Thursday February 10, 2005
Pre-Intermediate +

THE ARTICLE

A BBC producer has been shot dead just after arriving in Somalia to produce a series of news reports on the country. Kate Peyton, aged 39, worked as a journalist and producer for the BBC for twelve years, largely on the African continent. She arrived in the Somali capital Mogadishu with her reporter Peter Greste and was shot in the back outside her hotel. Mr. Greste, who was next to Ms Peyton when the shooting occurred, escaped unharmed. The BBC’s head of news said about Ms Peyton, “Kate was one of our most experienced and respected Foreign Affairs producers who had worked all over Africa and all over the world. She will be greatly missed, both professionally and personally.” The murderers have not yet been caught, nor are they likely to be in a city as lawless as Mogadishu, infamous for scenes of mobs dragging dead US Marines through the city streets in 1993. Being a journalist and going to dangerous countries is never without risk and every news reporter knows the dangers. It shows how dedicated they are to bringing us the news by putting their lives on the line.

Lesson & plan in Word.doc

Example Class Handout in .pdf

WARM UPS / COOL DOWNS

1. CHAT:  Talk in pairs or groups about the BBC / journalists / being a producer / the African continent / dangerous jobs / Somalia / putting your life on the line…

To make things more dynamic, try telling your students they only have one minute (or 2) on each chat topic before changing topics / partners. Change topic / partner frequently to energize the class.

2. JOURNALIST BRAINSTORM: Spend one minute writing down all of the different words you associate with journalists. Share your words with your partner / group and talk about them.

3. DANGEROUS JOBS: Talk to your partner / group about the following dangerous jobs. Which three would you do, and which three would you never do?

TV news war correspondent  /  coal miner  / land mine clearer  /  soldier in Iraq  /  skyscraper construction worker  /   deep sea diver  /  fighter pilot  /  fire fighter  /  spy  /  logger  /  F1 driver

4. BEING A JOURNALIST: The following is a short list of the things needed to be a journalist and go to dangerous places. Tell your partner if you have these qualities, and give examples to show how:

bravery  /  a desire to find the truth  /  dedication  /  independence  /  stamina  /  never-ending patience  /  excellent people skills  /  intuition  /  guts  /  ability to think on yo ur feet  /  composure  /  a sense of humor

PRE-READING IDEAS

1. WORD SEARCH: Students look in their dictionaries / computer to find collocates, other meanings, information, synonyms … of the words ‘news’ and ‘report’.

2. TRUE / FALSE: Students look at the headline and predict whether they believe the following statements about the article are true or false:

1. A BBC producer has been shot dead just after arriving in Somalia.  T / F
2. The producer was on vacation in Somalia.  T / F
3. She had a lot of experience reporting in Africa.  T / F
4. She was shot in the back outside her hotel.  T / F
5. Her news reporter was also shot. T / F
6. The murderers were arrested just minutes later.  T / F
7. Mogadishu is usually a very safe city.  T / F
8. Ms Peyton put her life on the line to bring us the news.  T / F

3. SYNONYM MATCH: Students match the following synonyms from the article:

(a)	produce	gunned down
(b)	series	globe
(c)	largely	make
(d)	shot	unhurt
(e)	occurred	number
(f)	unharmed	mainly
(g)	world	deeply
(h)	greatly	anarchic
(i)	lawless	happened
(j)	dedicated	committed

4. PHRASE MATCH: Students match the following phrases based on the article (sometimes more than one combination is possible):

(a)	just after	the world
(b)	on the African	not yet been caught
(c)	shot in	lawless as Mogadishu
(d)	escaped	arriving in Somalia
(e)	all over	without risk
(f)	She will be greatly	continent
(g)	The murderers have	unharmed
(h)	in a city as	the back
(i)	going to dangerous countries is never	on the line
(j)	putting their lives	missed

  

WHILE READING ACTIVITIES

1. GAP-FILL:  Put the missing words under each paragraph into the gaps.

BBC producer killed in Somalia

A BBC producer has been __________ dead just after arriving in Somalia to produce a series of news reports on the __________. Kate Peyton, aged 39, worked as a journalist and producer for the BBC for twelve years, __________ on the African continent. She arrived in the Somali capital Mogadishu with her reporter Peter Greste and was shot in the __________ outside her hotel. Mr. Greste, who was next to Ms Peyton when the shooting occurred, escaped ____ ______. The BBC’s head of news said about Ms Peyton, “Kate was one of our most experienced and respected Foreign Affairs producers who had worked all over Africa and all over the world. She will be __________ missed, both professionally and personally.” The murderers have not yet been caught, nor are they likely to be in a city as lawless as Mogadishu, __________ for scenes of mobs dragging dead US Marines through the city streets in 1993. Being a journalist and going to dangerous countries is never without risk and every news reporter knows the dangers. It shows how dedicated they are to bringing us the news by putting their __________ on the line.

