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Lesson plan- fact fiction and opinion
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Lesson plan: Long Walk to Freedom - fact, fiction and opinion
From the Nelson Mandela online resource
Resources:
You will need:
the class dictionary;
the Worksheet: Extract 1 from Long Walk to Freedom by Nelson Mandela;
http://www.oxfam.org.uk/coolplanet/teachers/literacy/mandlpws8.htm
the Worksheet: Fact, fiction and opinion table;
http://www.oxfam.org.uk/coolplanet/teachers/literacy/mandlpws4.htm
the Worksheet: Fact, fiction and opinion statements.
http://www.oxfam.org.uk/coolplanet/teachers/literacy/mandlpws5.htm
Introduction and whole-class activity:
Show the selection of books again. Ask the pupils:
1. What is the difference between the books written about Nelson Mandela and the book written by Nelson Mandela?
2. Why would someone want to write about their own life for others to read?
3. What can you learn about a person by reading about his or her life?
Write the words 'biography' and 'autobiography' on the board. Ask a couple of pupils to look up and read out the dictionary definition of each word. Make a list for each with ideas from the pupils. For biography, you should expect suggestions such as these:
tells us about the person's environment;
what effect that person has had on others;
shows that the author knows a lot about the person;
telling facts about a real person's life;
showing the truth, the person's strengths and weaknesses;
tells us why this person is interesting;
tells us how the writer feels about the person;
is written in the third person.
For autobiography, as well as some of the above, you should also expect that it:
is written by the central person in the book;
shows the emotions and feelings of the writer;
tells of the people who have had the biggest influence on the author's life;
recounts the main significant events that have changed and influenced the author;
is written in the first person.
Read Extract 1 from Long Walk to Freedom by Nelson Mandela.
Group activity:
Show the pupils the Fact, fiction and opinion statements worksheet.
Read out two statements about Nelson Mandela. The pupils need to decide which is fact and which is fiction.
'Nelson Mandela was born in South Africa.'
'Nelson Mandela was born in South America.'
Write each statement in the correct column.
Say, 'I think Nelson Mandela is a very courageous man'. Ask the pupils where they think that should go.
Give the pupils the fact, fiction and opinion statements. The pupils should cut them up and stick them in the correct column the fact, fiction and opinion table.
Once the pupils have completed the worksheet, they will need to think about their own opinion of Nelson Mandela. They may already have their own ideas for this section; if not, they will need to consider what they have learnt and what they now think about him from the information they have read.
Plenary:
Check through the statements. Did all the pupils put the statements in the correct column? Do they all understand the difference between fact, fiction and opinion?
Ask some of the pupils to share their opinions of Nelson Mandela. What made the pupils have these opinions? What influenced them?
From the Nelson Mandela online resource
January 13, 2006
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Daily Journal
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Having your students keep a daily journal is a great way to ensure that intrinsic interest is high and that they are getting writing practice. This can be a regular homework activity, or it can be a good way to calm down an overactive class.
The teacher should give some direction for the passages. It is not very helpful to the student if they simply write "I got up and went to school and went to English class and played football and went to bed..." everyday. Try to assign certain topics that relate to what is being taught in class. Try to make sure that students get practice writing in various tenses and using various grammatical constructions.
The daily journal can be a useful tool in the classroom, but it needs to be guided.
January 19, 2005
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Surveys
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Writing/Reading Activity: Student surveys
Grammar: Simple present for habitual action
Procedure: Students work in small groups in class, each group creating one survey. (If your school has a computer lab, now’s the time to use it.) to practice the simple present for habitual action. Surveys should include boxes to check which say "always," "sometimes," "rarely," "never." Students then construct sentences (10-15 sentences per survey) around an assigned topic.
Some topics for the simple present are: entertainment, hobbies, music, family, food, sports, and English. As the students are working in small groups, you assist with the writing where necessary. Once the surveys are in final form, you collect and check them. Then, make multiple copies for the next class meeting. Pass out the surveys so that every student gets a copy of every survey. Give the students enough time to respond to all the surveys. Encourage them to ask their classmates who wrote the surveys for clarifications. Once the students have responded to all the surveys, they should meet with their groups again to tally the responses. Each group then gives a short presentation of the results to the whole class.
Source: www.eslpartyland.com
January 19, 2005
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Guessing Games
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Guessing Games are a fun way for beginners to review vocabulary words, practice forming structures, and listen for meaning.
Form & Meaning Activity: "Animal Habits" (from Grammar Practice Activities, p.256) Grammar: simple present to describe habitual action.
Procedure: For this activity students work in pairs or small groups to prepare a description of an animal. (For a longer activity have each group prepare 3-5 separate animal descriptions. Note that if you allow students to write out their descriptions, this becomes more like a focused practice activity.) Once students have prepared their descriptions, each group takes turns telling a description to the rest of the class, who then guess the name of the animal.
Example: A possible description of a rabbit could include, "It lives in a hole. It eats plants and vegetables. It has a lot of babies. It runs very fast."
Source: http://www.eslpartyland.com/teachers/grammar/Simplepresandprog.htm#Guessing%20Games
January 19, 2005
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A Written Conversation
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For low level students, this can be quite entertaining and motivating – especially if your students like to pass notes to one another. In this activity you tell your students to write a simple sentence to somebody across the room, who writes back, until the conversation has run out of steam. This could be altered in any number of ways – for example, the students have to write about a certain topic, or write to a different person each time.
April 11, 2003
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Letter from the Teacher
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This is an old favourite which is good for a new start with a new class. You write a short letter to your students introducing yourself a little, then ask them to write back. In one version of this I have heard is to continue a letter writing dialogue with your students, but this could be very demanding in terms of time!
April 11, 2003
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Writing descriptions
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Students read a short description about an old man and discuss the key words that enable them to get a picture of that person.
They then each have a picture of a person in a particular context and write ten key words (mainly nouns and verbs) suggested by the picture. The pictures are handed in and the students swap their words. The next student looks at the ten words and writes a description of the person using only the words.
The pictures are now placed on the whiteboard and the students stick their description under the picture they think they have described. Students read each other’s descriptions and vote for the best by ticking the one they think is most effective (voting for oneself is not allowed) and then discussing why.
The pictures are then redistributed and the students work in pairs. They choose one of the pictures and imagine it was taken ten years ago. Together they work out a story about what has happened to the person since the picture was taken, and tell the story to the rest of the class.
Katherine Musson, Eastbourne, UK
April 11, 2003
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