additional classroom activi1

8/4/2019 Additional Classroom Activi1

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1Solutions Advanced Additional Classroom Activities

Solutions Advanced additional classroom activities includea range of fun activities to practise new language, andopportunities to further develop writing and speaking skills. Afull explanation on how to set up each activity is given in thissection. Please see the Teachers Book teaching notes for when

would be the most appropriate time to use each activity.

OPTIONAL EXTRA ACTIVITY 1B

VANISHING SENTENCES

Write the sentences from exercise 4 on the board. Invitea student to the front of the class, hand over the boardrubber, and ask him/her to erase all the prepositionsfrom the sentences, with the help of the rest of the class.Then pointing at the, now gapped, sentences one by one,elicit the full sentence from the class/individuals. Do thisorally dont write the prepositions back in the gaps. Callanother student to the front, and ask him/her to eraseall the verbs. Elicit the sentences from the class. Repeat

the process with adverbs, pronouns, adjectives, andnouns, etc. You can stop when the sentences are heavilyreduced or you can continue until they have disappearedcompletely and simply point at the blank space on theboard to elicit the sentences.Keep a brisk pace to the activity.

You can be sure that your students will know theexpressions inside out by the end of activity!

OPTIONAL SPEAKING ACTIVITY 1F

PRESENTATION

All optional speaking tasks can be done as a class

activity and require about 1015 minutes of preparation.Alternatively, they can be assigned as homework, andpresented by students at a later class.Optional speaking task: presentationWhat sports do you think should be compulsory on theschool curriculum? Give reasons.Put students into pairs.Write the task above on the board.Ask them to read the task and brainstorm ideas allow23 minutes.To check students understand the task, ask or write thefollowing questions on the board:Are you required:to discuss whether sports should be compulsory in

school? (No)to criticise doing sport in school? (No)to describe a particular sport in detail? (No)to explain why some sports are more suitable forteenagers than others? (Yes)to concentrate on any particular sports? (Not necessarily;you could talk about outdoor, indoor, team, or individualsports)to justify your opinion? (Yes)to give examples? (Yes)How many sports are you going to discuss? (Two or threeprobably)

Tell the students to prepare a detailed plan of thepresentation. To help students, ask the followingquestions:What would you say in the introduction?What sport/sports would you talk about first?How would you justify your choice? (minimum tworeasons)What sport/sports would you talk about later?How would you justify your choice? (minimum tworeasons)How would you conclude?Give students 56 minutes to plan the presentationin pairs, and then 56 minutes to rehearse it. Remindstudents to look at the vocabulary in lessons 1D, 1E,and 1F.Ask a strong student to give the presentation in front ofthe class.

OPTIONAL EXTRA ACTIVITY 1G

SIMILES

Students can make their writing sound more descriptiveeither by using fixed similes or inventing their own. Inexercise 6 they invent their own. Here, they learn somefixed similes.Begin by seeing how many they can remember fromSolutions Upper-Intermediate(blind as a bat, busy as abee, free as a bird, strong as an ox, sly as a fox, quiet as amouse, slippery as an eel, stubborn as a mule, brave as alion, gentle as a lamb, old as the hills, light as a feather,flat as a pancake, thin as a rake, easy as abc, good as

gold, smooth as silk).Then, write the following nouns on the board and askstudents to guess the adjective.flash (as quick as a)cucumber(as cool as a)lead (as heavy as)post(as deaf as a)daisy(as fresh as a)judge (as sober as a)Finally, write the following colour similies and ask them toguess the noun.as red as a . (beetroot)as black as (night)as white as (a sheet) to talk about fear/horror (snow) to

talk about, e.g. skin, furas brown as a (berry)

Solutions Advanced Additional

Classroom Activities


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Solutions Advanced Additional Classroom Activities2

OPTIONAL WRITING ACTIVITY 1G

AN ACCOUNT OF AN EVENT

All optional writing tasks require some sort of advancepreparation or research on the part of the students.The writing itself can then be set as homework or as anin-class activity. In some cases the activity can be done

as a group project. The length of the text to be written canbe determined by the teacher.Ask students to interview a family member or someonethey know who remembers an important/memorableevent that took place at least 40 years ago. It couldbe a concert of an event that made news headlines, aconcert of a well-known music group, the first landing onthe moon, or a big sports event. The students can usethe language in lessons 1A and 1G to write an effectiveaccount of the event. The descriptions should be givensuitable titles.Students can be divided into groups of three or four. Asa group, they prepare a poster with their texts, suitablephotos/illustrations, and titles, e.g. Images of the 70s or

The Hippie Decade.The posters could be then displayed in the classroom.

