The independent-user threshold. Learners deal with most situations while traveling, produce connected text on familiar topics, and explain their opinions, plans and experiences.
Printable one-to-one lesson plan
Relationships
Describe personal and professional relationships, contact, support, conflict, requests, boundaries, repair, and trust through observable behavior in natural U.S. English.
Use after the complete B1 sequence, not as a lesson quiz.
Open diagnostic →15–20 minutes optional: Next-day relationship label, contact change, trust evidence, U.S. conflict chunk, and request-boundary retrieval
Derived from this lesson’s source
Lesson-specific teaching brief
This is not a second lesson registry. The plan reads the same native content that produces the learner page.
What the learner should do
Describe personal and professional relationships, contact, support, conflict, requests, boundaries, repair, and trust through observable behavior in natural U.S. English.
What must become clear
Can-do: By the end, you can distinguish an acquaintance, coworker, close friend, neighbor, and clearly identified kind of partner; describe meeting, getting to know someone, keeping or losing touch, getting along, and growing apart; support claims about reliability and trust with actions; use natural U.S. expressions for disagreement, arguments, a falling-out, apology, and repair; distinguish an observation, impact, need, request, boundary, and agreement; state a limit through your own availability or action rather than trying to control another person; discuss a fictional conflict without requiring forgiveness or renewed contact; and make relationship stress and connected speech intelligible.
High-value friction points
- We’ve known each other since university.Use the Present Perfect for a state that began at the stated past starting point and continues now.
- I get along well with most of my coworkers.Get along with someone is the complete relationship phrase; well can then describe how the people get along.
- We need to discuss what happened. / We need to talk about what happened.Discuss takes a direct object without about; talk uses about before the topic.
Protect these lesson moments
- Reactivate personality evidence, a changed past routine, and feeling
- Discovery check: what communication job does each detail perform?
- Choose the relationship label the sentence actually establishes
- Choose the process from the stated contact history
- Choose the trust or support relationship the evidence establishes
Learner production
Relationship map: Name only the relationship type and history that the fictional evidence establishes. Do not infer romance, friendship, or conflict from one behavior.
- Behavior map: Replace a broad label with the exact event, action, frequency, person affected, and result.
- Conversation map: Separate observation, impact, need, request, boundary, response, and agreement. The other speaker may accept, decline, or negotiate the request.
- Repair map: Distinguish apology, explanation, responsibility, changed behavior, trust repair, forgiveness, reconciliation, and continued contact. Do not claim an outcome the card does not supply.
Carry this language into the next session
Retrieve Relationships in one true sentence at the next lesson.
Tutor-only contrastive support
L1 Transfer Lens
Test a pattern. Do not label a learner. Use this only after the learner’s actual production gives you evidence.
Select a first language to reveal only the contrasts relevant to this lesson.
Brazilian Portuguese → English
One pattern to test
Choose what kind of absence miss expresses
- Possible transfer
I have saudade of home. / I lost the meeting.
- English rebuild
I miss home. / I missed the meeting.
Why it can happen: English miss can express emotional absence, failure to attend or catch something, failure to notice, or narrowly avoiding an event. Miss out on adds the idea of losing an opportunity or experience.
Natural English:
- I miss my friends back home.
- We missed out on the early-booking discount.
Use while teaching
Operational teaching notes
Choose a route before class, but change it when the learner’s production gives you better evidence.
Ask before explaining
- Which examples in “Reactivate personality evidence, a changed past routine, and feeling” express the same core meaning?
- How would you explain this decision in your own words: Can-do: By the end, you can distinguish an acquaintance, coworker, close friend, neighbor, and clearly identified kind of partner; describe meeting, getting to know someone, keeping or losing touch, getting along, and growing apart; support claims about reliability and trust with actions; use natural U.S. expressions for disagreement, arguments, a falling-out, apology, and repair; distinguish an observation, impact, need, request, boundary, and agreement; state a limit through your own availability or action rather than trying to control another person; discuss a fictional conflict without requiring forgiveness or renewed contact; and make relationship stress and connected speech intelligible.
- What needs to change in this repair, and why: We’ve known each other since university.
Correct for the stage
- Controlled work: correct immediately, then require the complete repaired sentence.
- Fluency building: note repeated errors and reformulate after the learner finishes the thought.
- Communication: interrupt only when meaning breaks down or the target decision is the lesson’s main evidence.
Retrieve, do not reteach
Retrieve Relationships in one true sentence at the next lesson.
