Sample Formal Lesson Plan:

Vocabulary:
Olympics

Bruce Lawrence

Objectives: Students will learn the English words for many different types of Olympic
sports. They will learn some general reading skills regarding the Olympics and also learn
some spelling of the sports.

Prerequisites: Students should have a basic knowledge of Olympics, sports and

English spelling.

Level: Beginner-Intermediate

Duration: 2 hours

Materials:
Olympics article www.olympic.org/uk/sports
Olympics cards www.olympic.org/uk/sports
Description sheet www.olympic.org/uk/sports
Stopwatch/clock, medals: gold, silver, bronze

Set up: groups of 3, milling, individual

Anticipated problems:
- Some Ss may not be interested in Olympics, so have them invent their own sport.
- Some Ss may finish too quickly; if so, they can help their neighbour.
- Games might go too quickly; if so, play baseball
Warm up:
<General Qs>
T: Did you have a good holiday? What did you do on your holidays?
S: I went to the beach. I went on a trip. (If no one says travel, T asks “Did anyone
travel?”)

<Specific Intro Qs: Whistler>

T: Where did you go? Did anyone go to Whistler? Has anyone ever been to Whistler?
What’s so special about Whistler? What’s going to happen there?
S: Olympics!

<Specific L Qs: Olympic sports>

T: Yes, do you know any Olympic sports?
Ss: Skiing, running, (elicit the easy ones first and write them as summer or winter sports)

Teaching:

<Eliciting Voc>
T: Yeah, and what’s that one where the guy sits on the little thing and slides down the hill
really fast? Do you know that one? What’s that called?
Ss: Umm (if they know write it down; if they don’t give them a hint)
T: It starts with “L”… L U G E luge

<Whiteboard form/pron: winter and summer>

As stated above T writes categories and examples like so:

Winter Summer
skiing running: dash, sprint, marathon, relay, hurdles
snowboarding high jump
ski jump javeline
slolum hammer throw
bobsled discus
luge shot put
marksmanship long jump
cross country skiing judo, taekwondo, wrestling

<Context building>
T: Today you’re going to learn about Olympic sports, and then we are going to have our
own Olympics!
Ss: ???!
T: But first we need to learn the vocabulary you need to talk about the Olympics.

<Drill>
T: Which words are difficult to pronounce?
Ss: various answers, probably luge
T: (underline and drill) Right that’s difficult. Repeat after me
suggested examples:
g in luge
wr in wrestling
thr in throw

Main Activities:

Semi-controlled activity: Finding the description

<Instructions>
T: OK, here are some cards. On each card there is an Olympic symbol. Here are some
sheets of paper with a description of a sport. Your job is to take a card and a description
and find the match. You can show your picture, but you can’t show your description; you
have to speak. You have to read it. Or you can summarize it.

<Example>
For example, I have this picture (show skiing) so I have to stand up and walk around and
find this description (read description)

<Concept checking>
T: OK? So what do you do?
S: Find the match
T: And which card can’t you show?
Ss: description
T: Right! OK? Go!

<Closure>
T: OK, good. So Lily, which sport did you have?
Lily: Bobsledding
T: Good, and what is “bobsledding”
Lily: reads/summarizes description

Olympic sport I: Relay

<Instructions>
T: OK, so now you know the definitions really well, right? Now we are going to have our
own Olympics! We are going to do a Relay! Get into teams according to countries! (make
sure they are somewhat equal) Line up and turn around to face the back! And I’m going
to show the first person a description of a sport. That person then tells the next person. If
you don’t know the sport, you can describe it, but just tell the next person. And so on,
until the last person hears the description and runs to the board and writes the sport on the
whiteboard. The first team to write the correct word first gets a point! The team with the
most points gets the gold medal!
<Example>
For example I read (read skiing). What sport is that?
Ss: Skiing
T: Right so I tell the next person and the next and so on and the first person runs up and
writes it on the board.