OPTIONAL SPEAKING ACTIVITY 2D

DISCUSSION AND PRESENTATION: SURVIVAL

Ask the class to think about animal societies; carnivoressuch as lions and wolves, and herbivores such aselephants and deer. In pairs, the students should tryto find any similarities and differences between theseanimal societies and the way human society is organised.In addition, with a stronger class, you could draw theirattention to the vocabulary for behaviour in 2D exercise 5

and ask whether any of these are particularly human oranimal in their opinion. After four or five minutes, elicitsome ideas.Bring the students attention back to lesson 2Dexercise 1. Put them into groups of 57 students. Explainthat you are going to have a competition for the mostsuccessful civilisation. Each group has been maroonedon a small island and has emergency food supplies tolast up to one month, a first aid kit, a box of matches, amachete or axe, and a small kitchen knife.Explain that they have 1015 minutes to decide howtheir group is to be organised and to establish theirdifferent roles and responsibilities within the group. Theyshould plan how decisions can be made and a system forresolving any arguments in the group. They should alsodecide their top three priorities. Refer them back to thetext in lesson 2D for ideas if necessary hunting, keepinga fire going, exploring the island, keeping watch for ships,making a shelter. All these points should be written downin the form of a constitution or contract between thosein the group. Each member of the group should write itdown, so they all have a copy.When the time limit is up, reorganise the groups so thatyou have representatives from at least three groupstogether. Each student should read out their constitutionto the other students, who may then challenge points orask questions. The student may defend their constitution

but should also write down any important points todiscuss with their group later.

After this presentation and discussion, the studentsshould go back to their original groups, discuss thepoints which came up, and make any necessary changesto their constitution. Ask them to stand up and presenttheir final constitution to the class. Following this, therecan be a secret ballot. Students are not allowed to votefor their own constitution, but should decide out of theothers which one they think would be most successful.Extension: The TV show Survivorhas become popularin many countries. Elicit what the students know aboutthis TV series. Ask them to think whether they would orwould not agree to take part in such a show. In smallgroups, students should give their answers and theirexplanations.


PRESENTATION

All optional speaking tasks can be done as a class

activity and require about 1015 minutes of preparation.Alternatively, they can be assigned as homework, andpresented by students at a later class.Optional speaking task: presentationWhat sort of books should be chosen as set texts forstudents? Give examples and justify your choice.Put students into pairs.Write the task above on the board.Ask them to read the task and brainstorm ideas. Ask themto jot down any ideas they come up with at this stage.Allow 34 minutes.Now tell students to eliminate all irrelevant ideas andplan what they want to say in the presentation. Again,allow 34 minutes. Remind students to look at the

vocabulary in lessons 2C, 2D, and 2E.Tell them to practise the presentation in pairs eachstudent talks for 23 minutes. The other student makesnotes of good language/mistakes made/things that canbe improved. Then they change roles.After theyve both spoken, they give feedback to eachother to improve their presentations.


FILM REVIEW

All optional writing tasks require some sort of advancepreparation or research on the part of the students.

The writing itself can then be set as homework or as anin-class activity. In some cases the activity can be doneas a group project. The length of the text to be written canbe determined by the teacher.Ask students to search the Internet for the originalversion of a film whose remake they have seen, or anold adaptation of a book which was later adapted againinto a film. The idea is they have seen at least one of theversions and they should find out as much as possibleabout the other. The students write a review comparingthe two films based on the research they have done. Theycan look at lesson 2G for vocabulary.


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OPTIONAL ACTIVITY 3A

LANGUAGE RELATED TO RELATIONSHIPS

Write the following excerpts from the listening and theword pool below on the board. With a stronger classdont give the word pool.1 Weve developed an _______ understanding of each

other.2 Its a _______ supportive relationship.3 We've rarely had a ______ argument.4 He has a ______ ego.5 We _________ each other well.complement fragile full-scale intuitive mutuallyIn pairs, students complete the sentences and explain themeaning of the words.

KEY

1 intuitive (able to understand by using feelings rather

than considering facts). Point out that intuitive is

nowadays most commonly used to talk about how user-

friendly something like a mobile phone or computer is.

