52 2007 Number 2 | E n g l i s h T E a c h i n g F o r u m This lesson is an example of using a topic 2. Pre-teach new vocabulary: Introduce (and write related to students’ background knowledge and on the board) compound words that are found building an English lesson around it. Although in the text: houseboats, showpieces, bedrooms, this lesson is based on the houseboats of Kashmir, sundeck, sunrays. Elicit the meaning of these you can base your lesson on tourist attractions in words from the students. Ask students to think your country, using appropriate brochures and of other compound words they know. (Here maps and developing your own text. you might inform students that compound nouns with longer sounds or more syllables are presented as two words—for example, walking SkillS to be emphaSized stick and dining room.) Reading and writing 3. You can explain the meaning of words such target Structure as jade and cedar wood by showing pictures Simple present tense in descriptions; participles: of items made of these materials. You might floating, coloured, growing, built, decorated, mention qualities such as colour and texture. attached, running, interconnecting target vocabulary Activity 2: Paired Reading (15 minutes) calm, jade, willow, anchored, cedar, shimmering, magnificent; compound words such as houseboats 1. Put the student in pairs and give them the text and showpieces; words that conjure a mental on the “Houseboats of Kashmir” (page 55) picture, e.g., jade-coloured waters and a handout of the table on the next page to complete as they read the text. (You could also objectiveS write the table on the board and have students By the end of the lesson students should be copy it.) able to: 2. Ask the students to read silently and then • say at least five things about the complete the table in consultation with their houseboats. partners. • show understanding of compound words. 3. When students have completed their tables, • write sentences using participles. discuss the answers with the class and provide • understand and use descriptive phrases for a the correct answers, if necessary. (If you have tourism brochure. the table written on the board, you could materialS ask students to go to the board to fill in the Local tourism brochures, map of India, picture columns.) of houseboats, handouts Activity 1: Warm-up (Pre-reading, 5 minutes) 1. Initiate a discussion on Kashmir by showing a map of India and asking a student to locate Kashmir. Ask students what they know about Kashmir (the beautiful valley and its lakes) and lead a discussion that will give them background information. E n g l i s h T E a c h i n g F o r u m | Number 2 2007 53 Sample Handout Read “The Houseboats of Kashmir” and complete the table below. If you have more than one answer in a column, please number the answers. Specific details: size and material Rooms in the Advantages of Access to other Location houseboats are houseboat the deck houseboats made of Activity 3: Descriptive Phrase Game 4. As the students call out phrases, write all the (10 minutes) new phrases on the board. 5. After the game is finished, have students copy Real Talk the phrases into their notebooks. 1. Divide the class into two groups and ask the groups to underline descriptive phrases that conjure a mental picture. Tell students that a Activity 4: Practice (Form focus, 10 minutes) descriptive phrase should describe a subject; it could describe a houseboat, lake, deck, etc. 1. Draw the attention of the class to the participles, 2. Have the two groups take turns calling out a both present and past, and ask the students to descriptive phrase without the subject. Have the circle all the participles in the reading passage. other group say what that phrase describes. (Examples are: floating, coloured, growing, 3. You can give a model for students to follow: decorated, attached, running, built, etc.) Then “What is shimmering under golden sunrays?” teach the use of participles in each of the sentences (the lake) in which students have circled a word(s). continued on page 56 54 2007 Number 2 | E n g l i s h T E a c h i n g F o r u m The Houseboats of Kashmir (adapted from tourist brochures and Internet information) Kashmir is famous for its water. The rooms are built and beautiful houseboats. Visitors decorated imaginatively to make to the Kashmir valley rarely guests’ visits as comfortable and leave without staying on one pleasant as possible. of these floating