Final Exam Video Article from Ryu Jeong A

Desperate for food
April 30 - Soaring food costs in Manila have left people so desperate for food that they scrape through garbage for their daily meals. Food inflation is severely affecting about 30 percent of Filipino families, who earn less than 5-dollars a day.
Michaela Cabrera reports.

Summary
Due to the soaring rice prices, people who live in the poorest districts in Manila make their living from garbage. They sell recyclable wastes such as plastics and styrofoam to junk shops. Also, they collect trash-food from fast restaurants, wash it, and feed the whole family. Some worry, however, the possibility of the contamination of the recycled food. So, government agencies are dealing with the poverty, and trying to get the needy family to apply for cash transfers instead of turning to this alternative.

A. Pre-listening Activity
First, I think it should be the kind of material which can draw the students' attention.
Second, it is true that previous knowledge affects the understanding of the reading or listening ability. For example, a boy who knows the rules of baseball very well would understand the story better than others. Therefore, it is necessary to help facilitate their listening ability by providing related materials and giving them general ideas or knowledge of the materials to be heard.
Third, there should be the least anxiety possible by letting them know a couple of difficult vocabularies.

I'll give them some gengeral background knowledge of the ideas to be heard through internet sources such as
Google Satellite Map
http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&q=Manila,+National+Capital+Region+Philippines&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=X&oi=geocode_result&resnum=1&ct=title
The Manila Times
http://www.manilatimes.net/national/2008/may/12/yehey/top_stories/20080512top6.html
I'll present them the difficult vocabularies in the video news article from Reuters that I chose.

B. Post-listening Activity
For the comprehension check, there has to be the time of Q&A. After severl listening, teacher can ask the students main ideas and details about the story either orally or as a written form of quiz.
(Plus, if time is allowed, it would be good idea to let the students fill up the blanks of the script for enhancing careful listening skills.)

C. Post-listening Productive Activity
For the productive activity in class, I thought about two alternatives.
First, it is having students discuss the issue in the video in pairs or groups, share some good solutions, predictions, or similar experiences, and finally let them present the lists they talked in their groups to the class or write down and submit them to the teacher. It would enhance the students' speaking and writing ability.
Second, it is expected to benefit the students' reading, listening, and further writing skills, using internet sources like
World News(Articles+Listening)
http://article.wn.com/view/2008/05/05/Manila_scraps_rice_purchases/
http://www.iht.com/articles/reuters/2008/05/05/asia/OUKWD-UK-FOOD.php
This allows students to listen the script of articles which are related to the original video clip used in class. After getting them listen and read the another article, they are to make up summary of it.

If this is not too much burdensome, I would recommend the activity out of class, or assignment.
I found an web page, Global Voices
http://www.globalvoicesonline.org/
which offers the global issues and allows people to make comments about them. I beilieve it will work as a good extra task.

First of all, it is very sad to hear this news. Even though Manila is one of the best known place for traveling, there are lots of people who are suffering from famine due to their rice price rising. This content is good for learners to announce there is lots of people who even cannot afford to buy rice, then students can learn something from the video. However, I worry that this content might make students' attention deviate from the goal of listening . Because this content can arise strong emotional sympathy.
And I enjoyed to see the map of Manila which you would presend in pre-listeing tasks. And I wonder how you are going to use these materials especially the latter one(Manila times).
It is good way for learners to give some general ideas by showing maps and some realia. I would like to comment more about the latter material. How about showing some pictures which relates to famine in Manila? Because when you show the ariticle to students, I think it is inefficient in pre-listening stage. We would better elicit students' prior knowledge, not read news article.
In addition to pre-listening stage, I want to comment more on post-listening actvity. I think using internet source is a good way to make student elicit motivation. (I heard students have more effect on internet based learning) In post stage for production, I would rather not to choose the latter one, because the latter one seems focuse on more acceptive skills. And I think showing lots of materials can make students lost their attention.

I can't imagine how much that mother would be heartbreaking to see her children eating
the trash-food. It was too sad to watch. Also, students may be so shocked to see those
news story. I hope they can learn not only the contents and language itself but also
the world and happiness of themselve throguh the news.

I think your post-listening productive activity is good in that they can make students
discuss about the real topic. Through the discussion, they can learn English and solve the problem. Checking the problems, finding out the solutions or expecting the predictable results of actions is a good way to practice logical thinking.

However, I can't perfectly understand what kind of background knowledge you will give to your students and how you will make the other productive activities possible in real class room. I think we just need a little bit more specific explanation about them.

