Sunday February 13, 2005
Pre-Intermediate +

THE ARTICLE

Police in the USA have arrested a man who has been accused of using an Internet chat room to try to set up a mass suicide on Valentine’s Day. The suicide pact planner, Gerald Krein, aged 26, has been charged by the police with attempted murder. Police believe Krein, from the state of Oregon, may have been part of a wider network that was aiming for communal and simultaneous suicides, either while logged on to the chat room, or at a location in Oregon called Klamath Falls. He called his murderous plan, which was to have taken place tomorrow, Valentine’s Day, a “suicide party”. Krein and his cronies were mainly targeting women and children to take their own lives. Yahoo, the Internet service on which the chat room was set up, and the police are desperately trying to find all of the people who visited and chatted to Krein. Investigators especially want to find a woman who said she would end the lives of her children before ending her own. Valentine’s Day is a prime target for such suicide plans as many single people feel lonely.

Lesson & plan in Word.doc

Example Class Handout in Word.doc

Example Class Handout in .pdf

WARM UPS / COOL DOWNS

1. CHAT:  Talk in pairs or groups about Valentine’s Day / chat rooms / communal suicide / crazy killers / feeling lonely / Internet dangers…

To make things more dynamic, try telling your students they only have one minute (or 2) on each chat topic before changing topics / partners. Change topic / partner frequently to energize the class.

2. CHAT ROOM BRAINSTORM: Spend one minute writing down all of the different words you associate with the word ‘chat room’. Share your words with your partner / group and talk about them.

3. MY CHATTING: Talk to your partner / group about where you like to chat – online, on the phone, on the street, on company’s time? What are your favorite chat topics? Who do you chat to/with? How long do you chat? …

4. VALENTINE DATE: With a partner spend five minutes planning THE ultimate romantic Valentine’s date, either for a woman, or for a man. Change partners and explain the details of your date to your new partner. With your new partner, decide on the best parts of your two plans to make a new, even more romantic date. Repeat with another partner, and perhaps another. Return to your original partner and compare how your date is now different from the original.

5. PRESENTS: Choose the best three and worst three of these Valentines presents and tell your partner. Explain why they are the best and worst:

1.  heart-shaped Belgian chocolates
2.  Chanel #5 (for women and men)
3.  12 red roses
4.  a single red rose
5.  your sweetheart singing a love song beneath your bedroom window in the moonlight
6.  sexy underwear
7.  a cute pink teddy bear
8.  a heart-shaped cake made by your loved one
9.  a gold necklace with small hearts on it
10.  a special poem written by your partner
11.  a weekend trip for two to Paris
12.  a romantic candlelit dinner at a French restaurant
13.  a special massage
14.  a bottle of champagne
15.  money (lots of cash) in a perfumed pink envelope

6. LOVE VOCABULARY: Look at the following collocates of the word ‘love’. Choose 5 and write down one question for each word. Circulate around the class asking other students your questions. Write down the new ‘love words’ you meet as you meet new conversation partners:

puppy ~          deep ~          true ~          head over heels in ~          ~ at first sight          fall in ~          madly in ~          burning ~          everlasting ~          obsessive ~          secret ~          my ~          blind ~          platonic ~          make ~         

7. CHAT: Write down your favorite chat topic on a piece of paper. Teacher collects all topics, selects one at random and tells the class. In pairs chat about this topic for two minutes. Change partners for a new topic.

PRE-READING IDEAS

1. WORD SEARCH: Students look in their dictionaries / computer to find collocates, other meanings, information, synonyms … of the words ‘chat’ and ‘room’.

2. TRUE / FALSE: Students look at the headline and predict whether they believe the following statements about the article are true or false:

1. Police in America have arrested a Valentine’s Day killer.  T / F
2. The man used an Internet chat room for a ‘suicide party’ on Valentine’s Day.  T / F
3. The man has been charged by the police with attempted murder.  T / F
4. The man was acting alone in his Internet plan.  T / F
5. He was mainly targeting lonely men to take their own lives. T / F
6. Yahoo cannot help police find the visitors to the chat room.  T / F
7. Police want to find a woman who wants to kill her children and herself.  T / F
8. Valentine’s Day is a prime target for such plans, as many people feel lonely.  T / F

3. SYNONYM MATCH: Students match the following synonyms from the article:

(a)	arrested	agreement
(b)	accused	gang
(c)	set up	crazily
(d)	pact	deadly
(e)	simultaneous	detained
(f)	murderous	forsaken
(g)	cronies	establish
(h)	desperately	perfect
(i)	prime	synchronized
(j)	lonely	blamed

 

4. PHRASE MATCH: Students match the following phrases based on the article (sometimes more than one combination is possible):

