My
1,000 Ideas e-Book |
Breaking News EnglishHOME | HELP MY SITE | 000s MORE FREE LESSONS |
My
1,000 Ideas e-Book |
Wednesday January 12, 2005 THE ARTICLEFour British citizens, held for almost three years by the United States at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp, will soon be returned to Britain. British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw confirmed that Feroz Abbasi, Moazzam Begg, Richard Belmar and Martin Mubanga will be released in the next few weeks, with no definite date being set. The four were picked up in Afghanistan in 2001 and arrested as ‘enemy combatants’ on the ‘battlefield’ by the US Army. The Pentagon issued a statement that they were not prisoners of war, which means they could get a fair trial. All of the families are delighted their sons are returning to England. The British government has spent months of negotiating their release with the United States. Many in Britain have been unhappy with the lack of human rights afforded the Britain’s, who have effectively been in a legal no-mans land for three years. One politician stated, “their civil rights were systematically and deliberately abused.” However, they will not be automatically free when they return to Britain. Mr Straw said they may be subject to further investigation, “Once they are back in the United Kingdom, the police will consider whether to arrest them under the Terrorism Act 2000 for questioning into possible terrorist activity.” POSSIBLE WARM UPS / COOL DOWNS1. CHAT: Talk in pairs or groups about Afghanistan / Guantanamo Bay / justice / illegal detention / detainees rights / the difference between a PoW (prisoner of war) and an ‘enemy combatant’… 2. GUANTANAMO BRAINSTORM: Write on the board anything students know about Guantanamo Bay and the US detention camp. Use this as a springboard for students to discuss in pairs or groups. 3. IF IT WERE ME: Students talk about how they would feel if they had been wrongly arrested and put in Guantanamo Bay for three years without trial and with their human rights left outside the camp. 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 ‘camp’, and ‘release’. 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 synonymsfrom 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. Guantanamo Britons to be released
2. TRUE/FALSE: Students check their answers to the T/F exercise. 3. SYNONYMS: Students check their answers to the synonyms exercise. 4. PHRASE MATCH: Students check their answers to the phrase match exercise. 5. QUESTIONS: Students make notes for questions they would like to ask the class about the article. 6. 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. 5. ‘CAMP’/ ‘RELEASE’: Students make questions based on their findings from pre-reading activity #1. 6. DISCUSSION: Students ask each other the following questions: 7. FREEDOM NOW: In pairs / groups, students create plans to help in the release of those detainees in Guantanamo who are innocent. Present plans to rest of class / other groups. Find faults / suggest improvements in the plans to refine them. Vote on the best ones. Discuss the merits of each. 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 Guantanamo Bay. Share your findings with your class next lesson. 3. GUANTANAMO POSTER: Create an information poster on Guantanamo Bay. 4. LETTER TO GEORGE: Write a letter to US President George W. Bush explaining your thoughts on the Guantanamo Bay.
ANSWERSTRUE / FALSE: DEFINITIONS:
4. SYNONYM MATCH: Students match the following synonyms from the article:
PHRASE MATCH:
GAP FILL: Guantanamo Britons to be releasedFour British citizens, held for almost three years by the United States at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp, will soon be returned to Britain. British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw confirmed that Feroz Abbasi, Moazzam Begg, Richard Belmar and Martin Mubanga will be released in the next few weeks, with no definite date being set. The four were picked up in Afghanistan in 2001 and arrested as ‘enemy combatants’ on the ‘battlefield’ by the US Army. The Pentagon issued a statement that they were not prisoners of war, which means they could get a fair trial. All of the families are delighted their sons are returning to England. The British government has spent months of negotiating their release with the United States. Many in Britain have been unhappy with the lack of human rights afforded the Britain’s, who have effectively been in a legal no-mans land for three years. One politician stated, “their civil rights were systematically and deliberately abused.” However, they will not be automatically free when they return to Britain. Mr Straw said they may be subject to further investigation, “Once they are back in the United Kingdom, the police will consider whether to arrest them under the Terrorism Act 2000 for questioning into possible terrorist activity.” Help Support This Web Site
Sean Banville's Book
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Copyright © 2004-2019 by Sean Banville | Links | About | Privacy Policy
|