Documentos de Académico
Documentos de Profesional
Documentos de Cultura
November 2009
Level ≥ Lower intermediate
Style ≥ Lesson plan
Welcome to the Guardian Weekly’s special news-based materials to support learners and teachers of English.
Each month, the Guardian Weekly newspaper selects topical news articles that can be used to practise English
language skills. The materials are graded for two levels: advanced and lower intermediate. These worksheets
can be downloaded free from guardianweekly.co.uk/learningenglish/. You can also find more advice for
teachers and learners on the site.
Instructions
Lesson focus: listening, reading, writing
Materials sheet: copies of the article
Time: 60 minutes
1 Discuss as a class what Facebook is. Establish key the notes. Then give out copies of the article. Students
vocabulary: update (noun/verb), social networking site, read, circle the key information and check their answers.
profile. Ask: How can Facebook get you into trouble? For During class feedback encourage students to explain
example: you tell everybody at work that you’re ill but what Maxi Sopo did in their own words. 10 mins
you secretly go on holiday. Somebody sees your holiday Answers: 26, Mexico, US Police, Cameroon, bank fraud,
photos on Facebook and tells your boss. Students think February.
of further examples in pairs. Class feedback. 10 mins
4 Write up these questions and quickly go through them.
2 Tell students the article is about a fugitive called Maxi Students read the rest of the article and decide if they are
Sopo. Write the headline on the board. Ask: How did true or false. Class feedback. 10 mins
Facebook get Maxi Sopo into trouble? Students guess. a [ ] Investigators immediately found Sopo on Facebook.
5 mins b [ ] A secret service agent found a photo of Sopo
partying.
3 Write up this profile for students to copy. Check the c [ ] Sopo’s profile was open to everybody.
type of word that could go in each category. Brainstorm d [ ] One of Sopo’s friends was linked to the US justice
crimes for the “wanted for” category, include fraud. department.
e [ ] The friend told Scoville where Sopo was living.
Name: Maxi Sopo f [ ] Sopo might go to prison for a long time.
Age: __________ Answers: a F b T c F d F e T f T
In hiding in: __________
Wanted by: __________ 5 Tell students that they have been sent to prison but have
Originally from: __________ been allowed to write a short Facebook update about
Wanted for: __________ their new life. They should comment on the food, ac-
Disappeared: __________ (date) commodation, daily routine and other prisoners plus
include personal clues to show that they have written
Read the first three paragraphs of the article twice to the it. At the end, put the texts on the wall (without names)
class. Use mime and gesture to help convey meaning. or read them to the class. Students guess who wrote the
At the end of each listening, students try to complete updates. 25 mins
News-based English language activities from the global newspaper
November 2009