PROJECT
BIOGRAPHIES
The coordinator of the school projekt: Anna Kurek
School: Gimnazjum nr 77
ul. Jawy Calińskiego 12
31-988 Kraków
Malopolska
Poland
Subject: English
Middle High School – Intermediate level
Number of students – 18
Schedule: three lessons a week
Methodological unit: 3 lessons
General aims:
 To practise both the past and the present

To provide practice in scanning skills for specific information

To provide practice in controlled web browsing

To provide practice in writing simple comparative descriptions

To introduce topic-related collocations

To present and practise conjunctions for contrast
Lesson 1
Topic: M a i n
celebrities
Operational purposes:
 to clarify new vocabulary
 to develop student questioning skills
 to practise the present & past tense
 to gather clues for later use
 to recognise expressions and phrases presented in authentic materials
Didactic means:
 prepared cards with key words written on it
 short biographies taken from a magazine
 incomplete questionnairies
 a cassette with a recording about Diana
Predominant work techniques:
 matching key words to appropriate people
 factlifes’ filling basing on mutual asking questions and replying
 finding differences
 describing a chosen celebrity
 individual taking notes and discussion
Pre-Task
Warmer up
Write three things about yourself to tell the group. Include one false thing.
The students’ task is to guess what is false.
I have two daughters
I hate dogs
I like coffee...
Language Work
Matching activity
Collect eight biographies/or gossips with the names from a magazine. Put the
students into groups and give them six key words for each biography.
Ask the students to read the biographies and match the words with the correct
people.
Key words taken from a Mary Glasgow Magazine called CLUB
www.link2english.com
jammy
be given a break
be gutted
stick to your guns
scatty
bbb
drop out
prolong
Paired pop profiles
The Hello! Magazine website has a section called ‘Profiles’. Once you click on it you will come to a
page where you can select pop stars’ or other celebrities’ profile.
Pairwork activity based on the information about Beyonce Knowles. Before starting
the activity a teacher should make sure that everyone understands how to ask
questions in a gramatically correct way.The students each have half of the answers
so that both get a chance to ask and answer questions.
Student A
Where born
Name of father
Name of mother
Height
Age
Biggest disappointment
First group
First single
First solo album
First film
Student B
Where born
Name of father
Name of mother
Height
Age
Biggest disappointment
First group
First single
First solo album
First film
Losing a talent show in 1995
Girls Tyme
No, no, no with(Destiny’s Child)
Dangerously in Love
Goldmember
Teras
Matthew
Tina
5 feet 6 inches
21
Listening activity
Choose a famous person and make about ten changes to the facts in their biography.
Tell the students about their life, including the differences.Don’t read the biography
word for word, tell it as a story.The students listen to the story twice and take their
own notes. Next ask them to listen to the actual biography from the cassette. Put
them in pairs and remind that you changed ten details. Ask them to find the changes.
If none of the pairs finds all the changes, group the pairs into fours and get them to
discuss it again.
Mieć przygotowaną kasetę z biografią Diany
Response-Writing task
Homework
Write sentences with key words used during the matching activity
Lesson 2
Internet lesson: www.bbc.co.uk/music/profiles
Topic: Famous Singers
Operational purposes:
 Familiarise with the website
 Provide practise in controlled web browsing
 Introduce topic-related collocations
 Provide practice in writing simple biography review
Didactic means:




