TeachingPlanforUnit2(8A).doc

Teaching Plan for Unit 1 (8A)
Language functions and focus
1. Use an adjective before a noun or after a linking verb to describe someone/ something
e.g.: She has short hair.
Her hair is short.
2. Use comparatives to compare two people /things
e.g.: Sandy’s hair is longer than Millie’s hair.
3. Use superlatives to compare three or more people things
e.g.: He is the tallest boy in my class.
4. Use ‘as’+ adjective+ ‘as’ to compare people / things
e.g.: Millie is as tall as Kitty.
5. Use adjectives to describe someone’s physical features and appearance
e.g.: Sandy is tall and has long hair.

Language skills
Listening
1. Identify main ideas to obtain information about a friend
2. Interpret information to obtain a general understanding of the people in a conversation
3. Identify specific and relevant information to complete letters about teenagers’ future plans
Speaking
1. Use questions and answers to talk about people’s appearance and personality
2. Use everyday expressions to show agreement and confirm information
Reading
1. Guess general meaning from keywords and context
2. Skim text for overall meaning and scan for details
3. Identify specific information about different people from their friends’ descriptions
Writing
1. Collect information and organize ideas to describe the appearance and personality of a friend
2. Produce a particular text-type for an audience using a given model

Study skills
Look for main points and keywords to help understand and remember a passage more easily

Background information
Book 8A continues the story about the lives and experiences of the six central characters introduced in Book 7A. Here, the characters are Grade 8 students. Your students will be able to identify with the different situations and contexts. Language is presented through real-life experiences, exposing students to real communication.

Overview of the unit
The main topic of this unit is describing the appearance and the qualities of a good friend. Students learn to talk about their friends and their future plans.

Unit opening
Background information
The opening page arouses students’ interest in the topic of the unit through the funny interactions of two cartoon characters (Eddie and Hobo). This opening page introduces the idea of friendship and sharing.

Warm-up activities
1. Read the conversation between Eddie and Hobo. Check understanding of ‘kind’ and ‘share’. Ask,
e.g.: What does Eddie give Hobo? (He gives him some cake and milk.)
Is there anything else in the fridge? (No, there isn’t.)
What does Hobo want? (He wants to share Eddie’s pizza in the bowl.)
2. Introduce the idea of sharing and friendship. Ask,
e.g.: Are Eddie and Hobo good friends? (Yes, they are. They share things.)
Who do you like more? Why? ( I like Eddie because he shares his food with Hobo.)
Ask two more able students to role-play the conversation in front of the class.

Welcome to the unit
Objectives
1. To revise vocabulary and expressions to describe people
2. To guess meaning from context
3. To generate ideas about people’s appearance and personalities
4. To categorize adjectives to describe important qualities of a friend according to personal preferences

Background information
This section introduces students to the unit topic about different personalities of friends. Students answer some questions in a magazine about the qualities of a best friend. It also preteaches some useful words and expressions.

Teaching procedures
1. Ask more able students
e.g.: Do you have a special friend? What makes him/her special?
Accept all reasonable answers. (He/She helps me with my homework. I can always talk to him/her about my problems, etc.)
2. Ask students to look at Part A and explain that they will be reading an advertisement in “Teenagers’ magazine. They have to match the qualities with the questions. For weaker classes, go through the words and phrases on the left. Then ask each question at a time and invite students to say the correct word or phrase. Then ask the class to write the correct letters on their own.
3. Go around the class to check that students have written the correct letters.
4. Ask more able students to think of other qualities of a good friend, e.g., generous, clever, kind, understands my problems, makes me laugh. Write the words and phrases on the board.
5. Read the list of words in Part B and chick that students understand their meanings. Check also understanding of ‘quite important’ and ‘very important’.
6. On the board, write ‘What qualities of a good friend are important to you?’. Ask the class to think carefully about what qualities they appreciate in friends and put ticks under the correct headings in the table. Encourage students to work on their own. Then ask them to compare their answers with a partner. Ask individual students to tell the rest of the class about their own choice and their partner’s choice of qualities. Write some structures on the board to enable students to focus on the choice of adjectives and to maintain a fluent oral performance.

Extension activity
You can copy the table. More able students can add more adjectives describing qualities of a good friend. Students can also interview several classmates using this table. They should write tally marks instead of ticks in the table. Then they can compare their results with a partner or in class to find out which qualities are the most popular.

Game
Ask each student to write three adjectives or phrases to describe a classmate on a piece of paper. Remind students to write his or her name as well. Encourage them to work on their own and not to show their choice of words to other students. Then collect the pieces of paper and put them together. Draw one at a time and read each description. Invite the class to guess whom it describes.

Reading
Objectives
1. To guess general meanings from keywords and context
2. To skim text for overall meanings and scan for details
3. To identify specific information about different people form their friends’ descriptions
4. To use adjectives to describe people’s appearance and characteristics
5. To recognize the use of comparatives and superlatives

Part A
Background information
This section presents three letters about ‘best friends’ for a writing competition held by ‘Teenagers’ magazine. The context invites students to think about qualities in their friends.

Teaching procedures
1. Review key vocabulary according to the general ability of the class. Tell the class about a friend or relative. If possible, show his/her photo. Say,
e.g.: My best friend is small and thin with long hair. She is very smart and helpful.
Then ask questions to check understanding. (Is my friend tall? Is her hair short or long? Is she willing to help?)
2. Divide the class into three groups and allocate one article to each group. While students skim the text on their own, ask them to underline the words they do not know. Then go through the words students have underlined.
3. On the board, write the headings ‘Appearance’ and ‘Personality’. Ask each group to go through their letter again and find words or expressions to match each heading. Invite students from each group to come forward and write their words and expressions under the correct heading.
4. Write the following questions on the board for students to copy in their books.
What does he/she look like? (For appearance)
What kind of person is he/she? (For personality)
What does he/she do or want to do in the future? (For future plan)
Invite students from each group to ask and answer these questions and describe the teenager in each article.