2 mutually(felt or done equally by two people)

3 full-scale (major)

4 fragile (easily broken to have a fragile ego means to be

oversensitive)

5 complement(to have qualities that another hasnt got

and therefore make a better partnership). Warn students

not to confuse the spelling of this word with compliment,

as in to pay someone a compliment.

ADDITIONAL SPEAKING ACTIVITY 3D

DISCUSSION: RELATIONSHIPS

Divide the class into two groups. Explain that as in thereading text in lesson 3D, there is a difficult situation whichneeds to be resolved. The students in one group haveeach formed a new relationship, either a romantic one ora strong friendship, which their parents do not approveof. The students in the other group are their concernedparents. The parents are refusing to allow their child to seethis new friend. As a class, elicit ideas why a parent mightnot approve of a new friend. Make a list on the board.Each group should brainstorm together. The parents needto decide what their main objections are to this friend/boyfriend/girlfriend. The young people should try to thinkof good things about the person and the relationshipto help change their parents minds. With a large class,

divide the groups again. Give them a time limit of 510minutes.Now explain that they will have ten minutes to bringall the arguments into the open, discuss them, andnegotiate a compromise if possible. At this point, youcould ask them in their groups to brainstorm usefulphrases for agreeing, disagreeing, conceding a point,and making a suggestion. This can be followed by a quickclass feedback stage to highlight any particularly useful oradvanced structures.Put the students into pairs of one parent and one child.Give them a ten-minute time limit and ask the studentsplaying the role of children to begin the discussion.After ten minutes, or when most pairs have reached anend point, bring the class back together for feedback,eliciting the outcomes of different pairs discussionsand encouraging them to talk about what made theirnegotiations easier or more difficult.


DISCUSSION AND P RESENTATION

All optional speaking tasks can be done as a classactivity and require about 1015 minutes of preparation.Alternatively, they can be assigned as homework, andpresented by students at a later class.

Optional speaking task: discussion and presentationAll love that has not friendship for its base is like a

mansion built upon sand. How do you understand thisquotation by Ella Wheeler Wilcox, and how far do youagree?Put students into pairs.Remind students that they have discussed variousrelationships lately. Ask them to make a short list of whatmakes a happy and lasting relationship. Find out whetherfriendship is on their list.Write the task above on the board. Elicit why the imageof a mansion built on sand is used (to suggest a lack ofsolid foundations, instability, insecurity).Ask students whether they agree with the quote.

Ask them to work with someone who has the sameopinion. In pairs, they should discuss the reasons whythey do or do not agree. Remind them to look at thevocabulary in lessons 3A, 3B, 3C, and 3D. Tell them theyshould be able to give two or three reasons. Get feedbackas a class asking students to give explanations orexamples for each reason they give.Tell them to prepare a detailed plan of the presentationin their pairs. Highlight that they should not write theirpresentation out in full, but just note down points to helpthem remember the structure of what they want to say.Tell students to practise the presentation in pairs eachstudent should talk for 23 minutes. The other studentmakes notes of good language/mistakes made/things

that need improving. Then they change roles. Aftertheyve both spoken, they give feedback to each other toimprove their presentations.

EXTRA ACTIVITY 3G

VOCABULARY GAME

Play this game at the end of the lesson, or as a revisionactivity at the beginning of the next lesson.Give the class three minutes to try to memorise theadjectives from exercise 4 on page 34 and exercise 1on page 35. Divide the class into three or four teams.Give a definition of a word. If a student knows the word,they bang their hand on the desk, but dont shout outthe word. Invite him or her to give the answer. If they arecorrect, they win a point for their team. If not, they losea point. If they hesitate, they also lose a point (this willdiscourage students from banging the desk when theydont know the answer). Keep the scores on the board.They do not get a point for calling out an answer withoutbanging the desk first. The game finishes after youvecalled out definitions for all the words you want to revise.If you are concerned that desk-banging will be too noisyand may disturb other classes, you could ask them toraise their hands instead.


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MAGAZINE ARTICLE


as a group project. The length of the text to be written canbe determined by the teacher.Ask students to find among their relatives or people theyknow a couple who are partners in life and who worktogether as well. The students interview these peopleabout the benefits and drawbacks of such a life, andwrite an account of this interview in the form of an articlefor a teenage magazine, including some tips to youngpeople about how working together may influence therelationship.Remind students to look at the vocabulary in lessons 3A,3D, and 3E.



