Words In The News Teacher s pack Lesson plan and student worksheets with answers Illegal coffee threatens wildlife 17 January 2007
CONTENTS 1. Level, topic, language, aims, materials 2. Lesson stages 3. Student worksheets 1, 2, 3 4. Answers Level: Topic: Language: Intermediate and above A conservation group, WWF (the WorldWide Fund for nature), says that coffee is being grown illegally in an Indonesian national park and is being sold to major coffee brands. Vocabulary of a news report Aims: Reading skills Understanding a short news report Language skills Practise using verb + object + to + infinitive Speaking skills Roleplay Materials: Worksheet 1 Comprehension questions Worksheet 2 Vocabulary matching task Worksheet 3 Grammar/language focus adverb + participle + noun News story Available online at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/newsenglish/witn/2007/01/070117_coffee_indonesia.shtml Preparation: Before the lesson, make enough copies of worksheet 2 so that there is one worksheet for every 4 5 students. Cut up the vocabulary and explanations, to make a matching exercise. You will also need to copy and cut up 1 set of role cards (activity L) for every 6 students. Students also need one copy each of worksheets 1 and 3. Lesson Plan: Teacher's notes Page 2 of 14
LESSON STAGES A Stimulate student interest in text Generate interest about today s topic by a short class discussion, focussing on questions such as: How much coffee do you drink? Where is coffee grown? Is coffee an important crop for countries? Why? Is it important to control the places in a country where coffee can be grown? Why? What is a national park? What can you find in national parks? Which countries have national parks? Are national parks important? Why? B Pre-teach essential vocabulary Elicit/present key vocabulary that students need either to understand the key points in the text or to understand and/or answer any questions that you'll set them later in the lesson. The vocabulary is from (so you can elicit the vocabulary by using the explanations provided online or below). You could either pre-teach the vocabulary at this stage of the lesson or you could use the vocabulary building activity from further down in this lesson plan. Have students working together in small groups and ask them to try to match the vocabulary with the definitions. Encourage them to work with the other groups to pool their knowledge. When they have done as much as they can, if they have dictionaries, ask them to look up the words to check their answers and to find out the definitions of any words they are not sure of. If they don't have dictionaries, check their answers and give them help. Whichever method you use to elicit/present the vocabulary, you should then model it (say it clearly, highlighting the word stress) and get them to repeat the words after you. tainted made bad, spoiled, corrupted brands distinguishing symbols, marks, logos, etc. that companies use to make their products look different from others on the market willingly agreeing to do something without objecting; co-operating without complaining Lesson Plan: Teacher's notes Page 3 of 14
dubious open to doubt or suspicion determine to settle, decide, or be sure of (a dispute, question, etc.). In this case, it is difficult for coffee companies to be sure of exactly where the coffee beans they buy come from plantations large estates or farms on which crops are grown, often by workers who live on the estate or farm rangers people employed to maintain and protect a natural area, such as a forest or park, and the animals and plants that live in it all but impossible almost impossible entice to attract or encourage somebody to do something by offering a reward or benefit natural habitat the area or type of environment in which a particular kind of animal or plant usually lives C Written record of vocabulary Write the words on the board, eliciting spelling as you write. Elicit and show the word stress of each item and word class, if appropriate. Give students some time to copy the boardwork into their notebooks. Boardwork: tainted brands willingly dubious determine plantations rangers Lesson Plan: Teacher's notes Page 4 of 14
all but impossible entice natural habitat D Set global questions Tell the students they are going to read a text which is about coffee growing. Copy these summary statements onto the board: A. WWF says that coffee is being grown without permission in an Indonesian wildlife park. This is threatening wildlife. B. WWF has stopped coffee from being grown without permission in an Indonesian wildlife park, because it was threatening wildlife. Students read text the first time. Give them a time limit (1-2 minutes) to read the text quickly to find which of the summary statements is true. They do not need to understand the details. E Check answers Elicit students' answers and tick the correct summary statement (A) on the board. F Set comprehension questions Hand out Worksheet 1 or use the online quiz. Students complete the worksheet to help them understand the text in more detail. Give them a time limit (5-6 minutes) to read the text a second time in more detail and to answer the questions. G Check answers Elicit True or False answers. Direct attention to a particular paragraph if an answer is wrong to try to elicit the correct answer (see worksheet 1 and answer key). H Vocabulary consolidation/building Students do the vocabulary matching exercise (worksheet 2 that you cut up before the lesson): in small groups they match each word with the right definition. I Check answers Elicit answers. If an answer is wrong, ask other students to try to elicit the correct answer. J Grammar focus: participles and nouns Write 'Tigers and rhinos are endangered species' on the whiteboard. Ask students to tell you what part of speech the words 'endangered species' are. They may come up with 'adjective + noun' encourage them to investigate 'endangered' further, to establish that 'endangered' is the past participle of the verb 'to endanger'. The phrase 'endangered species' can be understood as a shortened form of the phrase 'animals which are Lesson Plan: Teacher's notes Page 5 of 14
