Law and Crime

Title of the class: English Practice 
Age of students: 20-21 (4th year of studying)  
General topic(s) of the unit that is being studied: Law and Crime 
Topic of the class: Human Rights 

Goals of the class:

• Practical: to enrich the vocabulary concerning the topic  “Law and Crime”; to practice reading and writing skills.
• Sociocultural: to develop the culture of communication on the Internet. 
• Professional: to develop the abilities to express oneself freely; to train the skills of self-control.

Goals of the activity: to practice reading skills (reading the texts and their discussion); to learn how to make posts using web-logs.

 Course of the lesson

I. Starting a class
1. Organization of the class

Hello, students! Today we will start a new topic “Law and Crime”. We will revise already known and learn new vocabulary, then read some texts devoted to this topic. But before we will start the lesson, let us check the presence.

2. Warm-up activity

Look through this list of rights on the picture. With a partner decide which three you think are the most important and explain your choice.

 

II. Learning new material

1) Definition of new words and words combinations:

Arrest, charge, evidence, plead, prison, release, sentence, serve, trial, verdict, witness, steal, rob.

Each student gets a card with a word and must explain it in English (not translating it). The students can use the dictionary if they need.

III. Training new material

Work in pairs

1) Use the words in the box to complete the sentences. Mind the forms of the verbs.

 

IV. Reading

1) Pre-reading questions

a) What do you think, who is a prisoner of conscience?

b) Read the title of the second text. Can you guess, what are you going to read about?

c) Do you know anything about the Velvet Revolution?

2) Reading the texts

3) After-reading activities

a) Text discussion

– What is the purpose of each text and how is this reflected in its style?

– What aspects of human nature and our behavior towards each other do the texts portray?

b) For the questions 1-6 choose the answer (A, B, C or D) that fits best according to the text.

c) Find words or expressions in the texts that are similar in meaning to the words below.

1. to give the public information about something (text 1)

2. varied (text 1)

3. walked with difficulty (text 2)

4. let something fall off ( text 2)

5. forceful curtailment of freedom ( text 3)

6. nearly dark ( text 3)

V. Home task

The home assignment is to learn new vocabulary (words from ex. 1 and from the texts) and write an essay on the topic (about 100 words): If you could change any laws in your country, which would you change or even revoke and why? in the teacher's weblog (discussed during the next class).

VI. Summary

Today we have learnt new vocabulary and revised already known, so you can use it in your essays. We’ll continue our topic next time. You can be free.