Bully Me No More (Lesson Plans)

Tomorrow, December 17th 2010, is Anti-Bullying Day and as a person who has been, in different life situations,

the victim, the supporter, the hero... 

the observer, the bully, the oblivious...

I decided to channel my energy into creating a lesson plan on the subject.   I hope you and your students find it interesting and I hope it helps.

1. Tyler Ward's Cover Version of Eminem's No Love

Write the following paragraph on the board or beam on to a whiteboard/IWB:

It's a little too _______ to say that you're ______ now. You kicked me when I was _____ but what you say just don't ______ me, don't hurt me no more. You showed me nothing but ______, you ran me into the _________ but what comes _________ goes _________, what you say just don't hurt me, don't ____ me no more.

Ask your students to guess what the missing words are.

Purchase & play the song http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/tyler-ward-covers-vol-3/id406190149

or Watch the video via the internet http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zz1Y6EZUT10&feature=related 
to confirm the missing lyrics.

Ask your students to tell you if they know who the original song and singers are.

(Eminem & L'il Wayne). Who are they? Ask what they think the song ís about.

2. Eminem & L'il Wayne: No Love (video)

a. Ask your students to jot down notes while they watch about what they see on the screen – start the music video – make sure to play without sound (very adult lyrics)*  
(this is a clean version)






Eminem - No Love ( Feat. Lil Wayne ) from Top Music on Vimeo.

http://www.vimeo.com/17010892 (available Dec2010)*explicit

((some countries have clean versions of the lyrics available -do a google video search))

b. Ask your students to describe (in as much detail as possible) the story they saw in the video and how it made them feel while watching.

c. Ask students if they think that Eminem or L'il Wayne were ever bullied at school. Were either of them the bullies? Why do they think so?

3. What is Bullying?

Ask students – What is bullying? How does it differ from fist-fighting, verbal abuse or other types of hurtful or angry behaviour? 

What factors are usually in place in a situation like the one shown in the video – can we usually tell if someone is being bullied?   What happens to people who fight back?

4. Sticks and Stones

(If you have access to real sticks and stones + cards with common insult words put these up on a table in the front of the class.)

Ask students: Is violence always physical? What does the saying Sticks and stones may break my bones but words can never harm me mean?  

Is it true? How do words harm?

5. Stand on the line
hat-tip Anita Kwiatkowska who reminded me of this conflict resolution approach at TESOL-France

Get students to push the desks out of the way and create an open space in the centre of your classroom. Take a roll of tape and draw a line through the middle of the room. Make sure to assert that your classroom is now a safe-place and ask for respect to be shown to each other.  

Example here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4H7QMy54Keg&feature=player_embedded

(Alternatively you can opt for asking students to remain seated and raise their hands or stand up in place when answering yes.)

Ask students to stand on the line whenever they can answer yes to a question and to stand off the line whenever they want to answer no. No elaborating on questions -simply asking them to step on or off the tape. 

*If you're teaching second language learners you may need to clarify some of the vocabulary beforehand.

Stand on the line/ Stand up/ Raise your hand

1. 
   
   ... if you like listening to music...
2. 
   
   " if you have an mp3 player
3. 
   
   " if you have an ipod
4. 
   
   " if you have an itouch/ ipad/ iphone
5. 
   
   " if you have more than 30 albums on your music device
6. 
   
   " if you own any rap music
7. 
   
   " if you have any albums by Eminem or L'il Wayne
8. 
   
   " ~if no one in your family knows about this... :-)
9. 
   
   " if you had an argument with anyone in your family this week
10. 
    
    " if you had an argument with anyone at school last week
11. 
    
    " if you have ever called someone a bad name in private
12. 
    
    " if you have ever called someone a bad name in public
13. 
    
    " if you have ever been called a bad name in private or public
14. 
    
    " if you have ever been hit by anyone else
15. 
    
    " if you have ever hit a brother or sister/ friend
16. 
    
    " if you have ever hit a someone you didn't know well
17. 
    
    " if you have seen someone else hit
18. 
    
    " " … and didn't do anything
19. 
    
    " " … and reported it to an authority
20. 
    
    " " … and hit the person doing the hitting
21. 
    
    " " … and waited, then helped the victim
22. 
    
    " if you have ever been a friend of someone who hurts people
23. 
    
    " if you have ever been a friend of someone who took their own life.

Thank the students for sharing and then get them to help put the desks back in place. Don't talk about the experience or intervene – at this stage - if some students are emotional, allow them to comfort each other.

