Final Exam : Video News from Lee Kyeong-im

Some cities trun off the light for an hour to induce people to be aware of the seriousness of climate change. Sydney is one of the 2007 cities taking part in off-hour to highlight climate chage. This reduces energy use by 10%. The cities are Bangkok, San Francisco, London, Dublin, etc.. It shows that government's care about climate change. More than 2.2 million people living near Sydney participated in the event.

1. I will show the title of this video, "The Big Trun Off" to my students. Then, they just guess what the content will be. It's a kind of brainstorming.

2. Students share their ideas about topic. Then, based on that they brainwrite key words which seem to be in the video.

3. After activities(number 1 and 2), I will pre-teach some special words or useful phrase such as climate change, plunge, take part in(participate in), switch off.

1. When they see the video at first time, let students talk what they hear and see. It is similar to our video activities including summary, opinion, and prediction.

2. In the second time, I prepare some sheets which miss key words. This time they fill in the blanks.

3. After that it's time to write down everything they hear. Dictation. To complete this we can hear this video several times. (3~5 times)

4. I will ask them something detail such as countries' names taking part in the event, some figures, reasons, interviewee's opinion, and so forth.


You might think that this activities are a kind of during(while)-listening activities. However, it is integrated form of listening that I really want to do. I know, actually, it's good way to help students improve their listening ability by dividing process into 3 parts, pre-, while-, and post-listening.
Yet, I think listening the video just one time is too short to comprehend its content or develop their skills. The more chance they have to listen someting, the more they can understand. It's better if we offer our students useful materials.
Although the processes 1-4, as the procedure goes, are getting difficult students' comprehension is getting easy.

1. Through the video, students see that this is about environment and that saving energy is one kind of our efforts to save the Earth. Based on this, at first, they communicate with others to share their experience. They can say anything they do to save the Earth.

2. Consist of 3~5 members in each group. They make their own brochures. Anything useful to save environment is O.K. They can draw or post some pictures. It is the ways that they have to put into their brochures. (Although I call it "brochure" the form of their products is not fixed. Newspaper, magine, essay, etc. are good.)

3. They move around in the classroom. They have to share thier ideas and show their product to other groups. Each group evaluate other products.

4. While students evaluate one another, I evaluate their speaking and writing. However, if I do this directly, it might interrupt students' activities. So I just write it and give them after their activities.

5. Finally, based on the students' thought, I choose the best one. It's not to discourage others but to encourage them to practice their thought immediately.

6. I put all on the wall. Anytime they can see it. I think that it is also a kind of positive feedback.

First of all I like your topic which announces about saving energy (especially in Sydney)
I have been there(the opera house , the harbor bridge, they are awesome!!!! ) anyway, what I am trying to say is your topic is interesting and I found it is very helpful for learing language and giving opportunities to think about the environment.

I think to elicit some ideas from students in pre-listening stage with the title is nice. It should give students some ideas what they are going to listen. That will make students feel comfortable to listen something.

But I wonder about the post-listening for comprehension stage. You mentioned it seems to be the whilie-listening but you think listeing as much as possible will help students learn more. That is why you put those activities such as dicatation and fillinf the gaps. How about while-listening? I think even if there is listening class, students would feel bored to listen during the listening and post-listening activity as well. Maybe we can make further activities to check comprehesion about topic through listening in post-comprehension stage.

In addtion, I really like your post-prodution activity. I couldn't think about it. Making brochures will motivate students to collaborate each other and they can learn more social skills through group works. Students can absolutely learn more about saving electronic energy and language itself as well. ^^

This news reminds me of off-hour at night in my childhood.
At that time, the government let all the people in Korea participate in the off-hour at night. Because the off-hour was a kind of training, in case of invasion from North Korea.
Those days, we children enjoyed the off-hours. But most parents were serious and we had to wait for the off-time to be over carrying the candles. If we couldn't help turning on the light indoors, we had to close the black and thick curtain at the window in order not to leak the light outside.
Unlike the training in my childhood, this off-hour experience is on the environmental crisis. In a way, this is also a kind of training. By not using the light,they saved the energy 10% or so. How marvelous!
Energy is limited and at any way we should save the energy and our planet. Someday we Korea will participate in that experience like other countries/cities. Experiencing the off-hours, we can feel the importance of energy. Let's think about saving energy in our home.

