Cambridge International AS Level English General Paper

Chapter 2.1 Summarising and

­explaining what you read

Using your own words

Topic outline
Main skills: Resources needed:
Recognising the difference between quoting Worksheet 2.1: Understanding and
and paraphrasing; practice, using your own applying with TED
words, through paraphrasing and summarising;
Presentation 2.1: Understanding and
offering input and insight regarding
applying with TED
contemporary issues
A copy of the transcript for the TED talk, Before
Outcome:
Avatar … a curious boy by James Cameron. This
Small group activity and informal presentation can be obtained from the TED website.
Interactive whiteboard
Assessment objectives covered: Relationship to coursebook:
AO1: Select and apply information Chapter 2.1 Summarising and explaining what
you read
Chapter 2.2 Planning and organising responses
(B Deconstructing essay questions)
Chapter 2.2 Planning and organising responses
(C Generating ideas for your essay)

Overview
Chapter 2.1 lays an important, reading-to-writing foundation for learners in this course. It guides
students through the process of understanding a text by breaking down its organisational structure to
see each point individually and how these connect as a whole. It also teaches the skills of summarising
and paraphrasing texts to help students apply what they read to their own writing. One of the key
aims of this course, after all, involves students' ability to use language to communicate the ideas of
others by using their own words. To reinforce the skills of understanding and applying, the following
activity invites students to deconstruct a text before reconstructing it in their own, unique way.

Preparation
Before completing this lesson, students will need to have read coursebook section B Understanding
how ideas are organised, connected and ordered and and section C Using your own words to explain
ideas in Chapter 2.1.
Teachers will need to complete the following steps before proceeding with the activity:
1 Print a copy of the transcript for the TED Talk, Before Avatar … a curious boy, by James Cameron,
or copy/paste the transcript into a blank document such as Microsoft Word. The most important
thing here is that the time stamps on the transcript are NOT visible to the students/groups.

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2 Cut the speech into the following strips, or segments (see the following time stamps).
•• 0:12–2:18 (begins with ‘I grew up on a steady diet of …’)
•• 2:19–3:59 (begins with ‘And an interesting thing happened …’)
•• 4:00–7:08 (begins with ‘But when I chose a career as an adult …’)
•• 7:09–9:16 (begins with ‘So I shelved it, and I made this other move …’)
•• 9:17–11:56 (begins with ‘So I was completely smitten by this …’)
•• 11:57–14:46 (begins with ‘At the same time, I was very interested in …’)
•• 14:47–end (begins with ‘So when I came back to make my next movie …’)
NOTE: You will be breaking your class up into seven groups, whereby each group gets one piece
(a–g) of the whole speech (i.e. Group 1 gets letter a, Group 2 gets letter b, etc.)

LESSON
Enquire
1 If they aren't already acquainted with it, introduce your students to the media organisation and
conference, TED. Brief them on the purpose and design of a TED Talk (who the speakers are, the
kind of content they share, the format in which they share it, how long they have, and the various
purposes for speaking, etc.). TED (Technology, Entertainment and Design) is an organisation
that spreads influential ideas in the form of short, powerful talks (18 minutes or less) available to
watch online. The talks, given by experts, cover almost all topics, from science to business and
global issues. There are talks available in over 100 languages.
2 Ask students to think about how a TED speaker might organise their thoughts as he/she
prepares for the famous stage. What are some things the speaker would need to keep in mind
while planning?

Acquaint
3 As a brief warm-up, view with the class one of TED's Ads Worth Spreading, such as Click, Baby,
Click (you can easily access this online). Using what they learnt from the reading, have them
determine and justify the organisational pattern of the commercial/ad.
4 Also, as a class, determine the main idea which communicates the ad's message (Note: come up
with a one-sentence summary as a class if it is implied).