Internet/suitable websites
cards with halfnames of celebrities
handouts with words’ mixture
a web questionnaire with questions to search answers
Predominant work strategies:
 brainstorming for ideas
 controlled web browsing
 filling information gaps
 matching words to form collocations
 directed factlife writing
 checking of given biography review
Pre-Task
Finding a new partner
A teacher gives each student a big card and they have to find their partner. Once
they have found their partner, they stick their cards on the board. They will work
with this new partner until the end of the lesson.
Brainstorming
By looking at the words and names on the board,students guess the topic
of the lesson- Famous singers. Some unknown vocabulary may be clarified at this
stage.
Directed Browsing task
Web Questionnaire
A teacher hands out a quiz with a questionnaire. In pairs, students click through the
website and answer the questions as fast as possible. Questionnaires are then
swapped for correction.
1.Who joined the group in 1993 to make the band All
Saints?
Nicole and Natalie
Appleton
2.How long has Avril Lavigne been performing as a
professional musician?
3.Which singer has had a solo career since he left
N’Sync?
4.Which year did Appleton sisters form a new band?
5.What group created a fusion with Aerosmith in1986?
6.When was Maddonna’s third album released?
7.What was the name of the first single made by Elvis
Presley
8.How do we call Elvis Presley?
9.Where does Joss Stone come from?
10.Why did she stick to her guns while singing in front of
the President George Bush?
11.Who did Kylie Minogue meet In an Australia soap opera
Called ‘Neighbours’?
Since she was 17
Justin Timberlake
2001
Run DMC
1985
‘That’s all right Mama’
The King of rock and roll
Great Britain
She refused to put
shoes on
Jason Donovan
Language Work
Strong Partnerships
On the handouts previously distributed by the teacher there is also a word salad.
In the word salad below students need to find words that have strong partnerships.
Match them using arrows (-> <-) and form the right collocation.
The key words are in bold in the questionnaire above
meet
perform
have
in
a
career
sb
form
create
a musician
album
stick
a fusion
make
to
join
a band
release
a single
his/her
a fusion
make
as
guns
call
come
Response –Writing task
Writing time
Step 1
A teacher hands out little cards with a name of a singer. Students search to
gather information about them and write a simple biography review with six
factual mistakes, using the previously learnt collocations. Don’t forget to
mention date and place of birth, name of the first hit, his/her image, number of
children or nominations.
for example Madonna prepared by a student
Born in :
She was born in London
Born on :
She was born onAugust 13 1958
Real name:
People call her Madonna Louise Ciccone
Origin:
She comes from Germany
Brothers:
She has three brothers
Third album:
True Blue album was released in 1986
Famous song:
Material Girl
Role in musical : Antonio Banderas joined her in musical Evita
Children:
She has a son
Step2
A teacher collects the reviews, jumbles them and hands them out at random.Pairs
should now use the website so as to spot the mistakes in the biography review they
had been given.
Note: At the end of the lesson a teacher collects work done and does an error
correction feedback if necessary.
Lesson 3/4
Internet lesson: Biographies www.biography.com
Topic: What do they have in common?
Operational aims:
 To present and practice conjunctions for contrast
 To practice past simple and present simple
 To provide practice in scanning skills for specific information
 To practice in controlled web browsing
 To provide practice in writing simple comparative descriptions
Didactic means:
 internet website
 pairs of famous names on different cards
 a questionnaire grid
Predominant work techniques:
 controlled web browsing
 finding out about similarities of famous people
 questionnaire filling
 introducing celebrities and getting other students to guess the common fact in
their description
 writing a comparison of two characters with linkers’ application
Pre-Task
Preparation
Prepare pairs of names on different cards
Pre-teach: ‘to have something in common’
Put the following two names on the board
Sylvester Stallone
Mohammed Ali
Elicit that these two people have one thing in common: boxing- but their interest in
boxing is different. S. Stallone acted as a boxer in the Rocky movies whereas
Mohammed Ali was a true boxer.
Building up this model to introduce linkers
Both Sylvester Stallone and Mohammed Ali are from the US. In addition, they
are both involved in boxing. However, MA was a real boxer whereas/whilst SS
only acted as one. Another difference is that MA is a committed Muslim. In
contrast SS never speaks about religion.
Language-work
Task one
1. Divide the class into teams of four. Make sure each team has access to
computer. Get students to name their teams if appropriate.
2. Put the following two names on the board.:
Yuri Gagarin
Buddy Holly
3. Find out if students know anything about them/tell them that Y Gagarin was
afamous astronaut, Russian and B Holly was a famous American singer in
the1950s. Tell the ss that these two have something in common. They are
going to find this out on the WWW.
Important indications:
 SS don’t need to read every word
 They have to focus on content words
 The words at the beginning of each sentence give a clue about the whole
sentence so they can accept or reject sentences quickly and move on to the next
one.
Conduct feedback: Both were killed in air crashes
The game
1. Tell the class they will now play a game in their teams. Put on the board the
first pair of names of other famous people. Each team must find the
biographies of the two people and what they have in common. The first tea to
produce the correct answer will get two points. Then put the second pair of
names on the board
2. Here are the famous pairs for the competition. However, their names should
be written out on card.
The Pair
Antonio Gaudi
Johan Cruyff
George Harrison
Ravi Shankar
Mohandas Gandhi
John Lennon
Peter Sutcliff
Anthony Hopkins
Answers
Both lived in Barcelona, Gaudi as an
architect, Cruyff as a football manager.
They met each other in India where RS
taught GH about Indian music.
Both were assassinated. MG for political
motives,reasons for JL’s assassination
unclear.
Serial killers. PS was a real one, AH
played one in the Silence of Lambs
Task 2
Step1
Tell the ss they will now in pairs research two other people and find out what they
have in common. Person A of the pair should be given one of each of the pairs
below. Person B, the other.
A
Nelson Mandela
B
Vaclav Havel
Michael Faraday
John Logie Baird
Adolph Hitler
Marilyn Monroe
Charlie Chaplin
Ingrid Bergman
Janis Joplin
Jimi Hendrix
Amelia Earhart
Frank Whittle
Wildred Owen
Rupert Brooke
Shirley Temple
Glenda Jackson
Salvador Dali
Andy Warhol
Step 2
When ss have done this. Tell them about two people you have researched (the
information is in the table below). Ask them to listen and find the fact that they have
in common:
Step 3
Show them the grid which you used to help you talk about your famous people.
Example
Name
When born?
Where born?
Occupation
Achievement?
Date of death?
Interesting information?
Common fact
Person One
Emmeline Pankhurst
1857
Manchester, UK
Wife of a lawyer interested
in women’s rights
Founded Women’s Social
And Political Union
1928
Went on hunger strike
Arrested when working
for women’s rights
Person Two
Lech Wałęsa
1943
Poland
Trade union leader/Polish
Worker
Nobel Peace prize 1983
Still alive
Formed the trade union
Solidarity
Arrested when working
for human rights
Step 3
Ask the ss to make brief notes on both their two famous people, using the grid above.
Name
When born?
Person One
Michael Faraday
1791
Person Two
John Logie Baird
1888
Step 4
Ask the ss to ‘mumble practice’ how they are going to talk about the lives of their
famous people. They should try to hide the common fact in their description.
Task three
Students move around the room recounting their biographies to different partners.
Partners listen and guess the common fact.
Homework
Ask the students to write a comparison of their two characters using linkers applied
in pre-teach section.
FOUR
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DIMENSIONS
POLITICAL
stimulating for active citizenship and assuming a friendly attitude
towards different points of view
openness and sensitivity to various events, inventions and entertainment
finding your own lifepath in surrounding reality
influence of history and famous celebrities’lives on our social action and
behaviour

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SOCIAL
feelings’communication and expression of thoughts
talking about other ways of lives
listening and taking different possibilities into consideration
openness to history, culture and lifestyles
encouraging to discussion and dialogue

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PEDAGOGICAL
investigation and finding new solutions
application and taking advantage of experiences
application of Internet in education
respect for the past

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VALUES
tolerance and openness
sensibility
healthy competitiveness and democratic participation
democracy
creative thinking