Activity II: Discussing the Issues

1. Why do you think the boy felt sad and scared to know that his school days were behind him? Did you feel the same way? Why/Why not?

2. Do you agree that school days are the best time of your life?

3. What did the boy like and dislike about going to school? What about you?

4. Why do you think middle school was the hardest period for the boy? What was it like for you?

5. Imagine that you taking part in an online project in which people share their life experiences. Record a short story (1-2 minutes) about school memories. In class, listen to all the stories and choose the best one.

INTENSIVE LISTENING

Before Listening Activities

Activity I: Orientation

1. What is homeschooling? Do you know any families where children are (or were) homeschooled?

Activity II: Helpful Vocabulary

1. Make sure you understand the words in the glossary.

park ranger someone whose job is to look after a forest or area of countryside: hands-on doing something yourself rather than just talking about it or telling other people to do it follow-up done in order to find out more or do more about something invertebrate a living creature that does not have a backbone beanbag a small bag stuffed with beans on-going process continual process to label sb to use a word or phrase to describe someone or something, but often unfairly or incorrectly

2. What are these American units of measurement equivalent to in the metric system?

Linear measures: an inch, a foot, a yard, a mile

Weight measures: an ounce, a pound

Liquid measures: a fluid ounce, a gill, a pint, a quart, a gallon, a barrel

Dry measures: a pint, a quart, a gallon, a peck, a barrel

Listening Comprehension Activities

1. You are going to watch a video about Leslie Nathaniel who homeschools her children. Watch the video and answer the questions:

1. Where do the Nathaniels live?

2. How old is Kaila?

3. How does Leslie Nathaniel understand learning?

4. How many children are homeschooled in the USA? How many of them are homeschooled in Virginia?

5. Why do parents choose to teach their children at home?

6. Why did Leslie make the decision to homeschool her daughters?

2. Watch again and describe the way Kaila and Kalia learn at home. What methods and resources does their mother use?

After Listening Activities

Activity I: Discussing the Issues

1. Do you find the way Leslie teaches her daughters effective? Why/Why not?

2. Discuss pros and cons of homeschooling. You may find the following vocabulary useful:

school-age children home-taught students homeschooling households ethical values to object to standardized testing to group students by age/by ability to grasp the material to supervise teachers to set regulations to submit proof of one’s child’s progress to excel in many subjects

to get on well with other students to move on to college to prepare lesson plans academic scholarships lack of experience and credentials to pull children out of school to deprive children of social skills to be socially isolated and bookish to find help through the Internet to coordinate educational activities with other families

3. Read the following extract about homeschooling and say if you agree or disagree with its author. Give your reasons.

Have you ever wondered why so many public school authorities hate parents who homeschool their children? Well, it is because homeschooling is very successful. Homeschooling families pose a direct challenge to the monopoly that the public school has. This monopoly is what makes it nearly impossible to fire a tenured public school teacher or principal. This means that these tenured employees are almost guaranteed that they will have a job for life. They only get this incredible benefit because public schools are monopolizing our children’s education. If these teachers were to work for a private school they would not have this tenure and thus they would have to compete for their job. This is why public schools see homeschooling parents as a serious threat.

A lot of school officials also cannot stand the thought of an average parent who never attended college, much less attended college to become a teacher, being able to better educate their child than the public school experts could. These parents are able to give their children an education that is far superior to that which they would have received in the public schools. This humiliates the public school teachers, who are licensed to teach children, as it shows that these public school teachers have failed in comparison. This is humiliating for the public schools to admit (abridged from http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/62623/public_schools_hate_homeschooling_pg2.html?cat).

4. If you homeschooled your children, what would your curriculum include? How many hours a day would your children study and what kind of activities would they be involved in?