6. Who feels what? 

Hand out the wordle* Who feels what and the activity sheet asking for the emotions of:

• The Bully
• The Bully's Lieutenants
• The Victim
• The Victim's Supporters
• The Victim's Hero
• The Observers
• The Oblivious

Switch groups after 10-15 minutes. There are no right or wrong answers. If teaching 2ndLanguage learners, allow dictionaries.

*Depending on your culture and the age-group you're teaching, you will need to make a decision on which wordle to use. One of these includes the phrase sexual thrill and uses harder adjectives.

7. Tell your story

As the teacher, you should now tell a story from your own personal experience (your childhood or that of one of your kids) of either being bullied, watching a bullying experience plus what you did or didn't do or, perhaps, even of being the bully yourself in a specific situation.  

It is very important that you share a true personal story rather than something in the news at the moment - if you can - as it will help your students trust you enough to tell their own.

Now ask your students to share a story from their lives: they can write their stories in their blogs or notebooks and make sure that they know that they will not required to share these stories unless they choose to. Stop them after a long enough period has passed and then ask for volunteers of those who would like to share their story publicly: again remind everyone that your classroom is a safe haven today and ask for respect without judgments.

8. Bully Me No More: question cards

Print out enough copies of the card game on coloured paper to create multiple small groups of 3-5 students. Cut the cards and distribute the questions you feel suitable for your age group. Put them face down on the table, the students should turn over the cards and ask each other the questions on them.

9. Write a play

Divide up your class into groups of no less than 6 – 10 students and ask them to script a play about bullying:

Act I: A horrible incident occurs afterschool.

Act II: A school meeting is called to discuss the incident.

Act III: 25 years later, everyone meets at a school reunion.

Who is everyone now? What do they do/ what jobs do they have?  What do they talk about?

If the students would like to, get them to choose characters, act it out / film and/or host on YouTube.

10. Follow-Up: Internet Research and Project Work

Post up the following options on the board and ask students to choose which they would like to research on in order to work collaboratively. Students can then use their computers/web2.0 tools to create posters/ prezis/ glogsters/ animotos/ wallwishers/ comic books/ infographics etc.

• Bullies throughout history:a timeline
• How to: A guide by students to teach teachers how to spot and deal with bullies
• What is cyberbullying: how to report, prevent it and stay safe online
• Cyberbullying: what stories are in the media today?
• How to spot sexual predators (off and online)
• Understanding the psychology of the bully / victim/ supporters/ observers
• What is defamation of character? Understanding the legal issues of slander and libel.
• What is the NOH8 campaign?

Useful links: 
http://www.delicious.com/KalinagoEnglish/bullying

I love hearing from you!

Please add your thoughts if you enjoyed this lesson plan and you feel like there's something you would like to question, add or say about it - don't worry about perfection or agreeing with me: it's always a pleasure to hear from you and know your own opinions.

Best, Karenne
education 



Download the lesson plan:
bullymenomoreLessonPlanDecember2010KarenneSylvester

It's a small world, after all : lesson plan challenge!

A friend of mine, Ken Dimmick, wrote this awesome poem which I just know can be turned into an amazing lesson plan.  But I was thinking, 2 heads are better than one... and 20 heads are infinitely better than 2...

Wanna help me put something together?

How would you use it in the ELT classroom - with business/general adults, teens or kids?  How would you construct the different parts of the lesson, would you use it as an ice-breaker, a supplementary material or the main text?

What would you do to encourage your students to think critically? 

Would you have them research aspects of the poem, get them conversing, what would you suggest to them that they could create as a final step in the process?



Get your thinking caps on, jot down what you think could be done or test out your ideas and then tell us what happened in the classroom - in about a month, I'll collate your ideas and type these up into a downloadable lesson plan to share:

Small World
by Ken Dimmick

I'm wearing rubber and leather sandals from China:
    rubber from Malaysia
    leather from god knows where
        (a cow of unknown nationality.)

My socks are from Bolivia
    woven from Egyptian cotton
        by a Brazilian factory
        hiring out-of-work Argentineans;

My trousers are denim, no longer "de Nimes," but
    constructed in the Phillipines
    of material woven in Mexico
    designed in Paris
    by a gay Italian, who like Madonna
        - the singer, not the saint
    has adopted a child from Malawi but that's another story altogether.

