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| 3/11/2010 |  | |||||
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A Card for Every Occasion
This unit should take 1-2 hours, depending on time, interest, and extension activities. It is designed for intermediate level students age 12 and above. Objectives Students will: Materials to Print
Activities Activity I: Introduction to Greeting Cards (10 minutes) Bring a few different greeting cards to class. Show them to the students, but do not tell them the event each card is for. Ask students, in pairs, to brainstorm different occasions for giving cards (birthday, anniversary, new baby, wedding, illness, injury, funeral, Mother's day, Valentine's day, religious holiday, etc.). Activity II: Twelve American Holidays and Occasions (20 minutes) Hand out copies of Printout I. Ask students to underline the names of holidays and occasions that they are unfamiliar with. Read the names of each holiday/occasion aloud with the students, working on pronunciation. Ask individual students to read the description of each occasion aloud to the class. After each description, ask for questions to make sure that the students understand each holiday. Ask students which holiday they think sounds like the most fun and which one seems the silliest. As an optional homework activity, ask students to research one of the holidays on the Internet and write down one new fact about that holiday. Collect these fun facts and use them for Activity IV. Activity III: A Card Says It All (10 minutes) Hand out copies of Printout II. Ask students to work in pairs to match the greeting with the occasion. When they have finished, ask them to come up with other possible expressions for each occasion. Each pair should write the expression on the board and ask their classmates to guess the occasion. Activity IV: Holiday Fun Facts (20 minutes) Hand out copies of Printout III. Ask students to complete the handout in groups of three, asking questions when they need to. Go over the answers together as a class. (Answers: 1. true; 2. true; 3. false; 4. false; 5. true; 6 true; 7. true; 8 false) While students are working on the handout, put together a list of true/false statements from the students' research in Activity II. Write them on the board (using "you" and "people" to describe general behavior) and ask the class to guess which statements are true and which are false. Ask the student who brought in the fact to give the correct answer. Ask students how the sentences describe what everybody (or the majority of people) does for these occasions. Explain that English often uses the plural "you" to describe what "people" generally do. Activity V: Holiday Focus (20 minutes) Hand out copies of Printout IV. Ask students to take turns reading aloud to the class, stopping them to correct pronunciation and answer any questions they might have. Ask students to answer the questions in small groups. Once they have answered them, ask students to read their answers aloud to the class. Make sure each group agrees with each other. (Answers/Facts that are false: The tradition of April Fool's Day started in sixteenth century France, not England; April Fool's Day is not celebrated everywhere in the world. Countries like Spain, for instance, have a similar holiday on December 28) Activity VI: Holiday Focus (20 minutes) Ask students if there are holidays when they send cards to each other. Have each student choose a favorite holiday that is celebrated in their country and write a short paragraph about it, explaining what the holiday is, and what people do on that holiday. Ask students to share their paragraphs with their classmates. If you have time, have students design a card (either online or by hand in class) for that holiday and send it to a friend or family member. If students wish to go online to send cards, they can use Greeting Cards or Blue Mountain. Activity VII: Debate(20 minutes) Have students discuss whether some holidays have lost their meaning because they have become too commercial. If a free discussion is too hard for your students, go through the following points with them and ask whether or not they agree, taking a survey for each point. Points for the teacher: 1. There are too many holidays. 2. Some holidays are too commercialized and have lost their meaning. 3. Most holidays were invented by people wanting to sell cards and gifts. 4. A card is better than a gift because it says the same thing but it is inexpensive. 5. Sending a card is a silly thing. 6. Holidays are just an excuse not to go to work or school. 7. Holidays should be spent with the family. 8. Birthdays should be holidays as well. Activity VIII: Invent Your Own Holiday (30 minutes) Divide the class into groups of four. Have each group invent a holiday that the class can celebrate later in the year. This holiday can celebrate anything at all, as long as it is creative and fun (Tell a Joke Day, Pajama day, Eat with your Hands Day, etc.). Have each group write a description of the holiday using the impersonal "you" and "people." Each group should make up a skit to present the holiday to the rest of the class. Once each group has presented its holiday, have the class vote for the best holiday. Set a date for the holiday and celebrate it later in the year. |