The Coordinator of the School Projekt: Anna Kurek

P R O J E C T

BIOGRAPHI ES

The coordinator of the school projekt: Anna Kurek

School: Gimnazjum nr 77

ul. Jawy Calińskiego 12

31-988 Kraków

Malopolska

Poland

Subject: English

MiddleHigh School – Intermediate level

Number of students – 18

Schedule: three lessons a week

Methodological unit: 3 lessons

General aims:

To practise both the past and the present

To provide practice in scanning skills for specific information

To provide practice in controlled web browsing

To provide practice in writing simple comparative descriptions

To introduce topic-related collocations

To present and practise conjunctions for contrast

Lesson 1

Topic: M a i n c e l e b r i t i e s

Operational purposes:

to clarify new vocabulary
to develop student questioning skills
to practise the present & past tense
to gather clues for later use
to recognise expressions and phrases presented in authentic materials

Didactic means:

prepared cards with key words written on it
short biographies taken from a magazine
incomplete questionnairies
a cassette with a recording about Diana

Predominant work techniques:

matching key words to appropriate people
factlifes’ filling basing on mutual asking questions and replying
finding differences
describing a chosen celebrity
individual taking notes and discussion

Pre-Task

Warmer up

Write three things about yourself to tell the group. Include one false thing.

The students’ task is to guess what is false.

I have two daughters

I hate dogs

I like coffee...

Language Work

Matching activity

Collect eight biographies/or gossips with the names from a magazine. Put the students into groups and give them six key words for each biography.

Ask the students to read the biographies and match the words with the correct people.

Key words taken from a Mary Glasgow Magazine called CLUB

jammy be given a break

be gutted stick to your guns

scatty

bbb

drop out prolong

Paired pop profiles

The Hello! Magazine website has a section called ‘Profiles’. Once you click on it you will come to a page where you can select pop stars’ or other celebrities’ profile.

Pairwork activity based on the information about Beyonce Knowles. Before starting the activity a teacher should make sure that everyone understands how to ask questions in a gramatically correct way.The students each have half of the answers so that both get a chance to ask and answer questions.

Student A

Where born

Name of father
Name of mother
Height
Age
Biggest disappointment / Losing a talent show in 1995
First group / Girls Tyme
First single / No, no, no with(Destiny’s Child)
First solo album / Dangerously in Love
First film / Goldmember

Student B

Where born

Teras

Name of father / Matthew
Name of mother / Tina
Height / 5 feet6 inches
Age / 21
Biggest disappointment
First group
First single
First solo album
First film

Listening activity

Choose a famous person and make about ten changes to the facts in their biography. Tell the students about their life, including the differences.Don’t read the biography word for word, tell it as a story.The students listen to the story twice andtake their own notes. Next ask them to listen to the actual biography from the cassette. Put them in pairs and remind that you changed ten details. Ask them to find the changes. If none of the pairs finds all the changes, group the pairs into fours and get them to discuss it again.

Mieć przygotowaną kasetę z biografią Diany

Response-Writing task

Homework

Write sentences with key words used during the matching activity

Lesson 2

Internet lesson:

Topic: FamousSingers

Operational purposes:

Familiarise with the website
Provide practise in controlled web browsing
Introduce topic-related collocations
Provide practice in writing simple biography review

Didactic means:

Internet/suitable websites
cards with halfnames of celebrities
handouts with words’ mixture
a web questionnaire with questions to search answers

Predominant work strategies:

brainstorming for ideas
controlled web browsing
filling information gaps
matching words to form collocations
directed factlife writing
checking of given biography review

Pre-Task

Finding a new partner

A teacher gives each student a big card and they have to find their partner. Once they have found their partner, they stick their cards on the board. They will work

with this new partner until the end of the lesson.

Brainstorming

By looking at the words and names on the board,students guess the topic of the lesson- Famoussingers. Some unknown vocabulary may be clarified at this stage.

Directed Browsing task

Web Questionnaire

A teacher hands out a quiz with a questionnaire. In pairs, students click through the website and answer the questions as fast as possible. Questionnaires are then swapped for correction.

1.Who joined the group in 1993 to make the band All Saints? / Nicole and Natalie Appleton
2.How long has Avril Lavigne been performing as a professional musician? / Since she was 17
3.Which singer has had a solo career since he left N’Sync? / Justin Timberlake
4.Which year did Appleton sisters form a new band? / 2001
5.What group created a fusion with Aerosmith in1986? / Run DMC
6.When was Maddonna’s third album released? / 1985
7.What was the name of the first single made by Elvis Presley / ‘That’s all right Mama’
8.How do we call Elvis Presley? / The King of rock and roll
9.Where does Joss Stone come from? / Great Britain
10.Why did she stick to her guns while singing in front of
the President George Bush? / She refused to put shoes on
11.Who did Kylie Minogue meet In an Australia soap opera
Called ‘Neighbours’? / Jason Donovan
Language Work

Strong Partnerships

On the handouts previously distributed by the teacher there is also a word salad.

In the word salad below students need to find words that have strong partnerships. Match them using arrows (-> <-)and form the right collocation.

The key words are in bold in the questionnaire above

meet perform have in a career
sb form create a band a fusion
a musician a fusion release make
album make a single as call
stick to join his/her guns come
Response –Writing task

Writing time

Step 1

A teacher hands out little cards with a name of a singer. Students search to gather information about them and write a simple biography review with six factual mistakes, using the previously learnt collocations. Don’t forget to mention date and place of birth, name of the first hit, his/her image, number of children or nominations.

for example Madonnaprepared by a student

Born in : She was born in London

Born on : She was born onAugust 131958

Real name: People call herMadonna Louise Ciccone

Origin: She comes fromGermany

Brothers: She hasthree brothers

Third album: True Blue album was released in 1986

Famous song: Material Girl

Role in musical : Antonio Banderas joinedher in musicalEvita

Children: She has a son

Step2

A teacher collects the reviews, jumbles them and hands them out at random.Pairs should now use the website so as to spot the mistakes in the biography review they had been given.