And.......hesitate to say this but.... I just want to suggest you to make them donate some money for Manila with sincere letter. It can not be big money. Just 500won or 1000
won will be fine. Then groups of memgers collect it and write a letter altogether and send it to those district. Then, I am sure students will learn real something as well as language.

Food price hits a record nowadays, I heard the price of wheat and rice has almost doubled. Especially this crisis seriouly affected the country living in the rice shuch as Philipines. In this country, the supply of the rice almost relys on the import from other country.

Your pre-listening activity need to be a little bit specific, so you could mention the type of activity which actually draw students' attention. But you found the specific materials that is authentic enough to stimulate students' interest. But this sort of authentic material can be more burdensome for studnets to deal with. so you need to preapre them woth more caution.

About comprehension activity.do you think which one is better to answer orally or in a written form?
In my opinion both can be mixed, so the teacher would elicit the answer in a way that he thinks it's better.
With a quick and simple question, the teacher can ask students to speak out the answer.

You 'are trying to integrate four skills at the final stage. There is some writing and reading combined with the listening. but reading article should be carried on carefully not to hamper the coherence of the lesson.

Hi~
Your lesson plan is well-explained; You articulated what each step needs for.
And you applied the media access overall in your lesson plan. especially, Manila times-a highly relevant site. I think it's such a good method. As you know, teenagers are a computer friendly generation. They would welcome computer research.
However, if you could introduce other material except computer-based ones, you would make your lesson more colorful. Students would sure find their amusement in other methods.

p.s. Don't you have any promt to lure your students to visit those websites more often?

1. I feel like the world is becoming a more dangerous and difficult place for human beings to live, so the news itself was interesting enough to draw people's attention, I think. Poverty is a worldwide problem, but the case in Manila makes my heart ache. I hope the government in Manila can do something for their people who cannot eat well and clean food.

2. What I like about your lesson plan is not only making students learn English but also making the students be aware of the global issues. I feel like the range of learning is expanding step by step. I like the idea that you will hand out another article related to the news. Through various reading, the students will be able to build up thinking ability in English. Also, using Internet-based materials will draw students' attention effectively.

3. I wonder who this lessons was aimed at because I cannot see what level of students can use this. Because we will be a middle/high school teacher, we have to consider the English level of our future learners.

4. I guess you didn't clearly mention about the task that you may give your students as an assignment at post-listening productive activities. You can make the students listen to the article at home and summarize it and then make them present what they listened in front of class or in a group.

It is such a tragedy that the poor has a hard time living their life due to their poverty. Your students will feel sympathy and a little shocked to see the scene of eating trash-food. I hope students can not only learn language knowledge, but can grow their consciousness of frugality.

I think your pre-listening activity is good enough to attract students' attention in the class. Also, it is very helpful to give them some general background knoledge through the internet sources like websites that you attached above. Generally, the audiovisual aids in th eclass activity works very effectively to bring learners' full attention and to make them have more interest in the class. So, I'd like to use visual materials for my class some time in the future, as you did on your lesson plan.

For the post-listening activity, why don't you add some interactive activity instead of doing it for post-listening productive activity on your lesson plan? I think it seems to be associated with the post-listening comprehensive check, not with the procuctive activity. If they have an opportunity to have conversation about what they've seen and share their ideas each other, they could understand the video news exactly and associate themselves to the class activity.
There is one more thing that I want to say. It's great to visit other websites related to your lesson. However, I think too much or too often during an hour of one class can cause the opposite results sometimes to what you have intended. They are able to make your students inattentive and tiresome.

Even though this might be different point, but still there are so many the deprived over the world, while people on the other part of the world are suffering from disease like obesity..with this point this is a great topic for letting students to know this global tragedy..Generally your plan is well-organized, I think..and I know you might already get the detailed plan in your mind, but it might be better for understanding your plan, if you gave us more detailed plan(like as a pre-listening activities, the exact materials for you to use for your Ss or some vocabularies that you are going to cover with Ss..)^^ And in the part of post-listening comprehension, if Ss can have a chance for sharing their answers each other as a group after listening to the script carefully during while-listening, it might be another way for their effective activity..I guess..^^ I also liked a wide range of sources(through internet) that you gave to Ss which looked so useful, and the good chance for speaking practice for Ss in the productive part..^^

While watching the video, I felt once again there are so serious polarizing phenomena in terms of economy, socio-culture, and so on around the world. They are very poor and I also worry about their health and healthy life. And it has been a serious problem some countries for many years, so the video is good enough to attract students interest.
In general, your lesson plan is great. Especially you prepare so many useful sites for the class. I think students can feel your enthusiasm and passion for the class.
Also, I like home assignment part to extend the class. But I have a question about the papers that you get from the students after the first post-listening productive activity. Will you make some correction and return to them? It is a time-consuming work, so if a teacher is not diligent and doesn't have much enthusiasm and passion for the class, it is a very hard working. I think you can do it. But what I want to know is whether you use them to evaluate or for some other purpose. Besides I want you to some more activities to check their comprehension using another materials or methods such as pair or group work to activate the cooperation. It's just my opinion, and I hope my opinion is helpful for your class.

