«Strange Creatures»

Greeting. Good afternoon, dear students, colleagues and guests. My name is Emma Eduardovna, but you can call me Ms Emma, as all my students do.

– Scottish bagpipe music – an extract. (The Flower of Scotland.)

– By the way, when you hear this type of music, which country do you think of? (Scotland.) (Slide 2.)

– What images do you associate with this country?

But let me help you with the categories.

1) A national musical instrument – a bagpipe.

2) A national plant – a thistle.

3) A national costume – a kilt.

4) A famous water body – the Loch Ness.

– When you hear the name “the Loch Ness”, what does immediately come into your mind? (The Loch Ness monster.) (Slide 3.)

– Before we continue, I suggest watching a short video episode about the Loch Ness Monster, which will be followed by a questionnaire on the cartoon, which will help me get to know you better, especially your language skills. (Video – 1 minute 40 seconds.)

– Please look at the board and you will see some questions. To answer the question correctly you only need to hold your card up with the corresponding letter positioned horizontally.

1. The Loch Ness is in ... . (D – Scotland.)

2. The Loch Ness monster for short is ... . (C – Nessie.)

3. All the photos and videos of Nessie are very clear. (B – False.)

4. While exploring the lake some people use ... . (C – underwater cameras.)

5. People think that the Loch Ness monster can be ... . (A – a dinosaur.)

– As we see, the results are very suggestive. Now we know who has the best language skills in the group and they will perform an individual task for us today. The text contains even more additional information about the Loch Ness monster and the task implies completing the text using the list of vocabulary – your homework, we will be happy if you could share with us what you have learnt about the monster in 2 minutes. (Slide 4.)

– If you look at the screen and pick up only two words, an adjective and a noun, to define it, which. Ones will you choose? (An adjective “strange” and a noun “creature”.) (Slide 5.)

– Judging by your guesses, can you call out what the objective of this lesson is? (Students call out “To learn about Strange Creatures.)

– Yes, you are right, we are here to hold a demonstrative lesson which will lead us into a curious world of monsters in the folklore stories of different nations and we will try to have fun by creating our own story about a monster.

– Where do we learn about monsters from? (From books/stories/literature.)

– Who makes these stories? (People/writes.)

– Are the images familiar and easy to guess? (Yes.)

– Do different nationalities have their peculiar monsters? (Yes.) (Slide 6.)

– Let’s check how well you are informed about the folklore of different nations. Listen to the track and answer the question. (The track – 10 seconds.)

– Which image comes into a mind when you hear this track? (Number 2 – Vodyanoy.)

– Which country’s folklore does it belong to? (Russia’s.)

– Does it create an evil or kind image? (Mischievous.) (Slide 7.)

– Let’s look at the screen and watch a very short video which will create an atmosphere for our next task. (Slide 8.)

– Which image does this video suggest? (Number 3.)

– Can you call out the name of the monster from the Bashkir national folklore? (Ezreke.)

– Does it create an evil or kind image? (The evil image.)

– Speaking about the Loch Ness monster, do they the British define it as a kind or an evil monster?

– Have you ever read any stories about this monster?

– Why not try and make or own?! (Slide 9.)

– On the screen you can see some comics. My suggestion is to make a story based on these pictures, where each group will have only one picture. But before I would like to give you an example and suggest working out the layout for the logic of the narrative. (Slide 10.)

– Look at the screen, let’s read the sample and pay attention to the words in red – they suggest certain grammar aspect which you should take into consideration. (Slide 11.)

– On the margins you can see the logic clouds which will help you follow the logic order of your utterances while making up a comic story. Read again and match the paragraphs with the clouds. (Slide 12.)

1. When/Where.

2. Who/What.

3. Describing appearance.

4. What is happening.

5. Describing feelings.

– Now you work in groups and make your part of the comic story based on the picture and follow the layout of the logic cloud. Write your story in 2 minutes and then we will listen to your stories. (Students work in groups making up stories based on pictures 2 minutes.) (Slide 13.)

– It’s time for us to listen to your stories in front of the class. Come in groups and 1 – 2 people will read it.

– Thank you very much, everybody! That was real fun! I enjoyed every piece of your creative writing. (Slide 14.)

– Before we sum up our lesson today and draw the conclusions I would like to suggest you some speculations on the lesson. Here are the clouds with 3 options on each item. Please circle the one you feel like describing your own perception of the lesson today and feel free to announce in front of the class. (Slide 15.)

– Thank you very much for the lesson.