English Our Enviroment

OUR ENVIRONMENT
http://www.elateafrica.org/elate/english/ourenvironment/envirointro.html
Group work

A warm up / Brainstorming

A home concept varies from one individual to another, however, the following areas may be considered basic;

1. Toilet
2. Kitchen
3. Bedroom
4. Dining
5. Compound

You may use the following guiding questions to enable your learners to explore this environment.

Brainstorming

Think about your home and your family and answer the following questions:

What chores do you do at home? (Students can be given the 5 basic areas mentioned above to hasten their thoughts about the chores expected in each of those areas).
What chores do the other members of your family do?
Who allocates these chores?

Vocabulary
What do these words mean?
Chores
Allocate

Grammar point

Present Simple Tense

Example – sweep the rooms, wash the dishes

1. Instruct the learners to get into groups of five (5).
2. Assign each group member an area to think about and come up with chores related to this area.
3. Ask the learners to discuss and write down the different chores in an ideal home which they can imagine.
4. Give each group a chance to present their work to the rest of the class.
5. Ask the learners to listen out for the use of prepositions, adjectives and nouns.
6. You may call a group to write these out on the board for the rest of the class to streamline their understanding.

Exercise

Writing

Ask the learners to write a composition of 100 words using some of the following words: clean, wash, slash, dig, cook, sweep etc

Reflecting/reading

You have often considered how to improve the economic status of your family when you grow up. However, you have come to realise that you can begin to contribute to this economic status at your age by starting up a small project using your home environment and the opportunities you have in your home and the community.

Read the following short passage

It was an exceptional year for us. The first rains came a little late after the long dry season. Usually they came by the beginning of April when we were still at school. This was a blessing in disguise because the grasshoppers came when we had just come home for the first term holidays. As soon as the rains came, we put up the bright electric bulbs on the poles and built a platform of eucalyptus logs on which we hoisted the disused oil drums we had collected from fuel dealers or their disposal agents.

Into each oil drum we thrust two shiny new iron sheets to dazzle and catch the falling grasshoppers as they spun and danced around the bright lights. On some nights they rained down in spiralling clouds of wings. For two weeks we had a bumper grasshopper fall that we had not witnessed for a long time. By the end of the grasshopper storm, we had collected twelve sacks full of grasshoppers. I sold my own portion of one and a half sacks for U shs 300,000 and deposited the money on my account.

Vocabulary exercise

Discuss the meanings of these words: exceptional, disguise, disused, hoisted, disposal, dazzle, spiralling, bumper, portion.

Brain storming exercise

1. What income generating activities do your family members engage in?
2. Do you take part in any of them?
3. Do you help other members of the family with these activities?
4. What lessons / ideas do you get from the above story?

From the vocabulary deduced let the learners construct alternative sentences e.g. ‘The new iron sheets to dazzle and catch…’
 Alternative:
The light in our classroom is dazzling.

Grammar point

Past Simple

Exercise

Using the past simple tense, write five sentences of the activities identified in the passage in their logical order.

Discussing/Describing
After reflecting on the experience above, in your groups, discuss and describe what opportunities there are in your homes and the immediate environments for making money or gaining useful work experience during your holidays.

During the discussion, practice being a good participant by:

1. Looking at the person doing the talking
2. Looking at the person you are talking to
3. Concentrating on listening to each person speaking
4. Being polite when speaking and responding to others
5. Getting to know and empathising with other people (empathise = to put yourself in their shoes)
6. Making encouraging remarks whenever necessary
7. From the discussion, take a mental note of how other people have used opportunities in their own environments. Look for more sources of information to improve your own chances of making money or getting temporary jobs.
8. Think of an income-generating project you want to start. 
9. Profiling your project
   
   From the group discussion, the following are some of the projects you and your group members have thought of starting:
10. a flower and tree nursery project (specify the plants to grow for sale)
11. a hybrid local chicken project
12. a fish- pond project
13. a goat-rearing project
14. a ‘seasonal crops’ project
15. a fruit-growing project
16. a pop-corn project

Highlight the projects which the students / learners come up with i.e. solicit ideas from them.

1. Write a summarised profile of your project which you can extend further after being guided on writing up a small project proposal. Use the following outline of points to write your summary:
2. A brief description of your family environment (including land or space for home use).
3. The main physical challenges in the environment.
4. An explanation of why you have chosen this project.
5. Describing and explaining the steps you will take to develop the project in stages (include information on how parents and other members or sponsors can assist).
   ·The main inputs (finances, tools, etc) you need.
   · How it will be managed.

