What's so special about the Beatles?

You are going to

• do a listening comprehension exercise on the Beatles
• look at some vocabulary connected to culture / music
• read about the Beatles

1) Discuss

It's 50 years since the Beatles released their first album Please Please Me. They recorded the whole album in only one day.

• What do you know about the Beatles?
• Why were they important or special?

The first track on the album was called I Saw Her Standing There
Listen. Do you like it?

2) Before you listen
You are going to listen to someone talking about why the Beatles are "special".
Here is some vocabulary from the clip. Match the words to their definitions.

3) Listen
Listen below to an interview by Nick Ellerby with Phil Alexander, the editor-in-chief of the music magazine Mojo.
Why were the Beatles special?

listen to ‘50 year anniversary of The Beatles' Please Please Me with MOJO magazine’ on Audioboo

Now answer the questions below.

4) Read / Webquest
Click on this link and then do the question / answer matching exercise below
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/the-beatles/9946799/The-Beatles-Please-Please-Me-50-years-on-10-facts-about-the-debut-album.html

Printable worksheets are here




More
The Beatles  Listening, Music, Past Simple, Quizzes, Reading 

The Beatles official web page http://www.thebeatles.com/






Here are the Beatles in November 1963 at the Royal Command Performance attended by the Queen Mother. At 04:45 John Lennon makes a request. "For our last number I'd like to ask your help. The people in the cheaper seats clap your hands. And the rest of you, if you'd just rattle your jewellery."

150 Years of The Tube

You are going to 

• listen to a radio clip about the London Underground
• do a comprehension activity

Discuss

• Does your city have a metro or underground railway?
• How old is it?
• Have you ever been on the Tube in London?
• What do you know about it?

Listen

• What was London like 150 years ago?
• What effect did the Tube have on London?

listen to ‘Celebrating 150 Years of the Tube’ on Audioboo

Listen again and do the quiz below




Alternative vocabulary gap fill exercise here


Printable worksheets here






Read

Interesting Facts about the Tube

• Each year, every Tube train travels 114,500miles/184,269km.
• The average speed of a train is 33km/20.5 miles per hour.
• Only 45 per cent of the network is actually in tunnels.
• There are 426 escalators. Waterloo has the most: 23.
• The total number of lifts, including four stair lifts, on the Underground network is 164.
• The deepest lift shaft is at Hampstead station and is 55.2m.
• The total number of carriages in the Underground’s fleet is 4,134.
• The total number of stations currently served is 270.
• The total number of staff on the Underground is approximately 19,000.
• The total length of the Tube  network is 402km/249 miles.
• The deepest station below street level in central London is Bank, which is 41.4m deep.
• In outer London, Hampstead is the deepest station below street level, at 58.5m.

From http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/history/150-facts-for-150-years-of-the-london-tube-8444153.html






More
Facts
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/history/150-facts-for-150-years-of-the-london-tube-8444153.html
Pictures
http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/gallery/2013/jan/09/150-years-london-underground-pictures

London Tube map
Click on the map to see an enlarged version

Mind the gap!

New Year's Resolutions with Bob Dylan

You are going to

• discuss new year's resolutions
• listen to some popular new year's resolutions and do a gap-fill
• listen to a radio clip about the history of new year's resolutions and do a comprehension quiz

1) Discuss

• Do you make new year resolutions?
• Do you promise yourself to learn some something new, do something better or stop doing something bad in the next 12 months?
• What do you think are the best kind of resolutions to make?
• What are your resolutions for the new year?
• Will you keep them or will you break them?
• What do you think are the most common resolutions that people make?
• Why do we make new year resolutions?

2) Listen
Listen to Bob Dylan on the Theme Time Radio Hour read the most popular new year's resolutions.

• What are they?

Listen again
Fill in the gaps with the right word

3) Discuss

• What do you think of the resolutions in the list?
• Which ones would be good for you?
• Which ones are the least selfish?

4) Listen
Making New Year's Resolutions dates back to medieval times ( = from the 5th to the 15th centuries AD)

• What sorts of resolutions do you think people were making in medieval times?

Listen to the clip below from BBC Radio 4's Today program and find out.

listen to ‘Resolutions used to 'predict future'’ on Audioboo

Listen again and do the quiz below

Printable worksheets here


5) Discuss

• Do you think making a resolution can predict the future?
• Do you think making a resolution can change the future?
• Do you think making a resolution can change the world?

Who is Bob Dylan?
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, author, poet and artist. He has been an influential figure in popular music and culture for more than five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s. A number of Dylan's early songs, such as "Blowin' in the Wind" and "The Times They Are a-Changin'", became anthems for the US civil rights and anti-war movements.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Dylan



Here is one of Bob Dylan's most famous songs. It's called "The Times They Are a-Changin'"
Watch the clip and read the lyrics below

The times they are a-changin from Tony Fox on Vimeo.