Note: At the end of the lesson a teacher collects work done and does an error correction feedback if necessary.

Lesson 3/4 Internet lesson: Biographies

Topic:Whatdotheyhavein common?

Operational aims:

To present and practice conjunctions for contrast
To practice past simple and present simple
To provide practice in scanning skills for specific information
To practice in controlled web browsing
To provide practice in writing simple comparative descriptions

Didactic means:

internet website
pairs of famous names on different cards
a questionnaire grid

Predominant work techniques:

controlled web browsing
finding out about similarities of famous people
questionnaire filling
introducing celebrities and getting other students to guess the common fact in

their description

writing a comparison of two characters with linkers’ application

Pre-Task

Preparation

Prepare pairs of names on different cards

Pre-teach: ‘to have something in common’

Put the following two names on the board

Sylvester Stallone / Mohammed Ali

Elicit that these two people have one thing in common: boxing- but theirinterest in boxing is different. S. Stalloneacted as a boxer in the Rocky movies whereas Mohammed Ali was a true boxer.

Building up this model to introduce linkers

Both Sylvester Stallone and Mohammed Ali are from the US. In addition, they

are both involved in boxing. However, MA was a real boxer whereas/whilst SS

only acted as one. Another difference is that MA is a committed Muslim. Incontrast SS never speaks about religion.

Language-work

Task one

Divide the class into teams of four. Make sure each team has access to

computer. Get students to name their teams if appropriate.

Put the following two names on the board.:

Yuri Gagarin / Buddy Holly

Find out if students know anything about them/tell them that Y Gagarin was afamous astronaut, Russian and B Holly was a famous American singer in the1950s. Tell the ss that these two have something in common. They are going to find this out on the WWW.

Important indications:

SS don’t need to read every word
They have to focus on content words
The words at the beginning of each sentence give a clue about the whole sentence so they can accept or reject sentences quickly and move on to the next one.

Conduct feedback: Both were killed in air crashes

The game

Tell the class they will now play a game in their teams. Put on the board the first pair of names of other famous people. Each team must find the biographies of the two people and what they have in common. The first tea to produce the correct answer will get two points. Then put the second pair ofnames on the board
Here are the famous pairs for the competition. However, their names should be written out on card.

The Pair / Answers
Antonio Gaudi / Johan Cruyff / Both lived in Barcelona, Gaudi as an architect, Cruyff as a football manager.
George Harrison / Ravi Shankar / They met each other in India where RS taught GH about Indian music.
Mohandas Gandhi / John Lennon / Both were assassinated. MG for political motives,reasons for JL’s assassination unclear.
Peter Sutcliff / Anthony Hopkins / Serial killers. PS was a real one, AH played one in the Silence of Lambs

Task 2

Step1

Tell the ss they will now in pairs research two other people and find out what they have in common. Person Aof the pair should be given one of each of the pairs below. PersonB, the other.

A B

Nelson Mandela / Vaclav Havel
Michael Faraday / John Logie Baird
Adolph Hitler / Marilyn Monroe
Charlie Chaplin / Ingrid Bergman
Janis Joplin / Jimi Hendrix
Amelia Earhart / Frank Whittle
Wildred Owen / Rupert Brooke
Shirley Temple / Glenda Jackson
Salvador Dali / Andy Warhol

Step 2

When ss have done this. Tell them about two people you have researched (the information is in the table below). Ask them to listen and find the fact that they have in common:

Step 3

Show them the grid which you used to help you talk about your famous people.

Example

Person One / Person Two
Name / Emmeline Pankhurst / Lech Wałęsa
When born? / 1857 / 1943
Where born? / Manchester, UK / Poland
Occupation / Wife of a lawyer interested in women’s rights / Trade union leader/Polish
Worker
Achievement? / Founded Women’s Social
And Political Union / Nobel Peace prize 1983
Date of death? / 1928 / Still alive
Interesting information? / Went on hunger strike / Formed the trade union Solidarity
Common fact / Arrested when working
for women’s rights / Arrested when working
for human rights

Step 3

Ask the ss to make brief notes on both their two famous people, using the grid above.

Person One / Person Two
Name / Michael Faraday / John Logie Baird
When born? / 1791 / 1888

Step 4

Ask the ss to ‘mumble practice’ how they are going to talk about the lives of their famous people.They should try to hide the common fact in their description.

Task three

Students move around the room recounting their biographies to different partners. Partners listen and guess the common fact.

Homework

Ask the students to write a comparison of their two characters using linkersapplied in pre-teach section.

F O U R D I M E N S I O N S

P O L I T I C A L

-stimulating for active citizenship and assuming a friendly attitude

towards different points of view

-openness and sensitivity to various events, inventions and entertainment

-finding your own lifepath in surrounding reality

-influence of history and famous celebrities’lives on our social action and

behaviour

S O C I A L

-feelings’communication and expression of thoughts

-talking about other ways of lives

-listening and taking different possibilities into consideration

-openness to history, culture and lifestyles

-encouraging to discussion and dialogue

P E D A G O G I C A L

- investigation and finding new solutions

- application and taking advantage of experiences

- application of Internet in education

- respect for the past

V A L U E S

-tolerance and openness

-sensibility

-healthy competitiveness and democratic participation

-democracy

-creative thinking