Summer School Project 2011

Summer School Project

Mass Media

2011

Aims:

• to facilitate students` free speaking by eliciting personal experience and knowledge
• to encourage critical and creative thinking
• to promote positive attitude towards different life situations
• to broaden learners` general outlook

Equipment: pictures of different TV programs, handouts, cards for creating programs, felt-pens and pencils.

Procedure

1.  Organisation of the group (claiming the aims, setting the atmosphere of a foreign language communication).

2. `Wrong message` (warming up activity)

The teacher quickly whispers a message to someone in the class. This person then has to whisper the message quickly to the next person and so on, until the message reaches the person who started the message. Students are not allowed to ask for the message to be repeated.

T.: Is the message the same or different from the original message? What is rumor? This is how rumors can be started. What rumors have you heard? How do you know if something is a rumor or a fact? Does mass media tell about facts or rumors? We’ll speak about mass media today, about different types of programs which appear nowadays.

3.  Look, guess and tell (speaking skills development)

Activity 1. Look at the two pictures showing different types of TV programs. Compare and contrast the two pictures, saying which is more popular with young people and why. Which of the two programs do you most like to watch?

Activity 2. What type of program are you probably watching if you see the following? Match the description on the left with the programs on the right.

People trying to answer questions Actors doing and saying funny things People discussing politics The animal life of Antarctica Guns, murder and police A long interview with a famous person Everyday lives of the same group of people Characters played by moving drawings Someone talking about a new soap powder A person telling you what happened today

a)   a detective series b)   a commercial c)   soap opera d)  a comedy series e)   a talk show f)    a current affairs program g)   a nature documentary h)  the news i)    a quiz show j)    a cartoon

4.  Round-table talk (team work)

The group is divided into 3 teams. Each group gets the same tasks.

a)   Below is the list of adjectives commonly used to express opinions about films or TV programs. Sort them out in two groups, one negative and the other positive and use them to explain your program preferences.

Depressing, interesting, exciting, worrying, boring, upsetting, annoying, confusing, thrilling, entertaining, funny, difficult to understand, dull, informative, amusing, frustrating, surprising, tiring, embarrassing

Positive opinions	Negative opinions

 

b)  Below is the list of adjectives commonly used to express feelings that certain films or TV programs evoke in our hearts. What type of program makes you feel

·        bored ·        excited ·        depressed ·        frustrated ·        worried ·        annoyed ·        surprised ·        interested ·        entertained ·        tired ·        confused ·        thrilled

c)    Express your attitude to different programs.

Expressing likes… §  I really love/like … because it … §  I am really/ very fond of/ keen on/ interested in … as I think … §  I find … really interesting/ fascinating/ exciting and to my opinion ….	Expressing dislikes §  I (absolutely) hate/ detest/ can’t bear/ can’t stand … and the main reason for this is that … §  As for me, I am not very keen on/ interested in … because … §  I find … rather boring/ dull etc.
Explaining what you like about something §  What I like most is … §  I really like the way …	Explaining what you don’t like about something §  What bothers/ annoys me the most is … §  What gets to me is …
Expressing indifference §  It doesn’t bother me either way. §  It doesn’t concern me. §  I don’t care. §  It’s OK/ good, I suppose. §  I don’t have an opinion on it.

5. `Showmen` (creating shows)

Each pair of learners gets a definite type of program. The pair should create this program according to the plan ( a pair work) and depict it on the poster.

The plan:

1.  what kind of program is it (informative, entertaining, communicative, etc.)

2.  information it presents (useful, modern, old-fashioned, political, business, etc.)

3.  when should it be shown (the part of the day or the exact time)

4.  what category of people should watch it (children, adults, pensioners etc.)

5.  its influence (It usually has negative influence because…, It influences positively as …, etc.)

6.  examples if any on our TV.

7.  Conclusions

What was the most interesting activity for you?

What facts were exciting/new/strange to find out?