Teacher s notes and key Level: upper-intermediate (B2). Aims: to learn vocabulary and idioms related to birds to practise reading for detail and summarising information from a text to write a short story (morality tale or fable) to research and give a presentation. Timing: several lessons (up to four hours, depending on the size of the class). Preparation Activity 2 Jigsaw reading Make a copy of text 1 for half the class and of text 2 for the other half. Text 2 consists of paragraphs in the wrong order, so you may want to make some extra copies and cut them into cards for students to reorder. Activity 3 Species of bird This will print out best with a colour printer. If you have a data projector or interactive whiteboard, you may want to display the pictures with it and add the answers on the screen/board. Alternatively, you could show the accompanying PowerPoint slides. Activity 5 Bird idioms Print out the following idioms and cut them into cards: a cock and bull story a lame duck a night owl to spread one s wings a bird brain a chicken and egg situation www.teachitworld.com 2012 16308 Page 1 of 10
to watch someone like a hawk the early bird catches the worm to count one s chickens before they are hatched birds of a feather flock together Procedure and answers Activity 1 Bird quiz (20 minutes) Put students into teams of three or four to do the quiz. It introduces some of the vocabulary that they will need later in the lesson. The answers come from various sources on the internet. Answers: 1c; 2c; 3c; 4c; 5b; 6a; 7c; 8b; 9c; 10T; 11T; 12T; 13F; 14T; 15T. NB : Ornithologists are people who study birds. The sparrow is the most common wild bird on the planet. Activity 2 Jigsaw reading (35 minutes) Text 1 Why do geese fly in formation? Answers: The meanings of the words are not provided, as your own knowledge or a dictionary can do this! 1. They create air currents which help the other geese fly more easily. 2. They take turns to fly at the front. 3. The birds at the back make a noise to encourage the ones at the front. 4. If a goose is ill or injured, two others will keep it company. Text 2 Swan upping Answers: 4, 3, 5, 2, 7, 1, 6. adapted from: http://www.royal.gov.uk/pdf/new/swan%20upping/swan%20upping2.pdf. Activity 3 Species of bird (10 minutes) Answers from left to right: dodo; hummingbird; swan; parrot; owl; cock(erel); hawk; dove; cuckoo; peacock; coot; ostrich; eagle; lark; crow. www.teachitworld.com 2012 16308 Page 2 of 10
Activity 4 Bird similes (40 minutes) Answers: 1. as happy as a lark 2. as proud as a peacock 3. as hoarse as a crow 4. as bald as a coot 5. as dead as a dodo 6. as wise as an owl 7. as scarce as hen s teeth 8. as graceful as a swan. Answers: a. as light as a feather b. as sick as a parrot. Activity 5 Bird idioms (30 minutes or more, depending on the size of the class) Put students into groups of three, and give each group one of the idioms you cut up earlier. Give students five minutes to work out what their idiom means. You may need to give assistance with this stage of the activity. Make sure they use their own words rather than quoting from the dictionary, so that the real definition does not stand out from the two spurious ones that they will write in the next step. Each group now writes two fake definitions which sound as though they could be true. Each student in the group reads one of the definitions to the rest of the class, who have to decide which one of the three definitions is the correct one. NB For the birds is an American idiom meaning useless. Activity 6 Morality tales and fables (approximately one hour) This work can be done during class or homework time, depending on the time available to the class. You may want to show students some of Aesop s Fables (available online at www.aesops-fables.org.uk), Rudyard Kipling s Just So Stories or Ted Hughes s How the Whale Became and Other Stories as a model. Activity 7 Research for an oral presentation (approximately one hour) Again, this work can be done during class or homework time, depending on the time available and on internet access. Photo credits: sparrow: sailorbill 2007 www.flickr.com/photos/sailorbill/413708049/ dodo: Ballista http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/file:dodo_1.jpg robin: Gidzy 2009 www.flickr.com/photos/gidzy/3160007169/ woodpecker: mikebaird 2007 www.flickr.com/photos/mikebaird/512700248/ hummingbird: hart_curt 2006 www.flickr.com/photos/8272102@n04/496387464/ ostrich: exfordy 2007 www.flickr.com/photos/exfordy/385008877/ owl: Harlequeen 2011 www.flickr.com/photos/harlequeen/6371235313/ parrot: ingridtaylar 2009 www.flickr.com/photos/taylar/3610447918/ goose: ibm4381 2007 www.flickr.com/photos/j_benson/2061415846/ swans: Eljay 2008 www.flickr.com/photos/eljay/2483136982/ cock(erel): Metamorphite 2010 www.flickr.com/photos/metamorphite/5185109303/ hawk: Rhys Asplundh 2011 www.flickr.com/photos/rhysasplundh/5426944856/ dove: dougwoods 2009 www.flickr.com/photos/deerwooduk/3729110506/ cuckoo: wildxplorer 2008 www.flickr.com/photos/krayker/2295984856/ peacock: BLcarnut 2011 www.flickr.com/photos/58017169@n06/5900743254/ coot: JustABoy 2005 www.flickr.com/photos/adamraoof/20323868/ eagle: pmbell64 www.flickr.com/photos/pmbell64/5167522081/ lark: MrudulaD 2011 www.flickr.com/photos/by_mrudula/5730350573/ crow: quinet 2006 www.flickr.com/photos/quinet/126162471/ www.teachitworld.com 2012 16308 Page 3 of 10
Worksheet Activity 1 Bird quiz Try this quiz about birds. You may be surprised by what you learn! 1. People who keep and raise birds are called: a. horticulturalists b. ornithologists c. aviculturists. 2. Approximately how many species of birds live in the world? a. 5,000-6,000 b. 7,000-8,000 c. 9,000-10,000 3. What is the length of the smallest parrot in the world (the buff-faced pygmy parrot)? a. about 6 cm b. about 7 cm c. about 8 cm 4. The most common bird on the planet is the a. sparrow b. turkey c. chicken. 5. The dodo became extinct (= the last one died) in: a. the 15 th century b. the 17 th century c. the 18 th century. sparrow dodo robin 6. What length of earthworms is eaten by baby robins each day? a. over 4m b. over 14m c. over 40m 7. A woodpecker can peck a. 10 times a second b. 15 times a second c. 20 times a second. woodpecker 8. How many degrees can an owl turn its head on either side? a. 70 degrees b. 270 degrees c. 360 degrees hummingbird www.teachitworld.com 2012 16308 Page 4 of 10
9. How many hummingbird eggs could fit in an ostrich egg? a. about 40 b. about 400 c. about 4,000 10. True or false? A bird s feathers weigh more than its skeleton. 11. True or false? A hummingbird can fly backwards. ostrich 12. True or false? Birds do not sweat. 13. True or false? Owls have teeth. 14. True or false? Hens produce larger eggs as they grow older. parrot 15. True or false? Many modern birds have evolved from the dinosaur. Activity 2 Jigsaw reading Work in two groups. One group is going to read a text about geese and the other a text about swans. owl goose (plural: geese) swans (babies: cygnets) Read your group s text and do the activities then summarise what you have learned for a student in the other group. www.teachitworld.com 2012 16308 Page 5 of 10
Text 1 Why do geese fly in formation? We have all seen migrating geese flying south for the winter. We all recognise the familiar V-shaped pattern of their flying formation, but few of us realise why they fly this way. Now, scientists have come up with the answers. As each bird flaps its wings, it creates an uplifting slipstream for the bird immediately behind to fly in. This fact means that, by flying in V-formation, the whole flock gains at least 71% greater flying range than if individual birds flew on their own. If a goose flew out of the formation, or dropped below it, the drag and resistance would become so obvious that it would quickly return to the formation, gaining, once again, the lifting power supplied by the bird in front. The goose at the front eventually gets tired, of course. When this happens, it drops back a little and another goose takes over. Scientists have also found that the honking noise of migrating geese is made by the birds to the rear of the formation to encourage those at the front to keep going and not to slacken their pace! Finally, if a goose becomes ill on the journey or is shot and wounded by a hunter, it drops out of the formation, but is accompanied by two other geese, who stay with it until it is ready to start flying again, or is, sadly, dead. Once this point is reached, the geese either fly to join another formation, or catch up with their own original group. In your own words, explain the meaning of these words from the text: a. migrating b. formation c. slipstream d. range e. resistance f. honking g. slacken their pace h. wounded There are four ways in which migrating geese are thought to help each other. In your own words, explain how they help each other. 1.... 2.... 3.... 4.... www.teachitworld.com 2012 16308 Page 6 of 10
