Breaking News English ESL Lesson Plan on Twitter Conference

A conference on and by people who use the micro-blogging site Twitter has taken place in Los Angeles. Tweeps (people who use Twitter) from across the world gathered at the Kodak Theatre, venue of the Oscars, for the 140 Characters Conference. People representing all kinds of fields gave and attended presentations. The original idea of the gathering was to explore "the effects of Twitter on celebrity, the media, advertising and (maybe) politics”. However, it increased its scope due to the phenomenal success of the social networking site. Presenter and blog legend Shelly Terrell represented education. She said: “The 140 Conference highlights the best of humanity on social media. People passionately use Twitter to improve education and lives by making people aware.”

Twitter started in 2006 and quickly grew to become one of the world’s most popular websites. It is described as the “SMS of the Internet”. The idea was simple. People could post a message using no more than 140 characters on what they were doing. The site has become a very important tool for people to share information. Barack Obama used it to great effect in his presidential campaign in 2008. News agencies around the world used Twitter posts as a key source during the protest that followed Iran’s election in June, 2009. Shelly Terrell highlighted its role in education, saying: “Twitter allows educators around the world to collaborate on issues and improve the system as a whole, with support.” She added, Twitter means “we are not alone!”

WARM-UPS

1. SOCIAL NETWORKING: Talk to many other students about social networking. Change partners often. Sit with your first partner(s) and share your findings.

2. CHAT: In pairs / groups, decide which of these topics or words from the article are most interesting and which are most boring.

conferences / blogs / Oscars / presentations / original ideas / humanity / education / Twitter / popular websites / simple ideas / news agencies / collaborate / support

Have a chat about the topics you liked. Change topics and partners frequently.

3. WEBSITES: What are the good and bad things about these websites? Complete this table with your partner(s). Change partners and share what you heard.

	Good (and why)	Bad (and why)
Google
Facebook
YouTube
Twitter
MSN
Other ___________

4. NETWORKING: Students A strongly believe websites are the best way to network; Students B strongly believe face-to-face networking is better. Change partners again and talk about your conversations.

5. SHARING INFO: What is the best way to share information? Rank these things. Put the best thing at the top. Change partners and share your rankings.

mobile phone
e-mail
blog
letters and post cards

Twitter
your own website
Facebook
F2F (face to face)

6. ALONE: Spend one minute writing down all of the different words you associate with the word ‘alone’. Share your words with your partner(s) and talk about them. Together, put the words into different categories.

BEFORE READING / LISTENING

1. TRUE / FALSE: Read the headline. Guess if a-h below are true (T) or false (F).

a.	There were 140 personalities at a conference on Twitter.	T / F
b.	The conference took place at the same place as the Oscars ceremony.	T / F
c.	The original idea of the conference was to talk about education.	T / F
d.	A blogger said the conference was to show how good social media was.	T / F
e.	Twitter only started two years ago.	T / F
f.	Some people say Twitter is an online version of texting and messaging.	T / F
g.	Barack Obama refused to use Twitter in his bid to become President.	T / F
h.	A blogger said Twitter was good because we are all connected.	T / F

2. SYNONYM MATCH: Match the following synonyms from the article.

1.	micro	a.	areas
2	taken place	b.	important
3.	fields	c.	back-up
4.	scope	d.	people
5.	humanity	e.	letters and numbers
6.	grew	f.	team up
7.	characters	g.	very small
8.	key	h.	ballooned
9.	collaborate	i.	range
10.	support	j.	happened

3. PHRASE MATCH: (Sometimes more than one choice is possible.)

1.	people who use the	a.	networking site
2	People representing all	b.	and lives
3.	The original idea	c.	Iran’s election
4.	the phenomenal success of the social	d.	micro-blogging site
5.	improve education	e.	issues
6.	become one of the world’s	f.	kinds of fields
7.	post a message using no	g.	to share information
8.	a very important tool for people	h.	of the gathering
9.	the protest that followed	i.	more than 140 characters
10.	collaborate on	j.	most popular websites

WHILE READING / LISTENING

GAP FILL: Put the words into the gaps in the text.