Thank you. Actually, I expected that there will be more chance to work over the lesson plan in the 3rd assignment, which would require outline of the plan to be more refined. However, my expectation was beside the mark, you know. Now, I found that it worked in a positive way. That is, I think it allowed me to have good opportunities to be given goooooooooood feedback from you. Now, I am going to refine my roughly designed lesson plan more sophisticatedly. Thanks

Like you said, I also wondered if Manila's miserable situations could make students too emotional, but with some additional explanation on that subject matter, I hope that students could accept the content more positively. Oh, for the use of Manila Times you wondered, I was supposed to use that article as a group work. That is, I will divide the article into several paragraphs ,and let them summarize the given parts in each group, present their summaries and share the class. For this activity to take place without too much hardship, I will allow students to look up the words if they need^^.

Jung Yoojin wrote:First of all, it is very sad to hear this news. Even though Manila is one of the best known place for traveling, there are lots of people who are suffering from famine due to their rice price rising. This content is good for learners to announce there is lots of people who even cannot afford to buy rice, then students can learn something from the video. However, I worry that this content might make students' attention deviate from the goal of listening . Because this content can arise strong emotional sympathy.
And I enjoyed to see the map of Manila which you would presend in pre-listeing tasks. And I wonder how you are going to use these materials especially the latter one(Manila times).
It is good way for learners to give some general ideas by showing maps and some realia. I would like to comment more about the latter material. How about showing some pictures which relates to famine in Manila? Because when you show the ariticle to students, I think it is inefficient in pre-listening stage. We would better elicit students' prior knowledge, not read news article.
In addition to pre-listening stage, I want to comment more on post-listening actvity. I think using internet source is a good way to make student elicit motivation. (I heard students have more effect on internet based learning) In post stage for production, I would rather not to choose the latter one, because the latter one seems focuse on more acceptive skills. And I think showing lots of materials can make students lost their attention.

I had never thought before you mention wiriting letters to the impoverished in Manila and donating some money. I beilieve that's the very authentic materials to teach English and motivate students to get actively involved in activities. Thanks for the tip! I think I was inside the box..

jihyun wrote:I can't imagine how much that mother would be heartbreaking to see her children eating
the trash-food. It was too sad to watch. Also, students may be so shocked to see those
news story. I hope they can learn not only the contents and language itself but also
the world and happiness of themselve throguh the news.

I think your post-listening productive activity is good in that they can make students
discuss about the real topic. Through the discussion, they can learn English and solve the problem. Checking the problems, finding out the solutions or expecting the predictable results of actions is a good way to practice logical thinking.

However, I can't perfectly understand what kind of background knowledge you will give to your students and how you will make the other productive activities possible in real class room. I think we just need a little bit more specific explanation about them.

And.......hesitate to say this but.... I just want to suggest you to make them donate some money for Manila with sincere letter. It can not be big money. Just 500won or 1000
won will be fine. Then groups of memgers collect it and write a letter altogether and send it to those district. Then, I am sure students will learn real something as well as language.

Thanks for good suggestions I've got from Jung Yoojin, jihyun, Lee yujin, bobosbong, eunjin39, Mi Jin Jeong, Nam-suk, Han Kyoung Jae.

Thanks to your deliberate comments on my lesson plan, I could have time to make it more concrete and detailed. First of all, I targeted high school students, considering the fact that the level of news article and extra works which have to be done outside of the class are no easy task for middle school students to accept.

Secondly, as for 'prompt'! This makes me second thought.. I know there can be a lot of possibilities but I will pay more attention to using it. Please give me more time to find moderate use of it.

Many people recommend me not to overuse the internet sources which may distract students attentions. I totally agree with you and didn't intend to do so. I just wanted students could feel that they were actively involved in world issues. And,, I wanted to show the ways to find interesting materials on the web.

To integrate these ideas will make the lesson plan more sophisticated than before. This kind of activities offered me some insight to teach students effectively. I cannot thank you enough.