ESL Voices

Straight Out Of Flint: Girl Boxer Aims For Olympics By Radio Diaries, NPR

ESL Voices Lesson Plan for this post with Answer Key.

U.S. Olympic Boxing Contender & Champ Claressa Shields. Photo- Corbis blog

Recently Clarissa Shields was selected as a member of the USA Boxing Team for the 2012 London Olympic Games. She is just 17-years-old,  the youngest boxing contender in four decades.  This year will be the first time Female Boxing will be introduced as an Olympic event. The US has three women on its team, one for each division.

This NPR article is an older one that provides more information about Claressa, and her life before winning a place on the USA Olympic team.  This was when she was known as the “Girl Boxer”.

Excerpt:

“Sixteen-year-old Claressa Shields has a dream. She’s in London, at the Olympic finals for women’s boxing, when the announcer calls out, “The first woman Olympian at 165 pounds — Claressa Shields!”

Claressa, a high school student and middleweight boxer from Flint, Mich., is the youngest fighter competing for a place on the U.S. Olympic women’s boxing team…Claressa is undefeated — she has a 19-0 record — but in Spokane, at the biggest matches of her life, she faced women almost a decade older and much more experienced.

Claressa Shields with her coach. Photo- WNYC

 

But Claressa Shields has beaten the odds before.  Claressa attributes her start in boxing to her father, Clarence Shields, an amateur underground boxer who was nicknamed “Cannonball” because of his fast, hard punches. Clarence went to prison when Claressa was 2 and didn’t come out until she was 9…

 

When Claressa first asked Clarence if she could box, he told her that boxing was a man’s sport. “That made me so mad,” Claressa recalls. But she wouldn’t give up on the idea, and when she was 11 years old, her father finally brought her to the gym.

Claressa Shields USA Olympic Team!

“I’m going to be honest, my first thought was you would get beat up and quit,” her father tells her. But Claressa proved him wrong.I’m still proving people wrong,” she says… Claressa’s coach, Jason Crutchfield, says he first noticed her determination and aggressive, fast punches a week after she came to his gym… A coach always wants a champion; I just never thought it was going to be a girl… It’s a once-in-a-lifetime thing for Claressa and for Flint, a town infamous for poverty, staggering unemployment and violent crime…Crutchfield says he sees Claressa’s success as a chance for Flint to turn that reputation around and boost morale. “This will show them that, through all that, something good came out of Flint: Claressa Shields.”

 

The US Olympic Female Boxing Team- (from left) Marlen Esparza, Claressa Shields, Queen Underwood. Photo- GirlBoxing

Read the article and watch our U.S. Female Boxing team bring home the Gold!

2012 Olympics Boxing Schedule

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 news article, and video.

Objective: Students will read and share their thoughts about the article through discussions. They will learn new vocabulary, and  express their views on the topic by writing.

I. Pre-Reading Tasks

•  Prediction:  Creating Vocabulary & Ideas  from headings and photos

Directions: Have students read the title of the post, and of the actual article. Then, have them analyze the photos. Based on these sources,  have students create a list of  words and  ideas  that they think might be in this article.

•    Organizer

Directions:  Have students use this pre-reading organizer by Scholastic to assist them in finding the main ideas from the reading.

 

• Pre-reading Discussion Questions

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

1. Is female boxing prevalent in your country? Explain why or why not.
2. Are there any Females representing your country in the 2012 London Olympics? If yes, how do you feel about them? If no, would you have wanted you country to compete in this area? Why or why not?

II. While Reading Tasks

• Vocabulary-Word Inference

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

1. Claressa, a high school student and middleweight boxer from Flint…
2. Earlier this month, Claressa joined 23 of the country’s best amateur female boxers…
3. Claressa is undefeated — she has a 19-0 record…
4. …she faced women almost a decade older and much more experienced.
5. Claressa attributes her start in boxing to her father…
6. “That made me so mad,” Claressa recalls.
7. …But she wouldn’t give up on the idea…
8. Stepping inside the ring, meanwhile, is like entering a different dimension.
9. … Jason Crutchfield, says he…noticed her determination…
10. Sure, Claressa is a fierce competitor, confident and determined…

• Questions  for Reading Comprehension: True / False

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

1. Claressa Shields is sixteen-years-old.
2. Claressa is  from Flint, Missouri
3. Earlier this month, Claressa joined 23 female boxers at the Olympic team trials in  Washington, D.C.
4. Claressa is undefeated.
5.  For Claressa, the gym is a beautiful place.
6. Clarence went to prison when Claressa was 2 and didn’t come out until she was 9.
7.  When Claressa first asked Clarence if she could box, he told her that she should give boxing a try.
8. Her father thought  she would get beat up and quit.
9. Claressa  was beaten in her first fight.
10. Claressa and Crutchfield have an almost father-daughter relationship.

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

1. The article states, “It’s a once-in-a-lifetime thing for Claressa and for Flint, a town infamous for poverty, staggering unemployment and violent crime.” Using this statement as a starting point, write an essay in which you describe the ways professional boxing might help young females.
2. Clarissa began boxing when she was 11-years-old, and some claim this young experience helped her to get to the Olympics. In some areas children begin boxing as young as 8-years-old. Write an essay in which you explain why allowing children to box at a young age is a good or bad idea.
3. Write an essay in which you defend a female’s right to become a professional boxer if she so chooses.

IV. Listening Activity:   Video Clip: Claressa Shields Interview with NBC Fox

Watch an interview with Us boxing Olympic team member Claressa Shields.

Claressa Shields interview at Fox-video News

• While Listening Tasks   

  Sentence  Fill-ins

Directions: Students listen for the correct word or phrase to complete the sentences taken from the video.   They are to select the terms from the choices provided.

1-The 2012 summer Olympics will be starting in London in

a. July

b. September

c. June

2-Claressa  is

a. 17

b. 18

c-16

3-She’s the___ female qualified in this  Olympic event.

a. oldest

b. youngest

c. almost youngest

4-Claressa fights other females between the ages of

a.16-30

b.17-35

c. 17-34

5-The school she attends is

a. Michigan western

b. Northwestern

c. Southwestern

6-She doesn’t get a lot of fights in Michigan because of her

a. reputation and skills

b.knowledge

c. grades

7-Claressa’s goal is to

a. finish school

b. win the bronze medal

c. win the gold medal

8- Claressa  was on her way to the trails in the state of

a. Washington

b. Michigan

c. Wyoming

9- The fundraiser was in held in downtown___.

a. Manhattan

b. Newark

c. Flint

10-Claressa’s philosophy is

a. fight until you win

b. no pain no gain,no guts no glory

c. no pain, no glory

• Post-Listening Tasks

Questions for Discussion

Directions:Place students in groups and  have them discuss the following questions.

1. After listening to this video has your personal view of Claressa Shields changed in any way?   If yes, describe in what way.  If no, describe your original opinion of  Claressa.

2. In your opinion, after viewing this video of Claressa, do you think she can win the  gold medal in the 2012 Boxing Olympics?

3. With your group members, make up questions that you would like to ask Claressa Shields .

 

ANSWER KEY: Charissa Shields, Boxing.

Related Articles:

A RING OF ONE’S OWN  by  Ariel Levy, The New Yorker

Olympic Contender  By Sarah Deming , Columbia University

Schedule for Overall Olympic Boxing