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Teacher’s NotesGuy Fawkes Day

Type of activity: individual work, pair workFocus: vocabulary connected with Guy Fawkes Day and celebrations, speaking, reading, writing, exam skills – reading comprehension task on an extended levelLevel: pre-intermediate – upper-intermediateTime: 45 minutesPreparation: Make a copy of Worksheets A, B and C for each student, a dictionary for each pair of students, pictures showing Guy Fawkes Day celebrations (optional)

Procedure

1. Introduce the phrase ‘nursery rhyme’. Ask the students if they know what it means: they might be able to give some examples. Tell the class that they are going to start the lesson with a nursery rhyme which is connected to the topic of your classes.

2. Distribute Worksheet A. Ask the students to do Task 1. If you think your students may have a problem with the task, work an example with them to demonstrate how the task works. If the students have problems guessing what the festival is, you can give them extra hints (such as it’s on November 5th, people watch fireworks, etc.). You can also play Hangman, in which students discover the name of the festival by giving you individual letters. If you have brought pictures to the classroom, you can show them to the students at this point.

ANSWERS: 1 Remember, remember the fifth of 2 November Gunpowder, treason and plot. I see no 3 reason why gunpowder treason Should 4 ever be forgot...

3. Tell the class that they are now going to work on vocabulary connected with that day and focus their attention on Task 2. Ask the students to do the task in pairs. Then distribute the dictionaries and ask the students to check their answers.

4. Ask the students to guess in which context the words from Task 2 may appear in the text. Although the students may be unfamiliar with the historical facts connected with the festival, encourage them to guess anyway. You can change this activity into a competition for the most accurate, the craziest, the funniest (etc.) idea.

ANSWERS: 1a, 2b, 3b

5. If you decide that your students may have problems understanding the text, pre-teach the following words: effigy, conspiracy, bonfires, barrels, cellar, executed. If you have time, you may ask each pair to write a vocabulary quiz similar to the one from Task 2. Each pair can write a multiple choice question about one new word. Tell the students to use the dictionaries.

6. Distribute Worksheet B. Ask the students to read the text and do Task 3, ignoring the words they do not know. You may want to explain at this point that there may be words new to the students in the reading part of the exam, and that they should learn to undertake the task despite certain vocabulary problems. If you decide not to pre-teach vocabulary (see point 5), you can explain the meaning of the new words after the students finish the task. If you have introduced the vocabulary before reading, you can now focus on other words which you think might be new to your students.

ANSWERS: 1b, 2d, 3e, a, c – extra heading

7. Brainstorm ideas before the writing task. Ask the students what they think was in the warning letter found by the King. Ask if they would like to take part in Guy Fawkes Day celebrations or which of the celebrations they find the most interesting.

8. Distribute Worksheet C. Ask the students to write a 100–120-word letter on a given topic. If you have time, the students can do this during the lesson; if not, set the writing task as their homework assignment.