Reading and Speaking. Judging by appearance
Intermediate, A2 level
Description
Materials
Main Aims
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To provide gist, scan and detailed reading practice using a text about judging people with their appearance in the context of profile photos
Subsidiary Aims
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To provide fluency speaking practice in a conversation in the context of the reasons people choose their profile photos.
Procedure (33-45 minutes)
In this stage, the students will see some profile pictures of different people and will try to guess what kind of people they are according to different situations in which they have taken the photos. The pictures are chosen they way that they can use some of the new vocabulary used in the text. If they don't use the vocabulary, I will elicit them using the pictures and by asking questions like What do we call a person who doesn't have worries or problems? (carefree) or using the word famous and asking them to give me another word with the similar meaning (well known) what's the verb that we use to talk about a person who is wearing special clothes? (dress up)
The students are going to be asked three questions about their own profile pictures on social networking sites. 1. Do you have a profile photo of yourself which you use on social networking sites, or on your ID? 2. Why did you choose that? 3. What do you think the photo says about you? Using these questions, the students will make a similar context of the text that they are going to read.
In this stage, the students will read the beginning of the article in a fast pace to answer the gist question. Are profile pictures the only visual introduction people have on social networking sites?
In this stage, the students are going to read the following part of the article individually and match the given headings with the categories that cover most of profile pictures. They are going to read the text fast, ignoring the new vocabulary in the text. They will check their answers with a partner and then with the board. 2. F . Photo with your baby or child 3. E . Photo with a partner 5. B . Holiday photo 6. A . Photo of you as a child 10. D . Photo with a celebrity 12. C . Logo of your business or company
In this stage, the students are going to read the text carefully and say which of the four pictures that they can see, belongs to which category. They have more time for reading and it is assumed that they can deduce the meaning of some the phrases in the context and they will also work in pairs to check their answers and discuss what they think about the highlighted phrases.
The students will use their cell phones to work in pairs and discuss the following questions. Choose your friends’ or family members’ photos. 1. Which categories do they fit in? 2. What do the pictures say about them? 3. Has the article made you want to change your profile photo? Why (not)?