What You (Really) Need to Know, By Dr. Lawrence H. Summers, The New York Times

ESL Voices Lesson Plan for this post

C&L site. photo credit- The New York Times

Harvard Law classroom. photo- The Situationist

Dr. Lawrence H. Summers has served as president of Harvard University from July 2001 to  June 2006. In addition he  has served as Secretary of the Treasury of The United States. In the following article  he discusses  the possibilities universities could offer students if the curriculums were adjusted to reflect our changing society.

“A paradox of American higher education is this: The expectations of leading universities do much to define what secondary schools teach, and much to establish a template for what it means to be an educated man or woman. College campuses are seen as the source for the newest thinking and for the generation of new ideas, as society’s cutting edge.

It may be that inertia is appropriate. Part of universities’ function is to keep alive man’s greatest creations, passing them from generation to generation. Certainly anyone urging reform does well to remember that in higher education the United States remains an example to the world, and that American universities compete for foreign students more successfully than almost any other American industry competes for foreign customers.

Nonetheless, it is interesting to speculate: Suppose the educational system is drastically altered to reflect the structure of society and what we now understand about how people learn. How will what universities teach be different? Here are some guesses and hopes.

1. Education will be more about how to process and use information and less about imparting it…

2. An inevitable consequence of the knowledge explosion is that tasks will be carried out with far more collaboration…

3. New technologies will profoundly alter the way knowledge is conveyed…

4. As articulated by the Nobel Prize-winner Daniel Kahneman in Thinking, Fast and Slow, we understand the processes of human thought much better than we once did…

5. The world is much more open, and events abroad affect the lives of Americans more than ever before…

6. Courses of study will place much more emphasis on the analysis of data…

…A good rule of thumb for many things in life holds that things take longer to happen than you think they will, and then happen faster than you thought they could. Think, for example, of the widespread use of the e-book, or the coming home to roost of debt problems around the industrialized world…”

Read this enlightening article in its entirety.

ESL Voices Lesson Plan for this post

Level: Intermediate -Advanced

Language Skills: reading, writing, speaking and listening.

Time: approximately 2 hours.

Materials: student handouts (from this lesson) access to news article, and video.

Objective: Students will examine the 6 possible changes in the curriculums of American universities proposed by Lawrence Summers. . They will decide whether these changes would help the current college student. Students will also  practice reading, speaking, writing and listening skills

I. Pre-Reading Tasks

A. Prediction

1. Analyze headings and photos.

Directions: Have students read the title of the post, and of the  article. Next have them  analyze the photos to see if  they can predict what  information the article will discuss.  Then based on this information,   direct students to make a list of ideas, words and phrases they might find in this article.

B.  Stimulating Background Knowledge:

1. Brainstorm:

Directions: Using the brainstorming technique, have students build a list of the words and ideas connected to the following terms: 

university, curriculum, secondary schools, campus, education.

 

2. Pre-reading Discussion Questions: Directions: Have students discuss the following questions regarding the universities in  their countries, or if they attend a university in this country.

1. Are you content with your current classes?

2. Are technology based materials used in any of the classes you take, (e.g., computers, e-books, video-lectures) if so describe them. If not, would you be interested in having them in a particular class?

3. Describe one of your classrooms. Does the instructor stand in front of the classroom and lecture to the students?  Or is it more of  a group exchange?

4. Are there many collaborative projects in your classes, or are students evaluated on individual effort?

II. While Reading Tasks

1.  Word Inference

Directions: Students are to infer the meanings of the words in bold (taken from the article) and use a dictionary or thesaurus for assistance.

