Lesson 3

Autobiography. Listening. Reading

Aims and objectives:

• practicing listening and reading skills

• practicing vocabulary

• developing speaking skills

Equipment: handouts, writing paper

Sequence

I. Warming-up

Fact or Fiction

In this game, one person tells a short story about themselves or someone they know or heard about. Usually it is something funny or crazy. It can be a true story, or something made up.

Example: Josh tells a story about his Uncle Leo who sleeps in the nude. One day Uncle Leo was sleepwalking and he went outside and took his dog for a walk. The next door neighbour was coming home late from work and saw him! She called the police and he got arrested for being naked in public.

Everyone around the room has to say whether they think Josh’s story is fact (true) or fiction (made up). Josh reveals the truth when everyone has guessed. Members can take turns telling a story.

II. Main part

1. Checking on Homework

The students read their sentences in turns, and the class decides if they are correct or not. After the sentences have been read out, the teacher may read the text "A Quiet Life” again to have the class compare their results with the original.

2. Conversation T–Cl

Please, explain how you understand the meaning and the origin of the word "autobiography”.

When do you think people have to write autobiographies?

Have you ever had to write your autobiography? What was the

reason? What language did you do it in?

Have you ever heard the word "CV”? It’s the abbreviation of the two words in Latin "curriculum vitae”. What does it mean?

3. Reading

Read the following passage and guess what forms of autobiography are less common.

The most common example of an autobiography is still the written form. And when writing an autobiography, you have two primary choices: you can start with a blank sheet of paper or a use a fill-in-theblank format, basically a book (workbook) with questions, prompts and other activities to help you go back into your memory banks and pull out "memorable gems” that you’ve, perhaps, long forgotten about.

Nowadays, most autobiographies are written in the form of the socalled CV or resume. This is very close to the fill-in-the-blank form except for the fact that here you basically cover a few most important facts of your life. CVs are much shorter than traditional autobiography essays and are more convenient for employers to find out as much necessary information about the candidate as possible in a very short time.

The students share their guesses, the teacher encouraging them all and finally giving the correct answer (CD and video formats).

If the class is bright enough, the teacher may spend a few minutes having the class discuss the reasons for these new formats to appear.

T. There is a very important difference between the two most common autobiography formats. Read two sample autobiographies and find out what this difference is.

An Example of CV / Resume

1) First name, middle name, family name — Barack Hussein Obama.

2) Date of birth, age — 4 August 1961, 48 years old.

3) Citizenship — USA...

4) Family — married to Michelle Robinson (1992), children: Malia Ann (1998), Natasha (2001).

5) Religion — Protestant Christian.

6) Occupation — President of the United States of America...

7) Job Experiences — U. S. Senator (2004–2008), Illinois State legislator (1996–2004)...

8) Learning Experiences — Harvard Law School (1991) — Juris Doctor (J. D.); Columbia University (1983) — B. A. in political sciences...

9) Hobbies and Leisure Activities — cooking, poker, spending time with his family, dancing, and talking on the phone with his wife, Michelle Obama...

10) Sports — basketball.

11 ) Travels and international experience — Afghanistan, France, Germany, Iraq, the U. K, Russia, Italy and others.

12) Awards — 2 Grammy awards for his 2 books; honorary doctorate from Weslyan University, honorary member of the Crow Nation, Native American tribe.

13) Achievements — the first black President of the United States; has spread major political influence throughout the youth populations and activated interest in the political communities; steps towards change by motioning for environmental, educational and health care reforms; cut taxes for 95% of the American population.

14) Additional information...

An Example of an Autobiography

I was born on a warm, sunny day in June in Sarasota, Florida. I still live in Sarasota, Florida, and I go to school at Booker High School. I live with my mom, Kate; my brother, Jake; and my Aunt Molly. When I was born, my bother was fifteen-months-old and hid under the table from me. Jake is a sweet kid and he would do anything for me, but like all brothers and sisters we fight like cats and dogs. Sometimes when no one was around, Jake would come up to me and bite my toes for no reason. I still love him but only because he is my brother.

