Week 6: Listening Unit Planning Sheet

Instructor/Teacher’s name: Fernanda Freire Coutinho

Learning Goal for the Listening Unit: To help students Identify vocabulary related to weather and climate change in oral speech.
Unit Length (check one): _X One lesson (80’) __ Multiple, connected lessons

Teaching Context: This lesson aims a group of A1 students on the second semester of study (160’ a week), aged between 15 and 50
years old. They have studied some vocabulary related to weather and are able to create simple sentences to describe it. Due to age
differences and backgrounds, there are some false beginners in the group, while some other students have more difficulty in class, so
I have to balance the activities to deal with this diversity. This listening activity aims to reinforce and expand vocabulary, review
pronunciation of such words in real context, and improve their listening skills as well.
Overall focus of the listening unit
Students are expected to:
- Practice listening for general understanding, by predicting content (top down), correlating images and previous knowledge on
the topic
- Recognize words they already know within a speech, focusing on their pronunciation and use in a text
Focus of each listening activity listed in the table below
#1: review vocabulary and pre-teach some vocabulary
#2: listen for general understanding and listen for words
#3: listen for detailed information
#4: post-reading discussion and check understanding

Activity, Type (TD or BU), and Progression Duration Help options Resource
#1: 15’ - Pre-teach words which - Board and markers
Brainstorm words related to weather. are not common in the - Notebook (students’ notes).
- Students should come up with the name of the classroom due to
seasons: summer, fall, winter, spring environment singularities
- Help students to come up with words used to (blizzard, snow, etc.);
describe the seasons, such as rain, snow, cold, - Review general
hot, etc. vocabulary and
- Elicit from students some events common in their pronunciation
own environment due to climate changes, and
pre-teach terms such as flooding, storms, etc.
- Point out events not common to their own
This is a program of the U.S. Department of State administered by FHI 360
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 environment, but possible around the world. Pre-
teach blizzard, negative temperatures, minus
Celsius, etc.

#2: 20 - Some presentation about - Video available at VOA News:

Play the selected video. different texts genders https://www.voanews.com/a/extreme-weather-
- Listen for content recognition (Top down might be necessary. becoming-the-new-normal/4723931.html
listening). - Some vocabulary such us
Ask students to watch the video and focus on images and environment and climate - Worksheet 1 (Appendices)
tone first; ask them to identify the main topic and the kind change might need some
of speech it is. previous work.
- Check as a class, and come up with the gender - If necessary, the video
(news) and topic (climate changing) can be played a third
Play the video a second time: time, or there can be
- Ask students to focus on the audio itself, and take pauses, so students have
notes of every word they hear which are related time to take notes of the
to the weather (E.g. snow, hot, flooding, minus 17 words they hear.
Celsius, etc.)
- Check their findings as a class. Make a list on the
board.
Ask students to analyze in pairs the words they found and
decide if the text is optimistic or pessimist in relation to
climate changing, and if these changes are temporary or
permanent, according to the text. .
#3: 15’ - Some students might not - Video available at VOA News:
Check details from the text and sentence structure (Bottom understand much from https://www.voanews.com/a/extreme-weather-
up listening): the audio itself, so they becoming-the-new-normal/4723931.html
- Ask students to complete a fill in the blanks/cloze will need extra help to
activity. They should complete the blanks complete the blanks - Worksheet 2 (Appendices)
accordingly. This activity can be useful for considering the
students who are faster and have better vocabulary we have
understood the audio on the previous listening, reviewed, and what
while students who need more help can try to words can be together in
infer which word is suitable for each sentence. a meaningful sentence.
Check students’ answers (there might be more They need to be
than one possible answer to some sentences). encouraged to think
- Listen the audio again and ask students to check if critically and use their
their answers are different or not. Analyze the world knowledge and
This is a program of the U.S. Department of State administered by FHI 360
and delivered by Iowa State University 2
 sentences and review vocabulary and collocation, surpass some anxiety of
so students can better understand the word not understanding the
choice in each sentence. audio word by word.
- Extra: the sentences in the activity are not exactly
the same on the video, so students can try to
write down the full sentence from listening and
compare, focusing on oral aspects of the language
x written language (which tends to be more
objective).
#4 30’ - Help them with some - Notebooks.
Ask students to discuss in small groups what kind of new vocabulary they - Paper
climate change they have noticed in their own might want to use (e.g. - Markers
city/environment lately. They have to create small reservoir, shortage, etc.) - Colored pencils
sentences comparing the past and present.
e.g. In the past, it was dry in May, but this year it is raining.
Two years ago, there was a water shortage, this year
there is a lot of water in the reservoirs.

- Share their sentences with the class. Students

have to say if they agree or not (they do not have
enough vocabulary yet to carry on deeper
discussions on the topic).
- Invite students to decide which changes are more
relevant, and create posters to display in the
classroom and call other students attention to the
issue.
- Present their posters to the class (providing a final
listening and speaking practice, in which they
have to listen to their classmates and do an oral
presentation using the target vocabulary.

This is a program of the U.S. Department of State administered by FHI 360

and delivered by Iowa State University 3
Implementation Notes
- A possible brainstorming can lead to a mind map like the one below:

- Some adaptations might be necessary according to the group. Some steps can be skipped, e.g. the fill in the blanks can be a
listen activity, without asking students to try to complete them previously.
- There is no script for this video, but it can be done by the teacher and used by students to listen and read, so they can get
some new vocabulary they were not able to recognize during the listening activity.
- Instead of only creating and presenting their posters, alternatively students can be reporters and interviewers, and discuss
their own local findings about the climate.
- In order to use the worksheets, they have to be copied and pasted as a single activity or in separated pieces of paper.

This is a program of the U.S. Department of State administered by FHI 360

and delivered by Iowa State University 4
APPENDICES

Worksheet 1

I. After watching the video once, answer the questions below:

1. Where is this video from?

a) It is part of a documentary
b) It is part of a TV show
c) It is a piece of news

2. What kind of video is it?

a) Interview
b) News
c) Advertisement

3. What is the video about?

a) The weather in the US
b) Climate change
c) The seasons of the year

II. Watch the video again and take notes of words related to the weather that you hear:

__________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________

Answer Key:

This is a program of the U.S. Department of State administered by FHI 360

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 I.
1. c (an important clue is the reporter who signs the news at the end of it).
2. NEWS (there are interviews, but also narrations and info provided by a reporter)
3. Climate change (it talks about different parts of the world, and it does not indicate the seasons clearly for each part).

II. Weather, blizzard, snow, storm, flood, cold, minus 17 degrees, temperatures, heat wave, 40 degrees Celsius, hot(ter),
summer, climate.

Worksheet 2

I. Fill in the blanks with an appropriate word, according to the context:

a) A post blizzard raced through the US leaving up to 30 centimeters of ______________.

b) The same __________ caused severe flooding in Southern parts of the country.
c) In India, Kashmir, the __________ are legendary for their cold.
d) In some parts of Australia, ______________ are reaching 40 degrees Celsius and above.
e) Forecast predicts more of this kind of extreme weather, as the ___________ continues to change.

II. Now listen to the audio and check if you have the same answers.

Answer key:
a) snow b) storm* c) winters d) temperatures e) climate**

*rain is also possible ** weather might appear, so reinforce the difference between weather and climate, world is also a possibility.

This is a program of the U.S. Department of State administered by FHI 360

and delivered by Iowa State University 6