1. A  paradox of American higher education is this…
2. The expectations of leading universities do much to define what secondary schools teach, and much to establish a template…
3. Students are evaluated on the basis of examination essays handwritten in blue books and relatively short research papers.
4. A vast majority of students still major in one or two disciplines centered on a particular department.
5. It may be that inertia is appropriate.
6. Nonetheless, it is interesting to speculate…
7. This is a consequence of both the proliferation of knowledge — and how much of it any student can truly absorb…
8. Before the printing press, scholars might have had to memorize “The Canterbury Tales”…
9. This seems a bit ludicrous to us today.
10. But in a world where the entire Library of Congress will soon be accessible on a mobile device…
11. …factual mastery will become less and less important.
12. An inevitable consequence of the knowledge explosion…
13. …tasks will be carried out with far more collaboration.
14. Yet the great preponderance of work a student does is done alone at every level…
15. We are not rational calculating machines… each programmed to be adroit at a particular set of tasks.
16. This makes it essential that the educational experience breed cosmopolitanism...
17. English’s emergence as the global language, along with the rapid progress in machine translation
18. As the “Moneyball” story aptly displays in the world of baseball…
19. …to test presumptions and locate paths to success…

2.  Word-Recognition

 

Directions: Students are to circle or underline the correct word or phrases from the article.  Have them skim the article to check  their responses.

 

1. A paradox/ paradigm of American higher education is this…
2. The expectations of leading universities do much to defend / define what secondary schools teach…
3. Think social networking, guy / gay marriage, stem cells or the rise of China.
4. My predecessor / processor as Harvard president, Derek Bok, famously compared the difficulty of reforming a curriculum with the difficulty of moving a cemetery.
5. It may be that inertia is appropriate / apposite. Part of universities’ function is to keep alive man’s greatest creations…
6. Education will be more about how to process/proceed and use information and less about imparting it.
7. For most people, school is the last time they will be elevated/evaluated on individual effort.
8. New technologies will profusely/profoundly alter the way knowledge is conveyed.
9. Similarly, it makes sense for students to watch video of the clearest/cleverest calculus teacher or the most lucid analyst of the Revolutionary War…
10. Not everyone learns/leans most effectively in the same way.
11. The world is much more open, and events abroad effect/affect the lives of Americans more than ever before.
12. English’s  emergency/emergence as the global language, along with the rapid progress in machine translation and the fragmentation of languages spoken around the world…
13. … the widespread use of the e-book, or the coming home to roost/rooster of debt problems around the industrialized world…

B. Reading Comprehension

3.  Fill-ins

Directions: Students are to complete the sentences from the article with the words or phrases  provided in the list.

1. The expectations of leading ___do much to ___what secondary schools teach…
2. College campuses are seen as the source for ___and for the generation of new ideas, as society’s cutting edge.
3. It may be that___is appropriate.
4. Education will be more about how to ___and use information and less about ___it.
5. Before the___, scholars might have had to memorize ___to have continuing access to them.
6. Not GMAT scores or___, but the ability to work with others.
7. As articulated by the ___winner Daniel Kahneman in Thinking, Fast and Slow…
8. This makes it essential that the educational experience breed ___that students have___experiences…
9. It seems logical, too, that more in the way of___ be expected of students.
10. Courses of study will place much more emphasis on the ___of data.
11. As the___ story aptly displays in the world of baseball…
12. A good ___for many things in life…

Word List:

cosmopolitanism, process,printing press, inertia, Nobel Prize, international, language study, analysis, “Moneyball”, rule of thumb,  The Canterbury Tales, universities,  college transcripts, define, imparting, the newest thinking,

III. Post Reading Tasks

 

A. Reading Comprehension Check

Directions:  Have students use a graphic organizer to assist them with  discussing  or writing about  the main points from the article.

Main Idea chart. Ken Bear

ESL Voices Charts and Organizers Listing

B.  Questions for Reflection and Discussion

Place students in groups or as a class, and have them answer the following questions based on the article.

• Think about the curriculum in the university or college that you attend. After reading this article, are there improvements you’d like to see?  If yes, describe how they would improve the current curriculum. For example, in number three it states, “New technologies will profoundly alter the way knowledge is conveyed…  Think of a music text in which you can hear pieces of music as you read, or a history text in which you can see film clips about what you are reading.”
• Professor Summers makes the following statement, “My predecessor as Harvard president, Derek Bok, famously compared the difficulty of reforming a curriculum with the difficulty of moving a cemetery.” What does this mean? Do you agree with this idea? Explain why or why not.
• With your group members, create a list that reflects your ideal university.

