Microsoft Word Lesson plans Year doc

64 ©British Council 2013 Lesson Plans Year 2 Module:
READING II
Topic:	Short story ‘Carapace’ by Romesh Gunesekera
Time:	80 minutes
Aims:	to give students’ an opportunity to discuss and provide critical analysis of the read short story

Before the lesson:

• 
  One week before ask students to read the short story ‘Carapace’ by Romesh Gunesekera http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/sites/teacheng/files/carapace text.pdf
  

Lead-in (5 minutes)

• 
  Ask students if they have read the story. Ask them the following questions:
  

~ Who is the author of the story?
~ Where is the story happening?
~ In general did you like the story? Why/Why not?
Activity 1 Summarising the story
Objective: to let students summarise the short story within one sentence.
Time: 15 minutes Materials: strips of paper
Procedure:

• 
  Put participants in groups of 3 or 4. Ask them to summarise the story within one sentence and write it on a strip of paper.
  
• 
  Once groups are ready, ask them to hang their summaries on the board.
  
• 
  Invite groups read aloud their summaries.
  
• 
  Ask students to comment on each other’s summaries, whose summary they liked more and why.
  

Activity 2 Analysing the story
Objective: to let students analyse the short story Time: 30 minutes
Materials: copies of the short story "Carapace”, Handout 1 Procedure:

• 
  Distribute Handout 1. Ask students to look through the story again and answer the questions on Handout 1 individually. Allow about 10 minutes.
  
• 
  Now ask students to form groups of 3 and share their responses. Allow them about 10 minutes.
  
• 
  Elicit random answers to each question on Handout 1 in plenary. Please note that there are no right or wrong answers while discussing a story. Encourage students to be confident in sharing their opinion, views, reactions, feelings, emotions.
  

Some notes for the analysis:
1.Six characters are mentioned in the story: ‘she’, Amma, Vijay, Anura Perera, Auntie Manel, Lakshmi. There is no reference to the name of the main character.

2. 
   The story describes one day with a flashback to four months earlier when the main character met Vijay.
   
3. 
   The language of the story is vernacular, specific way to present speech, no reference
   

65


©British Council 2013

Lesson Plans Year 2

to cultural concepts (roti, saree etc.).

2. 
   Major themes of the story are convenience marriages, making choices, immigration in pursuit of better life, etc.
   
3. 
   Here are the definitions of the word carapace
   

n.

1. 
   Zoology A hard bony or chitinous outer covering, such as the fused dorsal plates of a turtle or the portion of the exoskeleton covering the head and thorax of a crustacean.
   
2. 
   A protective, shell-like covering likened to that of a turtle or crustacean: "He used to worry that Sarah would age the same way, develop the same brittle carapace" (Anne Tyler). http//www.thefreedictionary.com/carapace
   

• 
  Summarise the discussion by saying that they can use these questions while writing the analysis of a short story or novel as part of their reading log (refer students to assessment specifications).
  

Activity 3 Ending the story
Objective: to let students speculate on possible ending(s) of the story and role play it
Time: 30 minutes
Materials:
Procedure:

• 
  Divide the class into two groups (about 5-7 students in each group).
  
• 
  Ask groups to imagine the continuation of the story. Ask them to act out the scene when Anura Perera arrives in their house for dinner. Ask students to allocate roles for everyone. They can invent some roles if there are more students than the characters in the story, for example, sister or brother of the narrator, or Anura Perera’s mother/aunt/friend etc. Ask groups to prepare 10 minutes. Allow about 10 minutes for preparation.
  
• 
  Ask groups to show their performances.
  
• 
  Summarise the lesson.
  

©British Council 2013


66

Lesson Plans Year 2

67


©British Council 2013

Lesson Plans Year 2

Reading II
“Carapace”
Handout 1, Activity 1
Questions for analyzing the story

1. 
   How many characters are there in the story? Did you think the characters and their problems/decisions/relationships were believable or realistic?
   
2. 
   How was the story structured? Did the author use any structural or narrative devices like flashbacks or multiple voices in telling the story? How did this affect the story?
   
3. 
   Whose voice was the story told in (from whose point of view is the story told)? How do you think it might have been different if another character was telling the story, e.g. Vijay or outsider?
   
4. 
   Talk about the author's use of language/writing style. Was the language appropriate to the story? Was it more poetic or vernacular? Are there any cultural references?
   
5. 
   What were some of the major themes of the book? Are they relevant in your life? Did the author effectively develop these themes? If so, how? If not, why not?
   
6. 
   Choose any one sentence from the story that seems to you particularly significant-- for any reason--and copy it, identifying the paragraph. Then explain the reason for your choice.
   
7. 
   What do you think is the relationship of the title and the content of the story?
   
8. 
   What did you like or dislike about it that we haven't discussed already? Were you glad you read this story?
   

Topics for discussion:

1. 
   What do you think of hidden relations (i.e. hiding your relations with a man/woman from your parents)?
   
2. 
   Would you allow your parents to choose the person who you should marry to?
   
3. 
   Do you think everyone should try to get education and lucrative job or live in present and do whatever they like?
   
4. 
   Have you ever had to make a hard decision? Do you regret of taking that decision?
   

©British Council 2013


68

Lesson Plans Year 2 Module:	VOCABULARY IN CONTEXT II
Topic:	Using concordances in vocabulary learning
Time:	80 minutes
Aims:	to raise students’ awareness of ways of using concordancing in vocabulary learning

Lead-in (5 minutes)

• 
  Write down corpora (corpus) and concordancing on the board. Ask students the following question:
  

~ Do you know what do these words mean?

• 
  Elicit random answers. Tell students in this lesson they will look at how they can use corpus analysis and concordancing in learning vocabulary.
  

Activity 1 Introducing concordances
Objective: to introduce concordances to students Time: 10 minutes Materials: Handout 1
Procedure:

• 
  Distribute Handout 1 to students. Ask them to read it and do task 1.
  
• 
  Check students’ understanding of the terms ‘corpus’, ‘concordance’.
  
• 
  Elicit responses and discuss answers for Task 1.
  

Answers:
From the given concordances for the word ‘waste’ we can learn that ‘waste’ is often used with ‘time ‘and ‘money’; that most often it is said as ‘a’ waste of...
‘waste’ can be noun as in the words ‘waste of time’ , ‘a waste’, but also can be used as an adjective in ‘a waste lot’.


Activity 2 Tasks using concordances
Objective: to give students an opportunity to explore tasks based on concordances. Time: 45 minutes Materials: Handouts 2 and 3
Procedure:

• 
  Tell participants that now they will try out some more tasks using concordances.
  
• 
  Write the words "idle’ and ‘lazy on the board. And students the following questions: ~ What do these words mean?
  

~ What are the similarities and differences between these words?
~ Can you give examples?

• 
  Elicit any random answers. Then distribute handout 2.
  
• 
  Ask students to do task 2 individually.
  
• 
  Elicit responses and discuss answers for Task 2.