A short biography. Reading a long extract from a novel.

Long-term plan unit: 7 READING FOR PLEASURE  

School:   

Lesson 23  

Date:   

Teacher’s name:    

CLASS:  7 

Number present:   

absent:  

Theme of the lesson: A short biography. Reading a long extract from a novel.  

Learning objective (s) that this lesson is contributing to  

6.3.1.1.- understand the main points in a growing range of short, simple texts; 6.3.5.1- deduce meaning from context on a limited range of familiar general and curricular topics, including some extended texts;  

6.1.4.1- evaluate and respond constructively to feedback from others.  

Lesson objectives  

All learners will be able to: read and understand the text. 

Most learners will be able to:   

• read and understand a short biography of George Eliot.  

• read and understand an extract from the The Mill on the Floss.  

Some learners will be able to: retell 

Success criteria  

Demonstrate respect to people’s opinions using lexical units of topic vocabulary;  Form opinion and give constructive answers to feedback;   

Identify facts and details in extended talks with little support.  

Value links  

Labour and cooperation  

Cross curricular links      

Literature  

ICT skills  

Digital resources  

Previous learning  

The pearl of Kazakhstan.       

Plan  

Stages of the lesson  

Planned activities (replace the notes below with your planned activities)  

Teacher’s notes  

Greeting  

The teacher greets students; students respond to greeting and take their places.  

Hello, boys and girls! How are you?  

Be curious  

• Focus attention on the photo of the girl on page 82. Ask students to describe what they can see.  

• Put students into pairs and give them a couple of minutes to answer the three questions.  

• Ask two or three students to report back to the class on what their partner said about the photo. Have a class discussion about the differences between the Victorian times and today.  

• You can extend the discussion by asking students to imagine they lived in the Victorian era. What would they enjoy about their life?  

What would they dislike.  

Suggested answers  

• This photo was probably taken about 100 years ago before coloured photography was invented.  

• Her dress and hair look different from how girls dress today.  

• Some boys would not go to school but had to work at an early age.   

Warm up  

• On the board, draw a simple mill (a big house like a farm with a wheel on its side) and two stick figures; a boy and girl.  

• Write the title of the book above the picture: The Mill on the Floss. Explain what a mill is (a building where they used to grind grains to make flour) and that Floss is the name of a river.  

• Give students a minute to think about and predict the plot. Help them by asking: What are the main characters’ names? What’s the relationship between them? What’s their life like? etc.  

• Put students in pairs or small groups to share their ideas. Monitor and help as necessary.  

Practice  

Ex1     Ask students to read the biography quickly to find out who wrote The Mill on the Floss.  

• Elicit the answer and ask students what they found interesting about the author’s life. Make sure they understand the concept of a pen name, i.e. a name the writer uses instead of his/her real name.  

• Give students two minutes to complete the fact sheet.  

• Students can compare their answers in pairs before you check answers with the class on the board.  

Background  

Writers have used and continue to use a pen name for a number of reasons. For instance, they might want to ...  

• use a more interesting name.  

• avoid confusion with other famous people with the same name.  

• avoid disappointing their fans if they change genres (e.g. a scifi writer writing a romance novel).  

• write for a different publisher.  

• present themselves as a different writer when their first book fails.  

Answers  

Ex1   1 Mary Ann Evans     2 1819  

3 Isaac       4 30       5 1859  

       6 seven      7 1880  

In Mary Ann Evans’ case, she used a male pen name for all of her seven novels because she wanted people to take her work seriously. In those days, people thought that female authors only wrote romance stories for other women to read. and Evans wanted to escape this idea. She was also known for her work as an editor and critic, and she wanted to separate this work from her writing.  

Ex2    Read out the question and discuss ideas as a class.  

• Alternatively, put students in pairs to discuss their ideas. Then elicit ideas from individual students.  

• If appropriate, explain why Mary Ann Evans used a male pen name sharing some or all of the information from the Background above.  

Ex2  Students’ own answers  

Ex1  Go over students’ predictions from the Warm-up briefly.  

• Ask them to read the first part of the story once and check whether their ideas about the main characters were correct.  

• Check answers with the whole class.  

• Ask three individual students to read out one question each.  

• Set a three-minute time limit to read the passage and answer the questions.  

• Pair stronger students with weaker students to compare their answers before you check answers with the class.  

• When you check answers, ask students to say which part of the text gave them the answers.  

Ex2   Write a list on the board:  

• Tom’s reaction  

• Adults’ reaction  

• Other ideas  

• Put students in pairs to predict how the story will continue. Read out the questions and explain that students must guess what the characters will do when they see Maggie’s hair. Encourage them to think of any other ideas about how the story will continue. Monitor and help as necessary.  

• Choose individual students to share their ideas with the whole class. Write key words on the board, next to the corresponding heading in the list.  

Ex3   Set a three-minute time limit for students to read the next part of the story. Tell them not to worry about words they don’t understand. They should focus on the gist (general meaning).  

• Put students in pairs to discuss whether their predictions were correct.  

• Discuss this as a whole class. Ask students to think about the information or language in the first part of the story that helped them make predictions.  

Ex1   1 They’re brother and sister.  2 She’s Maggie and Tom’s mother.   

3 Her big idea was to cut her hair herself  

Ex2   Students’ own answers  

Homework   

• Ask students to do some research and find one or more famous authors who wrote under pen names (e.g. Agatha Christie, Stephen King, J.K. Rowling, etc.). Encourage students to make a note of the pen names; titles they wrote with the real name and pen name; why they decided to use a pen name, etc.  

• Set Exercises 1, 2 and 3 on page 63 and Exercises 4, 5, 6 and 7 on page 64 of the Workbook for homework  

At the beginning of the next lesson, students can share their findings in class.   

Additional Information  

Differentiation - how do you plan to give more support? How do you  

plan to challenge the more able learners?  

Assessment - how are you planning to check learners` learning?  

Health and safety check ICT links  

More support will be given to weaker learners by giving them a modified  

-through questioning and the redirecting of questioning in feedback activities  

-White board and video is used no more than 10 minutes -Use water based pens  

worksheets in some tasks with greater support  

-through observation in group and end performance activities  

-through formative task  

-Health promoting techniques -Breaks and physical activities used.  

-Points from Safety rules used at this lesson.  

REFLECTION  

Answer the most relevant questions to reflect on your lesson.  

Were the lesson objectives/learning objectives realistic?   

What did the learners learn? What did/didn’t you like? What was difficult?