palaces. The The deck is one of the best houseboats float on the calm features of a houseboat. It and jade-coloured waters of serves as a sundeck, a place Dal Lake, which has willow for morning exercise, and a and chinar trees growing all place for evening tea. Here around it. The houseboats are you can enjoy the view of the anchored among lotus fields magnificent mountains and the and floating gardens. lake shimmering under golden Houseboats were first built by sunrays. the British. When a Maharaja Generally, individual houseboats of Kashmir did not allow the are moored in fixed places British to buy and own land, around the lake. At times, four they decided to build the or five houseboats are anchored houseboats and make them together with interconnecting their homes. bridges that enable people to Today the Kashmiris live in these move from one houseboat to houseboats. They have made another. nice hotels in the houseboats, too. Built out of cedar wood India atTtthohnher dee 3hyde 8oe n uctooosmer rmebasttoixaerael dltysm sw aeriirntatehrn e gaslseeh ln ooigfntwr t oohpwfm,i eci daacn2retehds4,.. AFGHAPNKAaInSKdTlaIVASGeTNruAaDjAvahiaurmNaltaGdaabnaddhinaBBgDaoDaarmRoramadbdajaaraanys tahnadn NJaaCMgSJAPmhaaarmuNarimmhn HnnHeraaumjidawatragsairbuvg ayaJsDe aBraarahlerniihnthplrHaohdaPupi irrmKSaaCaldaimhsecaDhhlsanmhaeLdMlleihiArgahigadrrhahUyatt aPNrr aPaKdgraeapdsnuJehprAasulbhlraahlpaLuburacdknRoawiBpeurrnaNreEsOPArisBLCshauJHbaamINnCseuhAPstePwtaadButacnprirhkiauarrWeGCstAaa BslncaegunSnltotPsgiakkoaaaklnlriStmdsi l PiogGBofu AonKraidNaP,Bis cG0DRhHhuLmAaeaUnAmrgiipTrrDDMjayS aAuair;iEnnrhe stNbaTa SpigP&lrrlluhiHaeoap raD nkuclNCISSgiiarnesuattaivttntaa;ea ayMttDttIirnroeetaniaa ln//ealaTTAndlaysneetasaAil dorr gsarCMrrja naaaiidCtta ailoomrmz&hplrre iiyyiBMnNntr aaoIiaBNaasmlmu otngacenpuiamlApraKdhnrPeNuier aaomd3dHurrralhaa0 nyaetgidr0meMavdyaerce aYlrsbahliiAthy;nao NdlrIniLMedesAid.aoR. Poona Aath rhdeoienu isbneegb dorroaotoo mhmas,s waa niltidhv i natgtw traooc hoeomdr, Arabian SeaKavaratti IGslaonadPMaonramjiuKgMaaaronnagtaCalokBaKarlaieecnrugatalaloreTGMaumandiCtlPa uNuokrdaaanHPdilddAayruincadloMhddereheraerarsdrabhyraadsVishakhapatnam Bay of BengalNAicnodbaamr aIsnl aannddsPort Blair Trivandrum baths and hot and cold running LASNRKIA E n g l i s h T E a c h i n g F o r u m | Number 2 2007 55 continued from page 54 2. Have students make a list of the participles Encourage students to write, correct, and revise from the reading passage. Then ask them to the text for their brochures before they make the write three to five new sentences using the final copy. Ask students to look for pictures or participles from their lists to describe something make drawings to illustrate the brochures. other than houseboats. Walk around the room When the brochures are finished, have students and help students as they write their sentences. share them in pairs or present them to the class. When the students have finished writing, have When they present their brochures, encourage them work in pairs to compare and correct them to imagine that they work for the tourist their sentences. bureau and are trying to convince the class to visit their city or town. 3. Optional: Have some students write their new sentences on the board. Discuss the use of participles in the new sentences. shEFali ray, a teacher-trainer, has been on the faculty Activity 5: Writing of a government institute in New Delhi and is now a (10 minutes) national resource person for Oxford University Press, India. She has written books for ESL classes, ELT Ask the students to write a description of their material for teachers, and stories and poems for homes. Tell them to describe the location, number children. Currently she is working on mentoring for of floors, rooms on each floor, the colour of the teachers. walls and curtains, the garden, the doors and windows. Activity 6: Follow-up (Project) Tell students that they are going to work in pairs to make a tourism brochure for their own city or town. In class you can do some prewriting activities with students to elicit places they might want to write about, to look at sample brochures, and to create a word bank of nouns (e.g., visitors, features, rooms), adjectives (e.g., famous, beautiful, magnificent), and past participles (e.g., built, made, decorated) that they will use in creating the text for 02 0 0 their brochures. 07- 56 2007 Number 2 | E n g l i s h T E a c h i n g F o r u m