the vocabulary definitions.)

Assessment/review tasks

Quiz*
Visiting the dentist boardgame*
Tip tile image review* (Click on each tip tiles to expand it. Ask students to provide vocabulary definitions.)

Part B: Building sentences

Find a list of all of the grammar-based activities on this website.

Introducing the topic

In this part of the lesson, we’re going to work on creating short sentences from the vocabulary we learned in Part A.

To help us, we’ll focus on:

“Do you?” questions and answers.
Subject, verb, and object word order.

Skill-building and skill-using activities

“Do you?” questions and answers (both short and full versions)

Quick guide: Answering “do you?” questions*
Practice answering “do you?” questions with short and full answers*
“Do you?” questions and answers explainer* (A more detailed explanation that you can teach in class or send home with your students.)

Word order in English sentences

Today, we’ll look at three important parts of English sentences.

What is a subject?
What is a verb?
What is an object?

Let’s practice!

Quick definitions: Subjects, verbs, and objects*
Unjumble the sentences*
Create sentences in subject/verb/object order*
Subject/verb/object explainer* (A more detailed explanation that you can teach in class or send home with your students.)

Assessment/review activities

A dental check-up*🎥 (Watch a story using the lesson vocabulary and grammar points.)

A dental check-up: Reading passage and comprehension questions* 🔊 (Read the story, and identify the lesson’s grammar points.)

Part C: Reflection questions

What are three words or phrases that you learned today?
Have you been to a dentist in Canada?
Do you have to pay to go to the dentist in Canada?
What is a toothache? What can you do if you have a toothache?
What is different about going to the dentist here and in your first country?
What is the best part about going to the dentist? What is the worst part?
What do you usually do to take care of your teeth and gums?
What foods cause cavities?
Have you ever had a cavity filled by the dentist?
Do you have any issues with your wisdom teeth?
Do you like going to the dentist?
Would it be easy to be a dentist?
What are dentists like in your country?

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HEALTH YOUTUBE PLAYLIST

Click on the small right arrow at the top of this video to watch the videos or go to the YouTube Health Playlist.

HEALTH WORDWALL ACTIVITIES

Wordwall is a very useful interactive lesson-creation site. If you sign up for a free Wordwall account, you will be able to see our “Health” folder, which includes ESL Directions activities that you can add to your lessons.