Parents launch school strike in 70 towns in Israel - English conversation lesson

Why did the parents of 70 towns in Israel decide not to send their children?  Well, the amount of students in regular classes has been getting larger.  It is a known fact that the more students in a class, the more chance that there will be  disruptions, students talking out of turn, not paying attention. As a classroom teacher, it is difficult to have eyes on all everyone and make sure that the students are doing their work.

Read this article and discuss it with your English teacher http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/197347#.VY-Xyvntmko

Key Terms 

overcrowding

practical

justfied

Questions 

What is suprising about the Education Minister Naftali Bennet's reaction? 

Why is it not practical for a strike to be held now? 

Do you have school strikes in your country? 

How are disputes settled about schools in your country?

In Israel a class can have up to 40 students.  The parents want that humber to be lowered to 32. Does that make a big difference in your opinion? 

How many students are in each class in Elementary school in your country? 

Would you like to see this number be reduced? 

Lesson Plan by Rachael Alice Orbach - Professional English Teacher 

Elephants show interest in skulls of their own species

African Elephants have now been studied paying attention to elephant bones. Usually we only think of people who have the ability to think, but elephants have such big brains and they use their trunks like hands.  

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn8209-elephants-may-pay-homage-to-dead-relatives.html#.VYZ0n_ntmko


Key Terms
 pay homage 
Humans apart,
 decomposing.
 highly agitated
skull and ivory of long-dead elephants
pick out 
corroborate stories
It begs the question
cognitive abilities 
tactile 
matriarchal society



Questions 
What can elephants do that other animals do not?
Is this type of elephant behavior suprising to you? 
Does this article say how the elephants know about the bones? 
What does this say about their cognitive abilities? 
Why are elephants used as pack animals in the Far East? 
Which other animals do you think are intelligent? 
What can they do? 
How can animals help humans? 



Lesson Plan by Rachael Alice Orbach 

Clean the oceans! 20 year old Inventor is following through!

Most people say they are going to do something, and  it just that talk.  Even when you make it to a TED talk, you talk.  But this young man is really doing what he spoke about!  He is serious about cleaing up the ocean.

http://www.fastcoexist.com/3047064/hows-that-working-out-for-you/this-20-year-old-inventor-said-he-could-clean-up-the-ocean-now

Key Terms
 marine cleanup machine 
sketched a vision
 minor celebrity
 painstaking work
 feasibility study
 crowdfunding campaign 
 conclusive
vessels 
return leg 
durability
biggest hurdles
 technological boundaries 

Questions

What is the goal of this project? 

How old was Boyan Slat when he spoke at TED talks?

What is his vision of this project? 

Why is this project important? 

What are the long term effects of this project? 

How can trash in the ocean be prevented? 

Have you personally seen the effects of ocean pollution? 

Lesson Plan by Rachael Alice Orbach - Professional English teacher 

Click and grow your own food! English conversation lesson

In the debate about GMO's traditional agriculture is touted as the only way that people can get food. But a new start-up is going to change that!  I have an olive tree on my porch, and have had it for about 5 years, but sadly, I haven't gotten any olives from it.  This new system will work amost by itself! 

There is even a cute short video to how you how it is going to look. 

http://www.fastcoexist.com/3047526/grow-a-full-size-garden-in-your-dark-dingy-apartment-with-this-smart-farm

Key Terms

brown thumb

 DIY farmers

smart soil,

collaboration 

peat and cocoa

 potentially

 state-of-the art

hydroponic

seed cartridges

 scaled up

 down in size

 traditional agriculture

Questions

What are the advantages of this system? 

Who would want one of these systems? 

Which plants would you want to grow? 

Have you ever tried to grow your own food?  Were you successful?

Have you ever worked on a farm? 

Is the cost worth the output? 

Are you worried about pesticides in your food? 

What are disadvantes of this system? 

Lesson Plan by Rachael Alice Orbach - Professional English Teacher 

How the Journalists were fooled

How reliable is our news?  This article shows us how easy it is to fool the journalists who decide which news to cover.  These authors" did a bogus study and many people fell for it!


https://www.sciencenews.org/blog/culture-beaker/attempt-shame-journalists-chocolate-study-shameful


Key vocabulary

shame
backstory
teamed up
slight of hand
peer reviewed
lure
flimsy
ginned up
aggregates
expose fraud
last resort
exposing quacks
caper
wrongdoing
lackadasical


Questions
If you had read the original article, would you have been fooled?
What tacticts did  John Bohannon use to fool the journalists?
What did he want to prove?
What was the result?
How many reporters really covered the "news?"
How many readers did those reporters reach?
How much damage was done by this "research?"
Can it be reversed?
What criteria do you use to decide if an article is true?




Lesson Plan by Rachael Alice Orbach - Professional English teacher

Irregular Verb exercise-

I use this exercise to review irregular verbs. Do this exercise and them check yourself on this page 

http://rachaelenglishclasses.blogspot.co.il/2012/08/very-useful-v1-v2-v3-teaching-chart.html

בס"ד

Name:___________________ Date___________________ Class______________

Irregular verbs

 Part 1.   Fill in the missing forms and translate

V1	V2	V3	עברית
	Knew
Throw
		Grown
	Wrote
Leave
	Kept
		Spoken
Mean

Part 2: Write a sentence using the correct form of the verb.

1. Throw _______________________________________________________

2. Kept _________________________________________________________

3. Mean ________________________________________________________

4. Grown________________________________________________________

5. Wrote_________________________________________________________

6. Broke _________________________________________________________

 Grammar Lesson Plan by Rachael Alice Orbach - Professional English teacher