Web International Advanced Salon 8

Advanced Salon 8
A Mad Discussion

Goals of the Lesson

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This lesson is designed to allow the students to practice giving reasons, describing advantages and
disadvantages and contradicting.

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Materials: Word Cards

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Classroom Activities

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I. Warm-up

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Activity 1: Silent Sentence. 15’]
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Draw a woman looking at a ledge three storeys up – her son is crawling along the ledge.
Write up the following sentence:
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‘Anne came down the stairs and crossed the courtyard when suddenly she looked up and saw her tiny
son in his brown t-shirt crawling along the kitchen window ledge: she was just in time to catch him
when he fell.’
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Tell the class they are going to reduce this sentence to one word. In any one go they may take out up
to three consecutive words. They may not add words – they may not change endings or re-arrange
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words.
For example:
Student A: ‘Take out brown’
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The teacher rubs this out.

Student A then says the whole of the new sentence.
As the deletion is correct the teacher silently invites another deletion.
Student B: ‘Take out kitchen window ledge’
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Immediately rub out the words. Say nothing about the error at this time.
The student reads the sentence out loud. They might recognize the error themselves at this time but
your face [do not say anything] should lead the group to the fact that there is a mistake [the hanging
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‘the]
Reinsert the words and invite another attempt.

The meaning of the sentence will change radically as it is reduced.

Finally when you reach one word, tell the students to rebuild a sentence using up to three words each
time. Tell them they can re-find the original sentence or build a totally different one if they wish.
The only rule is that each new sentence must be grammatically correct.

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 Web International Advanced Salon 8

II. Main Activities

Activity 2: A Mad Discussion. [30’]

The class is divided into two teams. Each student is given a card with a word on it. One student from
each team comes to the front of the class and argues for his word against the other student’s word. He
also needs to attack the value of his opponent’s word

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The argument for all the words is their value to mankind.
e.g. two students might have to argue whether pizza or Alsatian dogs are of the greater value.
Every student knows what their own word is but they don’t know who or what word they will be

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arguing against. Select the pairs randomly.
The students argue for 2 minutes and then their team can join the argument with other points for a

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further minute.
The teacher acts as the judge and sums up the arguments and gives a verdict.
(If there is only one student then the teacher should act as another student in the discussion).

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III. Wind down

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Activity 3: Uses and Abuses. [15’]
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Put the class into two teams and write these two lists on the board.

A B
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Teacher Book
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Mother Walking stick

Shop assistant Plaster
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Baby One RMB coin

Elephant Pen
Crocodile Loaf of bread
Soldier Car
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Dustman Cactus
Farmer Apple pie
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Old woman Glass of beer

Nurse Safety pin

The two teams sit facing one another. A student from each team is invited by the teacher to challenge
the other team using this format.
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‘Tell us, what do you think a/an [word from A] can do with a/an [word from B]’

The teacher crosses out the words that are used and the students in each team give suggestions for
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each pairing of words.

Play until all the words are used.

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 Web International Advanced Salon 8

Handouts
Advanced Salon 8: Mad Discussion Words

Pizza
Alsatian Dogs
Flowers
New York

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Operas
Ships
Plastic Spoons

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Birthday Cards
Passports

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Watches
Modern art
Detective novels

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Schools
Socks
Zips

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Paper
The wheel
The army
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Statues
Sofas
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 Web International Advanced Salon 8

Student Salon Preparation Material – Advanced Salon 8

Review this vocabulary。

Contradicting, oppose, a stand-off, argue, discuss, debate, differ, beg to differ, disagree.

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Think about the following;

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What are the advantages and disadvantages of contradicting someone?

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