План-конспект урока с целью развития умений чтения с полным пониманием и умений монологической речи
план-конспект урока по английскому языку (11 класс) по теме

Olga Novozhilova

Language skills related tasks

I have chosen the article called “How much sleep do you need” (from the Daily Telegraph). The article could be suitable for the students of the upper intermediate level as the language (grammar and vocabulary) is appropriate and the students will not have any difficulties in understanding the contents (though some vocabulary items need to be pre-taught). I also think that the topic must be interesting to the learners. They are teenagers who must take exams and thus they need to spend much time preparing and perhaps even sleepless night before their exams. Moreover, students of such an age are always ready to argue with other people on thought-provocative matters. So, discussions connected with sleeping, the number of hours needed to feel good, etc. could be welcomed by the upper intermediate students.

I think it is a good idea to divide the article into two parts in order to make the reading of the authentic text easier. Ss might be terrified by the length of the text if they see the whole text right at the beginning of the lesson. But as the text is given to them by bits and suitable tasks, reading becomes not that difficult and more pleasant.

The task for reading the first part of the article is designed to develop scan reading skills. Besides, it helps to develop such a sub-skill as finding the necessary information. The task for reading the second part is supposed to develop the students’ skills of detailed reading. They also learn to see the connection between the parts which the text has been divided into.

James Scrivener points out that when a teacher wants to start a discussion he/she needs to go though several stages. The aim of those stages is to get Ss ready to talk, to involve them into a discussion. In the above-described lesson Ss get ready for the discussion on the basis of the article. So they start discussing the issues only when they have some ideas to express. Those ideas are prompted by the article. If I asked the learners to discuss the problem of sleeping enough, I do not think they could say anything. Perhaps I could be lucky to hear some sentences from them. However, after some reading is done, the learners are more likely to have a lively discussion. The activity is aimed at developing such skills as communication and fluency. It is also designed to help the students to give arguments to support their opinions and feel confident to share it (as everything has been discussed within the group). They also learn to think critically and understand the problems the author wanted to raise in the article.

Words: 757

Reference: Scrivener, J (1994) Learning Teaching: A Guidebook for English Language Teachers. Oxford: Heinemann

 Sunday 26 October 2014

http://fashion.telegraph.co.uk/article/TMG11145692/How-much-sleep-do-you-need-7.6-hours-say-scientists.html

How much sleep do we need? 7.6 hours, say scientists

According to new research, clocking up 7.6 hours of sleep every night will cut down our chances of taking sick days - just don't skim over the quality vs. quantity issue

By Katy Young | 07 October 2014

How much should we sleep do you need? 7.6 hours say scientists.

As reported in the Independent today, there is a new study which thinks it may have the answer to that big burning question: how much sleep do we really need?

The Finnish scientists who headed up the research have concluded that a woman needs 7.6 hours per night, while a man needs 7.8, especially if you want lower the chances of taking any sick days from work. The study involved comparing Finland's Social Insurance Institution sickness absence data, to a health study of 3,760 people tracking their daytime sleepiness, sleep disturbances and the use of sleeping pills in order to "examine various sleep measures as determinants of sickness absence."

The results deduced that "among women, after adjusting for age, insomnia-related symptoms, early morning awakenings, being more tired than others, and use of sleeping pills were associated with sickness absence," 7.6 hours of rest a night would significantly cut down the symptoms and therefore, sick day count.

But before you set your alarms tonight at 7.6 hours ahead of the waking hour, consider what Professor Jim Horne of the Sleep Research Centre at Loughborough University has to say. "7.6 hours is just a statistical artefact, and our work and that of others has shown that at least half of the healthy adult population in the western world sleep less than that amount. Besides, simply judging sleep merely by its duration rather than its quality is like judging the nutritious value of food we eat merely on its weight."

Horne explains how a regular modern survey asking people if they would like more sleep generally returns with the answer "yes", while studies using less sensitive tests report high levels of sleepiness among the general population. How nice then to return to those good old fashioned ways when we got nine hours sleep a night or more? Or maybe not. "People were less healthy, lived fewer years, were shorter in height, and poorer. Yet despite today's seven hours sleep we are healthier, live longer, are taller and better off."

Horne suggests that we should compare that romanticised notion of nine hours sleep a night to how workers living a century ago would rack up to today's shorter, but richer, sleep; "a typical worker a century or so ago probably shared a lumpy, cold bed not only with children but with bedbugs and fleas. Arguably those nine hours comprised fitful sleep. Contrast this with our shorter working week, warm bedrooms, fluffy duvets, contoured pillows and pocket-spring mattresses, when it's likely our seven hours of uninterrupted quality sleep is just as good."

Sleep debt has not worsened; "claims that we slept for longer mostly stem from misreports of a 100-year-old study pointing to longer sleep in teenagers, who indeed sleep nine hours of sleep every night, and still do today." In fact Horne also goes on to say that many studies in the UK have found that our seven hour average has changed little over the last 50 years in the UK.

And there's also the question of how convincing this kind of test actually is. The acid test for insufficient sleep is excessive daytime sleepiness, but under normal conditions it goes largely undetected, plus "feeling tired all the time is not always what it seems, and can be the cause of poor sleep, not vice versa."

