final exam-video news from Lee yujin

May 12th monday, there was a strong earthquake in sichaun provence in china.
Countless of people were killed and injured by this gigantic natual diaster. Also thousands of survivors are still buried under the rubble of collapsed buildings. Although domestic and international rescue teams have been working on to save lives, there has been still shortage of food, water and sheter. The whole provence turned panic with hundreds thausand of people who lost their family and home.

Pre-listening Activity

(Schema -building through reading)
1. Ask students about the natural disaster. If there are students who experience it. let them share thier experience.

2. Hand out the article form the junior English newspaper which is about the earthquake recently happened in china.

3. Read the article in thier group and find out the vocabularys related with natural disaster.

Post -listening Activity

(1) comperhension check
1. find out the main topic of the news.

2. find out the detailed information of the news
a. when did the earthquake happen?
b. where did the earthquake happen?
c.What would be main problem in rescue work?
d. How many soldiers have been sent to this provence?
b.what is the reaction of the china giverment?

3. Hand out the paper with some missing key words.
Ask students to fill the blanks based on what they heard.

(2)Production Activity

1. Ask students to make some plans to help the victims of the earthquake in a group.
(a. give them some information on the various NGOs which actually helps people around the world.)

2. ask some groups to represent their plans in front of other classmates.

3. ask students to write a journal about this tragedy on the web-site
and share thier feelings together

Dear Yujin

Nowadays people have hard time because of disaster. I was very sorry to hear the news about the earthquake in China. There's nothing that I can do for them but praying. So it's good chance to think what I can/should do.

In your lesson plan I like "schema-building through reading", especially number2. With different expression and thought(author/reporter) students can be exposured same topic. So they can learn various ways to express their opinion. Besides they can recognize some key words which are frequently used.

I just want you to clarify post-listenging activity, that is the number 1 in production activity. Although you said you are going to take a example, NGO, I think it's a little bit abstract or broad. I mean it's not directly related with students' situation so it is easy to think "It's not our business. We can't do that because we are just individuals not like organization. We can't go there."

How about adding detailed plans to help Korean? Use both your activity and that one. Also as you introduce your listening activity using "DISASTER EXPERIENCE", it's also good to think other plans to help those who are suffered from various disasters. It's better if they DO what they suggest during the class and write their feeling and experience. Because education is not theoretical but practical. ^^;

Pre-listening Activity

Most teachers do brainstorming or talk about the theme for Ss' background knowledge. But I like your new idea that reading newspaper about the news. Before listening you make them read.

Post -listening Activity




By asking some questions about the news they can get the main idea and some details about it. At this moment teachers should choose very proper and quality questions about it.




Production Activity

English is used to be humanic. Through this class and activity they can be more serious about it. How about visiting the NGO website and have them to chances to write their opinion to help the victims. They can share their ideas and also have a good way to communicate with people form other countries.

1. Recent earthquake in China surprised the world due to the tragic scenes and heavy casualties. It's so tragic that thousands of survivors are still buried under the rubble of collapsed buildings. I hope China will recover soon from the disaster and be brought back to the former state.

2. In your pre-listening activities, reading the article about the earthquake in China from the junior English newspaper is a really good idea. By reading the article, students can activate the background information and listening can be easier. So It's a good method to combine reading and listening. And the article is likely to be appropriate to the students' level because it's from junior English newspaper.

3. Your lesson plan is clear, well-organized and easy to understand. The activities are good enough to use in class right now.

4. You can add a group activity in which students make safety tips in case of emergencies. Safety tips vary depending on the type of disaster. So the teacher assign several disasters such as fire, earthquake, flood, lightening, etc. to each group. And the group members figure out what they should do in case of the given disaster.

Most of news talking about the terrible disaster of the earthquake in China. I feel very sad lots of people died and are dying due to lack of food and rescue work. Sometimes I remind the most dangerous thing all over the world is natural disasters. I know people can not avoid and can do nothing with it. How frustrated it is! And I hope as soon as possible the remainers can be rescued by troops and they can get some food by international organizations.

Let's move on your lesson plan. I think it is good idea to build-up students' general idea about topic through readling newspaper. But I feel worried some extent, because if there are lots of vocabularies students donot know, this activity would be time-consuming to expalin some vocabularies. And it can be deviate the main aim of listening activity. {It can be reading activity}

In addition to pre-listeing task, I like the comprehension activity. It make students get ideas gradually throgh listening. Students can use their top-down skills first and then they can use their bottom-up skills to fill out the blanks. Using both side of skills is very helpful for learners.

