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WARM-UPS

1. TEACHERS: Walk around the class and talk to other students about teachers. 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.

being on trial / teenage students / attempted murder / unconscious / talking point / troublemakers / disrupting lessons / bad behaviour / anger / mental health / passive

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

3. TEACHING: An easy or difficult job? Complete this table with your partner(s). Change partners and share what you wrote. Change partners and share again.

	Easy/ Difficult? Why?	What would you do?
Becoming a teacher
Marking homework
Disruptive students
Preparing lessons
Salary
Teaching
Keeping up to date

4. CAREER: Students A strongly believe teaching is a great career; Students B strongly believe the opposite.  Change partners again and talk about your conversations.

5. BENEFITS: Why become a teacher? Rank these and share your rankings with your partner. Change partners and share your rankings again.

salary chance to help young people holidays status in society

keeping up to date school life promotion opportunities being in the classroom

6. DISCIPLINE: Spend one minute writing down all of the different words you associate with the word ‘discipline’. 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.	A teacher attacked a student with a bell from a clock.	T / F
b.	The teacher is accused of trying to kill the student.	T / F
c.	The boy was wide awake when he went to hospital.	T / F
d.	The teacher denied causing serious bodily harm.	T / F
e.	Journalists say the boy attacked was the quietest member of the class.	T / F
f.	The student distributed videos of the teacher to his school friends.	T / F
g.	The teacher suffered from mental health problems.	T / F
h.	The boy told the court he thought the teacher was very funny.	T / F

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

1.	on trial	a.	disturbing
2	suffered	b.	saw
3.	witnessed	c.	amusing
4.	denies	d.	experienced
5.	huge	e.	in the dock
6.	troublemaker	f.	continual
7.	disrupting	g.	enormous
8.	constant	h.	rage
9.	anger	i.	rejects
10.	funny	j.	ringleader

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

1.	on trial for	a.	having a good time
2	facing charges	b.	among teachers and students
3.	He was left unconscious	c.	attempted murder
4.	Harvey denies	d.	behaviour
5.	a huge talking point	e.	of attempted murder
6.	the boy was a leading	f.	warning
7.	the boy received a disciplinary	g.	attacking a teenage student
8.	constant bad	h.	was too passive
9.	A counsellor told him he	i.	and rushed to hospital
10.	we were just	j.	troublemaker

 

WHILE READING / LISTENING

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

A teacher in England is on ______________ for attacking a teenage student with a metal dumbbell. Peter Harvey, 50, is ______________ charges of attempted murder for the attack, which took place in July, 2009. The student, who cannot be named for ______________ reasons, suffered a fractured skull and severe cuts to his face. The boy, then 14, was repeatedly hit on the head with the 3kg ______________. He was left unconscious and ______________ to hospital. Students who witnessed the attack said Harvey’s anger seemed to give him ______________ power. They told the court that he was screaming, “die, die, die” as he was hitting the youngster. Harvey ______________ attempted murder but has admitted causing serious bodily harm. The case is a ______________ talking point among teachers and students in England.		denies weight facing extra trial huge legal rushed
The media reports the boy was a ______________ troublemaker in the class. He has a long ______________ of disrupting lessons. The court heard the boy received a disciplinary ______________ nine times last year. Reports are he would try to make Mr Harvey angry and then use his mobile phone to take videos of him. He then mailed the video around the school. The ______________ bad behaviour caused Harvey to take time off work with ______________ health problems. He told a colleague he wanted to harm someone. A counsellor told him he was too ______________ and needed to let his anger out. The ______________ asked the boy whether he thought it was funny to try to make a teacher angry who had been off ill. The boy replied: "There was nothing funny about him. What was ______________ was we were just having a good time with our friends."		mental warning funny passive leading constant record judge

LISTENING – Listen and fill in the gaps

A teacher in England ________________ attacking a teenage student with a metal dumbbell. Peter Harvey, 50, ________________ attempted murder for the attack, which took place in July, 2009. The student, who cannot be named for legal reasons, suffered a fractured skull ________________ his face. The boy, then 14, was repeatedly hit on the head with the 3kg weight. He was left unconscious and rushed to hospital. Students ________________ attack said Harvey’s anger seemed to give him extra power. They ________________ he was screaming, “die, die, die” as he was hitting the youngster. Harvey denies attempted murder but has admitted causing serious bodily harm. __________________ talking point among teachers and students in England.

