Starting off

The goal here is to personalise the topic, so allow the students as much freedom as possible to share their opinions. Your role should be to make sure that they justify their ideas rather than simply stating which seasons they prefer; an example from yourself before the students start would be useful.

Vocabulary

The grouping task is straightforward to set up, though it would be improved if you could put the items on cards so the students could move them around physically; this would also make recycling/testing the items easier later in the lesson. After the categorisation task you will need to check the learners' understanding of the items, of course, and check that they recognise which words are nouns, which verbs and which adjectives. The students can also add additional words to the lists - many of the simplest words (hot, cold etc.) have been omitted. As a final activity you could ask the learners which modifiers can be used with the words (heavy, light, strong, weak, fresh, thick etc.).

Key:

RAIN ETC a downpour, hail, a cloudburst, hail, sleet

TEMPERATURE mild, boiling, chilly, freezing

SNOW drifts, a blizzard

WIND hurricane, a gale, a storm, a breeze, calm

CLOUDS overcast, clear, cloudy

MIST a peasouper, smog, fog

Before you read

Again, a fairly straightforward task to set up. The students should read only the first part of the text here. Key:

LEVEL 0 calm, vertically, a mirror

LEVEL 2 rustle

LEVEL 5 foam, sway, moderate

LEVEL 8 high, spray, breaks

LEVEL 10 uprooted, white

LEVEL 12 extensive, severe

Second reading

Key:

1. c 2. b 3. a 4. c 5. c 6. b

Vocabulary 1

Key:

1. indeed

2. rotating

3. form

4. clockwise

5. evaporates

6. on record

7. sustained

8. diameter

9. estimated

10. extensive

11. power outages

12. genuine

Vocabulary 2

The difference between `rewarding' and `worthwhile' is tricky. If they have trouble with this point out that both are positive but `rewarding' means good for us in some way; worthwhile means good in general. Key:

1. power outages

2. rotates

3. evaporates

4. diameter

5. extensive/severe

6. form

7. indeed

8. genuine

9. on record

10. sustain

11. estimated

12. clockwise

Speaking

This is an opportunity for the students to share anecdotes though, of course, the students may not all have stories to share. Bearing this in mind, a good way to structure the activity is to put the student into small groups initially (three or four people to a group) to tell each other their anecdotes and then ask them to choose one anecdote to share with the rest of the class; this anecdote can be carefully prepared, using the prompts in the task.

Extension

The topic lends itself well to creative writing. The students could write a narrative describing a dangerous encounter with a hurricane, possibly working together. Their texts could then be put up for others to read.

Contact

Please let me know if you have any suggestions or ideas for future editions of Around English.

Peter Moran [e-mail]

TEACHER'S NOTES AND KEY

October 2008

© Pearson Education Polska 2008

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