My shirt is from
    The Dominican Republic;
    of traditional Cuban design
    marketed by the Swedish firm: H&M
    yet purchased here in Stuttgart, Germany
        with my Mastercard from Texas.

And I have reason to believe
    that my pants, my briefs, my slip, my "Fruit of the Looms"
    began in a Guatamalan sweat-shop
        although the tag says Malaysia.

My Swiss watch
    fabricated in China
    is attached to my wrist
    by a leather band
    which  
    when still alive
    once swam free
        in Kenya's Lake Victoria.

But underneath it all
I am 100% pure American;
    in my particular case: mostly English genes
        (Celtic, Dane, Anglo-Saxon, Norman-French)
    with Irish and Scottish overtones.

I am the uncle of Africans
    my sister's sons, my nephews
And brother-in-law of an adventurous alliance
between Mexico and Quebec.

Yes, I am
as American as Apple Pie:
    made from the juiciest Japanese apples
    cooked in a crispy crust of Canadian wheat
    Jamaican sugar
    Irish butter and
    Cinnamon from the islands just west of Sumatra

Download the poem here.

Best,
Karenne
image credit: atlas, it's time for your bath by woodleywonderworks


education

Predictions 2010 - 2019 (Lesson Plan)

Probably one of the easiest, getting-back-in-the-groove, sans materials, dogmesque lesson I can think of:

Step 1

Write 2009 on the board

• Ask students to quickly jot down a list of the 5 most important things that happened to them (and/or their companies or families) over the course of the year.

• Put them in pairs and ask them compare and share.
  

Add 2000 - 2009

• Join some of the pairs of students to create mini-groups of 3 - 5 students. Without asking them to create lists, encourage them to share the significant events in their own lives and the world around us in the previous decade.
  

Step 2

Draw a table on the board and fill it in with some of the key words below - areas where one might expect to see change within the next decade - and elicit others from your learners:

- politics
- economy
- war
- sports
- weather-environment
- technology
- social media
- entertainment
- education
- can you suggest any other areas of change for your own specific students' interests?

Hand students large sheets of paper and in micro groups ask them to brainstorm, collaborate and make predictions. (Adding dates of when they expect these changes to occur).

Encourage them to agree and disagree, discussing fears and solutions, feelings and hypothesis. You can choose on whether or not to focus in on the use of the various futures which will naturally emerge as you circulate.

Change the members of groups after every 15 minutes or so in order to keep content, ideas and conversations dynamic. Their sheets should be completely filled.

Step 3

Post-task: get your students to take specific areas of responsibility and write these up in notebooks or blogs - they can also create posters, glogsters or simply powerpoint them.

Best,
Karenne

p.s. if you've got a "don't like to talk to each other group" - help kick off these conversations using a prediction based news article, Abba song, slideshare, video or last years' conversation prompts / change lesson from Eric Roth's Compelling Conversations.

Or tell them your own.

What is one thing you predict happening 2010-2019?

(I reckon they'll be a lot more edu- blogs and many more university lecturers online - but you'll have to pay for monthly access (some sort of i-tunes-like platform) and... I think there will be a whole lot less printed textbooks: 2016 on and hmmm... learning a 3rd language will suddenly become a fashionable trend - it somehow gets easier: brain implants probably :-).

Bring on the teenies...

The decade of the uh-oh's is finally done.

Hallelujah!!

For me those ten years were made up of:

A marriage... a divorce, surviving volcanic eruptions and political coups, moving from South America to Germany, completing a full-length screenplay, not selling said screenplay, trying to sell a conversation skills supplementary book then putting pieces of it for sale online instead, working on an animation film, writing materials for Klett, meeting President Obama, joining facebook, completing a pilgrimage across the north of Spain, creating this blog... abandoning the other one... becoming addicted to Twitter and a bunch of other stuff I can't remember...

'xcept co-convincing someone important that there really is a paradigm shift going on in education today :-)


What's next?

No doubt another roller coaster of a ride but also...

• teacher training for teaching associations
• presenting at conferences
• participating/hosting online training sessions
  
• more writing... tons more writing
• more blogging... lots, lots, lots more blogging

and hopefully...

• studying film and its application to learning English
• some kind of techie related job, related to the above
  
• coming back home (Grenada) and working online from here
• lots of pictures with loads of ultra-cool ELT people :-)
• some travel (Tibet, Machu Picchu, Pyramids)
  

How was your decade?

What are you hoping to get out of the teenies?

How are you hoping to develop professionally or personally?

