Assignment 3 - Language related skills task | authentic text
Intermediate level
Description
Materials
Main Aims
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Students will have practised scan reading and reading for detail in the context of an authentic text.
Subsidiary Aims
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Students will have practised free speaking in the context of what is risky for children and how many risks they should be allowed to take.
Procedure (39-46 minutes)
SLIDE with 12 photos showing children playing in a variety of environments (indoors, outdoors, playground, at home) and in many different ways (board games, computer, climbing, jumping, fishing, riding a bicycle etc). Students are prompted to talk about their own childhood and what their favourite activities were. Did they prefer to play indoors or outdoors and how active were they? Concentrating on the photos, we will also briefly talk about possible dangers (students to give their opinion on how 'dangerous' or 'risky' they feel certain activities are and why). Elicit vocabulary as part of this stage of the lesson (refer to slide 2): indoors/outdoors, climb, jump, dangerous, risky, playground, active/inactive, injury, break a bone
To further prepare for the text, I elicit additional vocabulary that will be vital for the general understanding of the text (please refer to slide 3): illness, disease; chronic illness/disease position statement self-esteem stranger bully, cyberbully supervise; supervised/unsupervised deficit disorder
I briefly provide the context for the text: We are about to read an article written by Dr. Luisa Dillner. She is the mother of a 5-year old son, and she is asking herself whether she should allow him to take more risks. Instruction for scan reading, referring to the set of questions in exercise 1 (first page of the hand-out). Students will be given 4 minutes to scan text and answer the questions. Check answers in class
Instruct students to read the text again - this time for detail - and to complete the 2 sets of questions in exercises 2a) and 2b). Explaining that in 2a) they have to answer specific questions related to the content and in exercise 2b) they have to match the meaning/description with expressions/passages from the text SS to work individually - then check in pairs Provide answer key (slide 4)
Do students agree with the views expressed in the article? Did something surprise them? Does anything that was mentioned change their view about what is 'risky'?