Starman

Writing – Champions 1 / Starman

Unit 1
Choose one of the characters from the story.
Imagine he or she is going to spend a week at a summer camp.
Follow the example on page 17, exercise 5.

Unit 2
The “Starman” is from 30 years ago. Think of a place in your area. How was it 30 years ago?
Don’t forget to ask your parents and your grandparents.
Write a paragraph about the place. Follow the example on page 25, exercise 4.

Note: You can use your text for the speaking activity.

Unit 3
Think about the “flying doctor”.
Imagine his life and write some achievements in his life. Follow the examples on page 35, exercise
3.
Then, write a short paragraph about him.
Show your paragraph to your friends. Are they very different?

Unit 4
Imagine the story as a film. You are going to make a poster for your film.
1. Choose a name for the film.
2. Write a list of the characters. Who will be the actors? Choose real actors, or people from your
school.
3. What type of film is it?
1. Write one sentence for the film poster. Look at the example for “Pacific Rim” on page 43, “To fight
monsters we created monsters”.
2. Now make a poster.

Writing about the film

1. Look at the other posters in the class. Choose one.
2. Imagine you saw the film. Write a short text about it. Follow the example on page 43, exercise 4.

Unit 5
Let’s continue the story.
Read the end of “Starman” again.
Imagine you get into the plane with the flying doctor at the end.
Write your story. Follow the example on page 53, exercise 5.

Unit 6
Imagine you get on the plane with the flying doctor and go to another planet.
Write a report about the place. Follow the example on page 61, exercises 4 and 5.

Level 1
 Starman

Speaking – Champions 1 / Starman

Unit 1
1. Imagine you are a character form the story. Choose the character. Don’t tell your friends.
2. Now, imagine you are spending a week at one of the summer camps on page 17.
3. Look at the questions in exercise 3 and imagine your answers.
4. Now, let your friends in class ask you some questions, like the ones in exercise 3.
5. Answer their questions. Can they guess which character you are?

Unit 2
Look at your text about a place in your area from 30 years ago.
Look at the questions on page 25, exercise 3. Can you answer them about your text?
Now, write 1 or 2 questions about your friends’ places.
Answer their questions about your place and ask them about theirs.

Unit 3
Use your text about the flying doctor. Tell the class your ideas.
Do they agree? How are your ideas different from theirs?
As a class (or a group), decide on one text.

Unit 4
Look at the poster and the film review you wrote.
Now, imagine you are going to present your review on the television news. Remember, you can’t
simply read, that’s boring.

Note: you can present your review of the film on radio.

Unit 5
Use the story you wrote about another ending to “Starman”.
Now, tell your friends. Make sure to make it interesting for them.

Unit 6
Think about the place on the other planet. You wrote about it already.
Now, prepare 2 – 3 questions about the places your friends wrote about.
Listen to the other questions from the class.
Decide, “Do you want to go there?” Why or why not?

Level 1
 Starman

Grammar – Champions 1 / Starman

Unit 1
1. Look at page 13, exercise 1.
2. Now, think about all the characters in the story.
3. Write similar sentences about them. Use your imagination.
For example, “John goes to flying lessons every weekend.”
“He is flying now.”

A conversation
1. Look at page 13, exercise 3.
2. Imagine a conversation between Starman on Earth and his family back on his planet.
3. First decide, “Who is he talking to?” It can be more than one person.
4. Now write the conversation.
5. You can act out the conversation for the class.

Unit 2
1. Look at page 21, exercise 2. Notice the different expressions for time.
2. Think about the characters in the story.
3. Write sentences about them using the expressions. Use your imagination.

A different room
1. Imagine you are Starman. You are writing about your room back on your planet.
2. Write some sentences about it. Look at the examples on page 23, exercise 2.

Unit 3
Starman is writing about his last day on his planet.
Look at the texts on page 31, exercise 2 and page 33, exercise 3. Write a similar text for Starman.

