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Saturday December 4 Pre-Intermediate + THE ARTICLEAfter many months of peace and quiet, Spain has once again become the target of terrorist attack. ETA, the separatist Basque group, which wants freedom from Spain, has claimed responsibility for five explosions in that rocked Madrid, yesterday evening. The home-made bombs were all small, being packed into drinks cans, and were placed in gas stations on the outskirts of the city. Luckily only six people have been reported injured. ETA issued a bomb warning before the devices detonated, so the gas stations were evacuated. ETA, in its 36-year campaign for independence for the Basque region of north-west Spain, has been blamed for more than 850 deaths in scores of bomb blasts and assassinations. The group had been keeping a low profile since the al-Quaida bombing of the Atocha train station last year in Madrid, which killed over 200 innocent people. It proves that no matter what governments do to stop terrorists, they still have the organization and political will to fight back. Last month it vowed to continue attacking Spanish security forces. Eta seems to be alive and kicking. POSSIBLE WARM UPS / COOL DOWNS1. CHAT: Talk in pairs or groups about Spain, ETA, the War on Terror, Basque, people fighting for autonomy, terrorism … 2. FREEDOM FIGHT: Write in a column on the board some of the world’s terrorist / separatist groups. Ask students to call out the names of the countries in which they operate. Students tell each other what they know about these groups, and whether they believe their cause is legitimate. 3. 2-MINUTE DEBATES: Students face each other in pairs and engage in the following (for-fun) 2-minute debates. Students A are assigned the first argument, students B the second. Rotate pairs to ensure a lively pace and noise level is kept: 4. TERROR: Students talk about their experiences of it (probably largely through news media) and whether they believe the War on Terror, is being won. PRE-READING IDEAS1. THE WORD ‘TERROR’: Students look in their dictionaries / computer to find collocates, other meanings, information, synonyms … of the word ‘terror’ 2. TRUE/FALSE: Students predict whether they believe the following statements are true or false: 3. PHRASE MATCH: Students match the following phrases based on the article (sometimes more than one combination is possible):
4. SYNONYMS: In pairs students match the following words taken from the text. They may need a dictionary:
WHILE READING ACTIVITIES1. GAP-FILL: Put the missing words under each paragraph into the gaps. Terror in Spain
2. TRUE/FALSE: Students check their answers to the T/F exercise. 3. QUESTIONS: Students make notes for questions they would like to ask the class about the article. 4. I’M SHOCKED/HORRIFIED THAT…: Students underline anything in the article that they would use to finish the sentence starter ‘I’m shocked/horrofied that …’ 5. VOCABULARY: Students circle any words they do not understand. In groups pool unknown words and use dictionaries to find the meanings. POST READING IDEAS1. GAP-FILL: Check the answers to the gap-fill exercise. 2. QUESTIONS: Students ask the questions they thought of above to their partner / group / class. 3. VOCABULARY: As a class, go over the vocabulary students circled above. 4. STUDENT-GENERATED SURVEY: Pairs/Groups write down 3 questions based on the article. Conduct their surveys alone. Report back to partners to compare answers. Report to other groups / the whole class. 5. VERBATIM: Students create and share their own questions using these words from the article. The questions do not have to be related to ETA or the article. Collect questions to highlight their diversity: HOMEWORK1. VOCAB EXTENSION: Choose several of the words from the text. Use a dictionary or the Google search field to build up more associations / collocations of each word. 2. INTERNET: Search the Internet and find more information on the Basque region of Spain. Share your findings with your class next lesson. 3. RESEARCH: Search the Internet and write your own article on an area of the Basque (people, culture, music, history…. 4. LETTER: Students write a letter to Spain’s Prime Minister, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, about your feelings regarding Basque separatism. ANSWERSTRUE/FALSE: PHRASE MATCH:
SYNONYMS:
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