Kyeong-im wrote:Some cities trun off the light for an hour to induce people to be aware of the seriousness of climate change. Sydney is one of the 2007 cities taking part in off-hour to highlight climate chage. This reduces energy use by 10%. The cities are Bangkok, San Francisco, London, Dublin, etc.. It shows that government's care about climate change. More than 2.2 million people living near Sydney participated in the event.

It's good to divide the process into the pre-,while-, and post activity. And in a group activity, you said, you wouldnot directly participate in their activities and you would rather oberserve and check them. It's the way for the students to improve students' own skills. Realize and correct themselves.... And in motivation, you would choose the best student to encourage and motivate him/her not to discourage other students.

But I am wondering how many students there are in your class and in fact we have too many students in classroom. So we cannot do many activties enough. Sooner or later the size of class will change.

And also, I have an idea about your lesson plan. Each student speak one sentence as they hear and they can modify into their own sentences. Like this, they make up much more sentences by turn in a group.

Hello, Kyung-im. I think the contents of the video are interesting because climate change is a international issue nowadays and many people are concerned about that.

I've just read your lesson plan and I like it. There are many good points, but I will just mention two things. First, I like your first pre-listening activity in which a teacher shows only the title of the news article to students and asks them to predict the contents of it. This will boost students' curiosity about the contents that they are going to listen to sooner or later. Second, I also like your productive activity in which students make brochures that include pictures or writings related with the issue and go around the classroom introducing their booklets to their classmates. Through this activity, I think, students will be thinking, reading, and talking a lot about the issue with other students.

I have a couple of questions that I'm not sure of. First, for the productive activity No 2. 3. in which they make their brochure and introduce it to others, are they supposed to use only English? My nest questions is about post-listening activity No. 3(it's time to write down everything they hear. Dictation). Does this mean they should write down all the sentences in the video or as much sentences as they can?

I have just one suggestion about your lesson plan. For post-listening activity No.1 in which students discuss the climate change and what they can do about it, I think it would be a good idea if teacher make a list of "can-do" options that students can choose from. This might be useful when students find it difficult to come up with ideas related with the topic.

1. I think this news content is really interesting, informative and educational. And, I can say you choose the news whose topic is originally same as mine, concering about the future environment. As I said, I think this content is good in both sides, first it's interesting and second educational. Students will be interested in this story, I am sure. Because they know the country and that area better than other area. And the story is not so strict. Also, I totally agree with the idea that our earth are suffering from the environmental problem. So we need to act something immdiately. I am of the opinion that we need to turn off the switch as they did during the daytime if possible. But as they said in the news, it should not be for fun. I think this kind of news story teaching is also indirect way of keeping our earth safe. So it is educational. That's why I think this content is good.

2. And among your lesson plan, I especially like post-listening productive activity.
Having students make some visible outcomes(products) is really effective, I believe. Because it is sure that they truly think they learned something from the activity and class. I think this kind of self confidence is really good way to encourage students to concentrate more next time, too. Also through this post-activity process, students can learn more about the contents and expand their knowledge both in English and real-life.

3. I am sorry to say but I am not sure a little bit about your pre-listehing activity. Acccording to your lesson plan, students have to brainstrom based on nothing known about the title, excepting it is " A big turn off" Then how they can narrow down the contents. How do they know what they turned off, a fire? gas or heat??
And I just wonder how will you teach your new vocabulary to your students?

4. So, At first step, why don't you teach a title more specifically, then they know that it's about the light turning off, not something else. Then, they can brianstorm more specified area right away, with no needs to brainstorm twice. Also, I think, if you teach your new vocabularies in a story based picture, such as drawing with squre blanks above each figures, your students will more interested in learning new vocabualries. Because your news contents is easy to express in a picture, I think.

Jung Yoojin wrote:First of all I like your topic which announces about saving energy (especially in Sydney)
I have been there(the opera house , the harbor bridge, they are awesome!!!! ) anyway, what I am trying to say is your topic is interesting and I found it is very helpful for learing language and giving opportunities to think about the environment.

I think to elicit some ideas from students in pre-listening stage with the title is nice. It should give students some ideas what they are going to listen. That will make students feel comfortable to listen something.