Whatever it is, I truly wish you much happiness, heaps of passion in your journey and many, many smiles along the way!

Best,
Karenne

New Year Lesson (Abba video, worksheet, conversation prompts)

• Be the hit of your New Year party by Shelly Terrell
• Bridget Jones and my New Year Resolutions by Marisa Constantinides
• New Year celebrations by Sue Lyon Jones
• Best sites for learning about New Year celebrations by Larry Ferlazzo
• 2009: the year of living technologically by Janet Bianchini
• How to survive in 2010 by Ozge Karaoglu

Conversations at Christmas

Confession:

Christmas is not my favorite holiday.

It's my least favorite.

To go into all the reasons for that would be dull...

I could say I don't like the materialism, am not a big fan of shopping or crowded markets - suffer from glühwein headaches... I could tell you I hate the cold: Christmas for me, growing up in the Caribbean, was about playing cricket on the beach, picnic'd turkey on Boxing Day.

Everyone wants it to snow here. Sssh.

Also, all those expectations to be happy. All that pressure to "let's make everything perfect."

And how exactly did Coca-Cola manage to influence everyone into thinking that a big fat man in a white beard brings gifts down a chimney and more importantly how did this concept shimmey it's way into every little boy and girl's dreams all over the world?

Bah, humbug I say.

But in the meantime, here's a little gift for you and your classes over the next 10 days:

Merry Christmas
;-)

Best,
Karenne
p.s. for the new year

Related Links:

• Youtube Xmas songs +lyrics
• 12 days of Christmas, Sue Lyon-Jones (YL)
• Lots of Christmas Stuff Isabel Perez Torres
• Six topical teaching ideas for December, Lindsay Clandfield
• More questions at Christmas, Sean Banville

& if you've also done a lesson on this theme... do add your link!

The walls that divide us

(A Business English/EFL/ESP:marketing lesson)

After having lived, worked and taught English all over the world, I've noticed that cultures differ from workplace to workspace and this cultural divide isn't limited to the country of residence, nor to the sub-cultures there but, instead, is a part of a company's own philosophy.

Here in Germany, many people work side-by-side for years, never ever reaching first-name basis. Often they think Americans and Caribbeans are far too relaxed and dislike what they perceive to be a level of superficiality.

On the other hand, when you get to know the Germans, they are, deep-down, some of the most warm-hearted and generous people I've ever had the pleasure of teaching and they continually surprise me with their insights and knowledge.

As you've probably had conversations with your own students about cross-cultural business communication issues, no matter where you live, I thought I'd post up one of my older video exercises (you'll have seen it already if you've been in one my training sessions).

This video is a brilliant supplementary activity to take in with you: it's short, the speech of the actors is clear and the advertisement is particularly poignant for a Business/ESP:marketing lesson.

You can use it across a variety of objectives. On one side working on the concepts of business communication/cross-cultural issues or concentrating on the emotive metaphors, expanding the activity further by brainstorming others.

If you're teaching a group of marketing students, discussing the actual effectiveness of the advertisement can turn it into a particularly interesting conversation.

As an extra bonus, the video also provides a great context for practicing the Present Perfect vs the Past Simple.

Worksheet here (pdf)

Video here

Teaching notes:

The video works well with PreIntermediate students right up to Advanced students.

With the latter, the comprehension questions can be quickly glossed over if you wish, spending more time on the discussion, post video.

With the lower levels, watch twice and do the questions which your students can handle comfortably. Prompt your students to give you their general impressions and/or work on the grammar presented in the dialogue.

Enjoy!

Useful links related to this posting:
How to download video on to your laptop/netbook.


Best,
Karenne

List of Business English textbooks this video activity can be used to supplement:
-Business Basics unit 10
-Market Leader PreIntermediate unit 7 /unit 9
-Business Focus PreIntermediate unit 7
-Intelligent Business Intermediate unit 6
-InCompany PreIntermediate unit 4
-InCompany Intermediate unit 17

As a warmer
-Up to Speed unit 6
-Business Result unit 8

As always, if you'd like to add a book title to this list or you've got a suggestion for working with the video in another way, don't hesitate to add your thoughts!

Smart Phones Meeting (EFL Business English Lesson)

These days, at least over here in Europe, smart phones are about as commonplace as, er... um, desks.

So let's use them to teach with...



Lesson objective:
Practice the language of arranging meetings

Procedure (1):

You can easily dogme this lesson - simply ask your students to brainstorm a list of meetings and appointments they regularly and irregularly have with their colleagues and in their personal lives.