Part B
Teaching procedure
1. Explain the context and check that students understand what an editor of magazine or newspaper does. Then review the adjectives and nouns in the box in Part B1. Ask students to find the words in the articles on page4.
2. Ask students to do Part B1 on their own. Tell them that they need to look for specific details, which fit each of the persons described in the articles. Encourage students to check their answers with a partner. Then ask students to read out the completed captions one at a time.
3. Explain the context of Part B2 and ask students to find each description in the corresponding letter. Point to the photos in Part B2 and ask more able students to briefly describe each person. For weaker classes, read the sentences to the students and ask them to match them with the correct photos. Students could work individually or in pairs.

Game
1. Cut out some pictures of people of different height and appearance. Number the pictures or give familiar names to each person in the pictures (Mary, Tom, Peter, ect.). Stick the pictures on the board. Describe one of the people without pointing or even liking at his/her photo. Invite students to guess the person you have described. (That’s picture number five./ That’s Mary.) Then ask individual students to do the same while the rest of the class guess the person.
2. Alternatively, you can divide the class into three or four competing teams. Each team can work out description for the other teams to guess. Give a score only for the first correct guess.

Part C
Teaching procedures
1. Explain the context of Part C1 and read the six sentences for weaker classes. Depending on students’ abilities, set this activity either as an individual activity or as a quiz.
2. If you use it as a quiz, divide the class into teams of 4-5 students. Set a time limit. The team who gets all the correct answers first is the winner.
3. Alternatively, you can ask students to close their books while you are reading each sentence. Give a score to the team who gives the first correct answer.
4. Ask students to correct the false sentences.
5. Ask more able students to do the extra sentences in Part C1. You can also ask them to correct the false sentences.
6. Explain the context of Part C2 and check that students understand the idea of voting for somebody or something. If time allows, organize a class vote. Name a job, e.g., a class monitor, a student representative, etc. ask stronger classes to make a list of qualities required for the job. Write all the qualities suggested by the students on the board. For weaker classes, provide this table with the adjectives.
Then ask the students to vote for each quality. Before each vote, invite more able students to explain why they will vote or not vote for that particular quality. Accept all reasonable answers, e.g.: I will vote for ‘clever’ because it’s important that a class monitor learns and understands things quickly.
7. For weaker classes, read the sentences in the speech bubbles before you ask the students to find out who each of the characters will vote for and fill in the blanks. Then ask ‘Who will Amy/ Simon/ Sandy vote for?’ to check the answers.
8. Divide students into pairs and ask them to vote for one of the ‘best friends’ described in the articles on page4. Write down the number of votes for each person on the board.

Extension activity
Organize a class vote for a ‘best friend’. On a piece of paper, ask students to write a brief description about a person they consider to be a best friend. Invite 6-7 students to put up their descriptions on the board. Then read the descriptions one at a time and ask the class to vote for one of them. Ask individual students why they have voted for that particular person.

Vocabulary
Objectives
1. To use adjectives to describe people’s physical features
2. To use adjectives to describe general appearance of people
3. To select and use adjectives that are appropriate to describe the appearance of boys and girls

Background information
This section develops the use of adjectives to describe people’s appearance. Students should be encouraged to develop their range of adjectives as much as possible using the tasks on the page as a starting point.
As students become more and more able to understand the subtle meanings of words, they will be able to develop ways of accessing imaginative and creative texts to foster genuine interest and pleasure in what they read. In turn, they will gradually be able to use adjectives to write more interesting and creative texts themselves.

Teaching procedures
1. Explain the context of the tasks. Ask students to study the pictures and words. For weaker classes, go through the words and preteach unknown words. Ask students to do Part A on their own first and then compare answers with a partner. Ask several students to read their answers to check correct use of adjectives.
2. Go through the words in the box in Part B. less able students are not likely to know the adjectives which are only suitable to describe males or females. You may need to give them some hints. Ask students to use the words in sentences to check that they understand the meanings and use of words. Then ask students to complete the lists in groups of 4-5. Check answers orally with the class.

Extension activities
1. Ask students to find more adjectives for each category of the adjectives used in Part A. draw this table on the board and brainstorm as many words as possible.
Go through the adjectives and ask students to draw simple illustrations of the adjectives on pieces of paper. Invite some students to show their illustrations to the rest of the class.
Provide pictures of people either pinned up on the board or cut out of magazines to groups of four students. Fay an adjective and ask students to find a picture illustrating it.
2. Ask students to select and write suitable adjectives to describe themselves on a piece of paper. Invite some students to come forward and read the adjectives. Make sure that the atmosphere is supportive and that the rest of the class do not make any unpleasant comments.
3. Ask students to describe their friends, classmates, relatives or pop/sports stars using the adjectives they have learned. For stronger classes, encourage them to use any adjectives.

Game
1. Bring some pictures of people into the classroom or ask students to being pictures. These can be magazine or newspaper cuttings or photos. Divide students into groups of five. Give a picture to only one student in each group and ask him/her not to show it to the other students. Give blank pieces of paper to the other students. The student with the picture describes the features of the person in the picture while the other students draw the person. On the board, display the drawings together with the original picture. For stronger classes, invite students to find out the mistakes. For weaker classes, ask students to vote for the best drawing which resembles the picture.
2. Alternatively, tell students who are drawing the pictures to ask as many questions as possible to get information about the person th