Unit 4 (page 41, Past Simple, Interrogative)

It’s 30 years later and John Phillips appears at home. His wife is surprised and has a lot of
questions.
Look at the question forms on page 41. Write questions for John.

Unit 5
John Phillips disappeared 30 years ago. He is different now.
Look at exercises on page 49.
Write 6 sentences about John Phillips. Use your imagination.

Unit 6
Look at page 57, exercise 4.
Now, imagine those sentences are about Starman’s planet.
Use your imagination and re-write them.
For example, “Red Quangos are the heaviest animals on the planet. They can weigh up to 30
fets.”

Level 1
 Starman

General Motivation Activities

A Poster

Materials Needed:
1 piece of art paper per student – size A5

Making the posters

1. Tell students they are going to make a poster for their story.
2. Give each student a piece of art paper, different colours for different students is better.
3. Tell students that each poster must have this information:
- title of the story
- a picture related to the story
- a sentence from the story
4. Tell students they have the rest of the class to work on their posters.
5. Walk around the class, helping students as they need it.
6. At the end of the lesson, tell them they can finish their posters at home.
They will probably choose the picture at home.

Receiving the posters

1. Collect the posters from the students.
2. Display them in the classroom and in the school.

Variation 1
Instead of a sentence, ask students to write 10 important words from their story.

Variation 2
Instead of one sentence, ask students to write about 6 sentences from their story.

Why do this activity?

- First, posters allow students to see each other’s work and thus motivate each other to read.
- As students choose the sentences or words, there is no wrong answer. This should
encourage weaker students to participate.
- Knowing the posters are for their friends to see, they will try to choose words or sentences
that are interesting, thus focusing on communication.
- The posters act as proof that they have read a story in English, giving each student a great
sense of achievement.

Level 1
 Starman

Word Search Puzzles

Materials Needed:
- Word search handout

1. Ask your students to copy 10 important words from their story.

2. Give them the word search hand-out. Ask them to write the words in the grid.
3. When they have written all the words, ask them to write letters at random, in order to hide
the words.
4. At the top, ask them to write the title of the story and how many words are in their puzzle.
6. Collect the puzzles as they finish.
7. Give the puzzle to another student to solve. Let students solve each other’s puzzles.

Why do this activity?

Making word search puzzles leads students to go back to their stories. This will help them
develop their reading skills, as well as deepen their understanding of the story.

When solving the puzzles, students are encouraged to go back to the story, again
strengthening their skills and understanding.

When solving a puzzle, a student may find it too easy and want to make another one. By trying to
make the puzzle more difficult, students will read for more detail and thus improve their reading
skills as well as their English.
Find _____ words from
_____________________________________________
Words can go across or down.

Write the words here:

__________________
__________________
__________________
__________________
__________________
__________________
__________________
__________________
__________________
__________________
__________________
__________________

Puzzle solved by (name):_________________________________

Level 1
 Starman

Interviewing a Character

Writing the questions

1. Choose a confident student in your class. Tell them to choose a character from the story.
2. Tell the student they are going to be interviewed by the class as that character.
3. Tell the class that the character (Justin) is going to visit the class. Ask each student to write
a question for Justin.
4. Walk around the room, helping students with their questions.
5. As students write their questions, ask them to say it to the class. This is to avoid repeating
any questions.

The Interview
1. Ask Justin to come to the front of the class.
2. Encourage students to ask their questions, including any follow-up questions.
3. At the end of the interview, congratulate the class for a job well done.

Why do this activity?

While most students may feel a sense of control when reading, speaking can easily intimidate
many students. The activity allows all students to prepare for the interview.

Students choose the questions they want to ask. In this way, questions are based on the level of
each student.

The interview encourages students to think of character beyond the story, imagining information
that is coherent, but not necessarily mentioned in the story.

The large number of questions gives students an opportunity to go beyond the language into real
communication.

Level 1