• Get them to write these down in their notebooks or stick up on the board.

• Ask them to drag out their computers-in-their-back-pockets a.k.a phones and encourage them to organize meetings with each other. Provide a time frame to work within, e.g within the next 2 - 8 weeks.

• Work on their grammatical weaknesses, supply alternative phrases, correct the common errors.

Procedure (2):

For students who feel more comfortable with a worksheet, download these:

Smart Phone Meetings (students)

Smart Phone Meetings (teachers)

Who's this lesson for?

Employed adults with smartphones or BlackBerry devices.
Elementary (with some vocabulary explanations) to Advanced.
Best with Pre-Intermediate.

Timing

25 - 40 minutes. Longer if you do the extension exercise.

When to use this lesson:

• to support a textbook unit on telephoning or meetings
• as a review of expressions for arranging meetings
• to focus on prepositions of time (on, at, in)
• to practice using ordinal numbers (1st, 2nd..)
• to work on the future structures (will, be going to, future continuous etc.)

after the first time of presenting this lesson, you can also

• follow up weekly/ whenever you need quick ice-breaker or a 5 minute filler

Have fun!

Best,
Karenne

p.s. before you dash off - have you got any other great ideas for using smartphones in class? The other day we google'd and wikipedia'd (we were looking up Farah Fawcett's age) and this was loads of fun too - would love to know how you've been using them too...

If I won €10, if I won €100, if I won €1000, then I would...

The other day on Lindsay Clandfield's blog, he did a posting entitled Six Tired Examples for Teaching Grammar, including the standard, seen EVERYWHERE: in every coursebook and every grammar book ever published in the history of ELT, er, 'xcuse me while I start snoring:

If I won a million dollars I would buy...

His post is a list of terrible examples (very fun and worth reading) but I thought I'd just grab this one and bring it on over here to talk about the 2nd conditional and how practicing this form with your students really doesn't have to be so stale.

'Cause let's face it, they've done it to death since they were kids in their first English classes.

If you picked up a scratchy card at the newsagents and suddenly won €10, what would you buy?

A nice coffee at Starbucks for yourself and a colleague?

If you entered the church bingo and suddenly won €100, what would you buy?

Couple of DVD TV Series? An internet TV card? A nice perfume and expensive make-up? Pair of shoes?

If a family relation died and you inherited €1000, it's not exactly a whole heap of money so what would you do?

Take a nice holiday? Buy new winter tires?

And what if you were lucky enough to get a €10,000 start-up grant for a new business idea? What would you invest this in?

What if you did enter the lottery, jackpot of €4million but you only managed to snag €50,000 of it, how would you spend this?

And if you got €500,000? A cool mil? 5 mil?

Did I just hear you pause?

Make grammar real and approachable and your students will be able to come up with their own thoughts, ideas - they'll start owning the language and comfortably communicate their own hypothetical suggestions.

Because personally, I don't know about you, but if I won €1,000,0000 I would have absolutely no idea how to spend it - no doubt I would probably waste it on stupid big houses and yachts and charity events - I'm crap at math so then maybe, I might even end up going bankrupt like all those pictures of people we see in textbooks.

Oh great, so the 2nd conditional is actually depressing.



What about you?

Forget about the million dollars... and go on, tell me what would you do if someone suddenly gave you €5,000 to do something somewhat related to learning teaching English?




Useful links related to this posting:

Easy sheet to use in class
(you can use this whenever you're teaching the 2nd conditional or you're discussing money as a theme in a conversation class).

• Lindsay Clandfield's blog

• StrictlyNicky's blog posting (inc. worksheet) using Beyonce's "If I were a boy"

Update May 22, 09:
Alex Case has a list of 2nd conditional alternatives to the lottery: supernatural correction
and if you're on the hunt for a great youtube vid to extend the lesson with, I'd recommend this story of a New Zealand couple who became accidental millionaires due to a clerical mistake, ask students what they'd do in Yang's shoes!

Best,
Karenne

The Susan Boyle EFL Video Lesson

What is your secret ambition?

If you could go back in time, do something else or be someone else what would you do? What do you still hope to achieve before you die?

Susan Boyle, a Scottish, unemployed 47 year woman just stumbled into fame and fell into the hearts of millions.

By taking part in ITV's 'Britain's Got Talent' competition she showed us that ducklings can still become swans, that dreams must never ever be given up on.

