Polina Polina

CPE Week 1 Teambuilding. Reading. Vocabulary
C2 level

Materials

No materials added to this plan yet.

Main Aims

  • To let students get to know each other better and a good rapport in the first lesson
  • To provide exam strategies for Reading part 2 and practise the task

Subsidiary Aims

  • To focus on some new vocabulary in the text and help students notice it
  • To provide students with some speaking practice on the topic of performing arts

Procedure

Introduction. Setting the rules. (3-5 minutes) • To set lesson context and engage students

1) Establish rules. – Three working modes. Wave your hand. Breakout rooms. "We're gonna have three working modes. The first one is the WHOLE CLASS type. + Wave your hand when you’re gonna speak, but don’t wait for me to nominate you." "Has anyone of you worked in breakout rooms in Zoom? We’re gonna work either in GROUPS OF THREE or IN PAIRS. When we need to work in breakout rooms, I’ll gonna press a magic button and create them, and you’ll see an invitation to join your breakout room on your screen. You click on that and you’re redirected there. You start your activity. I can switch from one room to another to listen to you. If I do that, ignore me, don’t pay much attention and continue your discussion. I’m there only to listen. Of course, if you have a question, you can use this opportunity to ask it. When I want to end the activity, I press another magic button and you see on the screen that you’re invited to the main session. In this situation you have two options: you either follow the link or you have 60 seconds to finish what you’re doing and then you’re redirected automatically.

Icebreaking and teambuilding (25-30 minutes) • To let students get to know each other better and establish a good rapport in the first lesson

Tell students that they are going to know each other a bit better. Do an activity "Three things in common". Warn them that there things won't count: 1) that they love and teach English, 2) that they are from Russia, 3) that they are women. Divide students into groups of three and let them some time to discuss. Then have a quick follow-up with the whole class. The next activity is "a lie detector". For this activity students should come up with TWO unusual/interesting/surprising/shocking/peculiar things about themselves which are TRUE. And then think about ONE thing that is NOT true. Ask students to read out the statements and let their peers guess which one is a lie. Reshuffle the students and divide them in groups of three. Then have a quick follow-up with the whole class.

Pre-Reading (12-14 minutes) • To prepare students for the text and make it accessible

Ask students whether anyone has mentioned art as her/his interest (in both activities: "Three things in common" and "A lie detector"). If yes, then ask what kind of art and why it's of special interest to them? If no, then ask what they may think of when they hear this word? Elicit a couple of answers. When students name dance, music, theatre, etc, say that they belong to performing arts in which a human performance is the principal product. Draw a spidergram with performing arts in the middle and ask students to come up with other forms of this type (cinema, opera, ballet, circus, mime, buskers, etc) Ask students to go to p.7 and do ex. 3. Let students a minute to look through the list of factors which influence artists' success. Divide students in pair and ask to agree on top 5 most important factors. Students may agree to disagree on some points. In 3-5 minutes discuss the chosen factors and the reasons why they are of utmost importance with all together. Ask students what is a yardstick for artists' success. When students say "getting the leading part/role", "becoming a premiere", "play first violin", ask them what they may feel if they can't achieve it (depression, jealousy, misery). Elicit other performing groups where the individual is only important as part of a whole (a cog in the wheel). The students may say: a choir, an orchestra, background artists, film extras, corps de ballet.

While-Reading #1 (14-15 minutes) • To provide students with less challenging gist task

Tell students that they are going to read a text about grim reality which young dancers in London have to face. The first reading is going to be a typical gist reading. Explain that it's very important to take a helicopter view of the text at first, understand the main idea of it. Advise against using a dictionary at this stage as students have to get accustomed to guessing the meaning of unfamiliar words from the context. Ask students to read 5 headings in Ex.2.2 p.8 before reading the text. Ask to match 4 of them with the corresponding paragraphs of the text. Mention that one heading is the odd one. Let student from 5 to 7 minutes for the text. After reading check the first answer with the whole class and then divide students into pairs to discuss the remaining ones.

While-Reading #2 (14-16 minutes) • To get students acquainted with exam strategies

Explain the exam strategies for this task and the rationale behind them, mention priming as a possible distractor. Suggest taking the following steps: 1. Read the question or the stem, cover the options at this stage. 2. Go to the text and find the answer. 3. Return to the options and choose the correct one. Do the first question with the whole class following the procedure. Find the exact word for an answer in the first paragragh. Ask why option "B" is incorrect. (It's something we'd like them to achieve but it's not stated in the text) Divide students into pairs and ask to do the same with the rest of the questions, discussing the options with a partner. Allow from 8 to 10 minutes for this task.

Post-Reading (10-12 minutes) • To focus on new vocabulary

The text is replete with interesting vocabulary. Draw students' attention to the number of adjectives in the first paragraph and the way the author uses them. Explain that the author uses what is called a climatic structure, which slowly builds up tension. Give students a synonym or a short definition to a word or phrase in the text ask to find the word. (If pressed for time at this time, also say the number of the line to look for the word). Ask what other collocations can be formed with the new words line 2: tense - taut (smile, narrative, thriller) line 4: shabby - tatty (informal) line 11: harsh - grim (reality, future, prospects, draw a grim picture) line 17: a necessary condition - a prerequisite line 20: extremely happy and enjoyable: blessed (explain the difference between an adjective and a participle) (Blessed Virgin Mary, a few blessed moments of silence) line 21: elegant, spic and span - sartorial (have a sartorial look) line 24: dull, tasteless - bland (diet, cooking, buildings, designs, colours) line 24: outperform - outshine line 25: something which is second rate - mediocrity line 36: awful, rotten - lousy (informal; hotel, singer, weather) line 41: hard on the soul, (ask whether the students know a similar expression: easy on the eye) line 48: ask if students understand what "catch 22" means line 56: fed-up and tired - jaded line 59: infamous - notorious line 64: take advantage of an opportunity - leap at the chance Question 5, option B: ambiguous - dubious

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