Breaking News English ESL Lesson Plan on Amnesty International

WARM-UPS

1. WAR: Walk around the class and talk to other students about war. Change partners often. Sit with your first partner(s) and share your findings.

2. CHAT: In pairs / groups, decide which of these topics or words from the article are most interesting and which are most boring.

Amnesty International / reports / documents / war crimes / civilians / accusations / biased / human rights / rules of war / terror / human shields / accusations / leaders

Have a chat about the topics you liked. Change topics and partners frequently.

3. RULES OF WAR: What rules should there be in war? Complete this table with your partner(s). Change partners and talk about your ideas. Change again and share what you heard.

	Current rules (if any)	Your future rules
Civilians
Weapons
Prisoners of war
Aid agencies
Journalists
The environment

4. NO MORE: Students A strongly believe that one day, countries will stop going to war; Students B strongly believe countries will always fight wars. Change partners again and talk about your conversations.

5. ATTACK: What would you do if your town was attacked? Talk about these things with your partner. Change partners and share what you heard.

your safety
your possessions
getting around town
communications

dealing with fear
fighting back
emergency shelter
food

6. WEAPONS: Spend one minute writing down all of the different words you associate with the word ‘weapons’. Share your words with your partner(s) and talk about them. Together, put the words into different categories.

BEFORE READING / LISTENING

1. TRUE / FALSE: Look at the article’s headline and guess whether these sentences are true (T) or false (F):

a.	Israel and Hamas didn’t like an Amnesty International report on Gaza.	T / F
b.	The report is over 1,000 pages and 117 chapters in length.	T / F
c.	Amnesty says hundreds of children died in Israel’s attacks.	T / F
d.	The report says Israel only used weapons designed for use in cities.	T / F
e.	Israel thinks Amnesty is not fair and always chooses Hamas’ side.	T / F
f.	Israel said the report did not consider it was fighting terrorists.	T / F
g.	Amnesty only accused Israel of war crimes, not Hamas.	T / F
h.	Hamas was very happy with the Amnesty International report.	T / F

2. SYNONYM MATCH: Match the following synonyms from the article:

1.	rejected	a.	weaponless
2	conflict	b.	carrying out
3.	observes	c.	follow
4.	unarmed	d.	war
5.	invaded	e.	one-sided
6.	biased	f.	allegations
7.	distorted	g.	dismissed
8.	comply	h.	attacked
9.	committing	i.	twisted
10.	accusations	j.	notes

3. PHRASE MATCH: Match the following phrases from the article (sometimes more than one. combination is possible):

1.	the 22-day Gaza	a.	part in the conflict
2	The 117-page document accuses both	b.	biased
3.	unarmed civilians who took no	c.	conflict
4.	accusations include Israel’s use	d.	casualties
5.	Israel invaded Gaza to stop Hamas	e.	terror
6.	naturally	f.	of weapons
7.	the human rights group siding	g.	firing rockets
8.	democratic states battling	h.	shields
9.	reduce the risk of civilian	i.	sides of war crimes
10.	used children as human	j.	with Hamas

WHILE READING / LISTENING

GAP FILL: Put the words into the gaps in the text.

Israel and Hamas have ____________ an Amnesty International report into the 22-day Gaza conflict that started on December 27, 2008. The 117-page document accuses both ____________ of war crimes. Amnesty says: "The ____________ and intensity of the attacks on Gaza were unprecedented." The report observes that: "Some 300 children and hundreds of other ____________ civilians who took no ____________ in the conflict were among the 1,400 Palestinians killed by Israeli ____________." Other accusations include Israel’s use of weapons that should never be used in built-up ____________ like Gaza. Amnesty accused Hamas of killing three Israelis in rocket attacks during the conflict. Israel invaded Gaza to stop Hamas ____________ rockets on Israeli towns.

forces
unarmed
sides
firing
areas
rejected
part
scale

Israeli officials believe Amnesty International is ____________ biased towards Hamas. A military spokesman said the report ____________ showed the human rights group siding with Hamas, and called it “unbalanced”. He said it was “a distorted ____________ of the laws of war that does not comply with the rules implemented by democratic states ____________ terror." Israel insisted it did “everything humanly possible” to reduce the ____________ of civilian casualties. Officials accused Hamas of committing war ____________, saying they used children as human ____________. A Hamas spokesman told reporters: "Hamas rejects all the accusations made ____________ it in Amnesty's report," because Amnesty "haven't met or heard from any of Hamas' leaders".

shields
view
risk
clearly
against
battling
naturally
crimes

LISTENING: Listen and fill in the gaps.

Israel and Hamas have rejected an Amnesty International ______________ day Gaza conflict that started on December 27, 2008. The ______________ accuses both sides of war crimes. Amnesty says: "The scale and intensity of the attacks on Gaza were unprecedented." The _________________: "Some 300 children and hundreds of other unarmed civilians ______________ in the conflict were among the 1,400 Palestinians killed by Israeli forces." Other accusations include Israel’s ______________ that should never be used in built-up areas like Gaza. Amnesty accused Hamas of killing three Israelis in rocket _________________ conflict. Israel invaded Gaza to stop Hamas firing rockets on Israeli towns.

