Università degli Studi della Calabria

Università degli Studi della Calabria

Scuola di Specializzazione all’Insegnamento Secondario

V° Ciclo - 2003/2005

Modulo: Abilità orali e scritte

Lesson plan:

“Let’s celebrate HALLOWEEN!”

Docente: Specializzanda:

P. Gentile Salatino Tatiana Preziosa

The following lesson plan is about Halloween festival. It is based on a reading text and it is suitable for sophomore students of a Liceo Scientifico. The topic I have chosen deals with a famous American and English celebration in order to make students aware of cultural differences and to widen their knowledge. The different types of activities aim at reinforcing students’ receptive and productive linguistic skills.

TITLE: “Let’s celebrate Halloween!”

LEVEL: A2 of the C.E.F., 2^nd year of Liceo Scientifico

PRE-REQUISITES:

· Grammar: Knowledge of basic grammar (present simple and past simple of regular and irregular verbs, present continuous, future with will, simple conditional; passive forms with past simple; prepositions of time and place; use and position of the adjectives and adverbs; comparatives and superlatives).

· Vocabulary: knowledge of basic vocabulary referred to everyday life (places, people, food, animals, habits, celebrations).

· Functions: talking about everyday life; describing people, places, situations and events, talking about past events, asking for and giving information, planning.

· Communicative activities (can do statements):

Reception:

- can skim a text in order to catch its general meaning;

- can scan short, simple texts containing the highest frequency vocabulary in order to find specific information;

- can understand short recorded passages on everyday matters which are delivered slowly and clearly;

- can identify specific information in simple written material.

Interaction:

- can interact with reasonable ease in structured situations and short conversations;

- Can discuss simple topics of interest;

- can make and respond to invitations;

- can say what he/she likes and dislikes;

- can discuss what to do and where to go;

- can discuss what to do next, responding to suggestions;

Production:

- can write a series of simple phrases and sentences linked with simple connectors like “and”, “but” and “because”;

- can write short, basic descriptions of events;

- can summarize;

- Can briefly give reasons and explanations for opinions, plans and actions;

OBJECTIVES:

· to increase students’ knowledge on English and American celebrations;

· to make comparisons between Italian and English/American celebrations;

· to arouse students’ interest;

· to revise and consolidate present simple, present continuous, past simple of regular and irregular verbs, prepositions of time and place, use and position of the adjectives;

· to widen vocabulary especially about festivals;

· to infer the probable meaning of unknown words from the context;

· to strength skimming and scanning reading strategies;

· to improve intensive and extensive reading practice;

· to promote interaction and cooperation between students through pair and group works;

· to initiate, maintain and close simple, face-to-face conversation;

· to strength the functions of talking about events, asking for and giving information, planning.

ANTICIPATED PROBLEMS: students may not be able to understand some words given in the text but they can infer the meaning from the context. To help learners’ comprehension of unfamiliar words the teacher will give them synonyms or oral explanations.

TASKS TO BE PERFORMED: reading a text, oral comprehension questions, matching words with their definitions, fill in the table, fill in the gaps, matching sentences, scrambled order, identifying key-words and key-concepts, drawing a mind-map, giving a brief oral report, performing a dialogue, describing masks, planning a party.

MATERIALS: photocopies, CDs, worksheets, authentic invitation cards.

AIDS: CD player, blackboard.

TIME: 2 hours

ASSESSMENT CRITERIA:

Written Assessment Criteria

Grammatical Correctness	0 - 2
No grammatical correct form	P ≤ 0.5
Too many mistakes: the message doesn’t get through	0.5 < P ≤ 1
Sufficient: the message gets through	1 < P ≤ 1.50
Accurate	1.50 < P ≤ 2
Content	0 - 2
No/extremely poor content	P 0.5
Incomplete/Insufficient	0.5 < P ≤ 1
Sufficient	1 < P ≤ 1.50
Complete and well arranged	1.50 < P ≤ 2
Vocabulary Range	0 - 2
Extremely inadequate	P ≤ 0.5
Inadequate	0.5 < P ≤ 1
Simple	1 < P ≤ 1.50
Accurate	1.50 < P ≤ 2
Coherence and Cohesion	0 - 2
No coherence and cohesion. No use of linkers.	P ≤ 0.5
No logical sequence. Insufficient use of linkers	0.5 < P ≤ 1
Sufficient sequentiality of linkers	1 < P ≤ 1.50
Perfectly coherent and cohesive	1.50 < P ≤ 2
Spelling	0 - 2
Extremely incorrect	P ≤ 0.5
Incorrect	0.5 < P ≤ 1
Sufficient	1 < P ≤ 1.50
Accurate	1.50 < P ≤ 2