But even Horne agrees, just like we eat and drink in excess for pleasure, "we also sleep for pleasure beyond necessity," so perhaps we should endeavour to enjoy that 7.8 in its entirety, a happy mind is a healthier mind after all.

The task for the first reading (scan reading skills)

Ss find the answers to some questions.

1. Do men and women need the same time per night to get enough sleep?
2. How much time do they need?

The first part of the article

As reported in the Independent today, there is a new study which thinks it may have the answer to that big burning question: how much sleep do we really need?

The Finnish scientists who headed up the research have concluded that a woman needs 7.6 hours per night, while a man needs 7.8, especially if you want lower the chances of taking any sick days from work. The study involved comparing Finland's Social Insurance Institution sickness absence data, to a health study of 3,760 people tracking their daytime sleepiness, sleep disturbances and the use of sleeping pills in order to "examine various sleep measures as determinants of sickness absence."

The results deduced that "among women, after adjusting for age, insomnia-related symptoms, early morning awakenings, being more tired than others, and use of sleeping pills were associated with sickness absence," 7.6 hours of rest a night would significantly cut down the symptoms and therefore, sick day count.

But before you set your alarms tonight at 7.6 hours ahead of the waking hour, consider what Professor Jim Horne of the Sleep Research Centre at Loughborough University has to say. "7.6 hours is just a statistical artefact, and our work and that of others has shown that at least half of the healthy adult population in the western world sleep less than that amount. Besides, simply judging sleep merely by its duration rather than its quality is like judging the nutritious value of food we eat merely on its weight."

The task for the second reading (detailed reading)

Ss order the parts

• Horne suggests that we should compare that romanticised notion of nine hours sleep a night to how workers living a century ago would rack up to today's shorter, but richer, sleep; "a typical worker a century or so ago probably shared a lumpy, cold bed not only with children but with bedbugs and fleas. Arguably those nine hours comprised fitful sleep. Contrast this with our shorter working week, warm bedrooms, fluffy duvets, contoured pillows and pocket-spring mattresses, when it's likely our seven hours of uninterrupted quality sleep is just as good."
• And there's also the question of how convincing this kind of test actually is. The acid test for insufficient sleep is excessive daytime sleepiness, but under normal conditions it goes largely undetected, plus "feeling tired all the time is not always what it seems, and can be the cause of poor sleep, not vice versa."

But even Horne agrees, just like we eat and drink in excess for pleasure, "we also sleep for pleasure beyond necessity," so perhaps we should endeavour to enjoy that 7.8 in its entirety, a happy mind is a healthier mind after all.

• Horne explains how a regular modern survey asking people if they would like more sleep generally returns with the answer "yes", while studies using less sensitive tests report high levels of sleepiness among the general population. How nice then to return to those good old fashioned ways when we got nine hours sleep a night or more? Or maybe not. "People were less healthy, lived fewer years, were shorter in height, and poorer. Yet despite today's seven hours sleep we are healthier, live longer, are taller and better off."
• Sleep debt has not worsened; "claims that we slept for longer mostly stem from misreports of a 100-year-old study pointing to longer sleep in teenagers, who indeed sleep nine hours of sleep every night, and still do today." In fact Horne also goes on to say that many studies in the UK have found that our seven hour average has changed little over the last 50 years in the UK.

The second part of the article

Horne explains how a regular modern survey asking people if they would like more sleep generally returns with the answer "yes", while studies using less sensitive tests report high levels of sleepiness among the general population. How nice then to return to those good old fashioned ways when we got nine hours sleep a night or more? Or maybe not. "People were less healthy, lived fewer years, were shorter in height, and poorer. Yet despite today's seven hours sleep we are healthier, live longer, are taller and better off."

Horne suggests that we should compare that romanticised notion of nine hours sleep a night to how workers living a century ago would rack up to today's shorter, but richer, sleep; "a typical worker a century or so ago probably shared a lumpy, cold bed not only with children but with bedbugs and fleas. Arguably those nine hours comprised fitful sleep. Contrast this with our shorter working week, warm bedrooms, fluffy duvets, contoured pillows and pocket-spring mattresses, when it's likely our seven hours of uninterrupted quality sleep is just as good."

Sleep debt has not worsened; "claims that we slept for longer mostly stem from misreports of a 100-year-old study pointing to longer sleep in teenagers, who indeed sleep nine hours of sleep every night, and still do today." In fact Horne also goes on to say that many studies in the UK have found that our seven hour average has changed little over the last 50 years in the UK.

And there's also the question of how convincing this kind of test actually is. The acid test for insufficient sleep is excessive daytime sleepiness, but under normal conditions it goes largely undetected, plus "feeling tired all the time is not always what it seems, and can be the cause of poor sleep, not vice versa."

But even Horne agrees, just like we eat and drink in excess for pleasure, "we also sleep for pleasure beyond necessity," so perhaps we should endeavour to enjoy that 7.8 in its entirety, a happy mind is a healthier mind after all.

The task for speaking

Ss get divided into two groups: those who agree with the author of the article about how much time it is needed for a person and those who disagree.

First, they discuss the article within the group. They get ready to persuade the other group and get them share the same opinion in the end. They discuss the reasons they will give to the other group.

Then both the groups discuss their opinions about the article in class giving their grounds. It is very important that their opinions are supported with necessary reasons.