Reading, finding solutions to problems.
Intermediate level
Description
Materials
Main Aims
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To provide gist and scan reading practice using a text about finding solutions to problems in the context of dilemmas
Subsidiary Aims
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To provide clarification of vocabulary they will come across in the chosen text and to have students produce from the text in speaking
Procedure (35-49 minutes)
Teacher will start the lesson with a fake problem, they will try to be convincing in this and they will tell the students their problem and follow with, "what do you think I should have done?" This will then engage the students in the lesson and allow them to use previously learned grammar, "you should have done," "you could have done," and "you would have done," The teacher will then use the third conditional to discuss how they could have changed things if they had the chance. The fake problem: "I went through my husbands wallet last week and I saw a woman's number written down on a note. If I confront/ask him about it he will know I looked through his wallet. Maybe she's just a friend/colleague? What should I do? What should I have done?"
Once students understand the context for the lesson the teacher will put students in groups of two/three (depending on how many students are attending) and give them cut outs of the vocabulary featured in the text. Teacher will instruct the students to match the words to their meanings. Students will have 2-3 minutes for this. ICQ's: "Are you working alone?" No "How long do you have?" 2 minutes Once students have done this they can check each other's work (on the same table) After this the teacher will hand out an answer key. Following this the teacher will drill pronunciation with students and elicit stress from them before asking what part of speech the words are. "f-a-llen out" - collocations (base form fall out) fall + out (verb + adverb) "conc-e-rns" - verb (in this context it is a verb) "sol-i-citor" - noun "rel-i-gious" - adjective "trad-i-tional" - adjective "ins-i-st" - verb "exp-e-rience" - noun "pers-u-ade"- verb "cope" - verb (no stress)
Students will be instructed to read each problem title and put them in the categories of "family, relationships, friendship, money and careers." Give out handout 1 (given text is in this) ICQ's: "Are you reading all of it?" No "Are you reading the titles?" Yes. Then they will compare with a partner to see if they got the same result. Brief open class feedback for this, there may be varying answers, let the discussion run if students have something to say.
Instruct students that they will read the statements (in handout 2) and if the statement are true they mark T, if false they mark F and write the true version. Hand out the true or false statements (handout 2) and instruct students to read these first before reading the paragraphs. The students will work alone for this part of the activity. ICQ's: "What do you write if the sentence is true?" T "What do you write if it's false?" F "Do we do anything else if they're false?" Yes, write the correct version. Once students have done this they will check their answers in pairs. Once students have checked in pairs there will be a brief open class feedback (write a-h on board and write T for true and F for false plus add on the correct information).
Students will be instructed to create two problems and write these down in handout 3. Once they have written their problem they will get up and ask three people for advice on these problems and write these down (they must write down who gave them the advice). Once they have this they will sit back down in their places. ICQ's: "What are you doing first?" Writing down the problems. "How many people do you need to get advice from?" Three "Are you writing their names down next to their advice?" Yes. After this the teacher will ask students to read out a problem and the advice people gave them. The class will decide together which advice is the best advice. "What advice do you think is the best?"
Use the whiteboard to write one or two of the mistakes made by students during the post-reading activity. Make sure you elicit the correct answers from students rather than writing your own correction/correcting it yourself.