TOT: …. / 10

Spoken Assessment

Grammatical Correctness	0 - 2
No grammatical correct form	P ≤ 0.5
Too many mistakes: the message doesn’t get through	0.5 < P ≤ 1
Sufficient: the message gets through	1 < P ≤ 1.50
Accurate	1.50 < P ≤ 2
Content	0 - 2
No/extremely poor content	P ≤ 0.5
Incomplete/Insufficient	0.5 < P ≤ 1
Sufficient	1 < P ≤ 1.50
Complete and well arranged	1.50 < P ≤ 2
Vocabulary Range	0 - 2
Extremely inadequate	P ≤ 0.5
Inadequate	0.5 < P ≤ 1
Simple	1 < P ≤ 1.50
Accurate	1.50 < P ≤ 2
Interaction	0 - 2
Inability to interact	P ≤ 0.5
Insufficient interaction	0.5 < P ≤ 1
Interaction on a simple level	1 < P ≤ 1.50
Interaction on a more articulated level	1.50 < P ≤ 2
Pronunciation	0 - 2
Extremely incorrect: prevents understanding	P ≤0.5
Incorrect, often preventing understanding	0.5 < P ≤ 1
Sufficiently clear	1 < P ≤ 1.50
Accurate	1.50 < P ≤ 2

TOT: …. / 10

1-5 = fail

6 = pass

7-8 = pass with merit

9-10 = pass with distinction (outstanding)

REMEDIAL WORK: multiple choices, true or false, questions, cloze, matching, open dialogues or summaries according to results.

PROCEDURE

PRE-READING

Pre-reading activity aims at:

· arousing students’ curiosity

· building up motivation

· making students guess what they are going to do

· introducing the new topic

· revising vocabulary

Activity 1 (7 mins.)

The teacher proposes a Brainstorming activity in order to introduce the topic and create interest. He/she writes the word ‘Halloween’ on the blackboard and asks students: “What does this word suggest you?”. Learners have to express all their ideas while the teacher writes down their suggestions on the blackboard.

Activity 2 (5 min.)

The teacher asks students some questions:

Do you know any Italian celebrations that resemble Halloween in any way? Which? Why?
Do we celebrate Halloween in Italy? How?

WHILE-READING

Aims:

to get the learners interested in the text
to skim the text for gist (to catch the general meaning)
to scan the text for specific information
to enrich students’ vocabulary
to strengthen ss knowledge of linguistic structures
to check contextual and cohesive comprehension
to make students interact through pair and group works
to improve learners’ pronunciation
to widen students’ knowledge about American and English celebrations

Activity 1 (10 min.)

Students are provided with the photocopies of the text:

HALLOWEEN

On the night of October 31^st, in the United States and in Great Britain, many people celebrate Halloween, one of the most famous and amusing festivals. The modern festival started in the USA in the 1800s.

‘Halloween’ means ‘holy evening’ and it comes from an old Celtic tradition. Centuries ago the Celts, a very old European tribe, believed that every year on the last day of October the souls of the dead and other supernatural forces came out to terrify people on Earth.

In memory of the ancient Celtic tradition, everyone wears strange customs and masks dressing up as ghosts, witches, skeletons, clowns and pirates, black cats, bats, owls and spiders.

On that night, older teenagers go to Halloween parties while most children visit their friends and neighbours. They go from door to door with a big paper shopping bag asking “Trick or treat?”. If people give them a ‘treat’, something nice like sweets, crisps, biscuits, chocolates, fruit or money they go away. If they don’t, children play a trick on them, such as making a lot of noise, spilling flour on their front doorstep or emptying the dustbin.

