Victor Slonzon Piedade

UNIT 2 - Task 13 based on my Unit 1 - Task 8 ideas

1-Personalize the Topic/2-Brainstorm to arouse interest in subject.
Procedure
From my personal experience I think students find this kind of text uttelry boring if not
engaged with questions to arouse their interest in the subject so I'd start by showing a
picture of a friend of mine and I'd quickly talk about our friendship (how we met/what
he/she is like) (explain friendship=two people like each other)
I'd say to the learners: Do you have friends? Work in pairs, Describe him/her to your
partner for four minutes (How you met/ what he/she is like)
I'd then ask them"Have you ever lived with or shared your home with someone who
wasn't your relative? (Explain relative=member of the family)
I'd teach 'ROOMATE' (someone you share your home with but is not related)
I'd ask "Would you let a room to someone you didn't know?" - "If so, what would you do
to make sure it's a safe decision?" - "If not, why?"
I'd show the text and tell them to focus on the pictures
I'd ask them if they thought the two were "Friends", "Relatives" or "Roommates"
I'd ask "Do you think they get on well with each other?" - (teach: "GET ON WELL WITH"
= to be good friends)
For the initial reading task, Id ask them to quickly read and discuss in pairs to see
whether their predictions were correct.
Then Id give them the correct answers as feedback by saying that Tina and Will got on
well with each other at the beginning but their friendship changed because they were
roommates but they didnt spend enough time together as friends and today they dont
see each other anymore. (Some students might have already given this answer which is
the aim because they have just learnt all the needed lexis for this)
I'd ask them to focus on the title: "That was then, this is now" (explain "then" points to
the past in this sentence)
I'd ask them what differences were there between Will and Tina for their friendship to
have changed along the years.
I'd ask them to read the text individually and more thoroughly to be able to check their
predictions.
Then Id ask them to share what they found with their partners by underlining the text.
Finally Id ask them to share with the class their answers but justifying their answers
with their underlined references from the text.
Id give them feedback as to whether theyve forgotten to mention any differences
between Tina and Will from the text.
After this feedback phase, Id ask them to work in pairs to discuss and take notes of
their peers opinion about the advantages and disadvantages of having a roommate.
Then, wed discuss their answers with the rest of the class as the teacher writes their
answers on the board.

Finally, students, in pairs can write a small dialogue between Tina and Will as they meet
each other again by chance in the street. Then they role-play to the class what they
have prepared in writing.
At the end, the teacher can assess the students individually with any critical mistakes
they might have made during the role-play.

Hi Master Henry lol. Thanks for the comments. I guess we don't have to reply, but anyhow...
Lead-in: As I see things, talking first sets an example for students as I would use key language
to describe my friendship and all things related to the subject. This would be fast as I've
mentioned in my planning. I would only say how we met and what he/she is like. This would
be quick and easy enough for students to know how to reproduce into pair-talk. In this lead-in
I'd rather have the students listen to me talking first and setting the example sentences and
vocabulary than letting them interrogate the teacher as I recon that would mislead the aim of
the activity thus making students confused about what they have to do in pairs later. (Although
I do like the idea of learners always participating actively, I still don't think they would benefit
so much here)
Pre-teaching vocabulary: As I've mentioned in the planning, right before teaching the word
roommate, "I'd then ask them "Have you ever lived with or shared your

home with someone who wasn't your relative? (Explain

relative=member of the family)" - In my opinion, this is enough for
the learner to understand, I could then explain to them that the
word we use to define this kind of person is roommate. I could even
rephrase the question as follows: "Have you ever lived with or shared
your home with someone who wasn't your relative? Have you ever had a
roomate?". I could even ask the learners to tell me what a roommate is and
they would answer me "someone who isn't your relative and who lives with
or shares your home with you" (or something like that).
Follow-up: I partly agree with you on this one. A role-play is a more natural task and is always
more welcome than a writing task, though it would depend on the class level and their ability to
be fast thinkers and creative minds. As I don't have any information on what kind of
intelligences I would be dealing with, I'd rather stick to "Finally, students, in pairs

can write a small dialogue between Tina and Will as they meet
each other again by chance in the street. Then they role-play to
the class what they have prepared in writing." --> I see this as a chance
for students to note down what they will say, while they can input the new vocabulary
more effectively and also this gives time and chance for less creative students to think
about what they will say. I also see a dialogue as being a good way of making rapport
amongst the students as they will have the opportunity to create funny and interesting
short stories despite it being a written task. Role-plays are fantastic, although they do
demand quite a lot of the student's attitude and most times they can be very
pressuring and embarrassing for more quiet students. Making written dialogues helps
these quieter students to develop their speech. If the students are more advanced and
creative, they can just practise the conversation without writing anything down. This
will set a role-model for other students so they gradually learn to develop quick
thinking and creativity for role-playing.

Last thing, I have a question: How would spending time writing a dialogue defeat the purpose
of the activity?