All optional speaking tasks can be done as a classactivity and require about 1015 minutes of preparation.Alternatively, they can be assigned as homework, andpresented by students at a later class.Optional speaking task: discussion and presentationWhat could be done to make the place where you livemore attractive to tourists?Put students in groups of three or four. Ask them toprepare two lists: one of things that could attract touriststo visit the place where they live, and the other of thingsthat could put tourists off. Allow 34 minutes, then get

feedback as a class.Now tell them to choose two or three things from thesecond list that could be improved. Remind them thatthey should choose different problems (e.g. transport,sports facilities, hotels, entertainment) to make theirpresentation more varied.Ask them to discuss in their groups what improvementscould be made and how. Remind them to look at thevocabulary from lessons 3F, 3G, and 4F. Allow fiveminutes.Put the students into pairs. In their pairs they shoulddiscuss what they will say in the introduction andconclusion to their presentation, and use the notes fromthe group work for the main body.Tell them to practise the presentation in pairs eachstudent talks for 23 minutes. The other student makesnotes of good language/mistakes made/things that canbe improved. Then they change roles.After theyve both spoken, they give feedback to eachother to improve their presentations.


MAGAZINE ARTICLE


as a group project. The length of the text to be written canbe determined by the teacher.Ask students to do some research into changes that havetaken place in one of the following areas in the last tenyears:

football, tennis, or car racingtrends in musicthe use of personal computers or mobile phones

Each student chooses one topic and writes an article for ayouth magazine describing the changes.Remind students to look at the language and vocabularyin lessons 4A, 4B, and 4F.Each student can be asked to use three conditionalsentences in their text (see lesson 4E).


DISCUSSION: STEVE IRWIN

Put the students into groups of 46 and tell them theyare going to discuss some issues raised by the text.Give each group one of the statements below to debate.Half of the group should work together to brainstormreasons in favour of the statement and the other halfshould brainstorm the reasons against the statement.Demonstrate this setup with one group if necessary. Givethem a time limit for this brainstorming stage of aroundfive minutes.

Statements:To hold peoples attention, television has to besensational or shocking.Individual people cant really make a difference toworld issues such as protecting wildlife.Protecting wildlife is not very important compared tomany other world issues.Steve Irwins death should teach us not to get tooclose to wildlife.There are more positive than negative aspects aboutanimal theme parks like Steve Irwins.Its more important to protect plant life and habitatthan wildlife.

When they have lists of points for and against thestatement, ask them to discuss the issue in their groups,talking through all the points they have listed. Theyshould come to a conclusion about whether their groupagrees or disagrees with the statement. This will probablytake 510 minutes. Give time limits to the end of theactivity when one or two groups have almost finished, toencourage them to finish at the same time.Once all the groups have reached a decision, changethe groupings. Form groups which include one studentfrom each group and tell them to report to each otherwhat they discussed and the conclusion they reached,explaining their reasons. They may ask each otherquestions, agree and disagree, and discuss more in these

groups. If you have limited time, this reporting stagecould be done as a whole class activity.


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PRESENTATION


Optional speaking task: presentationDoes gender equality mean that women and men shouldhave exactly the same rights and obligations? Presentyour view and justify it.Put the students into small groups.Write the question above on the board and ask themto say which are the key words (exactly, same rights,obligations, present your view, justify).In their groups, students brainstorm arguments. Tell themto make two lists of arguments: one supporting and theother challenging the statement. They should considervarious areas (family, work, social life, political activity,etc.).Remind them that it is sometimes good to structure their

presentation in the same way as a for-and-against essay.Suggest they should choose two or three arguments fromtheir list that support their opinion, and one counter-argument.Ask them in their pairs to prepare a plan of thepresentation, and to think also about the linking phrasesthey will use while talking.Remind the students to look at the vocabulary in lessons3A, 3B, and 5C. They can also look at lesson 5F forphrases to structure their presentation.In pairs students take turns to rehearse the presentation,before presenting it in front of the class.


PROFILE OF A PERSON

All optional writing tasks require some sort of advancepreparation or research on the part of the students.The writing itself can then be set as homework or as anin-class activity. In some cases the activity can be doneas a group project. The length of the text to be written canbe determined by the teacher.Ask students to search the Internet for information abouta person from their country who is successful in theirprofession and also involved in helping others. Thestudents then write a profile of this person, presentinghis/her professional achievements and what they do tohelp other people. They can use lessons 4D and 5G forguidance and language.