<Concept checking>
T: And what do I do if I don’t know the sport?
Ss: describe it!

<Closure>
Give medals

Olympic sport II: Slalom

<Instructions>
T: OK, next game! This is called Slalom. One team mate comes to the front and takes a
picture card. When I say “Go” I’ll start the stopwatch and they have to mime the sport!
As soon as a team mate guesses the sport correctly I’ll stop the stopwatch! Each team will
mime 4 sports and the team with the lowest time gets the gold!

<Example>
For example I take this card (skiing) and I mime it (mime skiing).

<Concept checking>
T: And what do you do?
Ss: Guess! Skiing!
T: And who is the winner?
Ss: The team with the fastest time!

<Closure>
Give medals

Olympic sport III: Wrestling

<Instructions>
T: OK, next sport. This time we are going to do Wrestling! I’m going to spread the
picture cards out on the table like this (spread picture cards). And then I’m going to pick a
description card and read it. You have to listen and when you think you know what it is,
grab the card off the table and shout out the sport. You don’t have to wait for me to finish.
At the end the team with the most cards gets the gold.

<Example>
For example, I take this card (look for skiing, maybe the smart ones will guess skiing)
and read it (don’t read it; pause)
<Concept checking>
What do you do?
Ss: Look for the card (maybe the smart ones will guess skiing; if not, read it)

<Closure>
Give medals and cheer the winning country!

Wrap up:

<Review sports>
T: OK, What’s this sport? (show a card; Ss say the sport)
T: What is “slalom”? (Ss describe sport)
T: What is the sport where you take a heavy, iron ball and throw it as far as you can? (Ss
guess sport

Contingency Plan:

If students finish early have them invent a sport!

If class finishes sooner than expected, play baseball

Homework:

Easy: Go home and write down the words you learned.

Difficult: Go home and invent a new sport and write down the instructions.
The Olympic Flag (five colored interlocking rings on a white background)
was conceived by Pierre de Coubertin. Almost a century after the flag's
creation, the six colors, those of the rings (blue, yellow, black, green, red)
and that of the background (white), still maintain their symbolism today. The
Olympic symbol, the five interlocking rings, represents the union of the five
continents and the meeting of the athletes of the world at the Olympic
Games

Olympic History
The Olympic Games took their name from the Greek city of Olympia and
though there were important athletic competitions held in other Greek cities
in ancient times, the Olympic Games were regarded as the most prestigious.

The games were held every four years during August and September
and the word "Olympiad", which referred to the four year intervals between
competitions, was commonly used to measure time. The first documented
Olympic champion was a man named Coroebus, a cook from Elis who won
the sprint race in 776 BC. Historians believe that the games had already
existed for at least 500 years prior to that date. The Olympic Games
originally featured only one event: a race called the "stade", equal to a
distance of about 210 yards. By 728 BC two additional races had been added,
comparable to the 400 meter and 1,500 meter races of the modern games.
The Olympics came to include wrestling, boxing and the pentathlon, as well
as specialized events for soldiers and heralds. It was only in 472 BC that the
events were spread out over a period of four to five days, previously they
had all taken place on a single day.

Participation in the Olympic Games was originally limited to free born

Greeks, but as Greek civilization was spread by the conquests of Alexander
the Great, the Games drew entrants from as far away as Antioch, Sidon and
Alexandria. While the only official prize was a wreath or garland, successful
athletes were supported by the governments of their cities and devoted much
time to training. Most of the competitors were, in fact, professionals. After
the Roman conquest of Greece in the second century BC, the Olympic Games
suffered a decline in popularity and importance, but the Games persisted
until AD 393, when the Roman emperor Theodosius I ordered their abolition.
 Olympic Sports

Summer sports
Aquatics
Archery
Athletics
Badminton
Baseball
Basketball
Boxing
Canoe / kayak
Cycling
Equestrian
Fencing
Football
Gymnastics
Handball
Hockey
Judo
Modern Pentathlon
Rowing
Sailing
Shooting
Softball
Table Tennis
Taekwondo
Tennis
Triathlon
Volleyball
Weightlifting
Wrestling