(a)	try to set up a mass	find
(b)	Gerald Krein, aged 26, has been charged	her children
(c)	attempted	the chat room
(d)	part of a wider	targeting women and children
(e)	logged on to	by the police
(f)	his murderous plan, which was	lives
(g)	Krein and his cronies were mainly	suicide on Valentine’s Day
(h)	take their own	to have taken place tomorrow
(i)	desperately trying to	network
(j)	end the lives of	murder

  

WHILE READING ACTIVITIES

1. GAP-FILL:  Put the missing words under each paragraph into the gaps.

Valentine “Suicide Party”

Police in the USA have __________ a man who has been accused of using an Internet chat room to try to set up a __________ suicide on Valentine’s Day. The suicide pact planner, Gerald Krein, aged 26, has been charged by the police with attempted murder. Police believe Krein, from the state of Oregon, may have been part of a __________ network that was aiming for communal and simultaneous suicides, either while logged on to the chat room, or at a __________ in Oregon called Klamath Falls. He called his murderous plan, which was to have taken place tomorrow, Valentine’s Day, a “suicide party”. Krein and his __________ were mainly targeting women and children to __________ their own lives. Yahoo, the Internet service on which the chat room was set up, and the police are __________ trying to find all of the people who visited and chatted to Krein. Investigators especially want to find a woman who said she would __________ the lives of her children before ending her own. Valentine’s Day is a __________ target for such suicide plans, as many single people feel lonely.

wider cronies arrested prime end desperately mass location take

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 IDEAS

1. 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. ‘CHAT’/ ‘ROOM’: Students make questions based on their findings from pre-reading activity #1.

6. DISCUSSION:  Students ask each other the following questions:

1. Do you use chat rooms?
2. What is the attraction of chat rooms?
3. Which do you prefer, chatting in chat rooms, chatting face-to-face, or on the telephone?
4. How important is the Internet to you?
5. What are the dangers of the Internet?
6. Communal Internet suicides are becoming increasingly common. Why do you think that is?
7. Why would anyone plan a ‘suicide party’, like the guy in the article?
8. If no one commits suicide because of Krein’s plan , what should his sentence be?
9. Do Internet companies like Yahoo have a responsibility to inform police of potentially dangerous people by searching for key ‘alert’ words in chat rooms?
10. What do you usually do on Valentine’s Day?
11. What’s the best present you’ve ever given / received?
12. Who was Saint Valentine?
13. What do you do when you feel lonely?
14. Teacher / Student additional questions.

Click here for 100 Valentine’s questions to ask your partner.

HOMEWORK

1. 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 Valentine's Day. Share your findings with your class next lesson.

3. LETTER TO KREIN: Write a letter to Gerald Krein.

4. CHAT-SAFE: Create a poster with a series of guidelines on how to stay safe while online.

ANSWERS

TRUE / FALSE:

1. Police in America have arrested a Valentine’s Day killer.  F
2. The man used an Internet chat room for a ‘suicide party’ on Valentine’s Day.  T
3. The man has been charged by the police with attempted murder.  T
4. The man was acting alone in his Internet plan.  F
5. He was mainly targeting lonely men to take their own lives. F
6. Yahoo cannot help police find the visitors to the chat room.  F
7. Police want to find a woman who wants to kill her children and herself.  T
8. Valentine’s Day is a prime target for such plans, as many people feel lonely.  T

SYNONYM MATCH:

(a)	arrested	detained
(b)	accused	blamed
(c)	set up	establish
(d)	pact	agreement
(e)	simultaneous	synchronized
(f)	murderous	deadly
(g)	cronies	gang
(h)	desperately	crazily
(i)	prime	perfect
(j)	lonely	forsaken

PHRASE MATCH:

(a)	try to set up a mass	suicide on Valentine’s Day
(b)	Gerald Krein, aged 26, has been charged	by the police
(c)	attempted	murder
(d)	part of a wider	network
(e)	logged on to	the chat room
(f)	his murderous plan, which was	to have taken place tomorrow
(g)	Krein and his cronies were mainly	targeting women and children
(h)	take their own	lives
(i)	desperately trying to	find
(j)	end the lives of	her children

 

GAP FILL:

Valentine “Suicide Party”

Police in the USA have arrested a man who has been accused of using an Internet chat room to try to set up a mass suicide on Valentine’s Day. The suicide pact planner, Gerald Krein, aged 26, has been charged by the police with attempted murder. Police believe Krein, from the state of Oregon, may have been part of a wider network that was aiming for communal and simultaneous suicides, either while logged on to the chat room, or at a location in Oregon called Klamath Falls. He called his murderous plan, which was to have taken place tomorrow, Valentine’s Day, a “suicide party”. Krein and his cronies were mainly targeting women and children to take their own lives. Yahoo, the Internet service on which the chat room was set up, and the police are desperately trying to find all of the people who visited and chatted to Krein. Investigators especially want to find a woman who said she would end the lives of her children before ending her own. Valentine’s Day is a prime target for such suicide plans, as many single people feel lonely.

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