The Mind
Upper-intermediate level
Description
Materials
Main Aims
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To provide scan and detailed reading practice using a text about women&men brains
Subsidiary Aims
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To provide fluency speaking practice in a debate
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To enable students to learn some new vocabulary
Procedure (44-56 minutes)
-put some pictures of women and men doing different tasks on the board. -ask students what they think about these pictures and men or women are better at these tasks. -get a few students ideas and get them to explain why they think like that.
-Divide students into groups of three and give students the categories in exercise 1. -get them to discuss about the differences in the ability of men/women in these tasks. -Monitor the students and do whole feedback afterwards.
-check the understanding of some words e.g. efficient, absorb, spatial, womb, stereotypical. -give them a definition matching task. - get them to match these words with the correct definitions individually. -get them to compare their answers with their partners. -monitor carefully. -identify the words which most of the student had problem with. - focus on these words with CQs. - model and then drill trickier words chorally and individually. Write these words on boards.
-Put the students in pairs. -get them to walk around and read the sentences on the wall with their partners. -get them to discuss if they are true or false while reading. -get them to sit down and take some feedback from some students. -tell students they will read the text and find the answers. -give them 2 minutes to read the text. -get them to read the text quickly in 2 minutes. -get them to check their answers with their partners. -give them the answers key and ask if they have any question related to the task.
-Get students to do exercise 3. -ask them to read the text again and find the answers of the questions. -give them the exercise 3 and get them to do individually. -when they finish, get them to compare the answers with their partners.-monitor them -put all answers outside and get students to go out check the answers. -set a timelimit for that, get them check all answers in 3 minutes. -ask them if they any questions or problems with answers, take some feedback.
-write the sentence"had been raining hard through the night so the ground was saturated." on the board - ask students what they think 'saturated' mean. -get some ideas and then explain how to guess the meaning of 'saturated' in this sentence. -ask them to think how they can guess the meaning from context. -divide students groups of three. -give them exercise 4 and ask them to guess the meaning of those words from the text. -emphasize that it is not always necessary to be 100 percent correct when guessing, but it is important to understand the general idea. -check the answers of students with whole class.
-divide student into two groups -men and women. -get men in women group and women in men group. get them to change their roles. - tell them they will discuss some questions about men/women. -give them the questions and also time to prepare. Get them to speak in a debate between men and women. -take some general feedback.