C.  Essay Writing

Directions:  Have students choose a topic from one of the following and write an essay.

1. Write an essay in which you describe 4 ways American universities can improve their curriculums.

2. Dr. Summers mentioned Nobel Prize-winner  Daniel Kahneman, write an essay describing who he is and why he won a Nobel Prize.

3. At the end of the article Dr. Summers states “ A good rule of thumb for many things in life holds that things take longer to happen than you think they will, and then happen faster than you thought they could.”  Write an essay in which you explain what this expression means and give examples (other than the one already provided).

Review ESL Voices Modes of Essay Writing.

IV. Listening Activity

Title of Video Clip: Dr. Lawrence  Summers at Schools  of  Tomorrow Conference

A. Pre-listening Tasks (Vocabulary)

1. Directions: Have students look up the meanings, then listen for these words:

“…maintain the position of pre-eminence?”

“… one could proliferate statistics of that kind.”

2. Have  students create a list of words and phrases they think they will hear in the video.

B. While Listening Tasks (Comprehension)

True / /False statements

 

Directions: Listen to the video and if the statement is true mark it T if  it is  false mark it F and provide the correct answer.

 

1. Dr. summers begins  his talk with a joke about Leonard Bernstein
2. According to Dr. Summers  people think that economists are good at figures but they don’t have the personality to be accountants.
3. People in Mosalsk  did not get this joke.
4. Dr. Summers stated that he wanted to speak  less as an economist and  more as an educator and someone who thinks about the future.
5. One observation he made was that the battle for American future will be won or lost in American public educational institutions.
6. Dr. Summers stated that students should be  trained and prepared  in  is the Science.
7. He also stated that American students cannot lag behind other students in the rest of world.
8. Twenty years ago Americans were leaders in the number of college graduates.
9. Dr. Summers was going to use his iphone to demonstrate a point.

ANSWER KEY

Related Video

Dr. Summers’ Address at the Herzliya Conference

“Professor Lawrence Summers’ optimistic address of the US and the future of the global economic system at the Herzliya Conference included three main factors which highlighted his prediction that the “American economy will grow by 3.5% this coming year”; the change in where the economy grows from, emerging nations and their effect on the United States as a global leader, and the reason why the US prevails.”

Tags: American Universities, Dr. Lawrence Summers, Technology

Be It Resolved By John Tierney, the New York Times

ESL Voices Lesson Plan for this post With Answer Key.

Zumba Festival. Photo: Cimm’s photostream

Photo credit- Ji Lee- NYT

Success Fundamentals

One of the most popular New Year’s Resolution people make is losing those extra pounds. Weight control is also one of the most difficult challenges for many people. This article reveals some strategies that  seem promising. Excerpt:

“It’s still early in 2012, so let’s be optimistic. Let’s assume you have made a New Year’s resolution and have not yet broken it. Based on studies of past resolutions, here are some uplifting predictions:

1) Whatever you hope for this year — to lose weight, to exercise more, to spend less money — you’re much more likely to make improvements than someone who hasn’t made a formal resolution.

2) If you can make it through the rest of January, you have a good chance of lasting a lot longer.

3) With a few relatively painless strategies and new digital tools, you can significantly boost your odds of success.

Now for a not-so-uplifting prediction: Most people are not going to keep their resolutions all year long. They’ll start out with the best of intentions but the worst of strategies, expecting that they’ll somehow find the willpower to resist temptation after temptation. By the end of January, a third will have broken their resolutions, and by July more than half will have lapsed.

They’ll fail because they’ll eventually run out of willpower, which social scientists no longer regard as simply a metaphor… Self-restraint can seem harder than ever because there are so many new temptations being marketed — high-calorie foods, distracting gadgets, time-sucking Web sites.

