Tomasz Krawczyk

LESSON PLAN 7
Topic: Death, burial and funerals - praca z tekstem, praca w grupach.
Level /Grade : 2A2D2F2G
Lesson aims: to practice speaking and listening skills, to practice the Ss' ability to
comprehend a written text and describe it in detail to their partner.
Teaching aids: "Matura Repetytorium poziom rozszerzony" Express Publishing, additional
copies
LESSON STAGES
&
Activities
WARM-UP/prereading activity

Interaction

Tim
e

TSs

2'

READING
while-reading task

The Ss are to read a short news report about some

TSs
extraordinary happening during a funeral. There are
two texts, which are distributed in such a way so that in
each pair of Ss there are both, one assigned to each
person in the pair. The teacher tells the ss to read the
texts and remember as many details and words as they
can, and also to make sure that they remember the
story so as to be able to tell it to another person.

7'

PAIR-WORK
post-reading task

The ss are to describe to their partner what their text

TSs
was about. the teacher emphasises that the Ss should be SS
as precise and explicit in their descriptions as it is only
possible, and that they should listen carefully to what
their partner is saying and try to remember as many
details as it is only possible.
Now the Ss are supposed to work in groups. In each
SsSs
group of about four there should be people who have
read the same news report. The task of each group is to
describe as precisely and in as many details as it is only
possible the news report they were told about while
working in pairs (not the one they've read). Then the
teacher will ask each group to report the effects of their
work. the teacher should make clear that it is important
to use details and words that they think might have
appeared in the original news report. The Ss may write
down what they want to say if they find it more
convenient.
The Ss read out or tell what they remember from the
account of their partners. The teacher tells the ss that
he has underlined 10 characteristic words in each news
report. If any of the words appear in the group's report,
they get a point. The group with most of the points
wins.

5'

GROUP-WORK
post-reading
task/game

GROUP-WORK
feedback session

PROCEDURE(S)
(a brief description of an activity)
The teacher writes on the blackboard the key words of
tis lesson: burial, to bury and funeral and asks the Ss
whether they know the meanings. If not, he describes
what the words mean n Polish.

10'

5'

Then the teacher writes on the blackboard the words

that he has underlined, gives the Ss both texts, so that
they would have them in front of their eyes, and
explains the unknown vocabulary.
Reserve task(s):

LESSON
EVALUATION
(self-evaluation)

The teacher may involve the Ss into a discussion about

the funeral described in both news reports, by asking
such questions as: Why do you think nobody sang the
final song at the funeral of George Ramsbottom?, Do
you agree that one should never speak ill of the death?
Can you bury sb in the garden in Poland? How would
you feel and what would you do if your next-door
neighbours buried sb in their back garden?
The instructions were structured, step-by step, not
overwhelming the Ss but giving them enough
information about what to do so as to be prepared for
the next stage of the activity. I liked that fact that the
teacher always gives the Ss a reason for working in
groups. In this particular lesson, the Ss had to describe
a text they hadn't read before but of which they were
told about, thus they had to join forces in order to
recall the details of the story, and reinforce the scant
recollections of the individual Ss (I suppose the teacher
deliberately made the Ss describe in groups not their
own text so as to make the recollections of each
individual even more blurred and motivate them to join
forces).

TSs

7'