The media reports the boy was a ________________ in the class. He has a long record of disrupting lessons. The court heard the boy received a ________________ nine times last year. Reports are he would try to make Mr Harvey angry and then use his mobile phone to take videos of him. He then mailed the video around the school. The constant ________________ caused Harvey to ________________ with mental health problems. He told a colleague he wanted to harm someone. A counsellor told him ________________ and needed to let his anger out. The judge asked the boy whether he thought it was funny to try to make a teacher angry who had been off ill. The boy replied: "There was nothing ________________. What was funny was we were just having a good time with our friends."

AFTER READING / LISTENING

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

teenage

student

• 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:

metal charges cuts weight denies serious

media warning mailed harm ill time

STUDENT TEACHERS SURVEY

Write five GOOD questions about teachers 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.

TEACHERS 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 ‘teacher’?
c)	Would you like to be a teacher?
d)	What do you think about this attack?
e)	Do you feel more sorry for Mr Harvey or the student?
f)	Do you think Mr Harvey should have been allowed to teach of he had mental health problems?
g)	How would you deal with a class of 30 students who always swear at you, disrupt the class, take videos of you, etc?
h)	Why do so many classrooms break down?
i)	What is wrong with education that students no longer want to learn?
j)	What’s the best form of discipline?

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

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

a)	Did you like reading this article?
b)	Do you think being a teacher is easy or difficult?
c)	What punishment should Mr Harvey get?
d)	Should the student receive any punishment?
e)	What kinds of bad behaviour did you see in your classrooms?
f)	What can society do to make students respect teachers?
g)	If web cameras were put in classrooms, teachers would teach better classes and students would behave better. What do you think?
h)	Who was your best ever teacher and why?
i)	What will schools be like fifty years from now?
j)	What questions would you like to ask Mr Harvey?

LANGUAGE – MULTIPLE CHOICE

A teacher in England is on trial for attacking a teenage student with a metal dumbbell. Peter Harvey, 50, is (1) ____ charges of attempted murder for the attack, which took place in July, 2009. The student, who cannot be named for     (2) ____ reasons, suffered a fractured skull and severe cuts to his face. The boy, then 14, was repeatedly hit on the head with the 3kg weight. He was (3) ____ unconscious and rushed to hospital. Students who witnessed the attack said Harvey’s (4) ____ seemed to give him extra power. They told the court that he was screaming, “die, die, die” (5) ____ he was hitting the youngster. Harvey denies attempted murder but has admitted causing serious bodily harm. The case is a huge (6) ____ point among teachers and students in England.

The media reports the boy was a leading troublemaker in the class. He has a long (7) ____ of disrupting lessons. The court heard the boy received a disciplinary warning nine times last year. Reports (8) ____ he would try to make Mr Harvey angry and then use his mobile phone to take videos of him. He then mailed the video around the school. The (9) ____ bad behaviour caused Harvey to take time off work with mental health problems. He told a colleague he wanted to harm someone. A counsellor told him he was too passive and needed to let his anger   (10) ____. The judge asked the boy whether he thought it was funny to try to make a teacher angry who had been (11) ____ ill. The boy replied: "There was nothing funny about him. What (12) ____ funny was we were just having a good time with our friends."

