Open Mind

Additional LifeSkills Lesson advanced

Unit 1 Study & Learning: building communities If necessary, demonstrate with a student first, e.g.:
T: I belong to a book club and also several online
Objective: to provide further practice of building communities, such as LinkedIn.
communities, this time within the context of Study & S: Oh really? I also belong to a book club, but not
Learning. LinkedIn, although I am on Facebook.
The three-step strategy for developing this soft skill is: Give the students about five minutes for this and then ask
them to sit down. If you wish, you could briefly discuss
Step 1: Consider the type of community you wish to
some of the communities the students belong to.
create. (Ex. A, Ex. B, Ex. C)
A
Step 2: Decide on the community’s goals and how
• Erase the board. Explain to the students that
they will be organised. (Ex. C)
in this lesson they are going to look at building
Step 3: Advertise your community so interested communities in a Study & Learning context.
people can join. (Ex. D) Explain that these kinds of communities can exist
You may decide to highlight this strategy at the in a formal institution of learning, such as a school,
beginning of the lesson, and to conduct a short college or university, or can be related to more
discussion to check that the students understand the general learning situations.
skill and why it is useful. However, if you prefer to • Put the students in groups and give them about five
teach this lesson without discussing the underlying soft minutes to brainstorm some examples of study and
skill, this is also possible. The lesson is designed to be learning communities. If necessary, brainstorm one
engaging and successful either way. or two ideas as a class first. Then elicit ideas and
For more information about teaching life skills and ideas write them on the left-hand side of the board.
for highlighting the soft skill, please refer to p. xi and
pp. 8–9 of the Teacher’s Book. Possible answers
Study groups
Language conversation clubs
MATERIALS: Online learning support groups or forums
• board and markers Hobby clubs (groups that form to learn a new
• large pieces of paper hobby, e.g. music, theatre, art, knitting, jewellery-
• poster tack making, etc)
Adult education groups (groups that form to learn
essential skills, e.g. computing, cookery, DIY, etc)
Lead-in
Books closed. Write the word community on the board. B
Put the students in pairs or small groups to recall the • Now write this list of reasons on the right-hand side
definitions from p. 16 of the Student’s Book. Elicit the of the board:
definitions and write them on the board (the people who • provide support to others
live in an area; a group of people in a larger society who • find help and support
are the same in some way). • make friends
Focus the students on the second part of the definition • self-improvement
and remind them that in the Student’s Book lesson they • for fun/recreation
looked at different kinds of communities. Ask them • expand knowledge
if they can recall some of these communities and • Ask the students to work in the same groups and
encourage them to call them out. Then ask the students match the reasons for forming communities with
to stand up and mingle with other students. They should the specific communities they brainstormed in
take turns describing the different communities they Ex. A. When you check answers, encourage the
belong to, and try to find communities they have in students to give any other reasons for forming these
common with other students. communities that they can think of.

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© Macmillan Publishers Limited 2015. This page may be photocopied and used within the class. 1 O CO
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Open Mind ADVANCED

Possible answers Reflect

Study groups: provide support to others; find help
• Write the following questions on the board:
and support; expand knowledge
Which of the communities covered in today’s lesson
Language conversation clubs: expand knowledge;
exist at your place of learning? Do you belong to
make friends
any already? Which ones would you like to join?
Online learning support groups or forums: provide
• Give the students time to think about the questions.
support to others; find help and support; expand
Then put them in small groups to discuss their
knowledge
answers. Elicit some ideas briefly as a class.
Hobby clubs: make friends; for fun/recreation;
self-improvement
Adult education groups: make friends;
EXTRA: HOMEWORK
self-improvement Ask the students to research online English-language
learning communities. Encourage them to find out
what they do and how they operate. Ask them to
C
report back at the next class.
• Ask the students to stay in their groups and explain
that they are now going to choose a specific
community to create from the list on the board.
If they decide to choose a hobby or adult education
community, they should specify what it is that they
intend to learn.
Write the following headings on the board:
Name of community:
Aims/Goals:
When and where community meets:
Who can join:
Other details (e.g. cost, any requirements needed in
order to join, limit on number of members, etc):
• Read the headings aloud and explain that the
students should complete these with details about
their community. Ask each group to assign one
person to make notes under each heading. Point out
that not all the headings may be relevant to their
specific community, and explain that they can add
any other headings that may be relevant.
D
• When the students finish, ask them to think about
the best way to advertise their community. Point out
or elicit that this could be in the form of a webpage,
newspaper or magazine advert, a poster or an email.
The way they choose will depend on the kind of
community they have decided to build, and what
kind of person their community is aimed at.
• Give each group a large piece of paper and ask
them to create their advert, webpage, poster, email,
etc. Encourage them to make it as appealing as
possible to the other students.
• When they finish, ask each group to post their advert
on the wall. Ask all the students to circulate and
read about each community. Encourage them to
make a note of any communities that they would
be interested in joining. At the end, have a class
feedback session, encouraging the students to say
which communities they would like to join and why.

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© Macmillan Publishers Limited 2015. This page may be photocopied and used within the class. 2 O CO
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