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THE ARTICLEFormer Chilean president General Augusto Pinochet is once again under house arrest, and being charged with heinous crimes, this time in his native Chile. The leader who ruled Chile with an iron fist in his 1974 to 1990 regime has previously escaped many attempts at bringing him to justice. He has been accused of a litany of murders, torture and human rights abuses but has always escaped trial claiming mental problems and old age as excuses. The present judge, however, deems him fit to face prosecution. This time round he is indicted over the disappearance of nine opposition leaders and murder, as well as tax fraud charges and money-laundering. In 2000 Pinochet was accused of the Caravan of Death case and the deaths of more than 70 political prisoners. More than 3,000 people died and 28,000 people were tortured during his dictatorial rule. He is still hailed as a great ‘friend’ of Great Britain by ex-Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. Chile under Pinochet supported Britain in the Falklands (Malvinas) War against Argentina. The Chilean government’s chief prosecutor, Clara Szaranski, said, “It's the road to the rule of law, where responsibility is attributed to these grave acts.” Viviana Diaz, a human rights activist, said, “This is great news for all those Chileans who do not accept impunity in the violations of human rights.” WARM UPS / COOL DOWNS1. CHAT: Talk in pairs or groups about Chile / Pinochet / the Disappeared / human rights abuses / Margaret Thatcher / … 2. WORLD VILLAINS: History is full of despots and brutal dictators. Depending on the cultural make-up of your class, choose from the following for students to talk about: 3. PINOCHET BRAINSTORM: Ask students for facts / feelings / opinions on the General Augusto Pinochet. Students talk about these in pairs. 4. 2-MINUTE DEBATES: Students face each other in pairs and engage in the following (for-fun) 2-minute debates. Students A are assigned the first argument, students B the second. Rotate pairs to ensure a lively pace and noise level is kept: PRE-READING IDEAS1. WORD SEARCH: Students look in their dictionaries / computer to find collocates, other meanings, information, synonyms … of the words ‘trial’, and ‘arrest’. 2. TRUE / FALSE: Students look at the headline and predict whether they believe the following statements are true or false: 3. SYNONYM MATCH: Students match the following synonyms from the article:
4. PHRASE MATCH: Students match the following phrases based on the article (sometimes more than one combination is possible):
WHILE READING ACTIVITIES1. GAP-FILL: Put the missing words under each paragraph into the gaps. Pinochet indicted for murder
2. TRUE/FALSE: Students check their answers to the T/F exercise. 3. PHRASE MATCH: Students check their answers to the phrase match exercise. 4. QUESTIONS: Students make notes for questions they would like to ask the class about the article. 5. VOCABULARY: Students circle any words they do not understand. In groups pool unknown words and use dictionaries to find the meanings. POST READING IDEAS1. GAP-FILL: Check the answers to the gap-fill exercise. 2. QUESTIONS: Students ask the discussion questions they thought of above to their partner / group / class. Pool the questions for all students to share. 3. VOCABULARY: As a class, go over the vocabulary students circled above. 4. STUDENT-GENERATED SURVEY: Pairs/Groups write down 3 questions based on the article. Conduct their surveys alone. Report back to partners to compare answers. Report to other groups / the whole class. 6. HUMAN RIGHTS DISCUSSION: Students think of two or three questions relating to human rights issues around the world. Teacher pools / corrects on board. Students discuss in groups, or circulate and discuss. As a follow-up students rank the human rights issues according to how heinous they are, and agree on and attribute a sentence to the perpetrators 7. IN THE DOCK: Students (pairs / groups) choose one of the dictators from the list in the warmers and create a prosecution case against him. Present the case to the class, which discusses the merits of each and votes on the most convincing case. 8. 10-MINUTE DEBATES: Students debate the points in the warmer section more comprehensively. HOMEWORK1. VOCAB EXTENSION: Choose several of the words from the text. Use a dictionary or the Google search field to build up more associations / collocations of each word. 2. INTERNET: Search the Internet and find more information on Augusto Pinochet. Share your findings with your class next lesson. 3. PINOCHET BIOGRAPHY: Create an information poster of the biography of Augusto Pinochet. 4. LETTER TO PINOCHET: Write a letter to former Chilean president General Augusto Pinochet telling him your opinion of his charges. ANSWERSTRUE / FALSE: SYNONYM MATCH:
PHRASE MATCH:
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