Here's a proposal for a listening class activity that might be preceeded or followed by a debate on the issue. It is intended for use with pre-intermediate students, but it could easily be adapted to other higher or lower levels.
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* http://openclipart.org
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Our lesson plan goes as follows:
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*Galería de Barack Obama http://www.flickr.com/photos/barackobamadotcom/
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1. Warm up activity: brainstorming or debate on Obama, the American elections, the possible concequences of his election, Obama's mottos or slogans, etc.
2. Hand out a sheet of paper with a fragment of the speech. The text has 20 words missing.
3. Play the video on a video projector or an Interactive Whiteboard, or even on the student's computers. The link for the video is here.
4. The students fill in the missing words.
5. We play the video again and go through all the vocabulary, both the missing words and the difficult vocabulary.
6. In order to practise writing skills and comprensive reading we suggest a writing exercise with several questions that the students might have to answer as a class exercise or for homework.
7. Extra work: find information about Barack Obama on the Internet and write a biography or biosketch on him, make a poster, prepare a presentation or a web article.
Note: we offer this Didactic Corner for the publication of your students' articles in case you don't have a class blog or you're not using you school's website for this purpose.
Listening comprehesion text (you can find the missing words in the original text in the above link to The Independent. If you copy and paste this text on a text document in order
to print it, we recommend that you number the lines so that your students can easily find the words or lines you are talking about at each moment):
Hello, Chicago.
If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a __________ where all things are _________, who still wonders if the __________ of our founders is alive in our time, who still questions the __________ of our democracy, __________ is your answer.
It's the answer told by lines that stretched around __________ and __________ in numbers this nation has never seen, by people who waited three hours and four hours, many for the first time in their __________, because they believed that this time must be __________, that their __________ could be that difference.
It's the answer spoken by young and __________, rich and __________, Democrat and __________, black, white, Hispanic, Asian, Native American, gay, straight, disabled and not disabled, Americans who sent a __________ to the world that we have never been just a
collection of individuals or a collection of __________ states and __________ states.
We are, and always will be, the United States of America.
It's the answer that led those who've been told for so __________ by so many to be cynical and fearful and __________ about what we can achieve to put their hands on the arc of history and bend it once more toward the hope of a better day.
It's been a long time coming, but tonight, because of what we did on this __________ , in this __________ , at this defining moment, change has come to America.
Suggested questions for the exploitation of the text:
1. What does "lines" refer to in the sentence "It's the answer told by lines that stretched around..."?
2. What's the opposite of "different"?
3. Who are the "Native Americans"?
4. What does the word "straight" mean in the context President-Elect Obama uses it in his speech? Could you give a synonym?
5. How would you explain in other words the metaphore "to put their hands on the arc of history and bend it once more toward the hope of a better day"?
6. What does the pronoun "it" refer to in the sentence "It's been a long time coming"?
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El Centro Nacional de Desarrollo Curricular en Sistemas no
Propietarios, Software Libre, se desarrollará en Mérida con la
financiación del Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia (MEC) y
previsiblemente comenzará a desarrollarse a partir del próximo curso
escolar, según ha informado la consejera de Educación, Eva María Pérez,
tras la autorización en el último Consejo de Gobierno de la firma de un
convenio de colaboración con el MEC para la creación de este centro,
que servirá para diseñar, promocionar y desarrollar contenidos
educativos digitales para colectivos específicos bajo licencias no
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Feb.22
