8. Й учень. Washington

The beautiful city of Washington C is the capital of the United States the centre of its government, capital was named after the first p ident George Washington and founded in 1790. It is situated on Potomac River in the District of lumbia. Washington is not the lai city in the USA. It has a popula only 900.000.

■Washington D.C. has nothing che teristically American in it as its con tion is purely French. It has long avenues, gardens, beautiful parks no skyscrapers at all.

Washington is the residence of President and the Congress of the I The White House is the Presid residence, the Capitol — the seat c American Congress. The largest the tallest among the buildings і Capitol with its great House of R sentatives and Senate Chamber." are no skyscrapers because no building must be taller than the < tol. All American presidents e George Washington (the White I was not yet built in his time) have in the White House. It was be 1799.

Washington is a large scientific an tural centre, where there are ma: search institutes, five universitie National Academy of Science ai Library of Congress.

There is one more well-known bi in Washington — Pentagon, th< dence of the US Military depan It is situated in the suburbs to the of the Potomac River.

8. Й учень. The Capitol

Because of its great size, centra tion, and elevated position on ( Hill, the Capitol dominates the ington skyline. The US Congres.' in this building. Visitors may congressional sessions to watch I tors in action.

The Capitol is one of Washii most magnificent buildings. It structed of white sandstone an ble and crowned by an imp

Subtopic: communication with Ameri­can schoolchildren through letters.

Aims:

• to prepare pupils to write personal letters;

• to develop skills to get, summarize, analyze information;

• to enlarge vocabulary; to speak English;

• to practice skills to work with monolingual dictionary;

• to understand cultural, national peculiarities; to respect other cul­tures;

• to practice listening;

• to work with authentic materials.

Materials: a map of the USA or Wisconsin, letters from Bay Port High School schoolchildren, hand-outs.

1. Beginning of the lesson

Greeting

I hope we'll start our lesson with the word "communicate".

Look at the explanation of the word. What does this word mean?

According to the Longman dictionary: Communicate

1. to exchange information or con­versation with other people, by telephone, letter or in person;

2. to manage to express you think or feel with words, movements, or by the way you behave. — 3 min­utes.

1. So we'll start with letters from American schoolchildren.

1. At first we'll start with listening. I'll read you extracts from two letters from American schoolchildren. What information about schools can we get from these letters? (read the sentences 1—10, see hand­out 1) — 12 minutes.

2. At the next stage I think we'll try to get more information about Amer­ican students. You'll read letters (see hand-out2) and complete the chart (see hand-out3). Before read­ing we'll work with new words (see hand-out4). Some of them are words from American English - 15 minutes.

3. Now we'll discuss what you have known about American students, (speaking) -Use the filled charts — .10 minutes.

4. At the end of the lesson we'll dis­cuss what information you can in­clude in your letters. Let's also look at the structure of the letters (open­ing remarks, closing remarks) - 5 minutes.

III. Homework

Write a letter to your pen-friend, pre­pare to the final test on the topic "The United States of America".

HANDOUT 1

Listen to the first letter and complete sentences 1—5

Dear Rodion!

It was wonderful to get your letter. Since I am almost 14 years old I hope you do not mind writing to an "old guy". Did I introduce myself in my first letter? Please forgive me for not remembering. Did I tell you about my family and my school, my city? I do not know how good of basketball player you are, but I'm sure you're better than me!....

Students here in the U.S. have to go to school from grade 1 to grade 12. Most people also go on to attend a university. School are broken up into three groups: elementary school, with grades 1-5, middle school, with grades 6-8 and high school, with grades 9-12.1 attend Washington Middle School but take math class (geometry) at East High school. Washington Middle School has 1,000 people. I am fond of writing, drawing, talking on the telephone, playing computer games. My city, Green Bay, is the 3rd largest city in the state of Wisconsin. It has 100,000 peo­ple, perhaps even 102,000 people

МІЙ КОНСПЕКТ

THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

Урок у 9 класі

I hope that our friendship will last for­ever and grow as well. I will send a pho­to of me later. I anxiously await your reply.

John Backer.

