Weird!
Pre-intermediate level
Description
Materials
Main Aims
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To provide inference reading practice using a text about crop circles in the context of weird phenomenon
Subsidiary Aims
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To provide practice of weird/supernatural lexicon in the context of crop circles
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To provide fluency speaking practice in a debate in the context of crop circles
Procedure (45-55 minutes)
To begin, I will show students a picture of "big foot" and see if they can guess what it is. We will then look at pictures of "the lochness monster" and "ufos/aliens". I will ask: What is the same about these? And try to elicit "Weird." If need be, help students: "They are strange, unusual, not normal, different." I will also use these as CCQs before the brainstorm: Weird things: Are they different? Unusual? Normal? Strange? Do we see them every day? Consider using synonyms: supernatural, mystery
1. Students, working in pairs, will brainstorm "weird" examples *as many as they can *remind them to look up words if they need to Afterwards, students will come up and write their examples on the board As a class we will talk through them, particularly those related to the reading 2. Introduce pictures of crop circles: "What are these?" Give students time and try to elicit "crop circles" What do you think causes these? 3. Give students the small phrase bank. Ask them to write their prediction
1. Tell students to read the passage quickly (2 mins) and see if their prediction is there. 2. When they finish, talk with their partner: Is yours there? Is theirs? 3. Read the passage again and decide: which do you like? Discuss with your partner
1. Present the vocabulary words. 2. Tell students they will use the text and work with their partner to try and figure out what each word means 3. Review the words as a class, reviewing pronunciation and stress 4. Concept check "weird" again
Students will practice speaking for fluency as they discuss their opinions: 1.What do you think of crop circles? 2. Present photo of Area 51: explain "in the U.S. people think there are aliens and strange tests here" 3. What weird places or things are there in Turkey? What weird things do you believe/think about? Discuss with your partner