But there are also better strategies than ever available thanks to new research in both the lab and the real world, including vast troves of data from online programs for improving self-control.”

Read the entire article to learn how to keep your  New Year’s resolutions all year round!

ESL Voices Lesson Plan for this post

Level: Intermediate -Advanced

Language Skills: reading, writing, speaking and listening. Vocabulary and grammar activities are included.

Time: approximately 2 hours.

Materials: student handouts (from this lesson) access to New York Times article, and video.

Objective: Students will  examine the strategies for successful dieting, and decide if these are helpful ways to diet. Students will practice reading, speaking, writing and listening skills.

I. Pre-Reading Tasks

A. Prediction:

1. Analyze headings and photos.

Directions: Have students read the title of the post, and of the  article. Next have them  analyze the photos to see if  they can predict what  information the article will discuss.  Then based on this information,   direct students to make a list of ideas, words and phrases they might find in this article.

B.  Stimulating Background Knowledge:

1. Brainstorm:

Directions: Using the brainstorming technique, have students build a list of the words and ideas connected to the following terms: resolution, New Year, diet, willpower.

2. Pre-reading Discussion Questions:

Directions: Have students discuss the following questions regarding  dieting in their countries.

1. Are the people in your country considered to be over-weight in general?

2.  Are there frequent advertisements for weight-loss?

3. Who diets the most, the men or women in your country?

3. Graphic Organizers

Have students use the KWL- chart to help organize their ideas about diets.

Advanced K-W-L from Bos, C.S. & Vaughn, S.

Visit ESL Voices Graphic Organizers for list of organizers.

II. While Reading Tasks

A. Vocabulary

1.  Word Inference: Directions: Students are to infer the meanings of the words in bold (taken from the article) and use a dictionary or thesaurus for assistance.

1. It’s still early in 2012, so let’s be optimistic.
2. Let’s assume you have made a New Year’s resolution and have not yet broken it.
3. With a few relatively painless strategies and new digital tools, you can significantly boost your odds of success.
4. Now for a not-so-uplifting prediction…
5. They’ll start out with the best of intentions but the worst of strategies…
6. …expecting that they’ll somehow find the willpower to resist temptation…
7. The result is “ego depletion,” as this state of mental fatigue...

B. Questions for Comprehension  True / False

Directions: If  the statement is true, students write (T) if  the statement is false they  write (F)  and  provide the correct answer from the article.

1. The most popular New Year’s resolution is losing those extra pounds.
2. you’re much more likely to make improvements than someone who hasn’t made a formal resolution.
3. With a few relatively painless strategies and support from family, you can significantly boost your odds of success.
4. Most people are going to keep their resolutions all year long.
5. They’ll fail because they’ll eventually run out of willpower…
6. Doug Teitelbaum… Once, he’d been a serious tennis player…
7. Doug Teitelbaum hired a trainer.
8. After six months of this routine, he left Las Vegas 70 pounds lighter than when he arrived.
9. The first 4 strategies to keeping your diet are, Set a single clear goal, Precommit, Outsource, Keep track.
10. The last 3 steps are: Don’t overreact to a lapse, Tomorrow  is another taste, Reward often.

C.  Grammar Focus

1. Identifying Parts of Speech

Directions:  Students are to identify the nouns in the following paragraph, then use as many of the terms as possible to write their own paragraph concerning dieting.

‘It’s still early in 2012, so let’s be optimistic. Let’s assume you have made a New Year’s resolution and have not yet broken it. Based on studies of past resolutions, here are some uplifting predictions: 1) Whatever you hope for this year — to lose weight, to exercise more, to spend less money — you’re much more likely to make improvements than someone who hasn’t made a formal resolution.”

III. Post Reading Tasks-

A. Reading Comprehension Check

1. Have students fill in the last column of the K-W-L chart they began in the Pre-reading section.

 

2.  WH-question format

Directions: Have students use the  WH-question format to discuss the main points from the article.

