Fotina Tatiana
Language skills related tasks: reading and speaking.
The aim of this assignment is to work out 60 minutes lesson which helps students to develop receptive and productive skills: reading and speaking, and show how these skills are practiced during the stages of the lesson. The book “Learning Teaching” by J.Scrivener helped me to choose the appropriate text for reading in class and to plan speaking activities for practice, to design pre-reading, while-reading and after-reading activities, and logical follow-up discussion, which aim is to develop oral fluency skills.
For many people reading is one of the most important means of getting information. The Internet is one of the most popular sourceof getting information today. This is why I have chosen the newspaper article “The price of fame: pop stars are more likely to die young” from the Internet. This material is suitable for one of the classes in the context “fame and fortune” I am teaching this month .
The group which I am teaching is of the upper-intermediate level. That is why I use the no adapted text, which contains original words, phrases, and grammar structure and its volume is not very difficult to read, understand and analyze.
The aims of the lesson are: to develop the skill of reading for a gist and detail and to develop oral fluency skills in the context of the price of fame. The sub-aims are: to develop vocabulary used in reading and speaking.
Lead-in. To introduce the topic and to create the interest, to motivate the students and to make them become thoughtful it might be some photos of famous people who died young (John Lennon, Victor Zoy, Kurt Cobain…).
The questions to get students interested in reading may be as follows:
What do you know about lives of the people in the photo?When did they die?
How did they die?Why are pop stars more likely to die young?
Reading for gist: The aim of this stage is to get the gist of the article. Students read the text quickly, checking their predictions and answering the question what is the aim of this article, compare their answers in pairs. Then they say their answers to the whole class.
Look at language in context: the aim of this stage is to clarify vocabulary in the context. Students look through the text to find and underline the words in the text which definitions are given. It helps them for better understanding of the text.( meaning is the definition, form should be found and underlined in the text, then drilling of pronunciation)
Reading for details. To read the text attentively and carefully, to gain an understanding of many details is the aim of the next stage. Students read the text again trying to improve the statements according to the article. They work in pairs discussing the task, then in the whole class with the teacher.
Discuss topic =Speaking.The aim of this stage is to develop oral fluency skills and subaim is to develop useful vocabulary in the context of expressing opinions, agreement or disagreement.
After doing the reading tasks students have enough information to give their opinion to the topic. That is why oral follow-up activity is expected to be successful.
Students have a few minutes to think and prepare the answerthen the teacher gives them useful language box how to expressing opinions, agreement or disagreement. Students continue to prepare for a while and discuss their opinions in pairs, they can show their agreement and disagreement about the opinion of the partner using useful language box.
The teacher monitors, makes post activity correction and change the pairs giving students opportunity to practice more in speaking. If during monitoring students have some mistakes the teacher makes post activity correction again.
To sum up, a 60-minute lesson on the topic “Price of fame” can give students practice in reading for gist and for details and practice in speaking based on the text. Speech fluency is developed during the final discussion or one of the important topics. Stages of the lesson logically lead students from easier to more complicated tasks in improving their skills.
References:1. J. Scrivener. Learning Teaching.MACMILLAN, 2011.
2. [link]
Dying before they get old
* Buddy Holly
The pioneer of rock'n'roll was just 23 years old when the plane he was travelling in, along with fellow performers Ritchie Valens and J P Richardson, crashed near Minnesota in 1959. He was one of the first truly global music stars to die early.
* Janis Joplin
Joplin rose to fame as lead singer of Big Brother and the Holding Company. She became a giant of 1960s rock music before dying of a heroin overdose in 1970. Her last recording was a birthday song for John Lennon, who received it by post the day after she died.
* Sid Vicious
The Sex Pistols frontman met his end, after an already turbulent career, just one day after being released on bail for the suspected murder of his girlfriend Nancy Spungen. Vicious overdosed on heroine supplied by his mother at a New York party in 1979.
* Tupac Shakur
The man who epitomised US gang culture met his end in a drive-by shooting after leaving a Las Vegas casino in September 1996. Conspiracies surrounding his death still abound. Six months later Tupac Shakur's rival The Notorious BIG was also gunned down.
04.09.07. www.independet .co.uk
