Thursday November 4, 2004
Intermediate +

POSSIBLE WARM UPS / COOL DOWNS

1. CHAT:  Talk about the last four years of Bush’s presidency.

2. 2-MINUTE DEBATES:  Have students (As and Bs) stand/sit facing each other in pairs. Students A support Bush. Students B Kerry. They have 2 minutes to debate. Change partners (or roles) every two minutes.

3. IMAGE BUSH:  In groups brainstorm all the images of Bush you can recollect from the past 4 years. Assign each image a category. Briefly share your images and categories with the rest of the class.

4. GEORGE & LAURA:  Mini role play / skit with students being the President and First Lady the morning after the election victory.

5. ARE YOU HAPPY?:  In pairs students talk about whether they are happy with the US election result the day after. 

PRE-READING IDEAS

1. TERM TWO:  Brainstorm the issues George W. Bush has to address over the next four years. Write them on the board.

2. DISCUSSION:  Students discuss the following questions (or add your own) based on the article.
What does President Bush’s election victory mean for the world / your country?
Where might future flashpoints in the world occur?
The Middle East, Kyoto, abortion, stem cell research, gay marriage and support for gun ownership are all problem areas for Bush. What should he do with these?

3. COLLOCATION:  Write the following words on the board. Students research their collocations:
victory,   mandate,   power,   prepared,   proliferation,   effort,   focus

4. CLASS POLL:  Students become researchers and US citizens. They interview each other about who they voted for and which issues were important..

WHILE READING ACTIVITIES

1. TERM TWO:  Check to see if the issues brainstormed above were found in the text.

2. UNSCRAMBLE:  Individual or pairwork. Students unscramble the words underlined in the text. Compare answers in pairs. Teacher to monitor and help / receive questions after exercise.

The world has waited and America has decided. George Bush was to swept victory yesterday gaining 51% of the popular vote. He stated in his thank you speech this morning that he is ‘proud to lead this great country, and proud to lead it forward’. Exactly what that means for the world will be ways different in many interpreted, by many different people. What is perhaps predictable is that Bush’s clear mandate will result in a more hardline and conservative approach, reinforcing the policies he started in his first term. He will guns to his stick.

When he came to power four years ago, he could never have foreseen 9-11 and wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. round time this he is perhaps better prepared to unexpected the expect. However, the world today is a very unpredictable place and events can take place at a speed that can catch any government unaware. Unforeseen crises could loom with China threatening Taiwan, for example, or the conflict in Iraq worsening. Even Afghanistan is still a tinderbox, with thousands of US soldiers continuing to fight. Osama Bin Laden still evades capture and al-Qaeda is still side in a Bush’s thorn. Nuclear proliferation might head its ugly rear with North Korea and Iran seemingly intent on joining the world’s exclusive nuclear club.

Nobody is expecting much movement on other policies. In Europe Mr. Bush might an effort make to reach out to disaffected US allies like France and Germany but that probably isn’t so shopping on list his high. In the Middle East America seems to have no clear policy for peace and will continue to support and fund Israel. On the environment, Mr. Bush will continue his uncompromising and unilateral stance and refuse to sign up to the Kyoto protocol on climate change. His main focus is the ‘war on terror’, security issues at home and a ballooning budget deficit. He will continue to please the conservative Republicans that voted for him by right shifting to the further – stronger stances against abortion, stem cell research and gay marriage and support for gun ownership.

3. AGREE/DISAGREE:  As you read place a tick (check) next to the things you think are good, and a cross next to the things you think are bad, or not so good.

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

5. QUESTIONS:  Make notes for questions (opinions or factual) you want to ask the class about the information in the article.

6. COLLOCATION:  From the activity above, students check to see if the collocations in the text match those they found.

 

POST READING IDEAS

1. UNSCRAMBLE:  Check your answers to the unscrambled words against the answer text (let students do this themselves for scanning practice).

2. GOOD/BAD:  Share and discuss with your partner the things you ticked / crossed above.

3. MY POLICY: Pairs of students choose one of the issues from the text and formulate a policy on what should be done about it. Change partners and discuss, or talk to different students to get them to sign up for that policy.

4. DEBATES: Assign the following debates (or choose your own)
The US should withdraw from Iraq immediately.
If George Bush is serious about world security he should attack Iran and/or North Korea.
If George Bush truly values democracy he should openly support and recognize Taiwan.
France and Germany should stop obstructing Bush’s war on terror and become firm allies.
George Bush should be stronger with Israel and force them to exchange land for peace with the Palestinians.
George Bush should allow stem cell research.
George Bush should allow gay marriage.

5. VOCABULARY: As a class, cover the vocabulary students circled above.

6. QUESTIONS: Students ask the class the questions they made about the information in the article.

7. FOUR MORE YEARS: In pairs/groups write down several questions you would like to ask President Bush about his second term in office. Change pairs/groups and assume the role of reporter (Student A) and Mr. Bush (Student B).

 

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 Homo floresiensis. Share your findings with your class next lesson.

3. INVESTIGATE: Choose one of the issues from the article and create a mini-poster of the main arguments surrounding it.

4. DEAR MR. BUSH: Write a letter to the President about one issue of concern to you.

 

FULL TEXT

Four More Years

The world has waited and America has decided. George Bush was swept to victory yesterday gaining 51% of the popular vote. He stated in his thank you speech this morning that he is ‘proud to lead this great country, and proud to lead it forward’. Exactly what that means for the world will be interpreted in many different ways, by many different people. What is perhaps predictable is that Bush’s clear mandate will result in a more hardline and conservative approach, reinforcing the policies he started in his first term. He will stick to his guns.

When he came to power four years ago, he could never have foreseen 9-11, and wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. This time round he is perhaps better prepared to expect the unexpected. However, the world today is a very unpredictable place and events can take place at a speed that can catch any government out. Unforeseen crises could loom with China threatening Taiwan, for example, or, in the conflict in Iraq worsening. Even Afghanistan is still a tinderbox, with thousands of US soldiers continuing to fight. Osama Bin Laden still evades capture and al-Qaeda is still a thorn in Bush’s side. Nuclear proliferation might rear its ugly head with North Korea and Iran seemingly intent on joining the world’s exclusive nuclear club.

Nobody is expecting much movement on other policies. In Europe Mr. Bush might make an effort to reach out to disaffected US allies like France and Germany but that probably isn’t so high on his shopping list. In the Middle East America seems to have no clear policy for peace and will continue to support and fund Israel. On the environment, Mr. Bush will continue his uncompromising and unilateral stance and refuse to sign up to the Kyoto protocol on climate change. His main focus is the ‘war on terror’, security issues at home and a ballooning budget deficit. He will continue to please the conservative Republicans that voted for him by shifting further to the right – stronger stances against abortion, stem cell research and gay marriage and support for gun ownership.