Lesson Plan The business news in pictures

Warmer Ask the participants to discuss important news items theyve seen on the news or heard about recently. You might want to suggest a minimum of three news items, and a time limit of 5 minutes to discuss them. Introduction Give the participants the pictures. You could cut them up and split them into two piles for two different groups, or give each participant the complete piece of paper to use for making notes later. Ask them if they can identify the news item represented in the picture. Allow them to make suggestions for a couple of minutes. The first four are world events. From L-R, top to bottom: Heinz is taken over by Warren Buffet http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2013/feb/14/warren-buffett-heinz-record-takeover Horsemeat scandal horsemeat found in frozen and fresh beef products around Europe: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2013/feb/14/horsemeat-beef-tests Carnival Triumph cruise ship fire leaves 4000 passengers stranded on board, towed to Alabama: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-21465387 American Airlines and US Airways to merge: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-21454925 The final two events are local: A chocolatier in Dallas makes edible shoes for Valentines day: http://news.yahoo.com/photos/chocolatier-pumps-out-edible-heels-for-valentine-s-dayslideshow/feb-7-2013-photo-chocolate-high-heals-made-photo-131822477.html Self-driven cars being tested on UK roads: http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2013/feb/14/self-driving-car-system-uk

Task one 1. Ask the participants to make some notes about each story on a separate piece of paper. For lower levels you may wish to dictate these questions.
Which industry/ies is/are involved? What job titles or expressions would you use to refer to the different people or organisations involved in each story? Which verbs refer to the activity being presented in the news story?

2. Compare the language which the participants have generated. If groups have had different sets of pictures, you can pair people up from different teams to then add more vocabulary to each others lists. 3. You will need to provide input and correction now to the vocabulary they have listed. Have they used the right verb for that particular context? Do they know the real names of the different actors in each story? For lower levels this is likely to be quite challenging, for higher levels minimal support may be required. This should be recorded on the flip chart or board. 4. Ask the participants to use their language lists now to discuss each story in more depth. Task two 1. Ask the groups to brainstorm a list of all the positive consequences of each story, and all the negative consequences. They should try and think of examples even where there dont seem to be any. For example, a positive result of the horsemeat scandal might be that people eat less meat, spend less money when theyre shopping, local butchers may have a revival as few people shop in big supermarkets 2. If you have bigger groups you could split them into teams, with half brainstorming negative consequences and the other half positive consequences. This could extend the lesson into a debate (think beforehand how to introduce language of contrast whereas, despite, although, etc). Task three Ask pairs or small groups to write some conversation questions based on the pictures. Their questions can be as loosely related to the topic or as closely related as they wish. They can focus on one topic, or use a selection of the topics. They could aim for 6 questions in a time frame of 10 minutes. They should also consider that the objective of each question is for another team to talk, so they should avoid questions which will lead to just a yes or no answer. Make sure to monitor for writing mistakes and questions. Task four Groups swap their conversation questions. Using the ones they receive, they discuss their answers.