Who or What is the article about?

Where does the action/event take place?

When does the action/event take place?

Why did the action/event occur?

How did the action/event occur?

2.  Essay Writing

Directions:  Have students choose a topic and write an essay.

1. It has been shown that without proper supervision, dieting can cause illness and even result in death. Write an essay in which you discuss the proper steps to take to begin a new diet.
2. Some females feel that their bodies are not “thin” enough and continue to lose weight to “improve” them. Other females  feel that no matter what their bodies look like, they accept them as they are. Write an essay in which you take a stand for or against one of these statements.
3. Write an essay in which you describe your eating habits and daily exercise regiment.
4. It has been observed by medical experts and other health officials that females, some as young as 13 or 14 years of age are being influenced by the images of “super” models. Many of these models are considered to be  under-weight and are classified as ‘destructive stereotypes”.  Write an essay in which you agree or disagree with this observation.

Review  

ESL Voices Modes of Essay Writing.

 

 

IV. Listening Activity

Video: The Top 5 Reasons...

Video Clip- Diet.com: The Top 5 Reasons Why your New Year’s  Resolution Will Fail

This video discusses the top 5 diet mistakes and disasters people make when dieting.

A. Pre-listening Tasks

Directions: Place students in groups and have them look up the following terms from the video. calories, junk food, refined sugars, carbs, and metabolism.

B. While Listening Tasks –

 

Fill-ins

 

 

Directions: Students are to listen for the correct word or phrase to complete the sentences.

Mistake Number 5:

You are not eating enough ___or you may not be eating___ enough.

Full scenarios  cause your body to___ instead of___ because it thinks that you are starving.

Mistake Number 4:

You just can’t say no to the___ . ___and___ can reek havoc on your diet.

 

They  also play ___with your___levels.

Mistake Number 3:

You are  forgetting to do your ___while at the gym.

____ is just as important as ___and ___when trying to lose weight.

Why you may ask? Because it actually speeds up your ___.

Mistake Number 2:

You’re not getting the most out of your ___

 

Also Don;t forget to ___it up.

Mistake Number 1:

You are still eating too many ___.

Some companies have been flagged for lying about the___on their boxes.

So, an easy way to avoid this___is to measure your food using___to weigh out the grams or using ___.

C. Post-Listening Tasks

1.  Questions for Discussion

In groups,  have students make up questions they would like to ask the speaker.

Did you agree with everything the speaker said?  Discuss which comments you agreed with and which ones you tended not to concur with.

After listening to this discussion, has your personal idea of dieting changed?  If yes, describe in what way.  If no, discuss why not.

ANSWER KEY

Related Articles

The Fat Trap, By Tara Parker-Pope, The New York Times Magazine

For 15 years, Joseph Proietto has been helping people lose weight. He shows people how to keep the weight off with daily discipline.

A Day with the Bridges, New York Times

The story (and photos) of Janice and Adam Bridge, a husband and wife who worked as a team to lose  weight.  They briefly discuss how together they lost the weight, the exercises they did (and still do) and meals they eat to keep the weight off.

 

 

Tags: Diets, Health Issues

Michelle Obama and the Evolution of a First Lady,  By Jodi Kantor,  New York Times

ESL Voices Lesson Plan for this post With Answer Key.

First Lady Michelle and President Obama. By Damon Winter/The New York Times

In the past four years, First Lady Michelle Obama has gained tremendous popularity from many different sectors of American society. This article (from the book by Jodi Kantor, The Obamas) describes the challenges, triumphs, and transformation she has experienced in her role as First Lady.  Excerpts:

Michelle Obama was privately fuming, not only at the president’s team, but also at her husband…after the Democrats lost Edward Kennedy’s Senate seat in January 2010, Barack Obama was even-keeled as usual in meetings, refusing to dwell on the failure or lash out at his staff. The first lady, however, could not fathom how the White House had allowed the crucial seat, needed to help pass the president’s health care legislation and the rest of his agenda, to slip away, several current and former aides said. To her, the loss was more evidence of what she had been saying for a long time: Mr. Obama’s advisers were too insular and not strategic enough…The first lady never confronted the advisers directly — that was not her way — but they found out about her displeasure from the president. “She feels as if our rudder isn’t set right,” Mr. Obama confided…