You can double click on any word to see a definition

Come gather ’round people
Wherever you roam
And admit that the waters
Around you have grown
And accept it that soon
You’ll be drenched to the bone
If your time to you is worth saving
Then you better start swimming or you’ll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changing

Come writers and critics
Who prophesize with your pen
And keep your eyes wide
The chance won’t come again
And don’t speak too soon
For the wheel’s still in spin
And there’s no telling who that it’s naming
For the loser now will be later to win
For the times they are a-changing

Come senators, congressmen
Please heed the call
Don’t stand in the doorway
Don’t block up the hall
For he that gets hurt
Will be he who has stalled
There’s a battle outside and it is raging
It’ll soon shake your windows and rattle your walls
For the times they are a-changing

Come mothers and fathers
Throughout the land
And don’t criticize
What you can’t understand
Your sons and your daughters
Are beyond your command
Your old road is rapidly aging
Please get out of the new one if you can’t lend your hand
For the times they are a-changing

The line it is drawn
The curse it is cast
The slow one now
Will later be fast
As the present now
Will later be past
The order is rapidly fading
And the first one now will later be last
For the times they are a-changing

Copyright © 1963, 1964 by Warner Bros. Inc.; renewed 1991, 1992 by Special Rider Music http://www.bobdylan.com/us/songs/times-they-are-changin#ixzz2GfiA5vMU

6) Discuss
He sings "If your time to you is worth saving, then you better start swimming or you’ll sink like a stone"

• What do you think he means? 
• How much do you think changing the world depends on changing ourselves (ie changing our own decisions, actions and resolutions)?
  
• So what are you going to change this year?

More

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Even More

The Times They are A-Changing gap fill exercise
http://www.lyricstraining.com/play/7790/bob_dylan/the_times_they_are_achangin


New Year's Resolutions
http://messages.365greetings.com/holiday/new-year/new-years-resolutions.html

http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2013/01/01/four-famous-new-years-resolution-lists-jonathan-swift-susan-sontag-marilyn-monroe-woody-guthrie/


More Bob

Keep Calm and Carry On

You are going to

• practise the passive
• watch a clip about a famous poster
• do a listening comprehension practising the passive
• do a word-ordering sentence

1) Discuss

• Have you seen this poster before?
• What do you know about the "Keep Calm and Carry On" poster?
• When and why was it designed?
• Who was it designed for?

2) Watch
Watch the video to find the answers.

Vocabulary. Before you watch check you know the meaning of these words -  commission   consider    design    distribute    hold in reserve    intend    issue    parody    reproduce    require    trivialize

Film, music, script, and narration by Temujin Doran.
Concept and production by Nation.
The original home of ‘Keep Calm and Carry On’ – Barter Books







3) Watch again
Watch the clip again, listen carefully and answer the questions below.
All of the answers practise the passive (see guide below).

If you have any problems doing the exercise, you can read and listen to the full script here


Printable worksheet here

Create your own motivational poster here http://www.keepcalm-o-matic.co.uk/

4) Word order. Practise the passive
Drag and drop to order the words and make correct sentences in the passive.
Click "Next" for a new sentence. There are 15 sentences in total.
If you can't remember how to make the passive look at the guides below.

The Passive
Pronoun / Noun	+  Be	+  Participle
I You He She It We They Water Food Computers DVDs Books Posters…	am are is was were will / shall be can be could be may be might be must be should be ought to be has / have to be has /  have been will / can’t / could / may / might / must / should / ought to have been had been	bought commissioned considered designed distributed found held intended issued made produced reproduced required sold

Questions in the Passive. Change the order.
·       Present ·       Past	Be Is / Are Was / Were	+ Noun / Pronoun the books water	+ participle sold? distributed?
·       Future ·       Modals in the present	Will / Modal Will Can Could Must Should Can Might	+ Noun / Pronoun it food they	+ be + participle be sold? be distributed?
·       Present perfect ·       Past perfect	Has / Have Has / Have Had	+ Noun / Pronoun the DVDs Water	+ Been + Participle been sold? been distributed?
·       Future perfect ·       Modals in the past	Modal / Will Will Might Could Must Should	+ Noun / Pronoun the DVDs Water	+ Have been + Participle have been sold? have been distributed?

What do you know about YouTube?

You are going to

• watch a video and read text in the video
• look at an infographic about YouTube
• do some quiz comprehension activities
• practise reading quickly / scanning for information
• practise the past

Discuss

• What do you know about YouTube?
• Do you use it?
• What do you watch on it? 
• What is your favourite clip?
• Have you ever uploaded a clip to YouTube? 
• Have you ever been "Rickrolled"? What does it mean?

Vocabulary check
Drag and drop to match the words on the left with the definitions on the right




Watch
Watch the video and answer the questions.

• Who founded YouTube?
• What gave them the idea to start the site?
• When was the first YouTube video uploaded?
• How many people use the site?

Quiz
How much can you remember from the video?
Do this quiz.

Read
Read the text below about the history of YouTube from 2005 to 2010. Don't worry if you don't understand everything. Find the answers as quickly as you can.
You can answer the questions in the interactive exercise below

Find out

1. When did YouTube officially launch?
2. How much did Google buy YouTube for?
3. Which Queen has her own channel?
4. Which famous rock band performed live on Youtube?
5. How long does the average person spend on YouTube?
6. How many views a day did YouTube have in 2010?
7. What percentage of internet traffic does YouTube have?
8. How long was the first video?
9. What age group uses YouTube the most?
10. How many languages does Google's Automatic Speech Recognition Technology translate?

Infographic: The History of Youtube by Infographiclabs


Now answer the questions

Printable version here

Write / Research

What's your favourite webpage on the internet?
Write a short paragraph about it.
Intro

• What is it? 
• What can you do on it? 
• Are there other websites like it?

Find out

• Who founded it?
• Why?
• How old is it? When was it launched?
• Is it popular? How much traffic does it have?

Conclusion
Give you opinion of it. Say what's special about it



More
What are the most watched clips on YouTube?
Can you guess any?

Watch the clip below

• How many clips have you already seen?
• What activities are the people doing?