Unit Two: Objectives & Sequence

2-1 TED: Salman Khan: Reinvent Education

Students research vocabulary and then write a summary of a TED talk video about the Khan Academy.

2-2 Steve Jobs: Stanford Commencement Speech

A video-listening activity based on Jobs’ famous speech. Students brainstorm what they know about the man, research vocabulary, and then answer comprehension questions about the video.

2-3 TED: Sir Ken Robinson: Why Schools Kill Creativity

Students discuss, research vocabulary, and then answer comprehension questions about the video.

2-1 How the Internet Is Changing the Way We Learn

A discussion and reading comprehension activity about an infographic that describes the changes in education due to the growth of technology.

2-2 The Future of Education

A reading comprehension activity about the changes in the way classes are taught in the 21st century.

2-3 Testing Times

Discussion, vocabulary, and reading comprehension activity about the Gaokao English test in China.

2-4 Why Shoot the Teacher?

A reading comprehension activity about several excerpts from the Canadian novel.

2-1 Words of Wisdom

A unit introduction discussion, vocabulary, and reading activity about the unit theme.

2-2 Clauses of Contrast or Concession

Students learn how to express contrast and concession through the use of adverbials, conjunctions, and prepositions.

2-3 Conditional Sentences

An exercise for students to review conditional sentence grammar and to practice more advanced structures.

2-4 Commonly Made Mistakes

An exercise for students to review articles, determiners, and quantifiers.

2-5 Sentence Transformations

Students change sentences and keep the same meaning using specific vocabulary.

2-6 Phrasal Verbs

Students learn and practice the use of several phrasal verbs.

2-7 “Get” Phrasal Verbs

Students learn and practice popular phrasal verbs with get.

2-8 Similarities and Comparisons

Students practice phrases commonly used to describe similarities and differences in comparisons.

2-1 Joining Sentences

Students practice connecting sentences in order to both raise the level of their writing and make it more interesting for the reader.

2-2 Register and Style

Students practice writing in different registers, taking into account who they are writing to.

2-3 Writing a Paragraph

Students learn that a well-written paragraph starts with a strong topic sentence. In this exercise, students correct poorly-written topic sentences and then write their own paragraph about their first experience in school.

2-4 Writing a Summary

A two-part activity. First, students read an article about education and work opportunities of the future and answer comprehension questions. Then, students write a summary of the article.