She strode on to the stage with chutzpah, took the jeers from the crowd and with her head held high opened her mouth. The sound that came out made my stomach flip and tears prickle at my eyes.

- I joined her Facebook Fan club.

- I worried about the consequences of her new fame.

- I thought about her cat.

- A friend gave me a play-by-playback of her choice expressions, perfectly imitating her accent.

- I spent way too many hours creating a lesson plan for our students.

Why?

Do they have dreams, goals, objectives they'd still like to accomplish? I bet they do. And I bet they'll love this:

The Susan Boyle, English as a Foreign Language Lesson

mosaic by Gilberto Viciedo

• The video on youtube
• How to download videos on to your own laptop
  
• Supportive links saved on delicious

No internet access/ laptop in class? Do A (extend with SimplyConversations AmbitionsAchievements set), then C + D in class and set B + E as post-task.

If you enjoyed using this lesson with your students don't forget to share it with colleagues, and of course, don't hesitate to let me know now what you think of Susan Boyle's performance - go on, tell me, how many times have you watched the video too?

Best,
Karenne

p.s Thanks muchly, Lisa, for helping me out with the editing!
Any possible errors, typos etc though are all mine - find any, do let me know. thnx.

p.p.s If you like working with videos in the classroom, Jamie Keddie's TEFL clips is 'chocka' with great lessons.

p.p.p.s Here are the links to global teachers who have also been using the Susan Boyle saga in their classes and blogging about it, many different approaches and tips - definitely worth have a look at so you can continue extend the lesson or do something different:

• Susana Canelo: http://endelvallesi.blogspot.com/2009/04/peoples-appearance_24.html
  
• Natasa Grojic: http://lunas994.blogspot.com/2009/04/lets-have-susan-boyle-moment.html
• Janet Abruzzo: http://civitaquana.blogspot.com/2009/05/susan-boyle-two-lesson-plans.html
  

The Susan Boyle EFL Lesson Plan by Karenne Sylvester is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.

A code of ethics for CEOs

I was browsing around in youtube last night and came across a video from a Columbian youth.

The question was so poignant I immediately knew it would make a great lesson.

Today in Davos, the World Economic Forum begins. To support their activities, other than their website, the WEF have also created an interactive page on youtube for questions and lectures on a number of topics including economy, ethics, environment and politics.

Pablo's answer to the question Should CEOs have a code of ethics was:

You can download the video from here.
Not sure how to take it into class, come here.

I know I'm 100% for this idea, my feelings are "about time" -but what do our business English students think?

Here's a quick lesson plan - don't hesitate to add to it or suggest other uses for these rich and interesting discussions.

• ask students if they know what a "code of ethics" is
• get them to list professions that have one
  

doctors, psychologists, lawyers, journalists, social workers and more

• write on the board - Should CEOs have a code of ethics? Ask why, why not?

• watch the video (possibly more than once depending on your students' levels)
  
• review some of the more difficult vocabulary* (see below, you could also pre-teach)
  
• hold a discussion on the suggestions he makes, feasible?
  

• provide students with these codes of ethics: doctors and lawyers

Quite long: you can split these up into parts or only use some of it,
do a google search for others if you have a large class. Different codes to different students.

• provide this guideline on creating a code of ethics, c.o.e. (or adapt)
  
• get students to brainstorm a new code specifically for CEOs in groups
• encourage them to use some of the 'legal-speak' they've picked up so far
• monitor slightly, remind them of the modals of obligation
  

• choose a presenter from each group to relay their c.o.e, edit as necessary
  
• discuss the pros and cons of their suggestions
  

Important vocabulary

• to be contingent on, to standardize, to compromise
• unethical liberties, human rights, common characteristics, profit-driven
• an international code, international markets
  

Post-task activity

Let your students choose between watching further videos on youtube, listening to podcasts or reading articles, blog postings etc on the WEF and ask them to report back on their activities next week (or next lesson(s)).

You could also ask them to research the people present or behind the scenes. Alternatively, you can also ask your students to look into the history of the Forum and the location chosen.

Or, if you're lucky enough to be teaching a group with great technology skills, teens /youth perhaps, why not get them to make video responses on their cameras or camera phones and actually participate in the debates - such fun!

Best,
Karenne
p.s don't forget you can .pdf this page or send it to yourself/ a friend. Buttons below.

Flight 1549: disasters as fodder for EFL lessons?

UPDATE 8Mar09 - this lesson plan now has an additional animated video which can you use to discuss process with students -especially good if teaching ESP:Aviation students.


