Great Men and Women

February 2009-07-02
Prepared by Firoozeh Khalife Shirazi
CONTENTS
1. Level, topic, language, aims, material
2.Lesson Stages
3. Student Worksheet 1,2,3
4. Answers
5. Reading passages
Level: Intermediate
Topic: Great men and women
Language: Vocabulary of a story
Aims: Reading skills
Understanding a short passage
Language skills
Grammar - Modals
Writing skills
Encouraging students to stick to the
deductions and possibities/ in the past.
Materials: worksheet 1
comprehension questions
Worksheet 2
Vocabulary matching task
Worksheet 3
Grammar/ language focus modals
Learning English Words in the Text
Mother Teresa
1 Mother Teresa was born in Skopje in what is now Yugoslavia on August 27, 1910.
Her Albanian father had a small farm. At the age of twelve, when she was a student
at a Roman Catholic elemantary school, she knew she had a duty to help the poor.
She decided to get training for missionary work and, a few year later, made India her
choice. At the age of eighteen, she left home and joined Irish community of nuns with
a mission in Calcutta. After a few months training in Dublin, she was sent to India and
in 1928 she became a run.
2 From 1929 to 1948 Mother Teresa taught at St. Marys High School in Calcutta. The
suffering and poverty she observed outside the convent walls made a deep
impression on her. In 1946, she received permission from her superiors to leave the
convent school and devote herself to working among the poor in the slums of
Calcutta. Although she had no money, she started an open-air school for homeless
children. Soon voluntary helpers joined her, and financial support came from various
church organizations, as well as from the city officials. In 1950, she was permitted to
srart her own religious community The Missionaries of Charity. Its task was to care for
those persons nobody was prepared to look after.
3 Mother Teresa had fifty charity projects in India, including work among people living
in slums, children, homes, and clinics. The community is sltill active and does charity
work for the poorest of the poor in a number of countries in Africa, Asia, Latin
America, Europe, and United States.
4 Mother Teresas work received a lot of attention all over world, and she was given a
number of awards including a Nobel Peace Prize in 1979, for her promotion of peace
and brotherhood among the nations. Mother Teresa died on September 5,1997.
Thomas Edison
1 Thomas Alva Edison was one of the most important scientists and inventors of the
past twi centuries, His memory will live on because of the large number of his

inventions and their usefulness even today, Most likely, the next electronic device
you pick up he once invented or improved, or at least tried to.
2 Edison was born February 11, 1847, in Milan, Ohio, and grew up in Michigan. At an
early age. He showed signs of a serious hearing problem. This may have been the
reason for Edisons poor performance at school. Edison did not do well there and was
often annoyed by the other children. Three months after starting school, Edison ran
away. His mother was forced to teach him at home.
3 Edison enjoyed reading chemistry books beside, he was a very interested observer
of anything that was complex- electronic, or telegraphic. He never stopped studing
studing and experimenting.
4 In 1871 Edison moved to Newark, New Jersey and started his first laboratory. Later
that year, he married Mary Stilwell, and they had three children. In 1876, when his
lab in Newark got too small for his research activities, Edison decided to build a big
factory in Menlo Park, New Jersey. This was the first private research laboratory in the
U.S.
5 Edison worked on many projects, including sound recording devices, In 1877, he
successfully recorded and played back a message by phonography. The phonography
machine, or phonograph, was like a record player without the disc. Instead, it used a
cylinder with tin foil to record and play sounds.
6 In 1879, Edison developed the firs successful electric light bulb. This invention
made Edison rich and famous. Edison worked until he was very old, although he
suffered from many diseases.He died on October 18, 1931.
LESSON STAGES
A Stimulate student interest in text
Ask students what makes people famous and put their names on the board.
Example
Being rich
Inventing sth to make our lives easy
Playing in a movie
Exploring foregin lands
Playing sports
Conduct a survey to find out which one is the most popular in the class.
Being rich
IIIII
Inventing sth to make our lives easy
IIIIIIII
Playing in a movie.
IIII
Exploring foreign lands
IIIIII
Playing sports
IIIII
B Pre teach essential vocabulary
Elicit/ present key vocabulary that students need either to understand the key points
in the text or to understand and/or andswer any questions that them later in the
lesson.
You could eithet pre-teach the vocabulary at this stage of the lesson or you could use
the vocabulary building activity from further down in this lesson plan. Have students
working together in small groups and ask them to try to match the vocabulary with
the definitions.
Encourage them to work with the other groups to pool their knowledge.
When they have done as much as they can, if they dictionaries, ask them to look up
the word to check their answers and to find out the definitions of any words they are
not sure of. If they dont have dictionaries, check their answers and give them help
with any words they arent sure of.

Whichever method you use to elicit/present the vocabulary, you should then model it
(say it cleary, highlighting the word stress) and get them to repeat the words after
you.
missionary work
teaching about the christian religion
community
a group of people having the some religion/job/etc.
nun
a woman of a Christian community
suffering
experience of pain and unpleasant emotions
convent
a building for nuns
devote
give most of your time/ energy, etc to sb / sth
slum
very poor part of a city
voluntary
done not by force
financial
of money
charity
help for the poor
promotion
help sth to grow
live on
continue to live
sign
sth that shows what is happening
complex
not simple
private
not public
tin
a kind of metal (sn)
D Set a skimming question
Tell the student they are going to read a text about great men and women. Put this
question on the board.
(A)mother Teresa was so rich that she could do all charity work on her own.
(B) Mother Teresa got the physics Nobel Prize in 1979.
(C) Edison was the best student in his school.
(D) Edison made all his inventions when he was young.
Students read texts the first time.
Give them a time limit(1-2 minutes) to read the text quickly to find the answer to the
question- They donot need to understand the details of the texts to answer it.
E Check answers
Paragraph 2 in text number 1 mentions Mother Teresa had no mong and paragraph 4
also mentions she got a Nobel Peace Prize.
Paragraph 2 in text number 2 refers to Edisons poor performance at school and
paragraph 6 mention Edison worked until he was very old.
F Set specific information questions