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

1.	(a)	heading	(b)	eyeing	(c)	mouthing	(d)	facing
2.	(a)	legalize	(b)	legality	(c)	legal	(d)	legally
3.	(a)	right	(b)	left	(c)	centred	(d)	middling
4.	(a)	anger	(b)	angrily	(c)	angers	(d)	angered
5.	(a)	was	(b)	has	(c)	as	(d)	ease
6.	(a)	talk	(b)	talked	(c)	talkative	(d)	talking
7.	(a)	recording	(b)	record	(c)	recorder	(d)	recorded
8.	(a)	are	(b)	do	(c)	be	(d)	have
9.	(a)	constantly	(b)	constant	(c)	constants	(d)	constable
10.	(a)	up	(b)	in	(c)	out	(d)	down
11.	(a)	off	(b)	on	(c)	in	(d)	across
12.	(a)	be	(b)	did	(c)	had	(d)	was

WRITING

Write about teachers 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 the trial of Mr HARVEY. Share what you discover with your partner(s) in the next lesson.

3. TEACHERS: Make a poster about teachers and the work they do every day. Show your work to your classmates in the next lesson. Did you all have similar things?

4. TEACHING: Write a magazine article about teaching. Include imaginary interviews with a teacher who hates his/her job and a teacher who loves his/her job.

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 teacher of a class full of badly-behaved, disruptive students. Ask him/her three questions about teaching. Give him/her three pieces of advice on how to stop students being disruptive / behaving badly. Read your letter to your partner(s) in your next lesson. Your partner(s) will answer your questions.

ANSWERS

TRUE / FALSE:

a.

F

b.

T

c.

F

d.

F

e.

F

f.

T

g.

T

h.

F

SYNONYM MATCH:

1.	on trial	a.	in the dock
2	suffered	b.	experienced
3.	witnessed	c.	saw
4.	denies	d.	rejects
5.	huge	e.	enormous
6.	troublemaker	f.	ringleader
7.	disrupting	g.	disturbing
8.	constant	h.	continual
9.	anger	i.	rage
10.	funny	j.	amusing

PHRASE MATCH:

1.	on trial for	a.	attacking a teenage student
2	facing charges	b.	of attempted murder
3.	He was left unconscious	c.	and rushed to hospital
4.	Harvey denies	d.	attempted murder
5.	a huge talking point	e.	among teachers and students
6.	the boy was a leading	f.	troublemaker
7.	the boy received a disciplinary	g.	warning
8.	constant bad	h.	behaviour
9.	A counsellor told him he	i.	was too passive
10.	we were just	j.	having a good time

GAP FILL:

Teacher on trial for attacking student

A teacher in England is on trial for attacking a teenage student with a metal dumbbell. Peter Harvey, 50, is facing charges of attempted murder for the attack, which took place in July, 2009. The student, who cannot be named for legal reasons, suffered a fractured skull and severe cuts to his face. The boy, then 14, was repeatedly hit on the head with the 3kg weight. He was left unconscious and rushed to hospital. Students who witnessed the attack said Harvey’s anger seemed to give him extra power. They told the court that he was screaming, “die, die, die” as he was hitting the youngster. Harvey denies attempted murder but has admitted causing serious bodily harm. The case is a huge talking point among teachers and students in England.

The media reports the boy was a leading troublemaker in the class. He has a long record of disrupting lessons. The court heard the boy received a disciplinary warning nine times last year. Reports are he would try to make Mr Harvey angry and then use his mobile phone to take videos of him. He then mailed the video around the school. The constant bad behaviour caused Harvey to take time off work with mental health problems. He told a colleague he wanted to harm someone. A counsellor told him he was too passive and needed to let his anger out. The judge asked the boy whether he thought it was funny to try to make a teacher angry who had been off ill. The boy replied: "There was nothing funny about him. What was funny was we were just having a good time with our friends."

LANGUAGE WORK

1 - d

2 - c

3 - b

4 - a

5 - c

6 - d

7 - b

8 - a

9 - b

10 -c

11 - a

12 - d

 

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