Text 2 Swan upping The paragraphs from this article are in the wrong order. Try to put them in the right order. Write the numbers in the correct order on the line below. 1. The boats form a circle around the birds, to stop them escaping. They take the swans by the neck, then tie their feet together. The swans are then transported to land, where they are tagged, weighed and measured before being released. 2. In the third week in July every year, six wooden rowing boats make the 79 mile journey from Lower Sunbury, in Surrey to Abingdon, in Oxfordshire. The men in the boats wear uniforms comprised of white trousers and red jackets emblazoned with gold braiding. 3. Today, swans are no longer eaten, but they are at risk from traffic on roads, the lead weights used in fishing, which can poison their systems, and hooligans who take a pleasure in shooting at them with air rifles and catapults. This year s census has also shown that the duck virus enteritus has been responsible for the deaths of 180 swans. 4. In the Middle Ages, swans were highly valued as food at banquets and feasts, and for this reason the king or queen had the right to claim ownership of any unmarked swans or to pass on that right to members of the nobility. To show who the swans belonged to, they were rounded up and marked each year, in a ritual known as swan upping. 5. In order to protect the swan population, the process of swan upping therefore continues to this day. Members of the ancient Vintners and Dyers companies monitor the numbers of swans, checking them for injury or disease and they count and ring the cygnets to ensure the population is maintained. 6. Happily, statistics gathered durning swan upping show that, despite dangers from motorways, anglers, hooligans and the duck virus, swan numbers are being maintained. 7. They also wear tie, and a hat adorned with a swan feather. The men row the boats down the river, looking for swans, so that the count can be started. When a family of swans is spotted, they shout, All up. Answers:... www.teachitworld.com 2012 16308 Page 7 of 10
Activity 3 Species of bird Write the names of the birds under the pictures. The quiz from activity 1 above will help you with some of them. cock(erel) coot crow cuckoo dodo dove eagle hawk hummingbird lark ostrich owl parrot peacock swan........................... www.teachitworld.com 2012 16308 Page 8 of 10
.................. Activity 4 Bird similes A simile is an explicit comparison of two things, using the words as or like, for example, as free as a bird. Birds contribute a lot to the richness of the English language. Choose the correct bird name to complete these similes: 1. as happy as a cuckoo/lark 2. as proud as a parrot/peacock 3. as hoarse as an owl / a crow 4. as bald as an eagle / a coot 5. as dead as a dodo/dove 6. as wise as an ostrich/owl 7. as scarce as a dodo / hen s teeth 8. as graceful as a hummingbird/swan Now make own comparisons to complete the sentences below, using bird-related words. Your class will decide who has the best answer, with your teacher having the final say! a. as light as a... b. as sick as a... www.teachitworld.com 2012 16308 Page 9 of 10
Finally, make up your own simile using a bird of your choice. Make the comparison as believable or humorous as you can. If there were any words which were new to you in activity 4 (other than the bird names), write them in the table below. Also write a definition or translation. Word Definition/translation Activity 5 Bird idioms Work in groups of three. Your teacher will give you an idiom involving birds. You have five minutes to write a definition for your idiom. Now write two new definitions which are false but sound as though they could be true. Each of the three students in your group should read one definition to the rest of the class. The rest of the class has to guess which definition is the correct one. Activity 6 Morality tales and fables Write a short story with a moral at the end. The moral can be one of the similes or idioms from activities 4 or 5, or another idiom connected with birds. Alternatively, your story can be a fable, where the characters are changed into animals and the ending has a moral connected with birds. Activity 7 Research for an oral presentation Think of the ways birds are present our everyday lives and the different ways we use them. Here are a few ideas to get you thinking: birds as symbols, e.g. the American Eagle; the stork, which is believed to bring new babies; the robin, which appears on so many English Christmas cards birds as humorous representations, e.g. Tweetie Pie in cartoons birds as safety symbols, e.g. the canary, used to detect gas in coal mines birds as pets, e.g. the parrot, the budgerigar, the canary birds with mythological qualities, e.g. the ravens at the Tower of London birds associated with human qualities, e.g. the owl with intelligence; the peacock with pride birds associated with artistic emotion, e.g. the ballet Swan Lake, Hitchcock s film The Birds. Prepare an illustrated talk for your class on the importance of a specific bird. www.teachitworld.com 2012 16308 Page 10 of 10