First Lady Michelle Obama meets Queen Elizabeth II. photo: Doug Mills/NYT

The Michelle Obama of January 2012 is an expert motivator and charmer, a champion of safe causes like helping military families and ending childhood obesity, an increasingly canny political player eager to pour her popularity into her husband’s re-election campaign… she saw herself as a guardian of values. She was sometimes harder on her husband’s team than he was, eventually urging him to replace them… the tensions grew so severe that one top adviser erupted in a meeting in 2010, cursing the absent first lady…When she thinks things have been mishandled or when things are off the track she’ll raise it, because she’s hugely invested in him and has a sense of how hard he’s working, and wants to make sure everybody is doing their work properly…

A Harvard-trained lawyer, she had given up her career for what initially seemed to her a shapeless post… For all of the first lady’s newness, she was quick to identify problems. From the start she worried that the White House was not presenting a clear, compelling story of the president’s actions to the public… Michelle Obama never wanted to be the kind of first lady who interfered with West Wing business… And yet as the administration hit obstacle after obstacle in 2010 — Mrs. Obama became increasingly concerned… By then, Michelle Obama’s trajectory in the White House was changing. She was mastering and subtly redefining the role that had once seemed formless to her, and becoming more acclimated to her new life…

The article is based on Kantor’s controversial book The Obamas. Read the entire article.

Note: Students will need access to the entire article to complete the activities.

ESL Voices Lesson Plan for this post

Level: Intermediate -Advanced

Language Skills: Reading, writing, speaking and listening. Vocabulary and

grammar activities are included.

Time: approximately 2 hours.

Materials: Student handouts (from this lesson)  article,  and video.
Objective: Students will review and discuss the political issues concerning the First Lady Michelle Obama. Students will practice their reading, speaking, writing and listening skills.

I. Pre-Reading Tasks

A. Prediction

1. Analyze headings and photos.

Directions: Have students read the title of the post, and of the article. Next have them  analyze the photos to see if  they can predict what  information the article will discuss.  Then based on this information,   direct students to make a list of ideas, words and phrases they might find in this article.

B.  Stimulating Background Knowledge

Pre-reading Discussion Questions: Directions: Have students discuss the following questions regarding the role of the wife (spouse) of the President or of the leader in their  respective countries.

1. To what extent does the spouse of the leader become involved in political issues?

2. Discuss to what extent the spouse tends to get involve in issues concerning Health, and Welfare, (e.g. Michelle Obamas’ Let’s Move program which focuses on the  health and well being of children).

3. Is the spouse seen as a role model by young people? If yes, explain in what ways.

II. While Reading Tasks

A. Vocabulary

1.  Word Inference: Directions: Students are to infer the meanings of the words in bold (taken from the article) and use a dictionary or thesaurus for assistance.

1. Michelle Obama was privately fuming…
2. …Barack Obama was even-keeled as usual in meetings…
3. The first lady, however, could not fathom how the White House had allowed the crucial seat… to slip away,
4. Mr. Obama’s advisers were too insular and not strategic enough…
5. The Michelle Obama of January 2012 is an expert motivator and charmer…
6. …an increasingly canny political player eager to pour her popularity into her husband’s re-election campaign.
7. “The Obamas,” a new book, show that she has been an unrecognized force in her husband’s administration…and that her story has been one first of struggle, then turnaround…
8. Mrs. Obama is a supportive but often anxious spouse, suspicious of conventional political thinking…
9. …a groundbreaking figure who has acutely felt the pressures…
10. She was mastering and subtly redefining the role that had once seemed formless to her…becoming more acclimated to her new life.
11. …the meeting was held to appease the first lady…
12. The worse things got for her husband in 2011, the more she rallied to his side, buoying him personally and politically.
13. Mrs. Obama gave a party for his 50th birthday, warning guests not to leave early and delivering a stemwinder of a toast in praise of her husband.
14. The president, looking embarrassed, tried to cut her off, several guests said, but she told him he had to sit and listen.

