Professional Documents
Culture Documents
May 2010
Level ≥ Lower intermediate
Style ≥ Lesson plan
Welcome to the Guardian Weekly’s special news-based materials to support learners and teachers of English.
Each month, the Guardian Weekly newspaper selects topical news articles that can be used to practise English
language skills. The materials are graded for two levels: advanced and lower intermediate. These worksheets
can be downloaded free from guardianweekly.co.uk/learningenglish/. You can also find more advice for
teachers and learners from the Guardian Weekly’s Learning English section on the site.
Instructions
Lesson focus: reading, discussion
Materials sheet: copies of the article, objects, bilingual dictionaries
Time: 60 minutes
1 Tell students the lesson is about an everyday object. d In some _______ places a lot of children needed
Bring into class these objects (or pictures): spectacles spectacles.
(glasses), sunglasses, scissors, headphones, binoculars, e The biggest problem for Béhar was the _______ of the
goggles, shorts, jeans, trousers. Hold up the scissors and glasses.
elicit: a pair of scissors. Ask: Why do we say a pair of when f When you pick up the spectacles, they are very _______.
it’s one object? – Because it’s made of two joined parts. g The _______ choose the colour and shape of the glasses.
In pairs students write down the names of other objects Answers: a laptop b school c blackboards; books d
with the help of a dictionary, eg : a pair of sunglasses. poorer e cost f light g children
Feedback. 12 mins
5 Read out the questions below one-by-one. Students
2 Explain that we usually use a plural verb after a pair of: “I answer as quickly as possible. 6 mins
like this pair of trousers. They’re very nice.” We can also How many …?
miss out a pair of and just say: glasses, jeans but remember a laptops went to children in developing countries?
these are plural words: “Look at those jeans.” 4 mins b children needed glasses in poorer areas?
c free glasses will the Mexican government give to
3 Give out copies of the article. Focus students on the students?
headline/photo. Ask: What has Yves Béhar designed? d parts does each pair of glasses have?
Some spectacles. Who are they for? Children in Mexico’s e weeks does it take for the new glasses to arrive?
schools. Ask: What do you think about the spectacles? Answers a 1m b 11% of children c 400,000 every year d
3 mins two e a couple
4 Write up the sentences below. Students read the article 6 Ask students: Which everyday object would you like
and choose a word from the text to complete the to redesign? eg classroom chair. Why? How would you
sentences. Feedback. 15 mins change it? Students work in groups, make notes, then
a Two years ago, Yves Béhar designed a new _______. present ideas to the class. 20 mins
b Some Mexican children had problems with work at
_______.
c The children couldn’t easily read _______ or _______.
News-based English language activities from the global newspaper
May 2010