Derek Whitefield Derek Whitefield

Teaching Practice 5 (TP5)
Upper-intermediate level

Description

This lesson centers around the place that computers hold in our lives. By looking at our relationship to computers, we encounter a number of new words and phrases. Students will be asked to read a text (an interview) with a female author to see how computers affect her life. The blanks in the text (where the interviewer's questions must be put) serve as a task for the students in understanding clues to pairing questions and answers. The class will spend a good deal of time working on question and answer practice both by speaking and writing.

Materials

Abc question slips
Abc Jessica Adams interview reading
Abc Interesting websites group sheet
Abc question slips

Main Aims

  • To allow students plenty of practice in asking and answering questions in the very practical context of computers and our lives. Practice will come in the form of reading a text as well as discussion in groups, and as a class, on the topic of computers.

Subsidiary Aims

  • To give the students greater familiarity with a lexis of various techno and computer-related terms, useful phrasal verbs such as 'hooked on', perhaps some lesser-known words such as 'gadget', and have fun talking about how our lives are influenced both positively and negatively by computers.

Procedure

Warm up- The Geek (3-5 minutes) • To introduce the students to the stereotypical geek and thus help them formulate an image of someone who lives for the computer

Dressing up in broken glasses and button-up shirt, the teacher acts out the persona of a geek. After the students have seen what one looks like, the teacher will break character and give a brief description of a geek, followed by CCQs a bit of open discussion: Is a geek cool? Does a geek go to all the social events? Is a geek generally introvert or extrovert? Where do you run into geeks? Where's a geek's favorite place to be? What does a geek like to do? What do geeks typically study in university? What jobs do geeks typically go for? Can geeks become rich? How?

Small groups discussion-using the computer (10-12 minutes) • To ask and answer basic and practical questions concerning computer use

Students are divided into groups of 3-4 students. Students are then given 10 slips of paper with questions on them which they will read off in their groups one by one. For just a minute or so, they will answer each question. These are pretty easy questions, but ones which students may have differing opinions on. Some of the questions include: Which is better: a desktop or a laptop? Is there anything you hate doing on a computer? How often should you buy a computer? Students will go around the circle until all of them have been answered, the teacher helping to keep the students on task and on time. After the groups have discussed each slip (which should take a few minutes), students will be instructed to give a sample answer from their group. One of the other groups will them choose which question is being addressed by the given answer. Then that group will give an answer. This activity will help comprehension of the reading part, which is quite similar.

Reading-Single White E-mail, Jessica Adams interview (10-12 minutes) • To become more familiar with computer/technology lexis and expressions

Teacher prepares the class for receiving the text with a few basic instructions: We are about to read a text about a woman named Jessica Adams. I want you to read it for just about 2 minutes, and tell me 1) what kind of text is it, 2) what the text is about, and 3) what's the woman's attitude The students will be handed the sheets and they will skim for gist. After two minutes, the teacher will prompt the students with the questions again. Now the teacher instructs the students to read again, this time in pairs, at which point they will try to put the correct interviewer questions to the corresponding interviewee answers. After they have match, pairs will read their interview to each other. In the mean time, the teacher will walk around the pairs checking for comprehension and any mistakes or questions. After the students asnwer

Vocabulary building exercise/ group game (10-12 minutes) • To take selected words and phrases from the reading to discuss meaning, check for comprehension, and put to use

The teacher will write new lexis from the reading on the board. These are words or phrases that perhaps the students don't know the meaning of, but may know in context. The phrases are : love-hate relationship hooked on/addicted to get stuck fiction technobimbo gadget flirtatious turned out to be it annoys me..... Students will be asked to try to figure out the meaning If they're right, great..if not, the teacher will give a brief description followed by questions for checking comprehension. Then the teacher will break the class into groups again. Each group will get a piece of paper. The teacher will put a sentence on the board using one of the new words or phrases as the key to the sentence. Each sentence will have a blank. This blank is where groups will write a list of words or phrases that could fit there correctly and be logically used in the sentence. A team will receive one point for each entry on the list, unless it has been used by another team. In other words, the fastest and most creative team wins. Sentences will be: 1.Bill is hooked on __________. He's addicted to it! 2.Doesn't it annoy you when people _____________? 3.We got stuck in ____________ for hours! 4.That nice co-worker of mine turned out to be ___________. 5.I have a love-hate relationship with __________. 6.The _______ at the ________ was so flirtatious!

Popular websites (4-5 minutes) • To get students talking about the use of various popular websites, fun activity

If there is time, the teacher break the class up into small groups of three. Each group with be given a piece of paper with the names of various websites on them. The groups must talk amongst their members and write down what they think the purpose of the website is. Students are looking at the names and using their schemata from what they know of websites. After a few minutes, they teacher will ask the groups for their remarks/guesses and we'll see if any got it correct.

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