Hand out worksheet 1, students complete the worksheet to help them understand
the text in more detail- Give them a time limit (5 -6 minutes) to read the text a
second time in more detail and to answer the qustions.
G Check answers
Elicit True or Fals answer- Direct attention to particular paragraph if an answer is
wrong to try to elicit the correct answer(see worksheet 1 and answer key).
H Vocabulary consolidation /building
Students do the vocabulary matching exercise( worksheet 2 that you cut up before
the lesson). In small groups they match the correct word with the right definition.
I Check answers
Elicit answers. If an answer is wrong , ask other student to try to elicit the correct
answer.
J Grammar focus: modals
Elicit/ teach some of the rules of using modals
A: Mother Teresa knew she had a duty to
help the poor
B: she must have been very kind.
A: She received a lot of attention all over
the work.
B: The people must have loved her so
much.
A: Other children annoyed Edison at
school.
B: He could have talked to the teacher.
A: Edisons mother had to teach him.
B: His father could have taught him.
A: Three months after starting school,
Edison ran away.
B: He should not have run away.

In these sentences: The speaker is making

a logical conclusion, e.g., I thought about
Mother Teresa and found out that she was
kind. I think that is the reason why she was
loved. I can not think of any other reason.
Could have offers hindsight possibilities.
In these sentences, the speaker is saying
He had the chance to do this or that. It
was possible for this or that to happen. He
missed some good opportunities.
Should have gives hindsight advice. In
was important for him not to run away, but
he did. He made a mistake.

K check answers
If an answer is wrong, ask other students to try to elicit the correct answer (see
worksheet 3 and answer key).
L Follow-up activity: writing
Ask students to comment on the following situation using should+ have+ past
participle, could+ have+ past participle and might+ have+past participle.( you are
supposed to write down the following sentences on the board).
Example:
Tom did not study for the test. During the exam, he started looking at other students
test papers. He did not think the teacher saw him,but she did.
I bought an old BMW, but I am unhappy with it , can you suggest some other
possibilities that I did not think of ?
My favorite magazine doesnt come in the mail anymore. I wonder why.
Students work by themselves to write their own sentences.
Give them 2 or 3 minutes to think about the situations and about 5-10 minutes to
write their sentences.
Circulate, while they are working , givinig help with grammar and spelling/ if
necessary.
M Feed back

If possible, display the sentences around the classrom. Ask the students to look at
each one and vote on which one they think is correct. Give praise for correct
language and give feed back on incorrect language .
You could write some example phrases or sentences on the board and elicit from
students which ones are correct and which ones are wrong and why.
STUDENT
WORKSHEFT 1
COMPREHNSION
QUESTIONS
Are the following sentences true or false
1
Mother Teresas parents persuaded her to be a nun.
T/F
2
The poor people have been looked after by the Missionaries of Charity T/F
up to now.
3

The people all across the world had respect for Mother Teresa.

T/F

Edison invented just a few electric devices

T/F

Edison did not perform well at school because other children annoyed T/F
him.

Edison kept working on his project, although he was sick.

T/F

STUDENT WORKSHEET 2
VOCABULARY
Match these words and phrases to their definitions.
voluntary

not public

promotion

suffering

4
5
6
7
8
9
10

convent
charity
private
tin
complex
live on
sign

D
E
F
G
H
I
J

not simple
sth that shows what is
happening
a kind of metal
continue to live
experience of pain
done not by force
a building for nuns
help sth to grow
help for the poor

1
2

STUDENT WORKSHEET 3
MODALS
Complete the sentences using the correct form of must, could and might and the
verbs in parentheses.
1.I made some sanwiches ealier and left them on the table when I went to answer the
phone. Some one them because they are gone. (take)
2.I wonder why the radio is on in the kitchen . No one is there. Grandma to turn it
off. She was in the kitchen earlier.(forget)
3.I do not know where Ms. Adams is she is not in her room . she ..(be) a meeting ,or
may be she is in the employee lounge.
4.I wonder how old Rita is. I think she was born around the same time
our daughter was born. She .(be) about ten.
5. George had to give a speech in front of 5oo people . He (be) nervous.
6. She went out after dinner and left the window open. There was a bad storm.
She. (leave) the window open.
7. While she was cooking dinner, she was talking on the phone with her sister. The
potaoes burned. She. (talk) on the phone.
8. He does not have to come to class late every morning . He (come) to class
on time if he tried.
ANSWER KEY
1.False- Paragraph 1 says, When she was a student, she knew she had a duty to
help the poor.
2.True- Paragraph 3 says, The community is still active does charity work.
3. True- Paragraph 4 says, her work received a lot of attention all over the world.
4. False- Paragraph 1 says, His memory will live on because of the large number of
inventions.
5. False- paragraph 2 says, His serious hearing problem may have been the reason.
6. True- Paragraph 6 says, He worked unit he was very old, though he suffered from
many diseases.
STUDENT
1.G
6.A
STUDENT

WORKSHEET 2
2.I
7.D
WORKSHEET

3.F
8.B

4.H
9.E

5. J
10.C

1.must have taken

3. might/may have been
5. must have been
7. should not have talked

2. must have forgotten

4. might/many have been
6. should not have left
8. could have come