Teaching Practice 4
Upper Intermediate (B2) level
To provide gist, scan, detailed and deduction reading practice using a text about a triathlete in the context of sport
To provide students with practice in guessing meaning from the context
To provide fluency speaking practice in a discussion
Procedure (37-45 minutes)
Start the lesson with a warm greeting. Connect the lesson to the previous day. Ask students "Do you remember what we talked about yesterday?" Elicit the answer "martial arts and karate". Ask students "What is the general word for martial arts and karate?" Elicit the answer: "sports"
Ask students some questions to narrow the topic down. 1 Do you like doing sports? Why? 2 Do you know any famous sportswomen? 3 Which one of them do you admire most? 4 How do you think they got to the top of their sport? (After question 3) If students can't remember any sportswomen, show them the picture of Williams sisters and ask who they are, what they are good at. Then, go to the question 4. Try to nominate different students as much as possible.
Show students the text. Tell them they are going to read it. Show the questions. Give the instruction: "Read the text quickly. Just have a quick look at it. You have three questions. Answer the question in 2 minutes." Ask a few ICQs. - Will we read the text in a detailed way? (no) - What we are going to do is....? (read it quickly) Distribute the hand-outs. Ask them to check their answers in pairs. Nominate three different students to check the answers as a whole class. If some of them have a problem with the correct answer, ask other students for peer-correction.
Show the questions to the students. Give the instruction. "We have four gaps in the text and four questions related to them. Read the article again and match the questions a-d with the gaps 1-4 in the article. You have 5 minutes." Ask students check the answers with their partners. Monitor them during peer check. Show them the answers on the smart board. If a problem is detected while monitoring, ask for justification for those questions.
Tell students they are going to read the text for the last time. Make clarification about inferring in case they may be some students that don't know what inference mean. Tell students they will do an inference activity. Clarify that inference means a guess based on the information you have, so they cannot find the exact statements from the text. They need to read the text in a detailed way. They need to understand the meaning that lies behind. Give the instruction: "Which sentences are true about the writer in real life, do you think? Why?" (Find the proof) Since it is a long and complicated instruction, ask some ICQs. - Are these sentences taken from the text? (no) - Can we find exactly the same sentences in the text? (no) - Do we need to make guesses? (yes) Tell students they have 5 minutes. Ask students to check their answers in pairs and also check each other's proofs for the questions. Monitor them. Elicit the answers by nominating different students and ask for justification.
Show the questions and tell that they have the meanings of some words from the text. Remind them it's a guessing activity and ask students what contextual clues would help the to find the word. After eliciting the answer, give the instruction "Find the words or phrases in the article with these meanings. you have 5 minutes." Distribute the hand-out. Ask them check the answers in pairs. Monitor them while they are checking the answers. Elicit the answers one by one and write them on the board. If they have any problems with the words in terms of meaning and form, analyze them. Show the pronunciation and stress on the board. Model and drill them chorally and individually. sacrifice (n) /ˈsækrɪfaɪs/ Eliciting: “She misses birthday parties, ruins family holidays and skips night outs in order to do exercise.” CCQs. -Does she stop doing some important events? (yes) -Does she have a better reason? (yes) -Does it have a positive or negative meaning? (positive) intensity (n) /ɪnˈtensɪtɪ/ Situation: “Last week I broke my arm and went to the Emergency Room and they helped me there and gave some painkillers. It was still hurting a little bit. When I asked the doctors, they said it was OK but if the pain intensity increased, contact the doctor immediately. CCQs -Did I have a pain? (yes) -If my pain intensity increased, did I feel more or less pain? (more) -Is it about the strength of the pain? (yes) extreme (n) /ɪkˈstriːm/ Example: The temperature in the desert ranges between extremes of heat and cold. CCQs - Is there a normal weather? (no) - Is it reasonable? (no) - Is it far beyond the normal? (yes) determination (n) /dɪtɜːmɪˈneɪʃən/ Eliciting: She would stay in at lunch time to just get ahead on class work rather than go out and play; she would go to swim 100 lengths of the pool while other kids played on floats.” What kind of personal characteristics does she have? CCQs - Did she try to do easy or difficult things? (difficult) - Did she do them as she wanted? (yes) - Did she do them once or many times? (many times) - Will she keep doing them until she achieves them? (yes) set smo apart (ph verb) /set əˈpɑːt/ Eliciting: She has done a little extra thing while she is preparing herself for the competition and it has made her better than other competitors. - It sets her apart from other competitors. - Is she different from other competitors? (yes) - Is she better than other competitors? (yes) - What quality has helped her? (a little extra thing done in preparation) - Does it have a positive or negative meaning? (positive) obsessive (adj) /əbˈsesɪv/ Eliciting: My mother is obsessive about washing her hands. She goes to the bathroom almost every half an hour and washes her hands. What kind of a person is she? CCQs - Is she thinking about washing her hands all the time? (yes) - Is it a normal behavior? (no) - Does it have a positive or negative meaning? (negative) If we have time (the first vocabulary part has finished earlier than anticipated), do one more activity. (If we don't have enough time, we will just skip this part) Tell students that complete the sentences with the words from the previous exercise.
Mingle the students. Put them in different groups. Show them the hand-out. Tell them to work in pairs. Give the instruction. "You have two questions. Answer them with your partner. you have 5 minutes."