A conference on and by people who use the micro-blogging site Twitter has taken ____________ in Los Angeles. Tweeps (people who use Twitter) from across the world ____________ at the Kodak Theatre, venue of the Oscars, for the 140 Characters Conference. People representing all kinds of ____________ gave and attended presentations. The original idea of the gathering was to ____________ "the effects of Twitter on celebrity, the media, advertising and (maybe) politics”. However, it increased its ____________ due to the phenomenal success of the social networking site. Presenter and blog legend Shelly Terrell represented ____________. She said: “The 140 Conference highlights the best of ____________ on social media. People passionately use Twitter to improve education and lives by making people ____________.”

explore
place
humanity
fields
education
gathered
fields
scope

Twitter started in 2006 and quickly ____________ to become one of the world’s most popular websites. It is ____________ as the “SMS of the Internet”. The idea was simple. People could post a message using no more than 140 characters on what they were ____________. The site has become a very important tool for people to share information. Barack Obama used it to great ____________ in his presidential campaign in 2008. News agencies around the world used Twitter posts as a ____________ source during the protest that followed Iran’s election in June, 2009. Shelly Terrell highlighted its ____________ in education, saying: “Twitter allows educators around the world to ____________ on issues and improve the system as a whole, with support.” She added, Twitter means “we are not ____________!”

role
effect
described
alone
grew
key
doing
collaborate

LISTENING – Listen and fill in the gaps

A conference on and ________________ the micro-blogging site Twitter has taken place in Los Angeles. Tweeps (people who use Twitter) from across the world ________________ Kodak Theatre, venue of the Oscars, for the 140 Characters Conference. People representing ________________ gave and attended presentations. The original idea of the gathering was to explore "the effects of Twitter on celebrity, the media, advertising and (maybe) politics”. However, it increased ________________ the phenomenal success of the social networking site. Presenter and blog legend Shelly Terrell represented education. She said: “The 140 Conference highlights __________________ on social media. People passionately use Twitter to improve education and lives by __________________.”

Twitter started in 2006 ________________ become one of the world’s most popular websites. It is described as the “SMS of the Internet”. The idea was simple. People could post a message ________________ 140 characters on what they were doing. The site has become a very important tool for people to share information. Barack Obama used ________________ in his presidential campaign in 2008. News agencies around the world used Twitter posts ________________ during the protest that followed Iran’s election in June, 2009. Shelly Terrell highlighted __________________, saying: “Twitter allows educators around the world to collaborate on issues and improve the ________________, with support.” She added, Twitter means “we are not alone!”

AFTER READING / LISTENING

1. WORD SEARCH: Look in your dictionary / computer to find collocates, other meanings, information, synonyms … for the words ‘social’ and ‘network’.

social

network

Share your findings with your partners.

Make questions using the words you found.
Ask your partner / group your questions.

2. ARTICLE QUESTIONS: Look back at the article and write down some questions you would like to ask the class about the text.

Share your questions with other classmates / groups.
Ask your partner / group your questions.

3. GAP FILL: 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. TEST EACH OTHER: Look at the words below. With your partner, try to recall how they were used in the text:

place
venue
original
maybe
legend
aware

grew
SMS
tool
effect
role
alone

STUDENT SOCIAL NETWORKING SURVEY

Write five GOOD questions about social networking in the table. Do this in pairs. Each student must write the questions on his / her own paper.

When you have finished, interview other students. Write down their answers.

	STUDENT 1 _____________	STUDENT 2 _____________	STUDENT 3 _____________
Q.1.
Q.2.
Q.3.
Q.4.
Q.5.

Now return to your original partner and share and talk about what you found out. Change partners often.
Make mini-presentations to other groups on your findings.

SOCIAL NETWORKING DISCUSSION

STUDENT A’s QUESTIONS (Do not show these to student B)

a)	What did you think when you read the headline?
b)	What springs to mind when you hear the word ‘character’?
c)	What do you know about Twitter?
d)	What do you think of the idea of social networking?
e)	What’s your favourite website and why?
f)	What would your life be like without the Internet?
g)	Would you like to attend an Internet conference? What would you do there?
h)	Do you have a favourite blog, or do you blog?
i)	Which person would you most like to follow on Twitter?
j)	How do you think social media helps people’s lives?

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

STUDENT B’s QUESTIONS (Do not show these to student A)

a)	Did you like reading this article?
b)	Why do you think Twitter became so popular?
c)	Do you think Twitter is better than Facebook and MySpace?
d)	Do you think 140 characters is enough to be able to share information?
e)	What’s the most important tool you use on the computer?
f)	How important is having access to information?
g)	What do you think the best uses of Twitter are?
h)	How have different people around the world used Twitter?
i)	Do you feel less lonely because of the Internet?
j)	What questions would you like to ask the owner of Twitter?

LANGUAGE – MULTIPLE CHOICE

A conference on and by people who use the micro-blogging site Twitter has taken (1) ____ in Los Angeles. Tweeps (people who use Twitter) from across the world (2) ____ at the Kodak Theatre, venue of the Oscars, for the 140 Characters Conference. People representing all kinds of (3) ____ gave and attended presentations. The original idea of the gathering was to explore "the effects of Twitter on celebrity, the media, advertising and (maybe) politics”. However, it increased its scope (4) ____ to the phenomenal success of the social networking site. Presenter and blog (5) ____ Shelly Terrell represented education. She said: “The 140 Conference highlights the best of humanity on social media. People (6) ____ use Twitter to improve education and lives by making people aware.”