Listen to the second letter and complete sentences 6-10

Hi, Zoya

As you know, my name is Stephanie Almquist and I live in the United States of America. I'm sorry that it has taken me so long to write back. Wfell, now I will tell you a little bit about myself.

In my family there are five people. There is my dad, Larry; my mom, Lori; my younger sister, Ashley; my younger brother. Craig. Of the three kids, I'm the oldest. I am sixteen years old and in school, I'm in the tenth grade. After this year I have two years of high school left. Then I'm going to apply to colleges. During my school day now. I have 9 periods. Each peri­od is 45 minutes long with a 5 minute break after esery class. Our school day starts at 7:30, and ends at 2:35 p.m. In school I have 7 subjects this year, they include: Advanced Geometry, Lan­guage II. French language, World History, Choir, Biology, and Physical Education. .After school I do my homework, watch a little bit of televi­sion, and then I usually go to one of the clubs or sports I'm in. I'm in­volved in Girl Scouts of. America, Tennis, Softball, Octagon Club, the musical and Odyssey of the Mind. I also tutor younger kids sometimes. So these are of my hobbies.

Listen to letters from American students and complete sentences about American schools

1. Schools in the USA are broken in­to... .

2. Elementary school with grades.... Middle school with grades.... High school with grades ....

3. John Backer attends....

4. He takes geometry at....

5. Washington Middle School has ... people.

6. Stephanie has ...periods during her school day. . _

ЖЛІЙСЬКА

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Lach period is ...minutes long. ■Vner every class they have breaks ■* - :ch are ...minutes long. Her school day starts at ...and ends a: ...p.m.

In school Stephanie has ...subjects.

They include:....

Schools in the USA are broken in­to... .

2 Eiementary school with grades.... Middle school with grades .... High school with grades.... 5 John Backer attends ....

• He takes geometry at....

^: Vvashington Middle School has ...peole.

Stephanie has ...periods during her school day.

Each period is ...minutes long. After every class they have breaks which are ...minutes long.

• Her school day starts at ...and ends at ...p.m.

. 3. In school Stephanie has ...subjects. "Tney include:..-..

HANDOUT 2

To » horn it may concern:

My name is Karen (Kari) Margeret Rose Jakubiec. 1217 Cardinal Lane t Green Bay, Wisconsin — United State

54313. ;

e in a single (widow) parent home.

I have 1 sister and 1 brother. I have > pet bird and hermit crabs. I am a se­nior in high school. I live in a 2-bed-

• >:•— house. I share a room with my brother. I have a garage, but we don't

our cars in it all the time only in » —I listen to old rock, like Fleet- *ood Mac and Aerosmith. I also lis- sse to country. I have a job at Fleet ^ri— I stock candy and I make S : 50 an hour. I drive a 1989 Chrys- Baron. I am 17 years old. My has a snowmobile and a mo- < .. nry: .e and also a boat. I like to » %Lzh TV and listen to the radio. And rasf out w ith my friends.

best wishes and friendly feelings.

Kari.

"$» k may concern:

UN -«ir-.; ;> Alissa Diann Weber. My a^-res; a 3-094 Glendale Ave. Green b&L Wisconsin 54313.

I'm the youngest child in my family. I have a brother and three sisters. I live with my father and my stepmother. All my siblings are grown up and live on their own. I'm seventeen years old and am attending my last year in secondary high school before I attend college. My school is great. It's big and a nice place to attend. I live in a house in an urban area where I have lots of space to do many things. I have my own room and my parents have theirs too. We also have an extra room for guests. Downstairs I can play darts, pool fuss- ball, video games or I can go outside in my backyard with my dog King (Ger­man shepherd) and play with him. He has lots of space to run around. We have a nice garden in the backyard too. In my free time, I hang out with my friends and go shopping, to movies, or parties. If we're bored, we drive around in my car. I have a dark purple Dodge Daytona. So what kind of music do you listen to? I like just about every­thing, rock, R&B, hip hop or just staff on the radio. I have a job working at a store in the mall right now. I work in the men's clothing department. I like it and its good money. I just returned a month ago from Germany. I stayed there four weeks and had great time. This year I'm taking Russian history because I'm interested in learning about different cultures. If you can write back, please do.