Who I am in life

My name is Sally Friday. I started school when I was six years old. I went to kindergarten through fifth grade at Booker Elementary and while I was there, I won an award for perfect attendance. I also won an award for honor roll all four terms. Then I attended Booker Middle School, and there I also won a couple of awards: one for perfect attendance and two for being named Student of the Year — one in sixth grade and the other in eighth grade. I am now a senior at Booker High School. I plan on finishing school and maybe going to a community college.

What life means to me

Life to me means friends and family who you can trust and who trusts you. I am pretty much on the happy side of life, but like all teens I do have my "days of”. That means I do have some sad days or depressed days. I have a few friends here that sort of look out for me and when I am having a bad day, I have someone here at school to talk to. I make my school days go by thinking of either the next hour or what I will do when I get home or on the weekend. I’m not seeing anyone now but when I did have a boyfriend, our favorite places to go were the movies and out to dinner. Sometimes we went to the beach. Only once we went to an amusement park: Universal Studios. We were together for twenty-nine days and then we broke-up; so no, I don’t think it was forever.

What’s my outlook on the future

The year 2018 will make twenty years since I graduated from high school. I think I will probably be still living here in Sarasota. I will be quite comfortable with my living situation, meaning that I will be married to Paul Smith. We will have one child: Linda Teresa Smith, who at that point will be three years old and a little devil. Paul is a sweet guy; he will do anything for anyone. He is six feet tall and built well. He has baby blue eyes and blond hair. We will have been together for five years and will be happy together — this is forever.

Conclusion

As I said in the beginning, I was born here in Florida and I’ve lived here my whole life. I would like to see more of the USA but unfortunately, I don’t have any money to leave Florida to go anywhere right now. I hope you have enjoyed reading my life story as much as I have enjoyed writing it for you. Try to get as much as you can out of school; you’re only there for twelve years and when you graduate, you’re home free. Here’s a tip for you to live or try to live by: If you think it, it can be done.

The students share their ideas (expected answers: CVs are more formal and neutral, they just give information: essays are more emotionally colored, they give both information and attitudes).

4. Relaxation

Game "Office politics”

Exponent

I think that...

In my opinion, etc.

adjectives for describing character

Lexical areas

character, talents and abilities

Essential vocabulary

Punctual, efficient, inefficient, cheerful, grumpy, bad-tempered, hopeless at, precise, rigid, inflexible, flexible, organized, disorganized, decisive, indecisive, friendly, pompous, good-natured, down-toearth, narrow-minded, kind, natural, careless, weak, open-minded, unpretentious, competent, miserable, standoffish, moaning, complaining, nice, shy, kind-hearted, forgetful, gentle, moody, muddled, tolerant, broad-minded, absent-minded, vague, rude, eccentric.

How to use the game

The game may be played with 8–16 players. If you have more than 16 students, play the game in two or more groups.

Copy one role card for each student in your group / class.

If you play with 9 people, you will have to add the information about Gerry (just joined, very nice but rather shy) to Chris’s role card. If you play with more than 9 you will have to add the information about the last person in the series to Gerry’s role card, for example, if you play with twelve students then the last card in the series will be the twelfth card, Dani, and you will have to add the information about Dani (joined at the same time, nice, but absent-minded)to Gerry’s role card. You will also need sticky labels or pins for badges. Give out the role cards to the students. Ask them to make a badge for themselves with their name on. Tell them that they all work in the same office and that since their boss is leaving, one of them is eligible for promotion. Naturally, everyone has very strong ideas about who it should / shouldn’t be, which they want to communicate to as many people as possible.

However, the rule is: you can say as much as you like about the people behind their back, but never to their face.

The object of the game is to find out what other people think of you.

You can either set a time limit on the game and when it is up, see how many people discovered anything about themselves and whether they discovered one opinion or two conflicting ones, or make a rule that as soon as people discover an opinion about themselves, they should sit down, out of the game. It then gets progressively harder for those that are left to find anything out. The aim of the game then is not to be left in until last.