DISCUSSION: LET SLEEPING TEENAGERS

LIE

Elicit from the students the meaning of the word debate.Tell them you are going to have a mini-debate and thediscussion point is Schools and carers should react to

evidence about the sleeping patterns of teenagers.Split the class into three groups: teachers and schoolstaff, parents/grandparents/carers, and teenagers. Itis better for some of the weaker students to be in theteenager group as this is the easiest to relate to.Each group should have ten minutes to brainstormreasons for (and in this case what kind of reactions areneeded) and against (with reasons why any reactionis not necessary or appropriate). Once they havebrainstormed, they should look at the balance of thearguments and decide whether their group mostly agreesor disagrees with the discussion point. This will be theposition they take in the debate. With a stronger class,you can also encourage them to take different roles

within their groups a head teacher may have a differentperspective from a class teacher for instance.Now hold the debate. If there is a strong student, youcould appoint him/her chairperson, otherwise youmay need to do this job yourself. As many students aspossible should be encouraged to speak, and respondingto each others arguments should also be encouraged.After 1015 minutes the chairperson should call thedebate to a close and, in a whole class discussion,you can decide which group had the best arguments,debating style, etc.

OPTIONAL SPEAKING ACTIVITY 6FDISCUSSION AND P RESENTATION

All optional speaking tasks can be done as a classactivity and require about 1015 minutes of preparation.Alternatively, they can be assigned as homework, andpresented by students at a later class.Optional speaking task: discussion and presentationDreams that do come true can be as unsettling as thosethat dont. Discuss these words of the writer Brett Butler.Write the task above on the board and ask students todiscuss in small groups how they understand it. Getfeedback as a class.Ask the students to discuss in their groups whether theybelieve the statement is true or not. Again, pool the ideasand note them on the board. Together, decide whichideas would be the most effective for the presentation.Tell them to prepare a plan of their presentation usingsome of the ideas on the board. In pairs, they shouldrehearse their presentations, taking turns to talk, beforesome students present in front of the class.Ask as many students as possible to give thepresentation. After each one, ask the speaker two or threequestions about what they have said.


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STORY


as a group project. The length of the text to be written canbe determined by the teacher.Prepare three lists:

of objects (e.g. briefcase, helicopter, skis,loudspeaker, etc.)of jobs and occupations (e.g. priest, soldier,IT specialist, etc.)of locations (an old castle, a chalet in a luxuriousresort, a yacht in the middle of the ocean, etc.)

The items on the lists should be numbered, and thereshould be a minimum of as many items on each list asstudents in the group. Every student chooses a numberfrom each list and in this way is assigned one object, job,and location to use in a story. Remind them to look at

lessons 6E and 6G for guidance and useful language.Alternatively, the lists may be verbs, adjectives, adverbs,phrases, or grammatical structures that the students willhave to use in their stories.


PRESENTATION

All optional speaking tasks can be done as a classactivity and require about 1015 minutes of preparation.Alternatively, they can be assigned as homework, andpresented by students at a later class.Optional speaking task: presentation

With the development of television and the Internet, wecan visit distant places and learn about other cultureswithout leaving home. Will this stop people travelling?Write the task above on the board. Put the students intosmall groups to brainstorm ideas. After 34 minutes, getfeedback from all groups.Students work individually to prepare the outline of theirpresentation. Remind them to use a clear structure and arange of linking phrases.Students should practise giving their presentation inpairs, with one student talking for 23 minutes and theother making notes of any elements that need improving.Then they change roles.Now ask students to think about questions they couldask their partner about his/her presentation. Finally,one student gives the presentation, while the rest of theclass listen and make notes. Then they ask some of theirquestions, and the presenter answers them.


LETTER OF COMPLAINT


as a group project. The length of the text to be written canbe determined by the teacher.Ask each student to search the Internet for a touristadvertisement of a place in an English-speaking country(a hotel, theme park, seaside resort, etc.). Tell them tolook for advertisements that provide a lot of details. Theyprint or rewrite their advertisements.Then they should imagine they have visited the place andwere disappointed with some of the things mentionedin the ad. They annotate their ad using the example inlesson 7G (you may want to specify the number of thingsthey want to complain about).When this has been done, collect the annotated ads andeach student picks somebody elses advertisement to use

for a letter of complaint.Remind students to look at lesson 7G for guidance andlanguage.