But I wonder about the post-listening for comprehension stage. You mentioned it seems to be the whilie-listening but you think listeing as much as possible will help students learn more. That is why you put those activities such as dicatation and fillinf the gaps. How about while-listening? I think even if there is listening class, students would feel bored to listen during the listening and post-listening activity as well. Maybe we can make further activities to check comprehesion about topic through listening in post-comprehension stage.

In addtion, I really like your post-prodution activity. I couldn't think about it. Making brochures will motivate students to collaborate each other and they can learn more social skills through group works. Students can absolutely learn more about saving electronic energy and language itself as well. ^^

Dear Yoojin,
In my case, I also don't like topic which is boring. So when I chose topic I considered its content(interesting) and its level(difficulty). I'm glad to hear that you like this topic like me. ^^

In the class, it's easy to listen without any background knowledge. What they are going to listen... It's also true when we hear Korean. During brainstroming, I want to promote students' creative thinking. Let them think freely.

While-listening, it just comes in my mind. I will show some picture cards related to the news. Or it's good to let them do selective-listening. First time, liksten only content words and second time, function words. I hope this works. How about your opinion about this?

Post-activity, making brochures, is that one I really like. I know it can be stressful somehow. However, if I give them a lot of materials or information how to do it then its efficiency may be maximized. All skills, writing, speaking, reading, and listening are integrated in one activity.

Hello, Kyeong-im^^.

It was very nice to see you work hard every time. Now you wrote and prepared many activities..... I like the issue you chose. I hesitated to select your topic as my final term topic in the first place.

In your teaching plan, I especially pay attention to " post productive activities ". as following. Among 6 items, 6th item is very good idea, I think. I agree that putting all on the wall is a great feedback.

Great job! See you... Bye^^ ( I attached your statement under my short reply...)


1. Through the video, students see that this is about environment and that saving energy is one kind of our efforts to save the Earth. Based on this, at first, they communicate with others to share their experience. They can say anything they do to save the Earth.

2. Consist of 3~5 members in each group. They make their own brochures. Anything useful to save environment is O.K. They can draw or post some pictures. It is the ways that they have to put into their brochures. (Although I call it "brochure" the form of their products is not fixed. Newspaper, magine, essay, etc. are good.)

3. They move around in the classroom. They have to share thier ideas and show their product to other groups. Each group evaluate other products.

4. While students evaluate one another, I evaluate their speaking and writing. However, if I do this directly, it might interrupt students' activities. So I just write it and give them after their activities.

5. Finally, based on the students' thought, I choose the best one. It's not to discourage others but to encourage them to practice their thought immediately.

6. I put all on the wall. Anytime they can see it. I think that it is also a kind of positive feedback.

kim young-ah wrote:This news reminds me of off-hour at night in my childhood.
At that time, the government let all the people in Korea participate in the off-hour at night. Because the off-hour was a kind of training, in case of invasion from North Korea.
Those days, we children enjoyed the off-hours. But most parents were serious and we had to wait for the off-time to be over carrying the candles. If we couldn't help turning on the light indoors, we had to close the black and thick curtain at the window in order not to leak the light outside.
Unlike the training in my childhood, this off-hour experience is on the environmental crisis. In a way, this is also a kind of training. By not using the light,they saved the energy 10% or so. How marvelous!
Energy is limited and at any way we should save the energy and our planet. Someday we Korea will participate in that experience like other countries/cities. Experiencing the off-hours, we can feel the importance of energy. Let's think about saving energy in our home.

Kyeong-im wrote:Some cities trun off the light for an hour to induce people to be aware of the seriousness of climate change. Sydney is one of the 2007 cities taking part in off-hour to highlight climate chage. This reduces energy use by 10%. The cities are Bangkok, San Francisco, London, Dublin, etc.. It shows that government's care about climate change. More than 2.2 million people living near Sydney participated in the event.

Yeah.. Your writing reminds me of the saying "When the well's dry, we know the worth of water." Although I didn't experience the training as you said I'm sad because it represents Korean situation divided into 2 countries. Anyway, let's save our earth! ^^

I think the content is good for English learning and energy saving education. Students can know what other countries are doing for energy saving and it can motivate students to do it.

