TeachingEnglish | Lesson plans

The fastest and the slowest Topic: Animals Aims: To teach students how to use comparatives with quantifiers To revise irregular adjectives To practise agreeing and disagreeing and giving opinions To develop students speaking and listening skills Level: Lower intermediate B1 Introduction In this lesson students practise speaking, reading and writing while talking about the fastest and slowest animals. The grammar focus is comparatives and superlatives with quantifiers. Students also learn some unusual animal vocabulary. Procedure Lead in: Brainstorming animals Draw a spider map on one side of the board with animals in the middle and three branches of wild animals (with sea, land, air) farm animals, pets. Elicit lots of animal words and write them in the diagram. Have a limited time for this brainstorming stage (4 or 5 minutes) On the board write: _______ is a lot faster/slower than _______. _______ quite a bit faster/slower than _______. _______ not much faster/slower than _______. Circle two of the animals in the spidergram and invite a student to make a sentence comparing their speed. E.g. A horse is a lot faster than a hedgehog. Choose three students; A, B and C. Student A chooses an animal from the spidergram. Student B chooses a different animal. Student C makes a sentence comparing their speed. Write these phrases on the board for giving your opinion and agreeing & disagreeing.

www.teachingenglish.org.uk BBC | British Council 2012

TeachingEnglish | Lesson plans

Giving your opinion In my opinion I reckon/think Agreeing & disagreeing I agree (with you) I disagree (with you)

Invite the other students to say whether they agree or not with Student Cs sentence. Encourage students to use some of the useful language on the board. Task 1: Ordering animals according to their speed Dictate these twelve animals for students to write: elephant; giraffe; giant tortoise; Peregrine falcon; spider; black mamba snake; chicken; garden snail; human; cheetah; ostrich; greyhound. Students compare their words in pairs. Write the animals on the board for students to check their spelling. In pairs, students rewrite the list of twelve animals from the fastest (1) to the slowest (12). The two students have to agree so they need to discuss each animal. Remind students to use the structures from the board. Give students a time limit of 5-6 minutes for this stage. Join up pairs of students into groups of four. They compare their lists and, if there are differences, they compile a new list on which they all agree. Compile one class list with all of the students. On the board write: Which is the fastest/slowest animal in the list? 1 ____________________ 2 ____________________ 3 ____________________ 4 ____________________ 5 ____________________ 6 ____________________ 7 ____________________ 8 ____________________ 9 ____________________ 10 ____________________ 11 ____________________ 12 ____________________

Elicit the fastest and slowest animals from students (groups will probably agree on these two) and write them in the list. Then have a class discussion and decide on the order of the other animals, compiling the list as the class reaches agreement.
www.teachingenglish.org.uk BBC | British Council 2012

TeachingEnglish | Lesson plans

Give students Task 1. Animal Peregrine falcon Cheetah Pronghorn antelope Lion Thomson's gazelle Wildebeest Quarter horse Cape hunting dog Elk Coyote Gray fox Hyena Ostrich Zebra Mongolian wild ass Greyhound Speed (mph) 200.00+ 70.00 61.00 50.00 50.00 50.00 47.50 45.00 45.00 43.00 42.00 40.00 40.00 40.00 40.00 39.35 Giraffe Reindeer Cat (domestic) Kangaroo Grizzly bear Wart hog White-tailed deer Human Elephant Black mamba snake Six-lined race runner Squirrel Pig (domestic) Chicken House mouse Spider (Tegenearia atrica) Giant tortoise Three-toed sloth Garden snail Animal Speed (mph) 32.00 32.00 30.00 30.00 30.00 30.00 30.00 27.89 25.00 20.00 18.00 12.00 11.00 9.00 8.00 1.17

Whippet Jackal Mule deer Rabbit (domestic)

35.50 35.00 35.00 35.00

0.17 0.15 0.03

www.teachingenglish.org.uk BBC | British Council 2012

TeachingEnglish | Lesson plans

Students read the text quickly to check their list against the actual animal speeds. Students read the text again, looking at the information about the other animals. Help with any unknown vocabulary or encourage students to use dictionaries or an online search.

Extension On the board write: heavy light big small Choose three students; A, B and C. Student A chooses an animal from the list. Student B chooses a different animal. Student C makes a sentence comparing them using a quantifier and heavier, lighter, bigger or smaller. Invite students to agree or disagree. Students write four sentences using animals from the list, a quantifier and heavier, lighter, bigger or smaller. Monitor students as they write. Walk around the room, reading the sentences and telling students whether you agree with them or not.

www.teachingenglish.org.uk BBC | British Council 2012