Winter sports
Biathlon
Bobsleigh
Curling
Ice Hockey
Luge
Skating
Skiing
Aquatics
Aquatics consist of four Olympic disciplines: Swimming, Water polo, Diving, and
Synchronised swimming. Swimming has been on the Olympic Games programme since
the first modern Olympic Games in Athens in 1896. The impressive representation of
Aquatics sports in Olympic events continued with the inclusion of Water polo at the 1900
Olympic Games in Paris, and Diving at the 1904 St. Louis Olympic Games. Eighty years
later at the Olympic Games in Los Angeles, in 1984, Synchronised swimming was added
to the official programme,. The disciplines of Synchronised diving and women’s Water
polo were included in the competition programme for the first time at the Sydney Games
in 2000.

Archery
The Olympic Archery competition takes place outdoors, in four categories of events:
Individual events, men’s and women’s
Team events, men’s and women’s
Competitors shoot standing, aiming to land their arrow in the smallest (the central) circle,
12 cm in diameter, on a target face 122 cm in diameter, placed 70 m away. The target
consists of ten coloured concentric circles known as ‘rings’.
An arrow in the innermost circle (the ‘bull’s eye’) is worth ten points, and an arrow in the
outermost circle (the ‘outer’) counts for one. An arrow landing successfully in a ring
between these two is worth from two to nine points, depending which one it is.

Athletics
Athletics is one of the most popular sports around the world. Its events are the oldest
form of organised sport, and are associated with the simplest physical activities –
running, throwing a stone, surmounting an obstacle. These activities gradually evolved
into sports events such as running, jumping and throwing events.
Athletics is divided into two main categories: events that take place inside the Stadium,
and events that take place outside the Stadium such as the Marathon and road walk.

Badminton
Badminton is played between two or four athletes. Unique to this Olympic sport is the
mixed doubles event, in which a man and a woman athlete compete on the same pair.
To score a point, Badminton players have to hit the shuttlecock with their rackets so that
it lands on the opponent’s court – then a point is scored. The winner is the athlete or pair
to win two games of 15 points each. In women’s singles, games end at 11 points.
Canoe / kayak
Canoe / kayak flatwater racing is made up of speed races in calm water. The main
features of this sport are power and speed. The basic features of Canoe / kayak slalom are
dexterity, power, speed and tactical skill. Canoe / kayak slalom racing takes place on a
natural (a river) or artificial competition course.

Equestrian
The Equestrian disciplines are unique among Olympic sports, in the sense that men and
women compete on the same terms and horse and rider are both declared Olympic medal
winners. Rider and horse are considered a team. Years of systematic efforts are required
for the team to be able to perform adequately various exercises of skill, speed, endurance,
and jumping of obstacles.

Fencing
Fencing evolved from an ancient form of combat, and is practiced indoors. The fencer
tries to score the total hits needed to win, while at the same time dexterously avoids being
hit by the opponent. Foil, ιpιe and sabre are the three weapons used in the sport of
Fencing, in which both men and women compete. The target areas, as well as the blade,
differ for the three weapons.

Football
A Football game is played by two teams of eleven players each including the goalkeeper.
The goalkeeper is the only one who can touch the ball by hand without being penalized.
The teams’ aim is to score a goal. A goal is scored when the whole of the ball passes over
the goal line between the opposite team’s goalposts. The winner is the team to score the
most goals. A game’s duration is 90 minutes. A referee presides over a game and is in
charge of implementing the Football rules. Two assistant referees moving along the two
touch lines of the field of play facilitate the referee’s task.

Modern Pentathlon
The roots of Modern Pentathlon can be traced to the ancient Pentathlon, which included
the following five disciplines: discus throw, javelin, long jump, the stadium-length race,
and wrestling. Inspired by the ancient Pentathlon, the Modern pentathlon combines
technical disciplines such as Shooting, Fencing and Riding, together with strength and
endurance disciplines like Swimming and Cross-country running.

