The teaching of the American Human Rights

Freedom of Choice

through the American pop culture

American IdolPrepared and presented by:

Naeema Alaali- Bahrain

Seral Arapoglu - Cyprus

Cleo Savvidou - Cyprus

Supervised by: Bruce Laurie

Why did we choose this topic “Freedom of Choice”?

We as a group that comes from the Middle East, we realized that we share common aspects of the effects of the western culture on our teens. We also discovered that our teenagers do not comprehend the western culture and they just copy the appearance blindly.

Our main objectives of using the American Idol as a content to teach the language is to teach the students about the freedom of choice and to train them to criticize and analyze aspects before they choose.

We used the the American pop culture through American Idol reality TV show as a mean to raise their awareness of the pros and cons of imitating pop stars and to empower their critical minds before copying what they see.

Why did we choose the reality TV show “American Idol”?

Interest of the group we are teaching (who are between the age of 15-18) in the American pop culture.

The amount of time students spend watching TV or surfing the internet.

Participants of the program are of the same age group as our students.

Students interest in contemporary technology including audience voting and the freedom to choose who they vote for.

Why did we choose the reality TV show “American Idol”?

Using authentic materials to expose students to native English environment.

To expose students to practicing freedom in decision making.

Entertain students by introducing music videos in the class room.

The importance of the American Idol reality TV show in the American culture and its impact on the American youth. The picture below shows the stage of the first seasons displayed in the Smithsonian’s Museum in Washington DC. american idol mus pic.doc

American Idol is very popular, students will have ideas beforehand.

What are our Teaching Objectives?

To introduce vocabulary related to the topic.

To build on prior knowledge to further enhance

learning.

To skim a text to extract the main idea.

To scan a text for specific information.

To listen for specific information.

To further their knowledge through research.

To produce a creative written text.

Lesson 1 presented by: naeema Alaali

Activity 1: (5 min) Give each group of students a randomly cut picture of

one of the American Idol program judges and ask students to put the pictures together.

Student put the pictures together and hang them on the board and the first group to do that wins chocolates as an incentive. pictures of judges.doc

Stick all of the pictures on the board for the rest of the class to see and recognize.

My aim behind this is…….

My main aim of this activity is to get students attention to the lesson and make them work together and to introduce the lesson in a more interesting play way. As for the award, it is always encouraging when you work and feel that you will get something at the end and the catch here is that students will be allowed to eat the chocolates in the class because they enjoy breaking the rules.

Lesson 1

Activity 2:(5-10 min) Brain storm students by asking the following questions?

1. who are the people in the pictures?2. What do you know about them?3. How did you know about them?

Elicit answers from students and encourage students to speak up what they know.

My main objective here is to encourage students to speak English and exchange information they know with each other and to prepare them for the video clip and the reading text.

Lesson 1

Activity 3: (5-7 min) Introduce the video clip excerpt of the American Idol

American Idol Finale.flv Elicit related vocabulary from students and put them

on the board new vocab.doc Ask students if they know any similar programs and

elicit answers. Encourage further exchange of information about similar programs between students.

My objective is to entertain and show students part of the program and encourage them to exchange what they already know about similar programs and speak in the target language (English). Introduce change to attract students attention and to make them enjoy the class environment.

Activity 4: (15-20 min) Introduce the reading article which is about the American

Idol reality TV show and ask students to work in pairs. Students will first scan the article and match the headings

to the paragraphs then teacher elicit the answers and put them on the board. Then they read the article again and answer the WH questions. reading project.doc

Ask students in groups to write questions for paragraphs D & E of the article then exchange the questions among the groups. Each group answer the questions given and then the class exchange the answers and then check them orally in class.My aim here is to enable students to practice their reading skills both for gist and for specific information (details) and to find out more about the process of voting and choosing by themselves.

Lesson 1

Activity 5: Homework Ask students to research and find out more

information about one of the idols (contestants) of their choice. Students can decide where and how to search.

My aim of assigning this homework is to encourage reading and to prepare students for the second lesson.

END OF LESSON 1

Lesson 1

Lesson 2 Prepared and presented by Seral Arapoglu

Activity 1: 5 minutes Write the vocabulary words on the board and present them to the

students. K:\ITD\new vocab1.doc Give the vocabulary exercise sheet to the students and ask them

to read the definitions and match them with the correct words. Vocabulary worksheet 1.doc

Ask the students to check the answers with their friends first and then with the whole class.

My first aim in this activity is to present the new vocabulary and practice the ones that have already been presented in the previous lesson. The second aim is to prepare the students for the listening task by introducing some of the words so that they can make predictions about the topic of the listening text.

Lesson 2

Activity 2: 5 minutesPut the picture of Jennifer Hudson on the board.

K:\ITD\J.hudson pic.doc

Elicit from the students what they know about her.

The aim of this activity is to introduce the topic to the students and get their attention by supplying visual aid and also involving students in the lesson by using their background knowledge.

Lesson 2

Activity 3: 15-20 minutes

Hand out the activity sheet to the students and ask them to read the sentences before they listen to the interview. K:\ITD\activity 3a,b

Ask the students to listen to the interview with Jane Hudson and write T for the correct and F for the incorrect sentences.) K:\ITD\Listening tapescript.doc

Check the answers with the whole class Ask the students to listen to the interview again and write 5

sentences which J. Hudson used to describe her feelings about being famous.

My objectives of the activities is to enable the students to listen for specific information and to identify the correct sentences. I also want to develop students` listening and understanding skills.

Lesson 2

Activity 4: 10 minutes

Play the clip of J Hudson first audition in American Idol TV show. K:\ITD\Dancing Baby jigs to Jennifer Hudson audition.flv

Ask the students to compare between Jennifer before becoming famous and now and write a comparison of before and after. They can do that using the clip and her pictures.

The aim of this activity is to energize the students by showing them something that they really enjoy and also to bring visual material into class in order to involve and motivate the students with the visual learning intelligence.

End of the lesson 2

Lesson 3: prepared and presented by: Cleo Savvidou

MY OBJECTIVES OF THIS LESSON is…To enable students to understand the pros and

cons of pop stars lives so that they can get the idea that their life is not a fairy tale.

To enable students to use critical thinking in differentiating between negatives and positives and voice their opinions.

Lesson 3 PROS AND CONS IN THE LIFE OF POP STARS

STEP 1 – The students will write on a given sheet the pros and cons of pop stars life styles (brainstorming activity) Prosand cons worksheet.doc

I will elicit the answers from the students and copy them on the board.

Lesson 3 PROS AND CONS IN THE LIFE OF POP STARS

STEP 2 I will concentrate on a particularly popular pop

singer, with a lot of controversy around him, such as Michael Jackson. MICHAEL JACKSON.doc

I will ask the students to write down what they know about him as a singer. Then I will write down the main points on the board.

Lesson 3 PROS AND CONS IN THE LIFE OF POP STARS

STEP 3 I will introduce some extracts about people’s

opinion of Michael Jackson. Some people admire him and others criticize him for his eccentric character.

I will divide the class into 2 groups, one group for Michael Jackson and the other against him. opinions of MICHAEL JACKSON.doc

The objective of this exercise is for students to understand that money and fame can lead some people to two different paths. One of them might not be happy.

Lesson 3 PROS AND CONS IN THE LIFE OF POP STARS

Step 4: I will give my students a choice of two questions

as homework. Both of them are pieces of creative writing and both of them are derived from what they have learned during the lesson. They are expected to use the vocabulary they have learned.writing Assignment1.doc

End of lesson 3

Thank you for bearing with us.