Resources & Materials Elementary Simplified Version

8/14/2019 Resources & Materials Elementary Simplified Version

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CAMBRIDGE DELTA COURSE

PRACTICAL TEACHING ASSIGNMENT

RESOURCES AND MATERIALS

FOCUS ON

INTRODUCING CLASS READERS

TALES FROM THE EAST

Candidates Name: Paraskevi Andreopoulou

Centre Number: GR 108

Candidate Number:

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LESSON PLAN

Class Profile:

This is an Elementary class of adult students, the majority of whom come from

Afghanistan, Iran and the Congo. There are twelve students in it and the class has had

lessons since February 2008. They have finished using Cutting-Edge Starter course bookand have now moved to using Language-To-Go Elementary. The class meets three times a

week for a two hour session each time and so far,I have observed them three times and

taught them once.

The class consists of Anatolyi, a very strong student who, being ahead of others both

grammatically and lexically tends to assist his classmates with language problems at

times. On the same level, there are two more students, Ali and Victor, who, in my opinion

seem to have grasped the main linguistic features and vocabulary items and are able to

interact with their classmates and the T well.

In addition, when they are given instructions on how to perform a task, they are always

able to follow them immediately and they also bring to the class a great sense of humour,

enthusiasm and motivation. Shamel, from Iran, is also one of the stronger students. Fifie,

who is Victors wife, is a teacher of French, and participates in all activities well,

providing that they are geared to her schematic knowledge and culture. Fifie, specifically,

volunteers to speak her mind freely, with a rather heavy French accent using the TL.

On the other hand, Ahmed, Ashmatulah, Hassan, Sayed, Mahdi and Sieta (from Congo)

are rather weak learners who need prompting, guidance and clear instructions so as toensure their participation. They seem to have difficulty in reading and writing. Apart from

Sieta (from Congo), all the others are from Afghanistan or Iran (Ahmed).


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Lesson Aims / Objectives

For Students

Primary Aim (s):

To appreciate literature as means ofdeveloping their reading skills

to read for pleasure

To enable Ss to practise their reading

skills (skimming, scanning, reading

for specific information); also, toactivate top-down and bottom-up

processing skills (Nuttal, 1996)

To use class readers as means of

promoting out of class reading

Secondary Aim(s):

Grammar: To revise Simple Past.

Vocabulary: To expand their vocabulary

Listening:

Evidence:

By presenting one literary text from thesecond chapter Tenal Ram & the thieves,

prompting Ss to read them in groups

To provide them with texts culturally targeted

at them

By providing them with different reading

sections cut up into strips, which they willbe

able to rank them into the correct order, intheir groups and later, they read on for further

prediction and /or final check.

By providing Ss with class readers Tales

from the East culturally targeted at them,with a view to activating their schematic

knowledge and encouraging them to read out

of class

Grammar Ss will be given flashcards to narrate the story

in the past.

Vocabulary By answering wh-questions, both high and

low order ones, (Carter R. & Long M.N.1991) given on a handout.

Listening:

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To practise their aural abilities, to aid

listening comprehension and to

enhance their knowledge of thestructure of the language, ie.(syntax,

phonology) (UnderWood, 1989)

Speaking To enable Ss to retell the story in

their own groups orally referring

to the past and to predict theending of it

By listening to the tape or T read out the plot

of the text for them to aid their listening

comprehension and enhance their knowledgeof the language

Speaking: By beingable to narrate the story in the past

in a circle.

Source Aids / Handouts1. Visual prompts downloaded from the website (well, thieves, gold and jewellery) to arouse

their interest and to activate their schematic knowledge targeted at the topic of crime (seeAppendix A).

2. Three literary texts taken from the Readers Tales from the East simplified by West M,

Fielding K.J., and Parker B.M. Editions Longman Group Ltd 1997 to introduce Ss to the plot

of the story (see Appendices B, G + F).3. Cut up strips of paper to practise wh- questions, minimum vocabulary expansion (see

Appendix C) for both texts. Also flashcards with characters and verb actions in their infinitive

form to retell the story in a circle (see Appendix G).4. In addition, cut up slips of paper from the Into the well text for Ss to put into the correct

order (see Appendix F).

