"Learning gives creativity, creativity leads to thinking, thinking provides knowledge, and knowledge makes you great."
English Language Grade 9
As a teacher and coordinator of English, I believe that knowledge depends on the individual’s determination and will to read and learn. Referring to the wise words above, I’d like my dear student to know that reading is one of the most important factors in knowledge and education. We should not forget that readers are leaders. Moreover, teachers should encourage their students, especially in Cycle III, to read and read and never give up because reading takes them anywhere, and it is the best source of imagination and information which forms their bank account in writing. At the end, remember this quote “You can never say it’s enough until you know more than enough.” |
Reading a text Golfing green
Cycle 3: Grade 9 Theme: Preserving our planet Objectives:
Duration: 2 hours Instructional material: 1-text book 2-worksheets 3-LCD 4-Paperboard |
Pre-reading
Set the scene
Resources Use a picture of Tiger Woods, Eldrick Tont, an American professional golfer,whose achievements to date rank him among the most successful golfers of all time, or any one playing golf to introduce the topic of golf and how people all over the world are building golf courses. Talk about environment versus golf tourism.
Vocabulary: Pre-teach the vocabulary, relating the new words to the topic.
eco-groups
a building boom
a shortage
a rubbish tip
Open prediction
Elicit one or two ideas from the whole class about what the negative effects of building golf courses might be. Write one of their examples on the board.
It uses up too much land. |
Get students to copy it. If they want to say, ‘It’s bad for the environment’, tell them this is too general – they have to predict specifically how it’s bad for the environment. Get students to write their own list of three negative effects that they think will be mentioned in the text they are about to read. Divide students into groups of four )jigsaw( get them to share ideas, and build a larger list from their individual lists.
Then hand out a worksheet, get them to quickly read it, and check off which of their predictions was correct.
Through reading
Comprehension exercises:
- Get students to find examples from the text to support the dangers of golf and the benefits of golf (exercise: "Reading for the main ideas").
- Tell them to summarize each example and write it in note form in the table.
- Get them to fill in the line number in the text where the example came from.
Reading for the main ideas
The dangers of golf | The benefits of golf |
---|---|
fish dies | it's very popular |
tres are cut down | it covers up rubbish dumps |
it uses too much water; it creats water shortages | wildlife returns |
it uses up good farmland (farmers lose their jobs) | |
golf courses are built in national parks/forests | |
chemicals and pollutants are used |
- Check students’ answers through monitoring, not in front of the whole class.
- Get students to read the text another time and then do the remaining exercises.
- Have students work individually and then compare/discuss their answers with a partner.
- Monitor and guide students towards the right answers by pointing to specific parts of the text.
- Get them to reference their own answers from the text in this way too, quoting specific line numbers where possible.
- Correct answers through monitoring, not in front of the whole class.
Reading for facts
1- Developed: The USA, Spain Japan, Britain
Developing: The Philippines, Indonesia
2- Clint Eastwood – actor, politician
Tiger Woods – professional golfer
Reading between the lines
1- Golf has become fashionable because Tiger Woods is young and fun to watch, so thousands of people now want to play golf – before that it was a game only for the old and rich.
2- It’s almost a desert so even more water is needed to keep the grass alive.
3- They’re rare trees.
4- It brings money and jobs. It’s a short-term solution.
5- Because it’s cheap; because their own country is too overcrowded.
Working out the meaning of words from context
1- highlights – shows clearly
2- hotting up – getting more and more important
3- points out – explains
4- thrown off – made to leave
5- to make way for – allow to go ahead
Distinguishing fact from opinion
Statement | Fact | Opinion | Not clear |
The government is closing Paul Allen's golf course | Yes | ||
The fish died because Paul Allen used up too much of their water. | Yes | ||
Clint Eastwood has plans to cut down trees on his land. | Yes | ||
Tourism is always more important than the environment in poor countries. | Yes | ||
If something is a problem in developed countries, it will be an even greater problem in developing countries. | Yes | ||
Golf courses need millios of gallons of water to water the grass. | Yes | ||
The Japanese, busnessmen and politicians cause the problems. | Yes | ||
Golf courses are good for the environment. | Yes | ||
Golf courses are built on rubbish dumps. | Yes |
Sum up these exercises in front of the whole class by pointing out any common misunderstandings, problems or omissions only.
Text analysis
Get students to complete the exercise ‘Analyzing text organization’ in pairs, discussing their answers and ideas in English or Arabic.
Use an enlarged version of the text on LCD to check answers with the whole class. As you go through the questions and answers, build up an analysis of the text organization and draw out the features of a persuasive text.
Label the paragraphs and examples ‘for’ and ‘against’; underline opening and closing statements, and persuasive language.
Post-reading
Further practice: Second conditional
Get students to look at the sentence stubs in the exercise ‘Grammar practice’.
Elicit a few completed sentences from the whole class.
If Paul Allen preferred fishing to golf, there wouldn’t be a water problem / the fish would survive / he’d still be killing fish.
If Tiger Woods weren’t so popular, there wouldn’t be a golf course building
Boom
I can’t play golf today as I am so sick..If…………………..
If I weren’t so sick, I would play golf today.
Put students into pairs and have them hypothesize on the rest of the sentence stubs.
This is a speaking exercise; they don’t have to write anything down – although writing out their ideas could be set for homework or follow up. Remind them to use their second conditional type because it’s ‘unreal’ . Monitor and correct for accuracy.
Feedback
Ask students if they were persuaded that golf is a danger to the environment. Get them to give their reasons why or why not.
Ask your students to write an organized persuasive essay based on an outline .