B. Questions for Comprehension  True / False

1. Directions: If  the statement is true, students write (T) if  the statement is false they  write (F)  and  provide the correct answer from the article.

1. Michelle Obama was angry because the Democrats lost Edward Kennedy’s Senate seat.
2. She felt that Mr. Obama’s advisers were open and very strategic in their planning.
3. The first lady always confronted the advisers directly…that was her way…
4. …they found out about her displeasure from the President.
5. Michelle Obama is interested in perpetuating childhood obesity…
6. Mrs. Obama  is described as a supportive but often anxious spouse, suspicious of conventional political thinking…
7. She was easy-going with her husband’s team, and  often complimented them.
8. Michelle received her law degree from Harvard University.
9. Mrs. Obama didn’t pay attention to what people thought about her and the Obama family in general.
10. Michelle Obama never interfered with West Wing business.
11. President Obama coaches his daughter’s basketball team.

C. Grammar Focus

Identifying Parts of Speech

Directions:  Have students use a graphic organizer to assist them with  discussing  or writing about  the main points from the article.  Click on either chart to see additional organizers. Also visit ESL Voices for Listings for additional charts and organizers

Cluster chart for Topic. By Eduplace

For more advanced students you might consider using a more intricate chart.

Organizer with Aspects and Details. By Enchanted Learning

B.   Writing

Directions:  Have students choose a topic and write an essay.  Review ESL Voices Modes of Essay Writing.

1. Describe some of the programs Michelle Obama has orchestrated and the people who have benefited from them (e.g., her Let’s Move Program for children)

2. Discuss the ways that you think the Mrs. Obama has helped her husband with his job as President of the United States.

3. Write an essay in which you describe the role of the First Lady in your country.

IV. Listening Activity

Video Title: The First Lady: A New Funding for Military Families “First Lady Michelle Obama spoke to the Joint Armed Forces Officers’ Wives’ Luncheon at Bolling Air Force Base in Washington about the fiscal 2011 budget and its impact on military families.” Washington, DC : 28 min.

Michelle Obama talks with Military families.

A. Pre-Listening tasks

Questions Questions for background knowledge.

Directions: The following questions are based on information from students’ countries. This may be a discussion  for the class or  in groups.

• In your country can both men and women serve in the military?
• Discuss the type of programs available for military persons once they return home for good. (For example, are there programs for free education, or vocational training?)
• Are they provided with free health and medical care when they return home?
• What additional provisions are made for the men and women of the military?

B. While-Listening Task (Sentence Fill-ins)

Directions: Students listen for the correct word or phrase to complete the sentences.

1. Michelle said that she and Jill Biden (Vice President  Joe Biden’s wife)  met with  military wives to get___ and guidance on how to ____.
2. They also met with the Senior Enlisted Advisors’ wives to discuss___ in the ranks, and____.
3. These conversations  gave Michelle and  jill critical ___ and ___for subsequent visits to bases and military communities around the country.
4. Michelle stated that  she had  incredible experiences in the past year  the two people she mentioned having met were___ and ____.
5. Name two of the military bases she  and the President visited.
6. Name the two ships that Michelle speaks about during the video.
7. At the time of her speech which ship returned to Haiti?
8. The Coast Guard’s third National Security Cutter, the Stratton was named to honor which military female?
9. Michelle tells the  inspirational story about the young Navy Seal who stepped on an  IED (improvised explosive device) in Afghanistan and   lost ___, then 4 months later  he___.
10. Michelle’s stated  that  her three goals which were to_____, ______, and  finally__________.
11. What are some of the ways  that military families continue to serve their communities?

Post-Listening Tasks

Tags: Michelle Obama