Lesson 5

Autobiography. Writing

Aims and objectives:

• practicing filling in CV forms

• practicing using vocabulary for describing attitudes

• practicing speaking skills

Equipment: writing paper, handouts

Sequence

I. Warming-up

Jeopardy

In this game, everyone writes down a few (three to ten, depending on the time available) answers to questions about themselves. After writing down the answers, people have to form pairs or small groups and try to find out what the questions are.

Example: (answer = purple) "What is your favorite colour?”

"Blue”. "What colour do you hate?” "Green”. "What colour is your underwear?”

"Purple!” You can stop at three guesses if you want, or keep going until someone in the club can guess the question.

II. Main part

1. Checking on Homework

The students read out their biography reports with the rest of the class guessing who the person is. Then, the students take turns until all the reports have been read out.

2. Creative writing

T. As you remember, CVs or resumes are mostly used by employers to get the necessary information about the potential worker. Now you’ll pretend you want to be employed by a certain company or firm.

The first step is writing and sending out your resume (CV) to the company.

Here’s the list of your potential employers. Choose the company you would like to work for and write your CV so that the management would be interested in employing you.

"Coca-Cola”, "McDonald’s”, "General Motors”, "Microsoft”, "NASA”, "The New York Times”, "BBC”, "MTV”.

The students complete their CVs and submit them to the teacher.

Then the class is divided into the groups according to the number of firms applied for. Each group receives its own set of CVs with the task of evaluating them from the point of view of potential employers. The results with explanations are shared in the class.

3. Vocabulary practice

T. As you remember, CVs are very close in format to the primitive fill-in-forms. They just give basic information about the candidate and are not more than a primary acquaintance with a potential worker.

Today we are going to work with more complicated forms of autobiography — those, which require not only giving just information but also showing your attitudes, which is very important in the upcoming job interview.

The teacher brings the class back to the example of an autobiography from lesson 3 and asks the students to note down its structure and find out the vocabulary used for expressing the ideas (target answer: adjectives, adverbs, degrees of comparison, phrasal verbs — i.e. the ways of expressing emotional attitudes).

After this is done, the teacher suggests working with the autobiography worksheet.

Autobiography Worksheet

Date:

Name:

1) How would you describe yourself in 20 words or less? How would others describe you in 20 words or less?

a) Myself

b) Others

2) What are my strengths? Weaknesses?

Strengths

Weaknesses

3) What are my best subjects in school? Why?

4) What are the subjects I need more help with? Why?

5) What am I good at (examples: sports or hobbies)?

6) What achievements am I proudest of? Why?

7) Where I see myself (what am I doing?) in 2 years, 5 years, and 10 years?

2 years

5 years

10 years

8) What is most important to me — money? career? relationships? travel? health? spirituality? something else? Why are they important?

9) Do I prefer to lead or follow? Why? Give examples

The students walk around the class and interview 2–3 peers about question 1b, noting down the answers to use them in completing the form afterwards.

After that, the teacher gets the students analyze the questions and the possible answers using the essential vocabulary:

Share, fantastic, practical jokes, detention, chatting, tell tales, actor, businessman, dentist, model, politician, taxi driver, soldier, undertaker, vicar, dustman, TV interviewer, spy, pilot, accident prone 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.

Biochemistry, chemistry, biology, literature, geography, warden, philosophy, physics, PhD, architecture, anthropology, sociology, PE (physical education), engineering, politics, agriculture, oceanography, economics, geology, technology, saxophone, violin, guitar, double bass, cello, drums, fitness freak / fanatic, opera buff, computer buff, folk dancing, get worked up, just as well, indescribable, get on with.

It is not bad to suggest a person everybody in the class knows well for completing the worksheet in his / her name for practice with the following discussion.

4. Relaxation

Game "Crystal balls”

Function practised

making predictions

Exponent

will have will be

How to use the game

This game may be played with any number of students.

Divide the class into two: fortune tellers and fortune hunters.

Copy enough hunter cards for the fortune hunters and enough crystal balls for the fortune tellers, making sure that as far as possible, there is an appropriate crystal ball for every hunter.

Seat the fortune tellers behind desks in different parts of the room, and give them each a crystal ball.

Give the fortune hunters each a hunter card. Allow them some time to read the card and ask you about any problems.

Ask the fortune hunters to give back, or put away, their cards and the fortune tellers to turn theirs over so they can gaze into the crystal ball. Then ask the fortune hunters to visit the fortune tellers and ask about their future, until they find a fortune teller who will give them the news they want to hear.

The object of the game is for the fortun

Hunter cards

You want some good news about your love life.

You want some good news about money matters.

You want some good news about your future family (you want lots of children).

You want some exciting news about travel

You want an interesting career.

You want to be famous.

You want good news about your health.

Crystal balls

You are a specialist in love. Predict a good / interesting love for everyone you meet. Be inventive! If they ask you about other things, say that the ball is cloudy and you can’t see.

You are a specialist in money matters. Predict a good financial future for everyone you meet. Be inventive! If they ask you about other things, say that the ball is cloudy and you can’t see.

You are a specialist in family life. Predict a happy family life and large numbers of children to everyone you meet. If they ask you about other things, say that the ball is cloudy and you can’t see.

You are a specialist in travel. Predict interesting travel experiences for everyone you meet. Be inventive! If they ask you about other things, say that the ball is cloudy and you can’t see.

You are a career specialist. Predict an interesting / successful career for everyone you meet. Be inventive! If they ask you about other things, say that the ball is cloudy and you can’t see.

You are a specialist in fame. Predict success and fame for everyone you meet. Be inventive! If they ask you about other things, say that the ball is cloudy and you can’t see.

You are a specialist in health. Predict a healthy life and vigorous old age for everyone you meet. Be inventive! If they ask you about other things, say that the ball is cloudy and you can’t see.

IV. Summary

V. Homework

Complete the Autobiography Worksheet for yourself. Make sure to bring electronic images to illustrate each point in the worksheet for making a project.

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