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| 3/14/2010 |  | |||||
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Ghost Hunters
This unit should take 4-8 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: Listening to a Ghost Story (25 minutes) Make copies of Printout I and hand out the listening comprehension quiz only. Don't let students see the reading yet. Ask students to read the quiz and, in pairs, predict what the story will be about. Read the ghost story aloud to them once at a regular pace, using your voice and pantomime to make the story as scary and dramatic as possible. Pause and let them think about their predictions. Read the story again a second time, this time slowing down and, if necessary, providing definitions for any words they do not know. (You can instead hand out copies of the reading and read it together with students.) Ask them to answer the true/false statements and then discuss their answers in pairs. Once they have agreed on their answers, ask the class to repeat the story back to you, with as much detail as possible. When confusion arises, ask the students to offer solutions, but supply vocabulary definitions and hints to make sure they don't get too discouraged. Write the events on the board to help them notice if they missed anything. Activity II: Discussion of Ghost Stories (15-30 minutes) Ask students their opinion of the ghost story they just heard. Ask them if it was scary or silly, believable or unrealistic. Turn the discussion of this ghost story into a discussion of ghost stories in general, asking them what they consider to be important parts of a ghost story. What makes a good ghost? If there is time available and the students are interested, ask them to share good ghost stories they have heard in the past. Activity III: Pre-reading (10 minutes) Hand out the vocabulary list and ask the students to underline any words they do not recognize. Ask students to call out unfamiliar words, guessing at pronunciation. If the pronunciation is wrong, ask another student to guess at pronunciation. Write the unfamiliar word on the board and supply the correct pronunciation, asking the class to repeat it. Then ask for students to guess the meaning of the word. Do not supply the answer unless students get it right. If there is a word that students cannot guess, place a question mark by it. Activity IV: Reading (20-30 minutes) Hand out copies of printout III and ask students to read to themselves or aloud in small groups. Ask them to look at the undefined vocabulary words on the board and underline them in the reading. As they read, ask them to guess the meaning of the word based on its context. If they cannot find the word in the reading, provide the definition for them. When they finish reading, ask them to answer the questions and write definitions for their new words. Put students in small groups to review the answers and definitions. Ask them to read their definitions aloud to the class. Activity V: Do you Believe in Ghosts? (15-30 minutes) Students discuss their personal beliefs about ghosts. Ask them why they believe or don't believe, what their families believe, and what their cultural beliefs are. If the students are more advanced, ask them why people are willing to believe in ghosts when there is no scientific proof of their existence. (To believe in an afterlife? To force people to be good in this life?) Activity VI: Grammar (15 minutes) Use the reading to discuss the use of determiners with countable and non-countable nouns. Remind them of definite (the) and indefinite (a) articles, demonstrative (this, that, these, and those), and possessives (my, our, your, his, her, its, their). Explain that jazz and light from the ghost story are non-countable nouns, and therefore do not require an article even though they are singular. However, these words can take the definite article, demonstrative or possessive when the non-countable refers to something specific (This music is not the music that I consider to be my music). Remind them that plural countable nouns do not always take an article (Ghosts haunt the house). Ask them to complete the worksheet individually or in pairs. Several answers are possible for many of the blanks. Have students discuss all possible answers. Activity VII: Word Charades (15-30 minutes) Each student must describe a word from the vocabulary list and get the other students to guess the word. If the students are shy, they can do this in small groups, but it is most fun when each student performs in front of the whole class. Students cannot pass on a word, but must find another way to describe it, maybe by sound, if he/she does not recognize it. You can add any other words the students have been working on to this list, or remove words you find too difficult to act out. Activity VIII: Write your own ghost story (2-4 hours) Students write a ghost story of their own or one that they have heard before. Make sure to make it as scary as possible! The students should read aloud their finished stories. Try to create a ghost story atmosphere (turning out the lights, giving a flashlight to the reader, bringing in campfire food, sitting in a circle around a pretend campfire) so that they can really get into pretending to be scared. Activity IX: Ghost Hunter Diplomas (20 minutes) If the students are young enough or silly enough, have them design their own diplomas for ghost school, certifying that they have passed the course to become novice ghost hunters. |