Thanks.

With best wishes and friendly feelings, Alissa Weber.

HANDOUT 3

1. Read the letter and complete the table.

2. Listen to your partner and complete the table.

name/age
Family
home/land
hobby/music
car/vehicle
job/money
Pets
plan/future
other info

МІЙ КОНСПЕКТ

HANDOUT 4

Are these words new for you?

1. single-parent home — a family in which there is only one parent; widow - a woman whose husband has died, and who has not married again;

2. hermit crab - hermit - a person who lives alone, thinking and prayr ing; crab - a sea animal with a broad shell and 5 pairs of legs;

3. I share a room - to use, have with others;

4. listen to country - popular music in the style of the southern and western US;

5. I stock candy — to supply (a shop well stocked with goods);

6. hang out with friends — an informal expression meaning to spend a lot of time somewhere or with some­one;

7. stepmother - someone who be­comes your mother when the per­son you are related to marries for a second time;

8. sibling - a brother or sister;

9. grown up — fully developed; adult;

10. attend - to be present at; go to;

11. urban area — of a town or city;

12. extra room - additional;

13. guest - a person who is in some­one's home by invitation for a short time;

14. downstairs — on or to a lower floor and especially the ground floor of a house;

15. darts - a game in which darts are thrown at a circular board;

16. space — something measurable in length, width, or depth; room;

17. to be bored - to make (someone) uninterested, by continual dull talk; (the lesson was boring);

18. mall/shopping mall — a word used especially in American English meaning a specially-built large cov­ered area where there are a lots of

shops;

19. job — regular paid employment;

20. stuff - things in a mass; matter.

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Харківська обл.

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№ 5 (123) лютий 2006 p.

; Note

| Students come up with a good range of ) social, medical and other hypotheses. | Here are some examples:

...then they would not need driving I mirrors.

| ...they would make really good traffic ! wardens.

j ...then you could kiss someone while : looking away!

9. Umbrella

| Objectives: Modals and Present Simple

; Level: Elementary to intermediate

Time: 30-45 minutes

Materials: One large sheet of paper per ' student

; In class

i 1. Ask a student to draw a picture on the board of a person holding an umbrella. The umbrella looks like this.

i 2. Explain to the class that this 'tulip­like' umbrella design is a new, ex­perimental one. 3. Ask the students to work in small groups and brainstorm all the ad­vantages and disadvantages of a new design. Ask them to use these sentence stems: j It/you can/can't...

1 It/you + Present Simple...

It/ you will/ won't... It you may/ may not...

For example: 'It is easy to control in a high wind', 'You can see where you're going with this umbrella'.

- Give the students large sheets of paper and ask them to list the ad­vantages and disadvantages in two columns.

5 Ask the students to move around the room and read each other's pa­pers. Individually they mark each idea as 'good', 'bad' or 'intrigu­ing'.

■ 4 .Ask the student how many advan­tages they came up with and how many disadvantages. Ask the stu­dents to divide up into three groups according to which statement ap­ples to them:

I thought mainly of advantages. I thought of some of both. __

I thought mainly of disadvantages.

7. Ask the three groups to come up with five to ten adjectives to de­scribe their group state of mind and put these up n the board.

8. Round off the exercise by telling the class that when de Bono asked different groups of people to do this kind of exercise, it turned out that primary school children mostly saw advantages, business people had plenty of both while groups of teachers were the most negative.

Note

Advantages the students offered:

In a hot country you can collect rain water.

It won't drip round the edges.

You can use it for carrying shopping.

It's not dangerous in a crowd.

It's an optimistic umbrella.

It's easy to hold if two people are walk­ing together.

With this umbrella you'll look special.

It'll take less floor space to dry.

This umbrella makes people communi­cate. They can see each other.

You can paint this umbrella to look like a flower.

You'll get a free supply of ice if it hails.

10. Listening to time

Objectives: Time phrases

Level: Upper intermediate to highly advanced

Time: 40-45 minutes Materials: None

You can use this idea to practice a vari­ety of different structures-see variations below for some examples