1) I don't tend to use speaking activities with the whole class very much because from my experience I see that usually students lose the interest and also the weaker students don't tend to take part very much, they get bored or embarrassed and sometimes they even disturb. For me, the best speaking activities are role plays and show and tell with small groups or pairs.
5) I think it's a very complete lesson plan. I like the combination between the speaking with the reading task and I also find very important to give students to think previously before starting any speaking task, this helps all the students especially the weakest ones.