Engage
5 Now split the class into seven groups.
6 Give each group one of the speech segments from filmmaker James Cameron's TED Talk, Before
Avatar … a curious boy, that you cut into strips (see Preparation).
7 For steps 8–15 share the appropriate slides from Presentation 2.1 Understanding and Applying
with TED for each step. Start by projecting slide 2 as you introduce step 8.
8 Share slide 2, Step 1: small groups. The groups will now complete their first task, which is to
read the speech segment/strip, and, using section A of Worksheet 2.1, collaboratively write
a one-sentence summary of its content. (Refer students back to the distinction between a
paraphrase and a summary as it appears in coursebook section C Using your own words to
explain ideas).
9 Share slide 3, Step 2: group representatives. Groups should select a team member to serve as the
group representative. Groups will need to transfer the one-sentence summary they wrote onto a
larger sheet of paper so the audience can read it from a distance.
10 The group representatives will come to the front of the class. They are to bring with them the
enlarged copy of their one-sentence summary and their memory of the text they read. They are
NOT to bring with them the original speech segment/strip itself.

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11 Share slide 4, Step 3: group representatives. Once group representatives have arrived at the front
of the class, their next goal is to use the one-sentence summaries they've written to organise
themselves into the original order of the speech. In other words, this group of students will need
to collaborate to determine which parts of the speech were mentioned first, next and last. They
are to use their one-sentence summaries as a guide, but they may also recall the details of the
speech segment as clues to its original order of arrangement.
12 As they determine the correct order, group representatives should line up from left to right, with
the person furthest to the left standing in as the first segment to the speech. Have them hold
their one-sentence summaries for the audience to see. To finish step 3, the group representatives
should go down the line, reading their one-sentence summaries in order to the class.
13 Share slide 5, Step 4: audience. As the line of representatives reads the one-sentence summaries
aloud, the audience (i.e. rest of the class) should be quietly assessing how well the organisational
structure of the sentences 'flows'. The audience may now offer comments and details from their
knowledge to rearrange the line as necessary.
14 Representatives should hang their group's one-sentence summary on the board in a line for the
whole class to see and return to their groups.
15 Groups will now collaborate to further discuss why the content of each speech segment
appears in the location of the speech that it does (e.g. why would the portion about the speaker
beginning his career (4:00–7:08) appear where it is as opposed to later in the speech or at the very
beginning, for instance?). Groups should record their findings in section B of Worksheet 2.1.

Assess
16 Share slide 6, Step 5: audience. Once the line appears to be in order, assess the strength of the
one-sentence summaries as a whole class. Could any of the sentences have been clearer or more
comprehensive without giving way to too much detail? Opposite this, were any sentences too
detailed, sounding more like paraphrases, than summaries?
17 Share slide 7, Step 6: whole class. Now observe the organisational pattern James Cameron
seems to be using to communicate this message. Once again referring to coursebook section B
Understanding how ideas are organised, connected and ordered, ask groups to determine the
pattern they think is being used and record their answer in section B of Worksheet 2.1.

Reflect and connect

18 Share slide 8, Step 7: individually. Watch the entire TED Talk by James Cameron. Ask students
to work individually to determine the main idea of the entire speech. What is James Cameron
trying to ultimately tell his audience? Ask each student to write a one-sentence summary that
addresses the entire talk and be prepared to share and/or hand in for submission. They can fill
their responses in section C of Worksheet 2.1.
19 Share slide 9, Step 8: individually and slide 10 Exam-style essay questions. If time permits (or as
homework), have students apply the content knowledge they learnt from the TED Talk to any
of the exam-style essay questions which appear at the end of Chapter 2.1 in the coursebook
(just before Summary). Remind students that they will need to apply their new knowledge in a
way that is relevant to the question they've selected. Share slide 10 with students for a visual
of the exam-style questions available to them for this task (or post it online if this task will
be completed as homework). Have students record the question they have chosen and their
response to it in section D of Worksheet 2.1.

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Teacher tips
1 Watch the TED Talk Before Avatar … a curious boy, by James Cameron, prior to starting, to
ensure appropriateness.
2 As an alternative to the multimedia clips mentioned in this activity, feel free to seek out your
own selections to accomplish a similar purpose.
3 To challenge students further and/or as a follow-up to the lesson (e.g. homework or next-
day assessment), ask students to individually seek out a TED Talk, a speech, a commercial,
or another video of moderate length (10–20 minutes maximum) and analyse its various
segments, the order in which content appears and the pattern used to effectively convey
the overall message. Have them present these observations to the class or in written form
for submission to the teacher.

© Cambridge University Press 2018