Rowing
Rowing is a highly developed and popular sport in many countries. It combines a
graceful spectacle with sharp competition. The field of play takes place in a natural scenic
environment, such as a lake, river or a canal, which adds to the allure of rowing.
Watching the sport once, either in person or on television, turns almost anyone into an
avid fan of the sport. The long and narrow boats, the colourful oars, the synchronised
crews - ranging from one to eight athletes - are all ingredients for a very successful mix.
This combination creates an exciting sport to watch and cheer on for spectators.
Shooting
Shooting is considered one of the most popular sports internationally. It requires good
physical and psychological condition, as well as technical perfection. It is open to men,
women and children of all ages for recreation. On the championship level, it is the only
sport where you will see a great difference in age between competitors.

Taekwondo
Taekwondo is a defensive martial art that combines philosophy, mental discipline,
physical exercise, and physical ability In Taekwondo, the competitor tries to score the
most points. When a competitor receives minus four (-4) penalty points, the referee
declares him/her loser by penalties.

Triathlon
All triathlons consist of Swimming, Cycling, and Running one after the other, but there
are three different types:
The Olympic distance triathlon, which is one of the 28 Olympic sports, consists of:
1500m swimming, 40km cycling and 10km running.
The sprint: 750m swimming, 20km cycling and 5km running
Long distance: 4 km swimming, 120 km cycling and 30 km running

Boxing
The sport of boxing was never intrinsically linked with aggressive attack and heavy
hitting. According to Dion, a historian, since ancient times people “did not consider
beating and quarelling to be evidence of bravery". To the contrary, the aim of the 'un-
injured' athlete in ancient Greece was the constant defense and the avoidance of blows,
until his opponent was exhausted in attack and was led to surrender, namely surrender by
raising either one or two fingers, a sign that he acknowledged his defeat.

Gymnastics
Gymnastics is one of the oldest Olympic sports. It has always been a part of the ancient,
as well as the modern Olympic Games. The term “gymnastics” derives from the Greek
word “gymnos”, meaning naked. This is also the root of the word “gymnasium”, which
was a training area where athletes gathered to exercise, compete in sports and receive
training in philosophy, music and literature.
Biathlon
Biathlon was originally a tactic of survival rather than a sport. Northern Europeans skied
to hunt for food and, later, skied with weapons to defend their countries. The word
"biathlon" stems from the Greek word for two contests. Today it is interpreted as a
joining of two sports: cross-country skiing and rifle shooting.
Bobsleigh
Considered the world's first sliding sport, skeleton originated in the Swiss town of St.
Moritz in the late 1800s. The first competition was held in 1884. Riders raced down the
road from St. Moritz to Celerina, where the winner received a bottle of champagne. It
wasn't until 1887 that riders began competing in the prone position used today. The sport
took its name in 1892, when a new sled made mostly of metal was introduced. People
thought it looked like a skeleton.

Curling
Curling originated in the 16th century in Scotland, where games were played during
winter on frozen ponds, lochs and marshes. The earliest-known curling stones came from
the Scottish regions of Stirling and Perth and date back to 1511. The earliest reports of
curling came from Paisley Abbey, Scotland, in 1541. In the early days of the sport, stones
were taken from river bottoms. In the 1600s, stones with handles were introduced,
allowing a delivery style similar to what is used today.

Ice Hockey
The word “hockey” comes from the old French word "hocquet", meaning "stick". The
origins of ice hockey are unclear, but it is widely accepted that the British are responsible
for bringing hockey to North America. Soldiers stationed in Nova Scotia, Canada, played
the earliest games. In 1879, a group of college students at McGill University in Montreal
organised competitions and developed the first known set of hockey rules. The sport
migrated south to the United States during the 1890s.