Twitter started in 2006 and quickly grew to become one of the world’s most popular websites. It is described (7) ____ the “SMS of the Internet”. The idea was simple. People could post a message (8) ____ no more than 140 characters on what they were doing. The site has become a very important tool for people to share information. Barack Obama used it to great (9) ____ in his presidential campaign in 2008. News agencies around the world used Twitter posts as a key (10) ____ during the protest that (11) ____ Iran’s election in June, 2009. Shelly Terrell highlighted its role in education, saying: “Twitter allows educators around the world to collaborate on issues and improve the system as a (12) ____, with support.” She added, Twitter means “we are not alone!”

Put the correct words from the table below in the above article.

1.	(a)	peace	(b)	venue	(c)	event	(d)	place
2.	(a)	gathered	(b)	gathers	(c)	gathering	(d)	gather
3.	(a)	parks	(b)	fields	(c)	farms	(d)	hills
4.	(a)	because	(b)	so	(c)	due	(d)	for
5.	(a)	legendary	(b)	legends	(c)	legend	(d)	legion
6.	(a)	passions	(b)	passionately	(c)	passion	(d)	impassioned
7.	(a)	has	(b)	was	(c)	so	(d)	as
8.	(a)	using	(b)	usage	(c)	used	(d)	uses
9.	(a)	effective	(b)	effect	(c)	affect	(d)	affective
10.	(a)	sauce	(b)	sources	(c)	saucy	(d)	source
11.	(a)	following	(b)	follower	(c)	followed	(d)	follow
12.	(a)	whole	(b)	while	(c)	hole	(d)	holistic

WRITING

Write about social networking for 10 minutes. Correct your partner’s paper.

_____________________________________________________________________________

HOMEWORK

1. 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 out more about Twitter. Share what you discover with your partner(s) in the next lesson.

3. SOCIAL NETWORKING: Make a poster about different social networking sites and compare them. Show your work to your classmates in the next lesson. Did you all have similar things?

4. REVOLUTION: Write a magazine article about the Internet being the biggest revolution for 200 years. Include imaginary interviews with people who invented and changed the Internet.

Read what you wrote to your classmates in the next lesson. Write down any new words and expressions you hear from your partner(s).

5. LETTER: Write a letter to the creator of Twitter. Ask him three questions about the site. Give him three ideas on how he could make it better. Read your letter to your partner(s) in your next lesson. Your partner(s) will answer your questions.

ANSWERS

TRUE / FALSE:

SYNONYM MATCH:

1.	micro	a.	very small
2	taken place	b.	happened
3.	fields	c.	areas
4.	scope	d.	team up
5.	humanity	e.	people
6.	grew	f.	ballooned
7.	characters	g.	letters and numbers
8.	key	h.	important
9.	collaborate	i.	range
10.	support	j.	back-up

PHRASE MATCH:

1.	people who use the	a.	micro-blogging site
2	People representing all	b.	kinds of fields
3.	The original idea	c.	of the gathering
4.	the phenomenal success of the social	d.	networking site
5.	improve education	e.	and lives
6.	become one of the world’s	f.	most popular websites
7.	post a message using no	g.	more than 140 characters
8.	a very important tool for people	h.	to share information
9.	the protest that followed	i.	Iran’s election
10.	collaborate on	j.	issues

GAP FILL:

Twitter conference held in Los Angeles

A conference on and by people who use the micro-blogging site Twitter has taken place in Los Angeles. Tweeps (people who use Twitter) from across the world gathered at the Kodak Theatre, venue of the Oscars, for the 140 Characters Conference. People representing all kinds of fields gave and attended presentations. The original idea of the gathering was to explore "the effects of Twitter on celebrity, the media, advertising and (maybe) politics”. However, it increased its scope due to the phenomenal success of the social networking site. Presenter and blog legend Shelly Terrell represented education. She said: “The 140 Conference highlights the best of humanity on social media. People passionately use Twitter to improve education and lives by making people aware.”

Twitter started in 2006 and quickly grew to become one of the world’s most popular websites. It is described as the “SMS of the Internet”. The idea was simple. People could post a message using no more than 140 characters on what they were doing. The site has become a very important tool for people to share information. Barack Obama used it to great effect in his presidential campaign in 2008. News agencies around the world used Twitter posts as a key source during the protest that followed Iran’s election in June, 2009. Shelly Terrell highlighted its role in education, saying: “Twitter allows educators around the world to collaborate on issues and improve the system as a whole, with support.” She added, Twitter means “we are not alone!”

LANGUAGE WORK

1 - d

2 - a

3 - b

4 - c

5 - c

6 - b

7 - d

8 - a

9 - b

10 - d

11 - c

12 - a

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Breaking News English

October 28, 2009

Twitter Conference Held in Los Angeles