a little trouble in dublin.pdf

Lesson PlanCambridge Lesson plan Discovery Level 1 Beginner/Elementary CEF: A1 Readers A Little Trouble in Dublin Richard MacAndrew Aims 4 Talk briefly to students about bank notes. What sort of images do they have on them? ■ To make students interested in the book. Suggested answer: images of people or places that ■ To think about the types of events that might are important to a country or group of countries. happen in an adventure story. Give students a piece of paper the size of a bank note ■ To learn more about some of the characters in the and ask them to design a new note. Stick the notes story and their relationship with each other. up and give them all a number. Now ask students to NB You may find that many of the activities vote for their three favourite designs. described below can be exploited better in your NB Students must not vote for their own bank note. students’ own language or mother tongue, if you Which is the most popular design? speak it. The mother tongue, if used carefully as a resource, can facilitate your students’ progress in 5 Tell students that in A Little Trouble in Dublin, English and help them to understand the context Mary visits a museum shop. Divide the class into of the story, thus preparing them to understand it two teams and ask each team to write up a list of better when they read it. items they think are on sale in a museum shop. They give each item a price (in euros). This price Pre-reading Activities should be a whole number (e.g. €13, not €13.55). 1 Tell students the title of the book is A Little Trouble Teams now swap lists. Give each team two minutes in Dublin. Write a list of types of stories (genres) to memorise the list of items and their prices. At on the board (e.g. murder mystery, comedy, science the end of the two minutes, the winning team fiction, romance, adventure). Discuss these with is the team that remembers the most items and their students to ensure they know what they all are. prices accurately. Students now look at Illustration 1. Ask What do you 6 Ask students to read Extract 3. Discuss what is see? happening in the extract. Suggested answers: two people (a boy and a girl) Suggested answer: Andy and Mary are following a running away from a building at night, money. man in Dublin. The man goes into a house. Andy Now ask What genre do you think A Little Trouble in wants to leave, but Mary wants to wait longer. Andy Dublin is? isn’t happy, but he doesn’t want to leave his sister. Answer: Adventure. They wait another 30 minutes. Now ask students to imagine that Andy does decide 2 Ask students to look at Extract 1, a list of people to say what he thinks about waiting. They should in the story, and Illustration 1. Working in pairs, write a few lines to continue the dialogue between students try to guess something that happens in the brother and sister, to show how they are both the story. They should write their ideas on small feeling. Students share their dialogue with a partner pieces of paper. Feedback to the whole class and or the whole class. help students to stick their pieces of paper up so that similar ideas are next to each other. How different 7 Ask students to discuss with a partner what happens are the ideas? to Mary and Andy after Extract 3 ends. Feedback to the whole class. 3 Ask students to read Extract 2 and to look at Illustration 2. Talk about what is happening (a shop 8 Students think of a place they know well and assistant refuses to accept Mary’s €20 note as he says imagine they are following someone. Ask them to it’s forged). Look back at the ideas for Activity 2. Did list possible hiding places (e.g. cafés, trees, etc.). anyone think the story was about forged money? Next, ask them to think about how they would feel if they were following someone (e.g. frightened, Cambridge Discovery Readers © Cambridge University Press 2010 www.cambridge.org/elt/discoveryreaders PHOTOCOPIABLE org/elt/discoveryreaders PHOTOCOPIABLE . They should try to show what the place is like and how they feel as well as what is happening. Finally. At a restaurant.g. How similar are the ideas? 3 Game – How well do you know me? Place the class in groups of three – Student 1 is Mary. Feedback to the whole class. 9 Ask students to look at Illustration 3 and to discuss with a partner. nervous). 10 Students think of a caption for the Illustration 3 and share these with the whole class. where they follow someone. Student 3 secretly writes three questions about Mary and three questions about Andy (e. but this time with Student 3 asking Student 2 questions about Andy while Student 1 is out of the room. 4 Write a 100-word story for a Dublin newspaper about Mary and Andy’s adventures. What do they think is happening and why? Answer: Andy and Mary are trying to escape from the two men in the picture by putting their hands over their eyes so they can’t see while the car is moving (although you may wish to let the students find this out by reading the book). Student 2 gets a point for every answer that is the same as Student 1’s. Now repeat the above. Student 3 then asks Student 1 the three questions about Mary without Student 2 being present and notes the answer. Cambridge Discovery Readers © Cambridge University Press 2010 www.cambridge. ask them to write a simple scene as in Extract 3. Student 2 then returns and Student 3 asks him the same three questions about Mary. a pizza or a salad?). Post-reading Activities 1 Ask students to complete the sentence: The thing I liked best about A Little Trouble in Dublin was … 2 Ask students to make a change to the story to provide an entirely different ending. Student 2 is Andy and Student 3 is the questioner. does Mary choose a burger. There were houses round the square. We’ve still got time to get to the cinema.’ Extract 3 Mary watched the man. Yours is forged. Andy and Mary ran after him and turned right too. Look here. Extract 2 ‘I can’t take this.’ he thought.’ For ten minutes they walked about fifty metres behind the man. ‘It’s not a real €20 note. and trees and gardens in it.’ he answered. then the National Gallery on their right. Mary.’ Andy was angry.’ ‘Why?’ asked Andy. They waited and they waited. Then he put Mary’s note next to it.’ Cambridge Discovery Readers © Cambridge University Press 2010 www. We can’t see him.org/elt/discoveryreaders PHOTOCOPIABLE . ‘Please. opened the door and went in. ‘Come on.’ He found a new €20 note and put it on the shop window.’ said Andy. Mary Lawson’s twin brother Mary Lawson: a thirteen-year-old girls: Andy Lawson’s twin sister Miss O’Brien: Andy and Mary’s science teacher Mr Green Shirt: Mary sees this man in a shop Mr Blue Shirt: a friend of Mr Green Shirt Inspector Helen Forrester: a Dublin police officer Sergeant Tom Brady: A Dublin Police officer. After thirty minutes Andy said. ‘Don’t get too near him. He’s not coming out again. ‘I want to know.cambridge.’ ‘But what’s he doing there?’ asked Mary.’ said Mary.’ said the shop assistant. but there isn’t one on yours. The man walked up to the front door of a house. ‘Look on the left of the note. ‘We’re going to wait in the gardens. ‘You can see a kind of window on the real note. ‘It’s forged – it’s not real. ‘We don’t want him to see us.’ said Mary. ‘OK. The film actually starts at half past five. He turned right. ‘I can’t leave my sister here.’ the assistant told Mary.’ ‘Just five more minutes. First there was Trinity College on their left.’ ‘No.’ said Mary and took him by the arm. but he didn’t say anything. Next came Merrion Square. ‘Why not?’ asked Mary. Andy.Extract 1 My notes People in the story Andy Lawson: a thirteen-year-old boy. ‘We can go back now. org/elt/discoveryreaders PHOTOCOPIABLE .cambridge.Illustration 1 My notes Cambridge Discovery Readers A Little Trouble in Dublin Richard MacAndrew CEF A1 25/02/2010 16:09 Illustration 2 Cambridge Discovery Readers © Cambridge University Press 2010 www. cambridge.org/elt/discoveryreaders PHOTOCOPIABLE .Illustration 3 My notes Cambridge Discovery Readers © Cambridge University Press 2010 www.