My
1,000 Ideas e-Book |
Breaking News EnglishHOME | HELP MY SITE | 000s MORE FREE LESSONS |
My
1,000 Ideas e-Book |
Date: Nov 21, 2005
Level: Harder (Try the easier lesson.) Downloads: Word Doc | PDF Doc | Listening Audio: (1:50 - 216.2 KB - 16kbps)
THE ARTICLEThe British government has announced that school bullying has reached epidemic proportions. Last week, England’s specially designated Commissioner for Children said nearly every child was affected by the problem. In the run up to Anti-Bullying Week, which starts today (November 21), education ministers are considering fining the parents of bullies. Pupils who attack or threaten their classmates could land Mom or Dad with a cash penalty of up to $1,710. Schools minister Jacqui Smith said: “This will send a strong message to parents that schools will not tolerate a failure to take responsibility for bullying.” Additionally, there are proposals to give teachers a “clear right” to discipline children and “restrain them through reasonable force” where necessary. Ms. Smith said: “Bullying should never be tolerated in our schools, no matter what its motivation.” She added that: “Children must know what is right and what is wrong, and that there will be consequences for crossing the line.” She spoke after a recent spate of particularly violent and disturbing cases in schools. Twelve-year-old bullies have preyed on their victims, slashing them with knives and using iron bars to beat them unconscious. One child was told she would be “dead meat” if she returned to school. Although the right to education without fear is enshrined into the UN convention on the rights of the child, it seems Britain’s schoolchildren have gone haywire and are hell bent on tormenting and injuring other students rather than learning. WARM-UPS1. THE BAD KIDS: Write down the names of some of the bad kids from when you were at school. In pairs / groups, talk about the bad things these students got up to. Did their bad behavior affect you in any way? Did you do anything wrong and behave badly at school? 2. BULLYING: In pairs / groups, talk about bullying. Were you bullied at school? What kind of bullying did you see? Who was the biggest bully? Did you bully a younger brother or sister? Is there bullying in your office? What would you do if the things below happened to you?
3. CHAT: In pairs / groups, decide which of these topics or words are most interesting and which are most boring.
Have a chat about the topics you liked. For more conversation, change topics and partners frequently. 4. COMMENTS ON BULLIES: (1) Read the comments below made about bullies. Agree or disagree with them with your partner / group. (2) Rewrite the sentences so they match your own opinions. Add an extra sentence to each opinion. (3) Change partners / groups and read and talk about what you wrote.
5. BULLY: Spend one minute writing down all of the different words you associate with bullies. Share your words with your partner(s) and talk about them. Together, put the words into different categories. BEFORE READING / LISTENING1. TRUE / FALSE: Look at the article’s headline and guess whether these sentences are true (T) or false (F):
2. SYNONYM MATCH: Match the following synonyms from the article:
3. PHRASE MATCH: Match the following phrases from the article (sometimes more than one combination is possible):
WHILE READING / LISTENINGODD WORD OUT: Delete the incorrect word from each of the groups in italics. Bullying an epidemic in the U.K.The British government has announced that school bullying has reached epidemic propositions / levels / proportions. Last week, England’s specially designated / nominated / protracted Commissioner for Children said nearly every child was affected by the problem. In the run down / lead in / run up to Anti-Bullying Week, which starts today (November 21), education ministers are considering fining the parents of bullies. Pupils who attack or threaten their classmates could land / take off / leave Mom or Dad with a cash penalty of up to $1,710. Schools minister Jacqui Smith said: “This will send a strong message to parents that schools will not throttle / condone / tolerate a failure to take responsibility for bullying.” Additionally, there are proposals to give teachers a “clear right” to discipline children and “restrain them through reasonable / moderate / lethal force” where necessary”. Ms. Smith said: “Bullying should never be tolerated in our schools, no matter what its spark plug / motivation / impetus.” She added that: “Children must know what is right and what is wrong, and that there will be consequences for crossing the line.” She spoke after a