Disasters in the news are great opportunities to get your students talking.

Whenever a major crisis hits the news media, words and facts fly out and students begin embedding statistics about the event in their brains.

If your students are anything like mine, after any major incident, they arrive in the classroom bursting to share what's happened (maybe because I'm constantly reminding them that I want them to small talk).

They're often able to tell us in English- even the lower level students - just how many people were involved, where 'it' occurred and the process: the before, during and aftermath.

They have opinions too.

Sometimes in their passion of finally having a story for me, though, I see clear areas of grammatical weakness and occasionally their sequencing adverbs are a little off.

Does this happen to you too?

If you'd like to test this exercise out, the crash of Flight 1549 into the Hudson River is a great example. It's dramatic, it's almost everyone who fly's greatest fear and it had a happy ending.

A very 'real' way to demonstrate the importance of adverbs of sequence/ adverbials of time.

- first
- then
- next
- after that
- finally

get this picture here

If you'd like to spice things up and get your students stretching their linguistic muscles, add things like:

- initially
- firstly, secondly...
- while

Stick up words/ phrases + adverbial clauses like
- by the time
- during this time
- in the aftermath.

What exactly do stewardesses say?

To really hone in on the point, once you've finished discussing the story as it occurred in the news, why not go through in-flight safety instructions.

And for my TwIT teachers, I really don't have to remind you that you can grab videos of flight 1549's crash (here) to turn this into a great multi-media lesson. You can also use this tracking map from the New York Times.

SimplyConversations lesson:
Business Travel (freelancers, institutions)

Any more tips, tricks? Related links? Don't hesitate to add them below in the comments box. Ta!

Best,
Karenne

New:March8,2009

Animation Video



Recommended book: Aviation English
USA + world
UK
Germany

Happy New Year, by Abba

Have you realized how poignant that old favorite, sung by Abba way back when, is?

Ideal for taking into class with you at the beginning of term.

Here's a quick little exercise that you can print off and drag in as an ice-breaker or warmer.

Instructions

• distribute sheet
  
• tell class to fill in as much of the blanks as they can, then
  
• play song, first time straight through without stopping
• get them to check with each other and compare answers
• play song, second time stopping after each sentence
• compare answers
• discuss key vocabulary
• discuss meaning of the song and 'the time' it was sung in

SimplyConversations Extension

• the gap fill basically works on a 'lexical chunk' system in order for you (your students) to pay particular attention to the way words group together. If you're working with a group of fairly fluent and motivated students you can also use this activity as a philosophical discussion tool. ABBA sung this pre-internet, pre-a lot of other things and older students who were around when this was a hit will have much to add to the pot.
  

Video of this song


The official ABBA site has a gorgeous video with lyrics on screen. That's here.
More songs related to the new year on youtube here.


Useful links related to this posting:

• Song meanings here, Song facts here.
• Download video on to your laptop, blog about that here.
• Netbooks, blog about that here.

Do you have any suggestions or comments? Don't hesitate to add your thoughts below.

Best,
Karenne

Where does the buick stop?

The news are currently a-buzz with corporations lining up to hold out their begging bowls in the hope that something, anything will rescue them from the worsening financial crisis.

One of the most ridiculous of these is quite probably the BIG THREE, the CEOs of the giant US automakers (Chrysler, Ford and GM) who somehow did not have the vision to implement a change to smaller, high mileage, 'greener' vehicles and who now need a bailing out to the tune of $25bn.

I say 'vision' somewhat sarcastically.

The last few years have seen an outpouring of commercials advertising their so-called greenness which suggests that they did indeed recognize the trends in the market yet hesitated about doing anything about it other than launch propaganda machines.

Instead they dined like kings, sipped Cristal champagne, earned upwards of 40k A DAY and now, surprise, surprise, they must go to PapaUSA (i.e. the American taxpayers) for a little cash injection.

How long will it be before other global car-makers, except Toyota LOL, rock on up with the same plan?

It's not their fault? Pah!

But their errors, if left unsolved, will cost the world's employees in jobs, be the end(!?) of a stable global economy - opinions range and are as hot as they are indifferent - yet can you imagine what will happen when hundreds of thousands worldwide (millions if you count semi-related industries, especially in the US) lose their jobs?

Can you imagine the knock-on effects?

The US government and our governments will probably have no choice but to rescue the car-mega-corporations and their factory workers.