5. The copies of the end of the story Thank you! (See Appendix I).


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Linguistic AssumptionsThe particular group of Elementary students has already covered places in a town/city and rooms

n the house, so, I presume that they must be familiar with the vocabulary of (garden, plants, water,rees, bed), they are already familiar with the topic of My home Town and description of a place, so, I

do not think that they will face serious problems understanding the description of the scenery in the

country. They have already been taught home vocabulary, hence, I presume with photos as an aid,hey will be able to make out the meaning of the lexical item, hole.

They have also covered the verb forms of to be, there is/are, possessive adjectives, object

pronouns, the Present Simple Form alongside adverbs of frequency, wh-questions, can/cant forability, want to, going to and the Past Simple Form both regular /irregular; hence, I believe that they

will be able to understand the extracts receptively, perform the tasks accordingly and enjoy literature.

Anticipated LanguageDifficulties1. Students might not have been

introduced to class readers before.

2. Students will definitely not be familiar

with receptive vocabulary in theextracts.

3. Students are not aware of the

continuation of the story.

4. Students are not familiar with the endof the story

Solutions / Remedies

1. They will be invited to predict and confirmthe plot through visuals; gradually they are

introduced to the idea with the two

paragraphs related to their culture, and withcareful selection and grading of activities,

hopefully, any fears will hopefully

disappear.

2. In the handout of concept check questions,there will be a task expanding their

vocabulary storage possibly with synonyms,antonyms, explanations, drawings; in pairs,they will choose any two to use them in

context.

3. T will hand out strips of paper with the

continuation of the story, which they need to

reorder and find out what happens.

4. First, they will predict it based on the

evidence they have and in the end, T will

hand out copies of the end for them to read.

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Timetable FitThis group of learners has already had previous contact with the Simple Past both regular (-ed)

and irregular forms +was/were); hence, I assume that they might be able to tell the continuationof the story in a circle.

Furthermore, these students have covered the Present Simple Form along with adverbs offrequency; for this reason, I think that they will be in the position of grasping the gist of the twoliterary texts and perform successfully the tasks.


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thieveselljewels

Board Plan(s)

Unknown Vocabulary & Pronunciation

Read and find

Read and Find

Who?

Where?

What happened?

Vocabulary Expansion

Hole ?

Through?

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Commentary: The lesson was designed for an Elementary class of adult students. The target group

comprises 12 students who originate from the Middle East, Central Asia and the Congo

(Africa); with this particular goal in mind , the simplified readerextracts (Tales from the East:

simplified by West, M., Fielding , K.J & Parker B. M. 1977) to be taught were selected related

to the country or culture of the readers so as to avoid thecultural difficulties of the text, whichare numerous, real and proportionate to distance from an English-speaking location (Carter R,

& Long M, N 1991).

Hopefully, the selection of literary extracts will help students achieve an engagement with the

reading of them, the extent to which students carry with them beyond the classroom, an

enjoyment and love for literature which is renewed as they continue to engage with literature

throughout their lives.( Carter R., Long M., N 1991).

Reading a literary text is definitely notpassive, but, a learning process from which students

add to their learning store of knowledge, which can be activated when reading further works of

literature(:ibid). Listening also to sections of the story that had been cut up earlier to pieces to

re-unite later, after the T has read them out, will definitely enhance students structure of the

language, ie. Syntax, phonology, for them to fathom out what is meant by the words

(Underwood 1989).

I believe that the common language teaching sequence of presentation- practice-

reinforcement (McRae J, 1991) will meet the needs of the students and hopefully will live up

to the expectations of my lesson plan.

Furthermore, using literature as a resource can be special for personal development and

growth, an aim being to encourage greater sensitivity and self-awareness and greaterunderstanding of the world around us (Carter R, & Long M, N. 1991).

In the beginning, my primary aim for activating students schematic knowledge and arousing

their interest is to present visual prompts demonstrating key-words that enable Ss to predict the

content; in this way, Ss need to see a point in reading, since we all live in a world dominated by

television, magazines, comics, pulp romantic and adventure stories (Carter R, & Long M., N.,

1991).