recent surge / spate / sating of particularly violent and disturbing cases in schools. Twelve-year-old bullies have preyed on / terrorized / prayed for their victims, slashing them with knives and using iron bars to beat them unconscious / senseless / repressed. One child was told she would be “dead meat” if she returned to school. Although the right to education without fear is written / entombed / enshrined into the UN convention on the rights of the child, it seems Britain’s schoolchildren have gone haywire / berserk / haystack and are hell bent on tormenting and injuring other students rather than learning. LISTENINGListen and fill in the spaces. Bullying an epidemic in the U.K.The British government has announced that school bullying has reached epidemic ____________. Last week, England’s specially ____________ Commissioner for Children said nearly every child was affected by the problem. In the run up to Anti-Bullying Week, which starts today (November 21), education ministers are considering fining the parents of bullies. _______ who attack or threaten their classmates could ______ Mom or Dad with a cash penalty of up to $1,710. Schools minister Jacqui Smith said: “This will send a strong message to parents that schools will not __________ a failure to take responsibility for bullying.” Additionally, there are proposals to give teachers a “clear right” to __________ children and “__________ them through reasonable force” where necessary”. Ms. Smith said: “Bullying should never be __________ in our schools, no matter what its motivation.” She added that: “Children must know what is right and what is wrong, and that there will be consequences for __________ the line.” She spoke after a recent __________ of particularly violent and disturbing cases in schools. Twelve-year-old bullies have preyed on their victims, __________ them with knives and using iron bars to beat them unconscious. One child was told she would be “dead meat” if she returned to school. Although the right to education without fear is __________ into the UN convention on the rights of the child, it seems Britain’s schoolchildren have gone __________ and are hell bent on ____________ and injuring other students rather than learning. AFTER READING / LISTENING1. WORD SEARCH: Look in your dictionaries / computer to find collocates, other meanings, information, synonyms … for the words ‘hay’ and ‘wire’.
2. ARTICLE QUESTIONS: Look back at the article and write down some questions you would like to ask the class about the text.
3. ODD WORD OUT: In pairs / groups, compare your answers to this exercise. Check your answers. Talk about the words from the activity. Were they new, interesting, worth learning…? 4. VOCABULARY: Circle any words you do not understand. In groups, pool unknown words and use dictionaries to find their meanings. 5. STUDENT “BULLYING” SURVEY: In pairs / groups, write down questions about bullying.
6. TEST EACH OTHER: Look at the words below. With your partner, try to recall exactly how these were used in the text:
DISCUSSIONSTUDENT A’s QUESTIONS (Do not show these to student B)
STUDENT B’s QUESTIONS (Do not show these to student A)
AFTER DISCUSSION: Join another partner / group and tell them what you talked about.
SPEAKINGBULLYING SOLUTIONS: How far do you agree with these solutions to curbing bullying in schools? Discuss the pros and cons of each with your partner(s).
HOMEWORK1. VOCABULARY EXTENSION: Choose several of the words from the text. Use a dictionary or Google’s search field (or another search engine) to build up more associations / collocations of each word. 2. INTERNET: Search the Internet and find more information on Anti-Bullying Week in the UK. Share your findings with your class in the next lesson. Did you all find out similar things? 3. ANTI-BULLYING POSTER: Make an anti-bullying poster outlining the different kinds of bullying offences and the punishments for each offence. Show your posters to your classmates in your next lesson. Did you all think of similar things? 4. LETTER: You have been bullied for the past year. Write a letter to the bully explaining your feelings. Ask the bully some questions. Show what you wrote to your classmates in the next lesson. Did you all write about similar things? ANSWERSTRUE / FALSE:
SYNONYM MATCH:
PHRASE MATCH:
ODD WORD OUT: Bullying an epidemic in the U.K.The British government has announced that school bullying has reached epidemic Ms. Smith said: “Bullying should never be tolerated in our schools, no matter what its
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Copyright © 2004-2019 by Sean Banville | Links | About | Privacy Policy
|