Grammar point

Adjectives

Jumbled sentences

The teacher should get five sentences rich in adjectives and cut them up. Students should then be given a task of putting these together.

THE WORLD OF WORK

Activity Five

• Professional work
• Informal work

Exercise:

a)Identify the different professionals in the picture.

b)Give some of the behaviour expected of each of the professional identified.

• Looking at your community, what type of work are people doing?
• What differences do you see between the formal and informal work?
• What type of jobs do your parents do?
• Discuss the ethics accrued to the various professions e.g. Teachers Doctors, Engineers, Lawyers, etc.
• Discuss the duties expected of the above professionals.
• Conduct a debate on which profession would do better.
• Have a role play on the job scenarios. The role play should show the expected duties visa avis their additional work e.g. a doctor treating patients – not giving lectures or in administration.
• Develop the learners’ critical thinking towards these jobs.
  Crossword puzzle
  Activity Six
  Crossword puzzle
  
  • It is centred on the various professions and what people do.
  • It also helps on building the learners’ vocabulary.
  
  ACROSS
  1.Person appointed to perform religious ceremonies in a Christian church (6)
  4.Post Office Box (3)
  5.Worker skilled in using or repairing machines (8)
  6.Lieutenant (2)
  7.Large group of people moving (5)
  9.Reverend (3)
  11.Make an attempt (3)
  12.Skilled workman or craftsman (7)
  DOWN
  1.Person who fits water pipes, tanks, etc (7)
  2.Person who occupies a building / land without permission (8)
  3.Person trained in Medical Science (6)
  4.Person who controls an aircraft (5)
  8.A Large pile of wood (4)
  10.Veterinary surgeon (3)  
  SOLUTION  
   
  Dialogue/Interview
  
  This activity aims to encourage learners to express themselves in speech especially job interviews for example;
  Interviewer: Come in
  Interviewee: Thank you Sir / Madam
  Interviewer: Please have a sit
  Interviewee: Thank you Sir / Madam
  Interviewer: Can you please tell us / me about yourself
  Interviewee: My name is ………………………. I am 25 years old. I graduated last year with a ………… degree in ……………… 
  Interviewer: How did you get to know about this job opportunity?
  Interviewee: Since I graduated I have been keen on looking for job opportunities by reading job advertisements in the newspapers and this is where I came across your company’s advertisements.
                     * * * *
  You can extend this activity.
  Discussion:
• What types of jobs require one to be interviewed?
• Besides an interview, is there anything else that one has to do in order to get a job? 
• What skills do you need to bear in mind so as to succeed in an interview?
  LETTER WRITING
  
  Activity eight
  Letter writing
  Since this is an area required for developing job related skills, let the learners know that there are two kinds of letters;
• Formal letters
• Informal letters

When one is going to apply for a job, they use the formal letter writing format.

The formal letter format

It has 5 important parts which can be easily remembered using your five fingers.

1. Your Address and Date
2. The Company address to which you are writing
3. The Title / heading which states the purpose of writing in brief
4. The Letter itself - body
5. The Signature (complimentary close) – which includes an official sign off, your signature and your name printed in Capital Letters.

A sample of a formal letter
                                                                   MALWE SECONDARY SCHOOL
                                                                   P. O. BOX 1412
                                                                   PONGDO DISTRICT
                                                                   UGANDA
                                                                  
06-06-2009

TO:
THE DIRECTOR HUMAN RESOURCES
MAKERERE UNIVERSITY
KAMPALA

Dear Sir / Madam

RE:     APPLICATION FOR THE POST OF TOILET CLEANER

I am writing to apply for the post of toilet cleaner in your university.

I am a 15 year old senior two student in the above mentioned school. I am hardworking, respectful, time conscious, self motivated and with a clean discipline record. I would like to take on this job during my holiday to raise some pocket money to take me through the next term. 

With the above personal attributes I trust that I can take on the duties this post requires diligently.

I shall be grateful if my application meets your positive consideration.

Yours faithfully

UKI ZEDU 

 A sample of a personal/informal letter

                                                                   LWEMA SECONDARY SCHOOL
                                                                   P.O.BOX 2824
                                                                   DO PO DISTRICT
                                                                   UGANDA
                                                                   12-12-2009

Dear Paul

Many thanks for the letter that you wrote to me about your new school. I enjoyed reading about how they teased you and you managed to contain them.

I have also learnt how to handle those who should tease me elsewhere.

On a happy note, I have overcome my fees problem by selling cassava chips to students during break time, and so far I have been able to clear my school dues for this term and I have some extra for my personal needs. How do you like that Paul?

Yours Sincerely,

Ismail Magezi

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