How very, very careless you have been Mr Mullaly, Mr Nardelli and Mr Wagoner (yes, even if you just recently took on your jobs). Shame on you.

Do you really expect the man on main street to pour yet more capital into your extravagant business models with narry a word on how you will effectively restructure and clean up your shops?

Lordy B, I can't help but muse on whether or not big OIL will need bailing out next!

Anyhoo, my rant's over...

Just stirring up the pot to show you how highly controversial and topical this subject matter is and how you can use it to make an exciting ESP lesson: be it with your financial students or those in the automotive industries.

As usual I'll just provide you with tips & some sources, so go on ahead, browse around and use what's useful then construct the lesson the way you'd usually do it...

Articles on the big 3

(3 levels given especially for your mixed ability groups-different articles to different students)

• 'Simpler' English (int: B1-B2)
  

Bloomberg
International Herald Tribune

• A little harder (upper int: B2-C1)
  

LA times (full of good idioms)
US News:6 myths debunked
NewsOK

• Tough going but really worth reading (upper int/adv: C1-C2)

Editorial, truth about cars

• Your audio learners (radio)

4 interesting, short segments from the BBC

Videos

Note: Most of these vids are made up of various car ads and a report on the 'SEXYgreenCARshow'. You can not make this stuff up - if you teach ESP:automotive students you'll have a whale of a time with this video, the language is generally slow and clear.

The "Ripple Effect" video at the end is well, seriously scary - a nice finish to a lesson on this theme (it's fast though so have a finger ready for the pause button).


Sidebar:
In 3 of my classes today, the craziest thing occurred while showing the GM never-seen-before ad - the men (one banking class, one insurance, one automotive) all talked back in English, involuntarily, to the projected screen and text/images.

Some just named the models as they whizzed by - all mentioned Opel, others 'hmphed' and made fun of the philosophy underlying the video. Most interesting -definitely a keeper.

To download the entire playlist or to simply choose which you'd like to use in your class(es), go here.

Karenne's lesson ideas

• divide up and set the various articles as homework by sending on the links to your students (if you can't do this, get them to skim for gist in class).
  

If by the time you read this blog entry, decisions have already been made you might want to look for new articles. A pre-search link to googlenews is set here - as a general rule (in my experience) bloomberg and reuters tend to have shorter and easier business articles, iht is a good link for students because it has translate-a-word functionality, BBC and Guardian Weekly often have topical worksheets for language learners prepared; financial press and blogs tend to be harder - full of lower frequency words. As much as possible try to vary the "slant" if you want your students to really discuss!

• review the vocabulary students had difficulties with, especially concentrating on chunks of text and idioms used in a business context.

• show one or two of the videos as a pre-task, intro and/or to review vocabulary (not sure how to download video? go here) If unable to do this, send your students the playlist and let them choose what they'd like to watch.
  

• discuss the articles for comprehension or simply get them to summarize their articles' slant or positions introduced - encourage students to agree, disagree and generally opine.
  

• ask how this issue is being reported in their own media - should the automakers get bailed out? Why, why not? Are car makers in their own countries turning up with hat in hand?
  

• Roleplays:

Big class - split up your students and ask them to play the role of Nardelli, Wagoner, Mullaly; other students play the role of the government (Pelosi, Obama, Bush, governmental economic advisers etc) and yet others play the role of the union bosses. The rest of your learners can play the man on the street: factory workers and normal joes (themselves).

Ask your students to design the focus of the roleplay themselves, getting them to spend some time thinking of what they will say - then hold the debate.
Small class - with 3 students or less, ask students to play the role of the President's economic advisers who will be interviewing the CEOs. Their task is to prepare hard-hitting questions (regarding future plans, how the bailout money would be spent and on what).

Advanced levels - with your higher students control (!) their language, encourage them to flex their grammatical muscles: to use the future continuous, perfects, passives and perhaps even use some 3rd conditional in natural context! ;-).

Another video, from Sabine- thanks, worked like a charm- but man, rough stuff!
Here are the lyrics.


Purchase conversation lessons:

SimplyConversations prompt cards plus SimplyQuests:

• finance & investment
• auto industry

€1.49 individuals
€4.99 institutes

More lesson-tips blog postings for teachers of ESP-Financial English:

• fatally financial
• company secrets

If you've got a top tip related to this theme, don't hesitate to share - simply click on the green line that says Comments and add your opinions, lesson ideas or any relevant links to websites, blogs on the same topic - I don't mind!

Best,
Karenne