Your productive post listeing activity is good to make students motivated and pay attention to do the work. Because if students are trying to find some solutions , they can work in self-directed way. They can think in critical way and they can share their ideas altogher. Especially the last writing activity, it can give students further work and make them enjoy through reading their peers' ideas and commenting others.^^

Hello~Yu Jin

I heard that China's reconstruction spending will exceed $72 billion in the next three years, boosting demand for cement, glass, machinery and steel. However, it can acelerate demand will offer strong support to the fundamentals of Korea's corp. Is it ridiculous?
In business world, there is two-sided coin.
In addition, the turmoil we saw during the Olympic torch reflects the challenges.Conflicts like these have led to confrontation between the Chinese and foreigners. The disaster relief efforts, after the torch troubles,helped both the Chinese and global critics mend the rift and cultivate a deeper mutual understanding.
your pre-activity is quite well-organized and specific.The post activities are also good to check students' comperhension and promote integration of four skills. It can encourage students imagination and participate in class.
I think your lesson plan is great.

More importantly. Sorry for their loss.


Among the pre activity, I like the junior news paper parts.
Study material chouce was good I suggest. Distinctive feature of English language as school subject is that it is very closely tied with meaningful use in everyday life. Supposed that we learn and teach well...
So it is not necessary to be text book centred and using varous material is recommended.
Let student know everything written in English is good study material. Maybe we teachers and good language learner take that granted but many students does not recognize.
In that point of view, choosing the English news paper was very nice, it would be good non text book material and not that challenging because it is for teen.

Hello, Yu-jin. I don't have a television at home, so I couldn't watch the earthquake disaster in China until I watched your video news article. I've only heard it from the radio. When I actually saw through the video what's happened in a town struck hard by an earthquake in China, I came to my senses how serious it is there. I guess there are thousands of other towns whose situation is equally desperate and urgent. I know Korean middle and high students feel very sorry about the incident in China. Thus, I think this video can attract students' attention.

One thing I noticed as different or special in regard with pre-listening activity is that you used reading first while others that I've seen used vocabulary, or predicting the news' content by brainstorming the topic. I think it can be useful in that students will understand better and fast if they read similar story first and studied it beforehand.

In addition, I think your productive activity is also interesting and full of great ideas. In the first activity, you let students discuss some ways to help the victims of the earthquake in China. I think this will generate a great deal of brilliant ideas as the issue at hand is concerned about our neighboring country and the situation is desperate at the moment. Next, the second activity in which representives of each group present their ideas they discussed to other students is quite challenging but helpful to practice public speaking. And the third activity is also good because it involves writing about the topic. I like your productive activity because you use many different styles of activities: discussion, public speaking, and writing.

This article is about a serious disaster in China and now a hot issue in the media coverage. With this respect, it reminded students of horrible alarms and let them know there is a possibility of the earthquake in Korea.



In your post-listening activity, the extensive approach is good for motivating students to re-think about it. As I read your following comprehension questions, I could see your thoughtful consideration in the lesson plans.

Words fail me.
This is what I want to say. This is shown to us about how strong the nature is, compred with human beings. The most issue of Politicians and economists each country is to make more money. That's why we have been punished. In the middle of video news, a father came out to say that he is hopeing still his children to be rescued and be helped by food and other basic materials for survial. During this part, I could feel what he wants from him. Recently, around Korean penisula, quite many of vibrations of earthquake under water have been reported. And many scientists are saying that our country is not a safe place any more.
I am afraid of it, but I have nothing to do, but pray. And What we can do the least thing is to preseve the nature from human beings' activities for advancing. Anyway, it is a sad story for us and for the world.

I like those ideas
1. you give students the junior English newspaper to get some gist idea about the natural disasters and then share with others' experiences in natural disasters. This is interative activity between students and teacher or among students and so on.
2. In the post-listening activities, you are using some sort of dictation to write down some key words, which is for students to remember each word quite well. This dictation is closely to dictogloss.
3. You are going to allow them to use the Internet which is very popular in Korea. They can easily contact it and seeing or writing some comments what they think about.

However, you are using the same activities both in the pre-listening and in the post-listening, even though the latter one is more specific. It might be not challenging to students. Thus, if you give some different aspect to do their homework or tasks, it will be better and you should check what they did.