Lesson Plan “Great Britain”

Date: __________ Class: __________

Skills: Public Speaking Creative writing Reading comprehension Artistic Collaboration

Time Activities Materials3

min.Brainstorm cluster:

Guess the missing word, “When a man is tired of London, he is tired of _________”. – Samuel Johnson.

Write the quote on the board

(add students ideas)12

minCockney Rhyming Slang (see appendix):

Explain students that slang was originally created so users could speak in a sort of secret code language – two of the theories are that it was invented by prisoners who wanted to communicate with one another without the guards understanding or that market vendors invented it to be able to speak without the customers understanding them. It works by taking a pair of connected words (e.g. Boat race) and the second word rhymes with the word you want to hide. You can then use just the first word of the connected to pair to refer to the word you want to hide, or you can use the pair of words. (e.g. She’s got a beautiful boat – meaning she’s got a beautiful face!) (Sometimes it can be one word that just rhymes with the word you want to hide). Names of famous people are often used in cockney rhyming slang. E.g. Brittany Spears – Beers!

Ask students to work in pairs to make up a short dialogue using the slang language instead of the English word.

Ask students to act out the dialogue.

Cockney slang examples

20 min.

Facts about Great Britain (see appendix): Divide the class into 4 groups. The first group reads information about England + summarizes

information about GB in the whole; the second group – Wales; the third group – Scotland; the fourth group – Ireland.

Ask groups to complete exercises after the text if they have any.

Countries of the UK Worksheets

35min.

Map of Great Britain: Students should keep working in the same group. Project a big map of GB on the white screen. Give each group a sheet of colored paper of A1 format (use 4

different colors). Ask students to put this paper on the white screen with the

projected map and draw the shape of GB country they are responsible for + mark famous cities. Note: the first group only draws England.

Students should cut out the country along its boarders and fill it in with the pictures, drawings, and information.

Map should contain: the name of the country and its capital, flag,

Internet AccessElectronic devices

ProjectorWhite screen

Big map of GB 4 colored paper of

A1 formatScissors

Glue Crayons

Pictures/photos from magazines

moto, language, flower, population, famous people/places/cities and other information students find useful.

Encourage students to use information from the video they watched at home, read in class and to look for missing information in the Internet.

Stickers

40min.

Map Presentation: Each group presents its map for 7 minutes including questions.

Note: the first group presents information about England. Every student in the group should speak. When all presentations are finished students put all parts of the

map together. The first group summarizes information about GB (3 minutes).

ProjectorWhite screen

Homework/Assignment: Write a letter to a friend about trip to Great Britain (350 words). The letter should summarize information of the final map. Students should use words and phrases from the video they watched at home before.

Rubrics

Note: Lesson on a topic related to the culture/history of the target language or local population can lasts no more than 110 minutes.

In a traditional class students practice pronunciation of the words with a teacher, do

vocabulary exercises, read the required text (the same words and text they worked on/watched

video at home in a flipped class) and do reading-comprehension exercise for 55 minutes. The

next 55 minutes may be spend for Facts about Great Britain and Map of Great Britain

assignments. Map Presentation activity is missing in the traditional classroom. I think that

public speaking skills are important to practice because by the end of the fourth year some of

the students are required to defend their final projects in English. Cockney Rhyming Slang

exercise is missing as well. I believe creative writing enhances students’ thinking in the foreign

language and helps them better to “feel” the language. Thus, flipped learning model provides

students with more opportunities for exposure to the target language.

Appendix

EnglandMotto: Dieu et mon droit (God and my right)

England used to be known as Engla land, meaning the land of the Angles, people from continental Germany, who began to invade Britain in the late 5th century, along with the Saxons and Jute.

England is in north-west Europe and is in the southern part of Great Britain. It is an island country and also part of the United Kingdom (UK).

England is the largest country in Great Britain. Nearly 84% of the population of the UK lives in England, mainly in the major cities and metropolitan areas.

The national flower of England is the rose. The flower has been adopted as England’s emblem since the time of the Wars of the Roses - civil wars (1455-1485) between the royal house of Lancaster (whose emblem was a red rose) and the royal house of York (whose emblem was a white rose).

All rivalry between the Roses ended by the marriage of Henry VII Tudor (the Lancastrian) with Princess Elizabeth, the daughter of Edward IV (the Yorkist).

Heavy machinery, electronics and shipbuilding are developed in London, Nottingham, Bristol, Manchester and other cities. The wool industry is in Leeds and Bradford. Food processing is developed in Liverpool.

England is famous for its Lake District. It has 16 lakes. Nottingham is connected with the name of the legendary hero Robin Hood.Stratford-on-Avon is Shakespeare birthplace. Stonehenge is situated in South West England. It is build of circles of stones.

Source: Bowler, B. & Thompson. L. (2005). Timesaver British History Highlights: Pre-intermediate - Upper-intermediate. Mary Glasgow Magazines, Scholastic.

Cockney Rhyming Slang

Did you know that in the East end of London some people use a special sort of slang language to speak to each other?

Cockney Rhyming Slang EnglishApples and pears StairsDog and bone PhoneAdam and Eve BelieveTom Jones BonesUncle Fred BreadSausage and mash CashLoaf of bread HeadRunner beans JeansDustbin lids KidsEiffel Tower ShowerBaked potato See you laterMickey Mouse House

Have a look at these examples of Cockney Rhyming Slang and try to make up a short dialogue using the slang language instead of the English words.

Try and make up some new rhyming slang! You could mix English and your language if you want.

Source: © BBC | British Council 2010 www.teachingenglish.org.uk

Assessment Rubrics: Letter-writing (Friendly letters)

Category 4 3 2 1Ideas All ideas were expressed in a

clear and organized way. It was easy to figure out what the letter was about.

Most ideas were expressed in a pretty clear manner, but the organization could have been better.

Ideas were somewhat organized, but were not very clear. It took more than one reading to figure out what theletter was about.

The letter seemed to be a collection of unrelated sentences. It was very difficult to figure out what the letter was about.

Creativity The letter contains many creative details and/or description that fully express the feelings of the writer to the reader. The writer has reallyused his imagination

The letter contains some creative details and/or descriptions that tell the feelings of the writer and the relationship between the writer and the reader. The writer hasused his imagination.

The letter contains a few creative details and/or descriptions, but they distract from the story. The author has tried to use his imagination, butnot very successfully.

There is little or no evidence of creativity in the letter. The writer does not seem to understand the relationships between the two characters and does not seem tohave used much imagination.

Format Complies with all the requirements for a friendlyletter.

Complies with most of the requirements for a friendly letter.

Complies with several of the requirements for a friendly letter.

Complies with few of the requirements for a friendly letter.

Sentences and Paragraphs

Sentences and paragraphs are complete, well-constructed and of varied structure.

Most sentences are complete and well-constructed. Paragraphing is generally done well.

Some sentences are complete and well-constructed.Paragraphing needs somework.

Many sentence fragments or run-on sentences and paragraphing needs lots of work.

Grammar & spelling

Writer makes few or no errors in grammar or spelling.

Writer makes some errors in grammar and/or spelling but the errors do not impedeunderstanding.

Writer makes quite a lot of errors in grammar and/or spelling

Writer makes very frequent errors in grammar and/or spelling.

Source: http://engres.ied.edu.hk/lang_arts/tasks/CurriculumRenew/CR-ModelB/ModelB%28RayYu%29/AssessmentRubrics/LetterInformalRubric.pdf