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Using Being People
Submitted by Diane in the U.S.A.

Time: 50 to 60 minutes

Level: Upper-Beginner to Intermediate

Skills: Reading, Writing, Listening, Speaking, Grammar, Pronunciation, and Vocabulary.

1. Pre-Listening: Talking about Family: Write the following questions on the board:

How many siblings do you have?

Are you very close to one sister or one brother? Or close to one aunt or uncle?

Why do you feel close to them?

What is special about them?

What is unusual about them?

Put students into pairs or small groups and have them discuss the questions. Allow students to share their answers with the whole class if they would like to.

2. Listening: For my Sister Molly who in the fifties:

Tell the students that they are going to listen to two parts of a poem about a favorite sister. Assign the listening task and then read the matching section of the poem. Depending on the level of the class, you may wish to read them the section of the poem several times.

Listening Task Part 1:

After you listen to the poem try to draw a picture of the rooster.

What did Molly teach the poet? 

Read Section One on page 99. The Section that begins with “Once made…”

Answers:

It is made of mashed potatoes, with long green onions sticking up for its tail, two carrot legs, and a piece of tomato on its head.

That certain words were bad and not to use the word ‘us’ instead of ‘we’ (grammar)

Listening Task Part 2:

List one thing that Molly knew.

List three things that Molly did.

What did Molly smell like?

How did she look?

Read Section Two on page 99 – the section that begins with “Who in the fifties know all the written…”

Answers:

She knew stories that made the poet laugh; endings to stories

She walked in the flowers, brought flowers inside, made dresses, braided hair, moved chairs, hung things on the walls, ordered people to take a bath, and frowned at wasp bites.

Flowers

As bright as flowers, or just bright.

 

Post-Listening: Writing
Tell students that they are going to write a poem about their favorite family member.

Put the following questions on the board:

What is a funny thing this person once did?

What have they taught you?

What do they know?

What do they do?

What do they look like?

Tell students that they do not need to answer the questions in complete sentences. They can just make a list of key phrases or words for each question. The objective of this stage is to make sure that students have enough vocabulary to write their poems. Students can help each other and use dictionaries if they want to.

Next put the following skeleton poem on the board. Ask students to complete the poem for their relative. Students can add a picture. Share the poems with the class or display them on the wall.

 

For my (relation) (name) who once (describe a funny thing they did).

Who taught me (describe what they taught you).

Who knows (describe what they know).

Who (list special things they do).

Who looks (describe what they look like).

For my (relation) (name).

Thank you.