JO

Someone in your department is going to be promoted to supervisor. Naturally, you hope it’s going to be you. You wouldn’t mind if Sam or Alex gets the job. Sam’s very efficient and Alex is a nice cheerful person. But you hope it’s not Terry or Pip. Terry’s very bad-tempered and Pip’s hopeless at figures. Talk to people and find out what they think. Try to convince them of your opinion. Don’t tell anyone directly what you think of them, of course, but you can tell them what other people think of them, if you like. Your main aim, though, is to find out what other people think

about you!

SAM

Someone in your department is going to be promoted to supervisor. Naturally, you hope it’s going to be you.

You wouldn’t mind if Alex or Terry gets the job. Alex is a cheerful sort of person and Terry is good-natured. But you hope it’s not goingto be Pip or Robin! Pip is absolutely hopeless at figures and Robin is so rigid and narrow-minded.

Talk to people and find out what they think. Try to convince them of your opinion. Don’t tell anyone directly what you think of them, of course, but you can tell them what other people think of them, if you like. Your main aim, though, is to find out what other people think about you!

ALEX

Someone in your department is going to be promoted to supervisor.

Naturally, you hope it’s going to be you.

You wouldn’t mind if Terry or Pip gets the job. Terry is very goodnatured

and kind and Pip is very careful and precise: very good with

figures. But it would be a disaster to have Robin or Jan. Robin is so

narrow-minded and Jan is so careless and disorganised. TaJk to people

and find out what they think. Try to convince them of your opinion.

Don’t tell anyone directly what you think of them, of course, but you

can tell them what other people think about them, if you like. Your

main aim, though, is to find out what other people think about you!

TERRY

Someone in your department is going to be promoted to supervisor.

Naturally, you hope it’s going to be you.

You wouldn’t mind if Pip or Robin gets the job. Pip is very careful and precise: very good with the accounts and Robin is very flexible and open-minded. But it would be terrible if Jan or Chris got the job! Jan is totally disorganised and Chris is so pompous.

Talk to people and find out what they think. Try to convince them of your opinion. Don’t tell anyone directly what you think of them, of course, but you can tell them what other people think about them, if you like. Your main aim, though, is to find out what other people think about you!

PIP

Someone in your department is going to be promoted to supervisor. Naturally, you hope it’s going to be you.

You wouldn’t mind if Robin or Jan gets the job. Robin is a very tolerant and flexible person and Jan is very organised. But you’d hate to have to work for Chris or Jo! Chris is so unbelievably pompous and Jo is so indecisive.

Talk to people and find out what they think. Try to convince them of your opinion. Don’t tell anyone directly what you think of them, of course, but you can tell them what other people think about them, if you like. Your main aim, though, is to find out what other people think about you!

ROBIN

Someone in your department is going to be promoted to supervisor.

Naturally, you hope it’s going to be you.

You wouldn’t mind if Jan or Chris gets the job. Jan is very competent and organised and Chris is a nice, unpretentious down-to-earth sort of person. But it would be a disaster if Jo or Sam got the job. Jo is so weak and indecisive and Sam is very inefficient.

Talk to people and find out what they think. Try to convince them of your opinion. Don’t tell anyone directly what you think of them, of course, but you can tell them what other people think about them, if you like. Your main aim, though, is to find out what other people think about you!

JAN

Someone in your department is going to be promoted to supervisor.

Naturally, you hope it’s going to be you.

You wouldn’t mind if it’s Chris or Jo. Chris is a very pleasant, down-to-earth person and Jo is a good decision-maker. But it would be dreadful if Sam or Alex were promoted! Sam is terribly inefficient and Alex is a grumpy, miserable sort of character: always moaning and complaining. Talk to people and find out what they think. Try to convince them of your opinion. Don’t tell anyone directly what you think of them, of course, but you can tell them what other people think about them, if you like. Your main aim, though, is to find out what other people think about you!