Kyeong-im wrote:Some cities trun off the light for an hour to induce people to be aware of the seriousness of climate change. Sydney is one of the 2007 cities taking part in off-hour to highlight climate chage. This reduces energy use by 10%. The cities are Bangkok, San Francisco, London, Dublin, etc.. It shows that government's care about climate change. More than 2.2 million people living near Sydney participated in the event.

i think dictation is a good way. by doing that, they can understand the content more clearly and know fuction words and grammar.
But I wonder if they can make it after 3 ~ 5 listening. I have to repeat listening more than 10 times to finish dictation. I think dictation is a good way but it costs too much time and energy of students which can have effect on later process.

Kyeong-im wrote:1. When they see the video at first time, let students talk what they hear and see. It is similar to our video activities including summary, opinion, and prediction.

2. In the second time, I prepare some sheets which miss key words. This time they fill in the blanks.

3. After that it's time to write down everything they hear. Dictation. To complete this we can hear this video several times. (3~5 times)

4. I will ask them something detail such as countries' names taking part in the event, some figures, reasons, interviewee's opinion, and so forth.


You might think that this activities are a kind of during(while)-listening activities. However, it is integrated form of listening that I really want to do. I know, actually, it's good way to help students improve their listening ability by dividing process into 3 parts, pre-, while-, and post-listening.
Yet, I think listening the video just one time is too short to comprehend its content or develop their skills. The more chance they have to listen someting, the more they can understand. It's better if we offer our students useful materials.
Although the processes 1-4, as the procedure goes, are getting difficult students' comprehension is getting easy.

kim young-ah wrote:It's good to divide the process into the pre-,while-, and post activity. And in a group activity, you said, you wouldnot directly participate in their activities and you would rather oberserve and check them. It's the way for the students to improve students' own skills. Realize and correct themselves.... And in motivation, you would choose the best student to encourage and motivate him/her not to discourage other students.

But I am wondering how many students there are in your class and in fact we have too many students in classroom. So we cannot do many activties enough. Sooner or later the size of class will change.

And also, I have an idea about your lesson plan. Each student speak one sentence as they hear and they can modify into their own sentences. Like this, they make up much more sentences by turn in a group.

Above all, thank you for your feedback. ^^
Let me tell/clarify your wondering thing. I think 30 to 35 students may be in my classroom. In each group it consists of 5~6 members. It's enought to make brochures. One of them takes note what others say, some prepare or draw pictures. As we did last class everyone in a group presents one method to save the earth. That is, each has chance to be apresider.

I like your lesson plan which is well organized, interesting and helpful for students. Your job is excellent!!
now I have two questions. First, you said, 'Based on this, at first, they communicate with others to share their experience. They can say anything they do to save the Earth.'
I think we can also do it in pre-listening process to motivate students.

Second, your idea that students move around and evaluate others' brochures is good. Then, how about this? Each group presents it in front of the whole class. Others evaluate it in a group. They discuss it and write down the results.

Kyeong-im wrote:1. Through the video, students see that this is about environment and that saving energy is one kind of our efforts to save the Earth. Based on this, at first, they communicate with others to share their experience. They can say anything they do to save the Earth.

2. Consist of 3~5 members in each group. They make their own brochures. Anything useful to save environment is O.K. They can draw or post some pictures. It is the ways that they have to put into their brochures. (Although I call it "brochure" the form of their products is not fixed. Newspaper, magine, essay, etc. are good.)

3. They move around in the classroom. They have to share thier ideas and show their product to other groups. Each group evaluate other products.

4. While students evaluate one another, I evaluate their speaking and writing. However, if I do this directly, it might interrupt students' activities. So I just write it and give them after their activities.

5. Finally, based on the students' thought, I choose the best one. It's not to discourage others but to encourage them to practice their thought immediately.

6. I put all on the wall. Anytime they can see it. I think that it is also a kind of positive feedback.

Lee Pilsu wrote:Hello, Kyung-im. I think the contents of the video are interesting because climate change is a international issue nowadays and many people are concerned about that.