unharmed shot infamous lives     largely greatly country back

2. TRUE/FALSE:  Students check their answers to the T/F exercise.

3. SYNONYMS:  Students check their answers to the synonyms exercise.

4. PHRASE MATCH:  Students check their answers to the phrase match exercise.

5. QUESTIONS: Students make notes for questions they would like to ask the class about the article.

6. VOCABULARY:  Students circle any words they do not understand. In groups, pool unknown words and use dictionaries to find the meanings.

POST READING IDEAS

1. GAP-FILL: Check the answers to the gap-fill exercise.

2. QUESTIONS:  Students ask the discussion questions they thought of above to their partner / group / class. Pool the questions for all students to share.

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. ‘NEWS’/ ‘REPORT’: Students make questions based on their findings from pre-reading activity #1.

6. DISCUSSION:  Students ask each other the following questions:
What do you think of Ms Peyton?

1. Would you like to do her job?
2. If your boss asked you to go to Somalia, what would you say to him/her?
3. Do you think the job of an international news correspondent is always exciting?
4. How dangerous is being a news reporter?
5. Should news agencies ask their reporters to put their lives on the line?
6. What would the world news look like if journalists only went to ‘safe’ countries?
7. Have you ever wanted to be a journalist?
8. If you were a journalist, in which news department would you choose to work – sports, Hollywood, computers, science, wars, financial, domestic, fashion, other?
9. Have you ever put your life on the line?
10. Is your job without risk?
11. Are you interested in going too dangerous countries?
12. Do you want an exciting job involving danger and risk, like Ms Peyton’s, or a sedate and safe office job?
13. Teacher / Student additional questions

HOMEWORK

1. 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 Somalia. Share your findings with your class next lesson.

3. LETTER TO KATE: Write a letter to Kate Peyton telling her your thoughts on her being a journalist and going to dangerous countries.

4. MY DREAM JOB: Being a journalist was probably Ms Peyton’s dream job. Write about yours – How long have wanted to do it? Why? Any plans?

ANSWERS

TRUE / FALSE:

1. A BBC producer has been shot dead just after arriving in Somalia.  T
2. The producer was on vacation in Somalia.  F
3. She had a lot of experience reporting in Africa.  T
4. She was shot in the back outside her hotel.  T
5. Her news reporter was also shot. F
6. The murderers were arrested just minutes later.  F
7. Mogadishu is usually a very safe city.  F
8. Ms Peyton put her life on the line to bring us the news.  T

SYNONYM MATCH:

(a)	produce	make
(b)	series	number
(c)	largely	mainly
(d)	shot	gunned down
(e)	occurred	happened
(f)	unharmed	unhurt
(g)	world	globe
(h)	greatly	deeply
(i)	lawless	anarchic
(j)	dedicated	committed

PHRASE MATCH:

(a)	just after	arriving in Somalia
(b)	on the African	continent
(c)	shot in	the back
(d)	escaped	unharmed
(e)	all over	the world
(f)	She will be greatly	missed
(g)	The murderers have	not yet been caught
(h)	in a city as	lawless as Mogadishu
(i)	going to dangerous countries is never	without risk
(j)	putting their lives	on the line

 GAP FILL:

BBC producer killed in Somalia

A BBC producer has been shot dead just after arriving in Somalia to produce a series of news reports on the country. Kate Peyton, aged 39, worked as a journalist and producer for the BBC for twelve years, largely on the African continent. She arrived in the Somali capital Mogadishu with her reporter Peter Greste and was shot in the back outside her hotel. Mr. Greste, who was next to Ms Peyton when the shooting occurred, escaped unharmed. The BBC’s head of news said about Ms Peyton, “Kate was one of our most experienced and respected Foreign Affairs producers who had worked all over Africa and all over the world. She will be greatly missed, both professionally and personally.” The murderers have not yet been caught, nor are they likely to be in a city as lawless as Mogadishu, infamous for scenes of mobs dragging dead US Marines through the city streets in 1993. Being a journalist and going to dangerous countries is never without risk and every news reporter knows the dangers. It shows how dedicated they are to bringing us the news by putting their lives on the line.

Copyright © 2005 by Sean Banville