The most typical symbol of Halloween is the ‘jack-o’-lantern’. The legend says that Jack, an Irish ghost, was banished from both Heaven and Hell, because he played nasty tricks on everybody. That is why Jack still walks on Earth day and night with a lantern. What better than a big orange pumpkin to make a frightening jack-o’-lantern! Children carve round eyes, a large smiling mouth out of it and put a candle burning inside. Then they place the pumpkin at the window to make it visible from far away. They think it is a good idea to keep evil spirits out.

Young children play also traditional Halloween games such as apple bobbing, trying to pick up apples floating in a bucket of water only with their teeth, standing with their hands behind their back.

Halloween is a day when people are very superstitious too. Some people in fact still believe that this is the night when the witches fly while others believe thatif they don’t give children treats, they will have bad luck.

It looks like a crazy festival but it is no boring!

The teacher reads it aloud at a slow-normal speed to let most learners understand. Students have to pay attention to pronunciation, rhythm and intonation. They have to listen for gist trying to catch the general meaning of the text.

Activity 2 (8 min.)

Students have to read the text and answer the following questions:

1. When is Halloween?

2. What are its origins?

3. What do children do at Halloween?

4. What is the ‘jack-o’-lantern’?

5. What kind of traditional game do children play at Halloween?

6. Why are people very superstitious on that night?

Students can infer the meaning of some difficult words from the context. If they can’t, the teacher will give them a synonym or an explanation, in order to favour their comprehension.

Activity 3 (5 min.)

Work in pairs and match the following words with their correct definitions:

PUMPKIN a) creatures with magical powers who ride brooms
DUSTBIN b) an orange vegetable
NEIGHBOURS c) a nocturnal bird
OWL d) people who live near your house
WITCHES e) you throw the rubbish inside it

Activity 4 (10 min.)

Look at the adjectives of column A. Read the text again, underline and write down all their opposites in column B filling in the table:

A B

ancient
boring
old
bad
nasty

Activity 5 (5 min.)

Fill in the gaps putting the verbs in brackets (which are in the infinitive

form) into the correct form (present simple or past simple):

The word ‘Halloween’ derives from an older name which ………. (be) “All Hallows’ Eve”.
In the 1840s Irish immigrants ………. (bring) the custom of Halloween to America.
The Celts ………. (believe) that the ghosts of the dead returned to earth.
The custom of trick-or-treating ………. (have) its origins in a ninth-century European custom called ‘souling’.
The Jack-o’-lantern custom probably ………. (come) from Irish folklore.
Perhaps the tradition of ‘bobbing’ for apples ………. (originate) from the celebration of Pomona, the Roman goddess of fruit and trees.

Activity 6 (5 min.)

Match the beginning of each sentence with its correct end:

Halloween is a. pumpkins and light candles inside them.

2. People give parties and b. very superstitious.

3. Children make Halloween lanterns from c. bobbing and play tricks on people.

4. On that night people are d. Ireland.

5. Children do apple e. on 31^st October.

6. Halloween originated in f. decorate their houses with typical cut-outs.

Activity 7 (20 min.)

The teacher divides the class into groups of three or four students. He/she gives them different lines from a dialogue which each group has to reassemble. Learners are given a time limit of ten minutes. (The lines below are given in their correct order).

Interviewer: What’s your favourite holiday?

John: It is Halloween. That’s always lots of fun.

Interviewer: What date is that?

John: It’s on the 31^st of October.

Interviewer: What happens on Halloween?

John: Well, it’s a bit difficult to explain. It’s the night of the witches, the ghosts and the black cats - it’s a kind of supernatural festival.

Interviewer: What do people do on that strange night?

John: There are Halloween parties. The kids dress up in strange clothes. They put on Halloween masks and play tricks. It sounds crazy but it’s a lot of fun.

Interviewer: When did Halloween start?

John: We don’t know exactly. It’s a traditional holiday. It goes back hundreds or thousands of years.

Interviewer: Thank you!

John: Don’t mention it!

After ten minutes students stop doing the exercise and they have to listen to a recording of native speakers performing the same dialogue they have just reassembled. During the first listening learners have to check if the text has been put together in the right way; the teacher will play the recording in three parts, pausing between each one. During the second listening learners have to pay attention to pronunciation and intonation.

This kind of exercise makes students learn about cohesion and coherence, properties of the language which bind the sentences together. Small groups of three or four people provoke greater involvement and participation than the larger ones; they are small enough for real interpersonal interaction.