I've just read your lesson plan and I like it. There are many good points, but I will just mention two things. First, I like your first pre-listening activity in which a teacher shows only the title of the news article to students and asks them to predict the contents of it. This will boost students' curiosity about the contents that they are going to listen to sooner or later. Second, I also like your productive activity in which students make brochures that include pictures or writings related with the issue and go around the classroom introducing their booklets to their classmates. Through this activity, I think, students will be thinking, reading, and talking a lot about the issue with other students.

I have a couple of questions that I'm not sure of. First, for the productive activity No 2. 3. in which they make their brochure and introduce it to others, are they supposed to use only English? My nest questions is about post-listening activity No. 3(it's time to write down everything they hear. Dictation). Does this mean they should write down all the sentences in the video or as much sentences as they can?

I have just one suggestion about your lesson plan. For post-listening activity No.1 in which students discuss the climate change and what they can do about it, I think it would be a good idea if teacher make a list of "can-do" options that students can choose from. This might be useful when students find it difficult to come up with ideas related with the topic.

Above all, thank you for your feedback. ^^

Your first question, yeah, students have to use only English when they introduce their works to others. However, it's okay to use native language to make brochure because they have to share their ideas and find out the best way to show it. With their mother tongue, I believe, they can do their best.
Second question, I think, even grown-ups can't write down everything they hear without enough time. If I let them do like that they might have stress. In the case that they can't write everyting, it may discourage students. I include this activity because just sound coming to students' ears is different from careful listening simultaneously with writing.

A list of "can-do".. It's pretty good idea~! It just comes to mind that a list of certain forms such as " I can~ ", " To reduce~ we have to ..." is useful for those who don't have confident of writing. ^^

Thank you, all guys, for your passional feedback. ^^
I would like to say my opinion/answer about your question one by one.

Jihyun, you asked me how I teach vocabulary to students in pre-listening activity. You also wondered to brainstorm "A big turn off". I know this brainstroming is too abstract or broad activity to get idea or right guess. However, I think, this makes students think more freely and know its(a phrase "turn off") usage. As you know well, a word has different meaning as well as different words have same meaning. It's a good chance to let students know this. After their brainstroming I'll say the right answer. That is, this video clip is concerned with light not fire, gas, etc. It's not scored so that students are necessary to feel stressful. Then I'll teach some key words or vocabularies directly. the words and meanings.

Saang-yung, thank you. ^^ Your short(?) and positive feedback encouraged me. When I saw you everytime I could feel your passion. In my eyes, you seemed to devote yourself to study other things concerned your life.

Un-jin, when students are forced to present their tasks in front of others it's a good chance to develop presenting ability. They might have confidence. Compared to my experience, a move around activity is more interesting than presentation because it offers familiar and comfortable atomosphere. I was able to enjoy that activity itself. Another question, you suggested me to put the "What I did to save the Earth" in the pre-listening activity. I think it's also good way. I put this in post-activity intentionally. That's because it is connected to making brochure. Without any disscussion or sharing ideas it's really hard to make not only brochure but also anything else.

First of all, I like your topic. Global warming is such a hot issue nowadays; it was an excellent choice. Most students will have background knowledge about the issue, which will help their understanding of the vedio article better.

Secondly, brainstorming is an outstanding pre-listening activity. Not only it reduces the tension of the students, but also improves stuents' creativity, right? I'd like to apply your method to mine^_^ Another good point is making a brochure; it's very creative and will promote interaction among students.

Finally, dictation part seems to be above the level of secondary students. Writing down everything on the blank sheet is difficult even to advanced level students. Therefore, I recommend a teacher to pause the clip sentence by sentence so that the students could have enough time to write down.

Brainstroming , In the lesson plan, that was the word that caught my eyes .
Usually ,learners of English associate " brainstroming " with writing activity but I believe it should go with other session( reading , listening , and speaking) . In that point of view, you did good job ^^.

Using brain stroming , students engage in " active" listening rather than "passive" one.
Pupils are using their general knowledge and lingustic competence to expect what they ear asorb and then understand . They are not just hear the sound . That 's why this is listening activity.

Among the post listening activities, I like the part you mase students made their own broucher and say something about what they've made.
Regarding the one of the primary goals of foregin language leaning ;function in real world(outside classroom) and unreheasled situation, it is really desirable activity. Because this one make students feel they are doing something using English language.