Presenting students with scenarios of people wanting permission or requesting something of others. Students work together to examine a scenario to create and answer 'can I/you' questions, as well as some 'spot-the-difference' bits in between. I'm not good at estimating time, but the activity took roughly 25-30 minutes. The activity can also be extended to fill more time with conversation practice in pairs.
The activity assumes you've covered vocab introduced on p.64. If not, use ~5 minutes at the start of class to cover it. The activity is best done with a combination of English and Japanese instruction, slowly phasing out Japanese as the class builds confidence with the grammar.
Resources
pptx version: uses animations to help set pacing for the activity, progressively revealing hints/answers.
pdf version: if you can't use ppt, show picture slides and work through the steps on the blackboard, reveal the outcome slide at the end.
Introducing the grammar
Slide 2-3: explain 'can I', 'can you' grammar points
->You can ask the JTE to explain the grammar point in Japanese to students, and you can supplement their explanation with some examples in English. Then move into slides 4-5 and take over as T1 for the activity.
->Alternatively, if you have some Japanese ability, the preferred method is to explain the grammar point in Japanese (using the jot notes/content of p.64) yourself, supplemented with some simple English.
->The English ability of students within a class can vary greatly, so I'd highly advise against covering the grammar point entirely in English as some portion of students will be left struggling through the remainder of the activity.
Slide 4-5: explain how to form affirmative and negative answers
This is briefly shown through the diagrams on slides 2 and 3, but here you'll quickly cover how to answer 'yes' and 'no' to can I/you questions.
-> 'Can I...' can be answered with 'yes you can', and 'can you...' with 'yes *I can', or a number of other affirmative responses (Sure, no problem, etc)
--> slides show examples from page 64's new vocab.
-> 'no you/I can't' slide is much of the same. The final example for negative answers says 'other reasons for refusing/denying' in Japanese, encouraging students to think about giving reasons when refusing a request.
Doing the activity
The activity is split into several scenarios, and each scenario has two parts: setting the scenario, followed by the outcome of the requests.
Silde 6-7: classroom scenario 1
-> setting: the classroom is hot and a girl raises their hand. you can act this out with gestures and describe the scene with simple English, being sure to point out the student raising their hand. Move on in ~30 seconds.
-> outcomes: students first decide how this girl will form a question, whether to use 'can I' or 'can you', based on the Japanese question to the right. once they agree that it's 'can I' in this scenario, ask them how to translate the equivalent question shown in Japanese. Then reveal the correct answer. Next, cover answering the questions. "How would the teacher say yes?" or something similar. The slides show 1-2 examples of how to say yes, but you can list off the other options from slide 4. "How would the teacher say no?" -> the slides show a thunderstorm outside the window now, so a reason to refuse would be that it's raining outside.
This should take 60-90 seconds.
Slide 8-9: classroom scenario 2
-> setting: it's a variation of the first scenario, but now the teacher is standing by the window. Ask the students what has changed from before (何が変えたかな...). After they deliberate a little, bring attention to the teacher standing close to the window.
-> this time students are able to work out that requesting the teacher to do something requires a 'can you' question. Continue through yes and no answers to the question and show the outcome animation. this scenario takes ~60 seconds.
Slide 10-11: rainy walk scenario 1
->setting: a boy forgets his umbrella and asks to borrow his friend's umbrella. Let students look over the image for 20-30 seconds, have them notice who will be making the request. Practices 'can I' question. should go quicker than other scenarios since there's only a 'no' response.
->outcome: the boy gets drenched
Slide 12-13: rainy walk scenario 2
->setting: a boy forgets his umbrella and and asks to borrow one from his friend. Let students look over the image and try to see if they can spot the difference and if they don't notice on their own, point out the extra umbrella in the friend's bag. Practices 'can I' again, but there is a 'yes' response this time.
Slide 14-16: crowded cafe scenario 1
->setting: a man just received his coffee at the cafe, but there are no empty seats. He looks around troubled. (next slide). There's an open chair at this lady's table, so he needs to request to use the chair. Practices 'can I', only has a yes response (next scenario covers no).
->outcome: he joins her at her table.
Slide 17-18: crowded cafe scenario 2
->setting: same as scenario 1. Students look over slide 17 and notice what's different (the cup of coffee in front of the empty chair). This time, there is only a 'no' response, where the lady says her friend is using the chair.
Slide 19-20: lost lady 1
The lady approaches the group of students to ask for help. more challenging than previous questions because there's no hint in Japanese. Give students more time as needed. One point to add is to say thank you when requesting or being offered help.
Slide 21-22 lost lady 2
What changes is that the students approach the lady and offer to help, so question is 'can I/we help you'.
Extending the activity to fill remaining class time
In pairs, ask students to take turns borrowing items from each other's desks (pencil cases, notebooks, etc). Have especially quick students make requests of you or the JTE.
Images sourced from いらすとや