Luge
Luge is the French word for sled, and historical findings point to the existence of sleds, as
early as AD 800 with the Vikings in the Slagen countryside near the Oslo Fjord. The
Vikings are believed to have had sleds with two runners, which resemble the modern-day
version.

Skating
Now somewhere between art and sport, skating on ice was, for hundreds of years, a rapid
form of transportation across frozen lakes, rivers and canals, and the oldest form of skate
(a length of bone attached to sandals with thongs) dates back to 20,000 years B.C..

Handball
Handball is a fast-paced game involving two teams of seven players who pass, throw,
catch and dribble a small ball with their hands while trying to score goals. The team with
the most goals wins the game. A game consists of two 30-minute halves with a 10-minute
half-time break.
Wrestling
In Greco-Roman wrestling, the wrestlers use only their arms and upper bodies to attack.
They can hold only those same parts of their opponents. It works nicely from a historical
perspective, but another breezier style from Great Britain and the United States was
invented called "catch as catch can", it became standard fare - and popular professional
entertainment - at fairs and festivals in both countries.

Judo
Judo means "the gentle way" in Japanese. Of course, it is derived in part from jujitsu, the
hand-to-hand combat technique of ancient samurai warriors, and everything is relative.
While throwing opponents to the floor wins most matches, it is the only Olympic sport
where submission holds allow choking an opponent or breaking an arm.

Softball
There is little soft about Olympic softball. One pitch at Atlanta was clocked at 118
kilometres per hour (73.3 mph). Softball batters have essentially the same time to react as
their baseball counterparts. In addition, a softball is as hard as a baseball. The only
difference being the size; a softball is 30.4cm (12 inches) in circumference and a baseball
is 22.8cm (9 inches).

Weightlifting
An ancient sport as old as mankind, embodying the most direct manifestation of human
strength, weightlifting has not only flourished, but also developed into a modern sporting
discipline for the 21st century. The apparent simplicity of lifting the barbell from the
ground and over the head in one or two movements is deceiving. Weightlifting requires a
combination of power, speed, technique, concentration and timing.
Skiing
It was not long before Man worked out how to move quickly through deep snow in the wilder
parts of the world, as paintings discovered in the 1930s clearly portray. On the ancient
artefacts, which were found in Russia and are thought to be at least 6000 years old, a hunter
on rudimentary skis is clearly identifiable alongside reindeers. It is virtually certain that a form
of skiing has been an integral part of life in colder countries since that time.

This sport includes several Olympic disciplines.

Alpine Skiing
Cross Country Skiing
Freestyle Skiing
Nordic Combined
Ski Jumping
Snowboard

THE ALPINE EVENTS ARE:

Downhill: The downhill features the longest course and the highest speeds in Alpine skiing.
Each skier makes a single run down a single course and the fastest time determines the
winner.

Super-G: Super-G stands for super giant slalom, an event that combines the speed of
downhill with the more precise turns of giant slalom. The course is shorter than downhill but
longer than a giant slalom course. Each skier makes one run down a single course and the
fastest time determines the winner.

Giant slalom: Also known as the GS. It is a similar version to the slalom, with fewer turns
and wider, smoother turns. Each skier makes two runs down two different courses on the
same slope. Both runs take place on the same day, usually with the first run held in the
morning and the second run in the afternoon. The times are added, and the fastest total time
determines the winner.

Slalom: The slalom features the shortest course and the quickest turns. As in the giant
slalom, each skier makes two runs down two different courses on the same slope. Both runs
take place on the same day. The times are added and the fastest total time determines the
winner.

Combined: The combined event consists of one downhill followed by two slalom runs. The
times are added together and the fastest total time determines the winner. The combined
downhill and the combined slalom are contested independently of the regular downhill and
slalom events, and the combined courses are shorter than the regular versions. In 2002, for
the first time at an Olympic Winter Games, the entire combined event is being held on a single
day at the same venue. Also, the combined slalom is held on the lower part of the combined
downhill slope, which has not always been the case.