EXTRA ACTIVITY 8A

ALPHABET RACE

This activity can be done as a vocabulary revision activityat the end of the lesson or as a warmer at the beginningof the following lesson.Put the students into pairs, tell them to close their booksand ask them to write the alphabet vertically down theside of a piece of paper. Tell them that they have to

write words related to the topic of clothes and fashionbeginning with each letter of the alphabet on the sheet ofpaper. Give a time limit of two minutes. The pair with themost words wins.


DISCUSSION: NANO-FOOD

Put the students into groups of 35 students. Assign eachgroup a role from the following: nano-food manufacturers,scientists opposed to nano-food, aid agency workers, nano-food scientists and researchers, consumers, and greencampaigners. Ask them to work together in their groups toestablish their main arguments for or against nano-foodtechnology. Give them a time limit of 58 minutes. With aweaker class, ensure they refer back to the text for ideas.When the groups have prepared their arguments, bringthe class back together. Appoint one strong student to bechairperson or take the role yourself if necessary. Alloweach group to present their main points and ask all theother students to take notes, especially noting anythingthey may wish to challenge or support later on.Once each group has spoken, it is time for counter-arguments and questions. With a stronger class, this canbe structured as a debate, led by the students. With aweaker class, follow the order of the presentations and

ask each group to take a turn at answering questions andfacing counter-arguments so that it has a clear structure.At the end of this debating session, encourage a secretballot to find out which group was the most convincing.Students are not allowed to vote for their own group.Conduct whole class feedback.


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Optional speaking task: discussion and presentationMany people follow fashion trends blindly. Is thisalways a bad thing? Justify your opinion using suitableexamples.Put students into pairs.Write the task above on the board.Ask them to read the task and brainstorm examples oftrends people follow. Point out that they should considervarious aspects of life home decoration, lifestyles,types of books we read, music we listen to, leisureactivities, etc. Allow 34 minutes.Ask students to discuss in pairs what may be good andbad about following some of these trends. Get feedbackas a class. Note the arguments in two columns on the

board. Ask students to give examples to illustrate eachargument. Ask some students to present their opinionand support it with an argument and an example.Ask students to prepare their presentations individually.Suggest they should start with presenting one or twoarguments against the opinion they hold and then moveto stronger arguments that would support their view.Ask a student to give their presentation in front of theclass. Tell the other students to listen carefully and thenask questions challenging the presenters opinion. Theyshould use some of the arguments from the board. Thepresenter should answer the questions and use morearguments to defend his/her view.


TIPS FOR VISITORS

All optional writing tasks require some sort of advancepreparation or research on the part of the students.The writing itself can then be set as homework or as anin-class activity. In some cases the activity can be doneas a group project. The length of the text to be written canbe determined by the teacher.Tell the students that they are going to write some tipsfor foreign visitors to their town on how to spend a dayout. Each student should be assigned a specific type ofvisitor (a family with small children, a middle-aged coupleinterested in music, a vegetarian nature-lover, a retiredart teacher, etc. avoid assigning types similar to thestudents themselves).Students research possibilities places to eat andattractions, etc. and then write a set of tips. Remind themto look at lesson 8G for guidance and language.


PRESENTATION


Optional speaking task: presentationNowadays people often make their private life public bydiscussing it in the media, writing blogs, and postingphotos on the Internet. What do you think motivatesthese people, and what positive and negative effects maytheir actions bring?Put students into pairs.Write the task above on the board.Ask them to read the task and brainstorm ideas allow23 minutes. Get feedback as a class ask students tomake notes in three columns: reasons, positive effects,and negative effects.Ask students to prepare their presentations individually.They can look at lessons 9D and 9G for guidance and

vocabulary. Allow 67 minutes. Then students shouldrehearse their presentations in pairs, with one studenttalking for 23 minutes and the other making notes ofgood language and things that need improvement.Finally, ask some students to give their presentations infront of the class, followed by a few questions from otherstudents.


LETTER TO THE EDITOR

All optional writing tasks require some sort of advancepreparation or research on the part of the students.

The writing itself can then be set as homework or as anin-class activity. In some cases the activity can be doneas a group project. The length of the text to be written canbe determined by the teacher.Ask students to find an article in English about an issuethey are interested in. Tell them to read the article andwrite a letter to the editor in response to the article. Thestudents then may read each others letters and discusswhat the article was about. They can suggest correctionsand improvements. Finally, the letters may be e-mailed tothe editors.Remind students to look at the vocabulary and languagein lessons 7G and 9G.