Short, core, or extended
Choose the route
All three routes end in learner production. More time means more contrast and transfer, not a longer explanation.
Short route
Retrieve for 3 minutes. Notice and discover for 8. Use the two most diagnostic tasks from Reactivate personality evidence, a changed past routine, and feeling and Discovery check: what communication job does each detail perform? for 12. Protect 9 minutes for Learner production, then reflect for 3.
Core route
Follow the six-stage sequence below. Reduce repeated controlled items when accuracy is already stable, but keep the nearest useful contrast and final production.
Stretch route
Add Next-day relationship label, contact change, trust evidence, U.S. conflict chunk, and request-boundary retrieval, then repeat the communication task with a new situation or stricter success criteria.
60–70 minutes core working plan
Session sequence
Protect the final communication and reflection time. If the learner needs more support, reduce the number of controlled items instead of removing production.
- 5 min
Retrieve
Activate what the learner already controls and check any prerequisite language.
Teacher move: Open with the first practice route: Reactivate personality evidence, a changed past routine, and feeling · Discovery check: what communication job does each detail perform? · Choose the relationship label the sentence actually establishes.
- 6–8 min
Notice
Let the learner observe meaning and form in a small sample before naming the rule.
Teacher move: Keep the noticing conversation anchored to this decision: Can-do: By the end, you can distinguish an acquaintance, coworker, close friend, neighbor, and clearly identified kind of partner; describe meeting, getting to know someone, keeping or losing touch, getting along, and growing apart; support claims about reliability and trust with actions; use natural U.S. expressions for disagreement, arguments, a falling-out, apology, and repair; distinguish an observation, impact, need, request, boundary, and agreement; state a limit through your own availability or action rather than trying to control another person; discuss a fictional conflict without requiring forgiveness or renewed contact; and make relationship stress and connected speech intelligible.
- 8–10 min
Discover
Connect form, meaning, use, word order, and the nearest useful contrast.
Teacher move: Test the learner’s explanation against this repair: We’ve known each other since university. Use the Present Perfect for a state that began at the stated past starting point and continues now.
- 12–15 min
Build + drill
Move from accurate choices to faster retrieval and sentence construction.
Teacher move: Prioritize these lesson tasks: Reactivate personality evidence, a changed past routine, and feeling · Discovery check: what communication job does each detail perform? · Choose the relationship label the sentence actually establishes · Choose the process from the stated contact history. Reduce repetitions if needed, but keep the final production time.
- 12–15 min
Communicate
Use the target language for a real adult purpose the learner cannot complete by copying.
Teacher move: Learner production: Relationship map: Name only the relationship type and history that the fictional evidence establishes. Do not infer romance, friendship, or conflict from one behavior.
- 3–5 min
Reflect
Make progress visible and choose one specific next use.
Teacher move: Retrieve Relationships in one true sentence at the next lesson.
Keep only useful evidence
After-lesson notes
These notes are for deliberate tutor records or printing. Nothing is stored in the learner’s browser.
The learner can now…
Write one observable use of the target language.
Still needs support with…
Record one repeated error, contrast, or point of hesitation.
Next retrieval prompt
Write one short prompt the learner will answer at the next session.
Anonymous live-lesson evidence
Learner pilot worksheet
B1 · Relationships
Pilot 1 of 30 recorded · 3 remaining
Date
Approximate starting level
Core lesson time
Starting evidence
What did the learner already control? What was the first misconception, hesitation, or contrast that mattered?
Did the principle become clear?
Can-do: By the end, you can distinguish an acquaintance, coworker, close friend, neighbor, and clearly identified kind of partner; describe meeting, getting to know someone, keeping or losing touch, getting along, and growing apart; support claims about reliability and trust with actions; use natural U.S. expressions for disagreement, arguments, a falling-out, apology, and repair; distinguish an observation, impact, need, request, boundary, and agreement; state a limit through your own availability or action rather than trying to control another person; discuss a fictional conflict without requiring forgiveness or renewed contact; and make relationship stress and connected speech intelligible.
Did the first hint help?
Record the first item that caused difficulty and whether the contextual hint led to self-correction before the full repair appeared.
Could the learner do the outcome?
Describe personal and professional relationships, contact, support, conflict, requests, boundaries, repair, and trust through observable behavior in natural U.S. English.
Listen for: The learner uses the target language independently for a real purpose.
What remained available?
If possible, check before rereading in the next session. Record what returned independently and what still required a cue.
Keep, revise, or investigate?
Note any explanation the tutor still had to supply, the smallest useful revision, and whether another pilot should test the same issue.