Ss skim their respective texts to provide an answer to a pre-reading stimulus; the texts offer a

narrative line which lend themselves better to reading aloud, allow marked patterns of action in

the early stages, are clearly and energetically signalled and they lead to a great sense of

involvement on the parts of the Ss (Carter R. & Long M. N. 1991).

List of References


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Carter R. And Long M. N. Teaching Literature Longman Group UK Limited 1991

Duff A. & Maley A. Literature c Oxford University Press 1990

McRae J. Literature with a small l Prentice Hall Monographs, First Published1991 byMacmillan Publishers Limited

Nuttal C., Teaching Reading Skills in a foreign language Heinemann 1996

Underwood M. Teaching Listening Longman Publications 1989

Readers

West M. , Fielding K. J. & Parker B. M. Tales from the East (simplified Level 1) This

Edition c Longman Group Ltd 1977

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APPENDICES


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B: Read the text and confirm your predictions:

a. Tenal Ram and the Thieves

The first man said, Tenal Ram and his wife go to

bed at nine o clock.

We can wait for two hours after that, said

the thief. We can make a hole in the wall ateleven o clock. Then, you go through the hole in

the wall and open the door.

Does Tenal Ram have much money in the well?

asked the first man.

Oh, yes! said the other man. He has a lot

ofgoldandjewellery, but, in a box in his house.

Hes very rich.

Ha! Thats good! said the first man.

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(What can the thieves do at eleven o clock?)

Read and find

Who?

Where?

What

happened?


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Which picture is........

Hole?

Which is through?

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F.1.Try to put this text below into the correct order (into the well-

continuation of the story):

He said They took my friend Alis gold and

jewels

Perhaps they will come to this house

We can put our gold and jewels in a goodplace where they cant find them

Bring me the box and some stones, he said


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to his wife.

I will put this box where the thieves willnever find it!

Now, I will close the box, he said. Help me

to carry it!

Tenal Ram and his wife carried the box and

threw it down the well.

Then, they went back to the house, with no

lamps and waited.

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G1.Into the well (the original continuation of the story- not to be distributed- T

reads it)

He said, I have heard that there are some thieves in this place. They took my

friend Alis gold and jewels (1).

Oh! They may come to this house, said his wife (2).

Yes, they may come here. We must hide our gold and jewels in a good place

where they cant find them. Bring me that box (3).

So his wife brought the box. Tenal Ram showed her the stones and said in her

ear;

Those are our gold and jewels. Then, he said, Bring me the gold, and Ill put

it in this box (4).

She brought some stones. Tenal Ram put the stones in the box (5).

He said, Ha, ha! Ill hide this box where the thieves will never find it! Bring

me the jewels!

She brought some more stones.

Now, Ill shut the box, he said. Help me to carry it (6).

Then Tenal Ram and his wife carried the box and threw it down the well (7). It

made a great S-P-L-A-S-H when it hit the water.


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Then they went back to the house. They put out the lamp, and waited (8).

G.2. Now retell the story in your circle about:

1.They tookmy friend Alis gold

and jewellery.

2.They cameto his house.

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3. Weputour gold and

jewellery in a good

place where thievesdidntfind them

4. 4. Tenal Rams

woman broughtthe

box and some stones


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5. Iputthis box

where the thieves

didntfind it!

6. Tenal Ram and his wifecarriedthe box and

threwit down the well.

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0. They wentback to the

house, with no lamps

and waited.


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I. Thank you!(to be distributed at the end of class)

The first thief said, They have put their box of

jewellery and gold in the well! They have gone tobed. They ll soon be asleep.

After some time, Tenal Ram looked out of the

window. He saw the thieves at the well.

The first thief said, We must get the waterout of the well. Then, Ill go down and get the

box.


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So they began to take up water from the well and

the other thief threw the water on the garden.

There was a lot of water in the well. They workedall night. Daylight came and they were still working.

Tenal Ram opened the window. He called out:

Thank you, my friends, for watering my garden.

That box in the well is full of stones, and the

Sultans men are coming along the

road...............................Goodbye, my friends! Goodbye!.............

Thank you again!................

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Resources & Materials Elementary Simplified Version