endangered'. thus, in the phrase 'endangered species', the past participle of 'endanger' could be seen as a passive adjective. Now add 'seriously' to the phrase, so that it reads 'seriously endangered species'. Establish with students that adverbs (eg seriously) are used to modify participle-noun combinations. Ask students to find 1 example of past participle + noun, and 2 examples adverb + past participle + noun in the article. They are all in paragraph 1: 'tainted coffee', 'legally grown beans', 'well-known brands'. Hand out Worksheet 3 which focuses on adverb + participle + noun. K Check answers If an answer is wrong, ask other students to try to elicit the correct answer (see worksheet 3 and answer key). L Follow-up activity: Role play Preparation: Ask the students: 'who is involved in the illegal coffee bean issue?' They should come up with a list: The coffee farmers The WWF (WorldWide Fund for nature) The hunters The park rangers The big coffee companies (such as Nestle) Tell the students that there is going to be a public meeting, the purpose of which is to decide whether the coffee growers should be moved off the plantation. Some or all of the people on the list will come to the meeting. The students are going to role-play the meeting. Divide the students into groups of 6. Give each of them a role card (below): don't tell the students who has which role. Tell them that they have 5 minutes to study their role and make notes about what they want to say and how they are going to support their points. They can use a dictionary if they need to. Tell them they will not be allowed to read from their role cards during the role play, so it s important that they make notes to help them. Circulate during the preparation time, offering help with vocabulary, pronunciation, ideas etc. If you have less than 6 students, you can omit some of the roles, and if you have more, double up on some of the roles, but make sure you have an equal number of 'for' and 'against' roles as follows: Lesson Plan: Teacher's notes Page 6 of 14
For the move The WWF The eologist Against The hunter The coffee company Undecided The coffee farmer The ranger After 5 minutes, tell the students to put the rolecards away and call the meeting to order. They have 15 minutes (or whatever time you want to allow) to discuss the issues and come to a decision about whether to move the plantations off the park or not. Remind them that it is important that everyone has a chance to speak, and that they must listen carefully to what other people say, as well as putting their own view very clearly. Try to stay out of the discussion as much as possible. You can take notes for feedback at the end. Give them a time check 2 minutes before the end of the discussion. Role cards (copy and cut up 1 role card per student) You are a coffee farmer. You have to grow coffee to support your family. You don't like growing coffee in the national park, but the piece of land you have inside the park (10 acres) is much bigger than the land that you have been offered outside the park (5 acres). You would need to charge much more for your coffee beans if you moved, and you don t think the coffee companies want to pay a higher price. You would be willing to move if you were offered some money or a larger piece of land, but you don't want to move a long way from your village. You are a hunter. You want the coffee farms to stay in the park, because it is easier for you to hunt animals on the coffee plantation. But hunting is illegal, and you will go to prison if anybody finds out what you have been doing! Try to make sure the plantations stay in the park, but don't tell anybody the real reason you want them to stay in the park. In fact, you would quite like a job as a ranger, but you want at least $6,000 for this job that is the same amount as the money you make from hunting. Lesson Plan: Teacher's notes Page 7 of 14
You work for the WWF. You want to persuade the coffee farmers to move outside the national park. You can offer them up to 7 acres of land each, but you want them to accept 5 acres each. You can also pay them up to $5,000 dollars each, or you could use this money to pay for one more ranger to help protect the animals. You have found some larger pieces of land (9 acres each), but they are over 100km away from the village. You think the coffee companies should be prepared to pay a much higher price for the coffee beans. You are a park ranger. You have mixed feelings about the coffee plantations. You know a lot of people who work on the plantations and you know life is very hard for them. A lot of them are your friends, and you know that life would be even harder for them if they had to leave, unless they were given good pieces of land. On the other hand, you know that a lot of endangered animals are being illegally killed on the plantations, and it would be easier for you to do your job and protect these animals, if the coffee plantations were moved out of the park. You also think that there are not enough rangers working in the park. You work for a big coffee company. You are secretly happy that the coffee growers are on the plantation it keeps prices down but you don't want anybody to know this! You are willing to pay a bit more for your coffee beans up to 20% if you really have to. You are also prepared to pay up to $1000 to each farmer who is willing to move, but you would much rather they stay where they are. You are a senior ecologist. The WWF has invited you to the meeting. You have done some research which says that if the coffee plantations stay in the park, 2 things will happen: 1. The endangered species will be hunted to extinction within 5 years. This will result in a large drop in visitor numbers, which will damage the local economy. 2. Coffee production will drop, as the soil becomes exhausted. Your conclusion is that the coffee plantations should be moved off the plantations as soon as possible, to save not only the wildlife but also the local economy. Lesson Plan: Teacher's notes Page 8 of 14