CHRIS

Someone in your department is going to be promoted to supervisor.

Naturally, you hope it’s going to be you.

You wouldn’t mind if Jo or Sam gets the job. Jo thinks clearly and is decisive, and Sam is a very efficient worker. But it would be awful to have Alex or Terry in charge! Alex is always so grumpy and Terry has a terrible temper.

Talk to people and find out what they think. Try to convince them of your opinion. Don’t tell anyone directly what you think of them, of course, but you can tell them what other people think about them, if you like. Your main aim, though, is to find out what other people think about you!

GERRY

You’ve just joined the firm and you don’t know many of the people yet. However, you don’t like Jo much — seems a rather weak and indecisive person. Sam seems more efficient.

TONI

You’ve just joined the firm and you don’t know many of the people yet. However, you don’t like Sam much — seems very inefficient. Alex seems nice and cheerful, always making jokes. Gerry joined at the same time as you: very nice, but rather shy.

LESLIE

You’ve just joined the firm and don’t know many of the people yet. However, you don’t like Alex, who seems a miserable type: told you off for being late. Terry seems nicer: very good-natured and kind-hearted — showed you how the coffee machine worked on your first day. Toni joined at the same time as you: very nice but a bit forgetful.

DANI

You’ve just joined the firm and don’t know many of the people yet. However, you don’t like Terry, who is very bad-tempered and shouted at you on your first day. Pip seems nicer: much more gentle. Leslie joined at the same time as you: very nice but a bit moody.

PHIL

You’ve just joined the firm and you don’t know many of the people yet. However, you don’t like Pip much — seems to be very muddled and added up your wages wrong. Robin seems nice, very tolerant and broad-minded. Dani joined at the same time as you: very nice, but a bit absent minded.

BOBBIE

You’ve just joined the firm and you don’t know many of the people yet. However, you don’t like Robin much: a very narrow-minded and inflexible character. Jan, who showed you round on your first day seems very organised. Phil joined at the same time as you: very nice but not very punctual.

PADDY

You’ve just joined the firm and you don’t know many of the people yet. However, you don’t like Jan much — seems very disorganised to you. Chris was very friendly to you on your first day: very natural and not a bit standoffish. Bobbie joined at the same time as you: very nice but rather vague.

SANDY

You’ve just joined the firm and you don’t know many of the people yet. However, you don’t like Chris much — seems rather cold and pompous and was very rude to you on your first day. Jo would make a good supervisor: firm and decisive. Paddy joined at the same time as you: very nice but a bit eccentric.

After the game is over, the teacher asks the students to go back to the two autobiography samples and use the game active vocabulary to characterize the people.

5. Listening

The students are given blank CV forms. Their task is to fill in as much information as possible while listening to the interview.

P r o f i le. Peter Parker

I n t e r v i e w e r. ...With us in the studio this morning is Peter Parker. Good morning, Peter.

P e t e r. Good morning.

I n t e r v i e w e r. ...Peter Parker is an English Language teacher. He was always good at languages at school, so he decided to take his degree in French and German. When he finished his university studies, he began teaching in a secondary school in England. Two years later, however, he met someone by chance who offered him a job teaching English to foreign students during the long summer holidays. His students were adults and he enjoyed the work immensely. He soon found he was more interested in teaching his own language to foreigners than foreign languages to English schoolboys.

Since then he has specialised in this work. He has found that one of the advantages of the job is that it enables him to find work almost anywhere in the world. First he went to Africa for two years and then he spent a year in Arabia. After this he went to Greece where he has worked for the last 3 years. He hasn’t been to South America yet but he intends to go there next. He has taught men and women of all ages and of various nationalities. He has also learned to get on with all kinds of people and to adjust to different ways of life. So far he has not regretted his decision to follow this career.

Now then, Peter, tell me...

The students share their results eventually trying to reconstruct the text heard.

III. Summary

IV. Homework

Interview 5 people (relatives, neighbors, teachers etc.) and complete their CV forms.

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