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ALTERNATIVE SPE AKING ACTIVI TY 10A

ROLE-PLAY: SAYING GOODBYE

If there is sufficient space in your classroom, you couldend the lesson with this drama activity.Ask students to get up and mingle without talking. Playsome music as they mingle, then pause it. When the

music is paused, they pair up with the student standingclosest to them. They must role-play the last minute ofa conversation in a scenario that you now give them,for example, You are best friends. One of you is aboutto go travelling for a year. After a minute, signal thatthe conversation must end, play the music again, andthey continue mingling until you pause it and give thema different role and scenario. Continue with four or fivedifferent scenarios.Possible scenarios:

One of you is a secret agent and the other is theagents boss.One of you is a teacher and the other is a studentsaying goodbye at the end of an exam course.

One of you is a radio presenter and the other is a gueston a radio programme.

You are in the UK. Youve been staying with a hostfamily for a month. One of you is a host mother/fatherand the other is a student.


DISCUSSION: MORAL DILEMMAS

Put the students in pairs and ask them to provide asummary of the article on page 106 in no more than 50words, which could be read to a very busy but interestedthird person who doesnt have time to read the whole text.

Ask one or two pairs to read their summaries out andencourage comment. Elicit that the article exploits a moraldilemma if we could become immortal, should we?As science and knowledge advance there are a numberof dilemmas like this. Ask them to brainstorm in smallgroups. With a weaker class, give some categories to help:nano-food, genetically modified food, genetic manipulationin animals and humans, computer and mobile phonetechnology, transport and travel, medical technology.Ask them in their groups to put three of these dilemmasinto question form to make a mini moral dilemmasquestionnaire for another group. Examples: If you couldchoose the gender of your baby, would you? If you couldhave a computer chip implanted in your brain to enhanceyour mental ability (with no risk to yourself), would you doit? If animals could be bred much bigger for a higher meatyield from fewer animals, should we do it?Give them510 minutes to write their questionnaires.When they have finished, ask them to choose a groupname for themselves and write it at the top of the page,to identify later who wrote the questions. Then pass thequestionnaires around so that they all have differentones. Ask them to read the questions, think about themfor themselves and then discuss them as a group, makingan effort to explain their reasons to each other.Finally they should take a yes/no vote on each questionand write down their decision on the questionnaire,

together with their group name. Give a time limit forthese discussions and when the time is up, pass thequestionnaires around again so that each group candiscuss new questions. If there is time and students areengaged in the task, it could be repeated.

The questionnaires are passed back to the originators,who can now see the various group votes. Conduct classfeedback and encourage the students to raise any issuesthat came up in their groups and challenge any decisions.

OPTIONAL SPEAKING ACTIVITY 10FPRESENTATION

All optional speaking tasks can be done as a classactivity and require about 1015 minutes of preparation.Alternatively, they can be assigned as homework, andpresented by students at a later class.Optional speaking task: presentationThe key to immortality is first living a life worthremembering. (Brandon Lee)How do people try to make themselves immortal and howsuccessful are they?Begin by writing the quotation above on the board.Discuss as a class how students understand it.

Put students in small groups and ask them to makea list of things people can do to make themselvesremembered. After 34 minutes, get feedback as a class.If students have only come up with positive things, pointout that many people are remembered for their mistakesor for the horrible things they did.Ask students to prepare their presentations individuallyand then rehearse in pairs. Each student talks for 23minutes while the other makes notes of the elementsthat could be improved. After both students havespoken and received feedback from their partners, somestudents should give their presentations in front of theclass. The other students should make notes during thepresentation and ask questions afterwards, challenging

the speakers opinions.


ALTERNATIVE ENDINGS

All optional writing tasks require some sort of advancepreparation or research on the part of the students.The writing itself can then be set as homework or as anin-class activity. In some cases the activity can be doneas a group project. The length of the text to be written canbe determined by the teacher.Ask students to remember a film they have seen or astory they have read as part of their course (or any English

language film or work of literature). Ask them to write analternative ending for the film or story. The texts may bedisplayed/read in class. If they write alternative endingsfor the same film or story, students may vote to choosethe best ending.Alternatively, a booklet with alternative endings of thesame story may be produced.

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