M Feedback Give praise for content and show your interest in the different views expressed. Give praise for correct language, and give feedback on incorrect language. You could write some example phrases or sentences on the board and elicit from students which ones are correct and which ones are wrong and why. You can also encourage feedback on how they felt during the role play shy, confident, nervous, excited etc. and also how they dealt with any language problems they may have had. Lesson Plan: Teacher's notes Page 9 of 14
STUDENT WORKSHEET 1 COMPREHENSION QUESTIONS Are the following sentences true or false? 1. Legal and illegal coffee beans are usually exported separately. T/F 2. Nestle accepts that it might have bought illegal coffee without knowing. T/F 3. Most of the park is covered in coffee plantations. T/F 4. The officials are forcing the farmers to grow coffee outside the park. T/F 5. There are only a few tigers in the park, but there are lots of rhinos. T/F 6. The tigers and rhinos are protected by the coffee plantations. T/F Page 10 of 14
STUDENT WORKSHEET 2 VOCABULARY Match these words and phrases to their definitions. 1. tainted A. agreeing to do something without objecting; cooperating without complaining 2. brands B. to attract or encourage somebody to do something by offering a reward or benefit 3. willingly C. large estates or farms on which crops are grown, often by workers who live on the estate or farm 4. dubious D. made bad, spoiled, corrupted 5. determine E. the area or type of environment in which a particular kind of animal or plant usually lives 6. plantations F. to settle, decide, or be sure of (a dispute, question, etc.). In this case, it is difficult for coffee companies to be sure of exactly where the coffee beans they buy come from 7. rangers G. people employed to maintain and protect a natural area, such as a forest or park, and the animals and plants that live in it 8. all but impossible H. distinguishing symbols, marks, logos, etc. that companies use to make their products look different from others on the market 9. entice I. open to doubt or suspicion 10. natural habitat J. almost impossible Page 11 of 14
STUDENT WORKSHEET 3 GRAMMAR FOCUS - Adverbs, participles, and nouns. Exercise 1: Use a participle to rewrite the sentences so that the meaning of both sentences is the same. Example: a. The gun, which was loaded, went off in her hand. b. The loaded gun went off in her hand. 1a. They gave the food, which was unwanted, to the poor. 1b. They 2a. The painting, which was finished, was hung in the living room. 2b. The 3a. The police gave the jewellery, which had been stolen, back to its rightful owner. 3b. The police 4a. He took the computer, which was broken, to the repair shop. 4a. He 5a. The seats, which had been reserved, were already occupied by another group. 5b. The Exercise 2: Insert an adverb into the correct place in each sentence. You should use a different adverb from the list for each sentence. There is one extra word which you do not need to use. tightly previously freshly newly badly lately newly Example: The newly painted ceiling was still wet. 1. I love the smell of baked bread. 2. It was very difficult to move in the packed concert hall. 3. The drawn picture looked nothing like the photograph. 4. A lot of people went to the zoo to see the born tiger. 5. This book will replace all published editions. Page 12 of 14
ANSWER KEY STUDENT WORKSHEET 1 1. False Paragraph 1 of the written text says, ' coffee grown illegally inside the national park is being sold to local traders who mix it with legally grown beans before exporting it ' 2. True Paragraph 2 says, 'Nestle issued a statement saying it never willingly purchases coffee from dubious sources.' 3. False Paragraph 3 says, ' around a fifth of the park's total area - had been taken over by illegal plantations ' 4. False Paragraph 3 says, ' officials are trying to entice farmers to move outside the park.' 5. False Paragraph 4 says, 'The area is home to some sixty tigers and around the same number of rhinos.' 6. False Paragraph 4 says ' destruction of their natural habitat by farmers is making them easier targets for hunters.' STUDENT WORKSHEET 2 1. D 2. H 3. A 4. I 5. F 6. C 7. G 8. J 9. B 10. E STUDENT WORKSHEET 3 Exercise 1 1a. They gave the food, which was unwanted, to the poor. 1b. They gave the unwanted food to the poor. 2a. The painting, which was finished, was hung in the living room. 2b. The finished painting was hung in the living room. 3a. The police gave the jewellery, which had been stolen, back to its rightful owner. 3b. The police gave the stolen jewellery back to its rightful owner. 4a. He took the computer, which was broken, to the repair shop. 4a. He took the broken computer to the repair shop. Page 13 of 14
5a. The seats, which had been reserved, were already occupied by another group. 5b. The reserved seats were already occupied by another group. Exercise 2 1. I love the smell of freshly baked bread. 2. It was very difficult to move in the tightly packed concert hall. 3. The badly drawn picture looked nothing like the photograph. 4. A lot of people went to the zoo to see the newly born tiger. 5. This book will replace all previously published editions. Not used: lately Page 14 of 14