Israeli officials believe Amnesty International is ______________ towards Hamas. A military spokesman said the report clearly showed the human rights ________________ Hamas, and called it “unbalanced”. He said it was “a distorted view of the laws of war that does ______________ the rules implemented by democratic states battling terror." Israel insisted it did “everything humanly possible” to ________________ of civilian casualties. Officials accused Hamas of committing war crimes, saying they used children _________________. A Hamas spokesman told reporters: "Hamas rejects all the accusations ______________ in Amnesty's report," because Amnesty "haven't met or heard from any of Hamas' leaders".

AFTER READING / LISTENING

1. WORD SEARCH: Look in your dictionaries / computer to find collocates, other meanings, information, synonyms … for the words ‘war’ and ‘crime’.

war

crime

Share your findings with your partners.

Make questions using the words you found.
Ask your partner / group your questions.

2. ARTICLE QUESTIONS: Look back at the article and write down some questions you would like to ask the class about the text.

Share your questions with other classmates / groups.
Ask your partner / group your questions.

3. GAP FILL: In pairs / groups, compare your answers to this exercise. Check your answers. Talk about the words from the activity. Were they new, interesting, worth learning…?

4. VOCABULARY: Circle any words you do not understand. In groups, pool unknown words and use dictionaries to find their meanings.

5. TEST EACH OTHER: Look at the words below. With your partner, try to recall how they were used in the text:

rejected
both
300
include
rocket
towns

naturally
siding
view
humanly
shields
leaders

STUDENT WAR CRIMES SURVEY

Write five GOOD questions about war crimes in the table. Do this in pairs. Each student must write the questions on his / her own paper.

When you have finished, interview other students. Write down their answers.

	STUDENT 1 _____________	STUDENT 2 _____________	STUDENT 3 _____________
Q.1.
Q.2.
Q.3.
Q.4.
Q.5.

Now return to your original partner and share and talk about what you found out. Change partners often.
Make mini-presentations to other groups on your findings.

DISCUSSION

STUDENT A’s QUESTIONS (Do not show these to student B)

a)	What did you think when you read the headline?
b)	What springs to mind when you hear the term ‘war crime’?
c)	What do you think of the conflicts in the Middle East?
d)	Do you think the Amnesty International report contains more truth than not?
e)	What do you remember about the Gaza conflict?
f)	What do you think of the actions of Israel and Hamas during the war?
g)	Do you think the international community should do more to stop these conflicts?
h)	Should there be laws that ban firing rockets inside cities?
i)	What did the Gaza conflict achieve?
j)	What do you know about Amnesty International?

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

STUDENT B’s QUESTIONS (Do not show these to student A)

a)	Did you like reading this article?
b)	Do you think human rights groups are biased against Israel?
c)	Why might Amnesty International side with Hamas?
d)	What do you understand by the term “laws of war”?
e)	What do you think should be the number one rule in war?
f)	What do you think when Israel says it did “everything humanly possible” to prevent civilian casualties?
g)	What do you think when you hear of children being as human shields?
h)	Did Amnesty need to interview Hamas leaders?
i)	What will the Middle East look like in twenty years?
j)	What questions would you like to ask Amnesty International’s boss?

LANGUAGE

Israel and Hamas have rejected an Amnesty International report (1) ____ the 22-day Gaza conflict that started on December 27, 2008. The 117-(2) ____ document accuses both sides of war crimes. Amnesty says: "The scale and intensity of the attacks on Gaza were unprecedented." The report observes that: "Some 300 children and hundreds of other (3) ____ civilians who took no part in the conflict were among the 1,400 Palestinians killed by Israeli forces." Other accusations include Israel’s (4) ____ of weapons that should never be used in built-(5) ____ areas like Gaza. Amnesty accused Hamas of killing three Israelis in rocket attacks during the conflict. Israel invaded Gaza to stop Hamas (6) ____ rockets on Israeli towns.

Israeli officials believe Amnesty International is (7) ____ biased towards Hamas. A military spokesman said the report clearly showed the human rights group (8) ____ with Hamas, and called it “unbalanced”. He said it was “a distorted view of the laws of war that does not comply with the rules implemented (9) ____ democratic states battling terror." Israel insisted it did “everything humanly possible” to reduce the (10) ____ of civilian casualties. Officials accused Hamas of committing war crimes, saying they used children as (11) ____ shields. A Hamas spokesman told reporters: "Hamas rejects all the accusations made against it in Amnesty's report," because Amnesty "haven't met or (12) ____ from any of Hamas' leaders".

Put the correct words from the table below in the above article.

1.	(a)	up to	(b)	to	(c)	onto	(d)	into
2.	(a)	page	(b)	pages	(c)	paged	(d)	pager
3.	(a)	army	(b)	unarmed	(c)	armless	(d)	arms
4.	(a)	user	(b)	users	(c)	use	(d)	used
5.	(a)	down	(b)	in	(c)	up	(d)	on
6.	(a)	fired	(b)	firing	(c)	fires	(d)	fire
7.	(a)	natural	(b)	naturalness	(c)	nature	(d)	naturally
8.	(a)	siding	(b)	backing	(c)	fronting	(d)	topping
9.	(a)	in	(b)	by	(c)	to	(d)	of
10.	(a)	risky	(b)	risk taker	(c)	risked	(d)	risk
11.	(a)	humane	(b)	humanize	(c)	human	(d)	humans
12.	(a)	heard	(b)	listened	(c)	understood	(d)	got

WRITING:

Write about war crimes for 10 minutes. Correct your partner’s paper.

_____________________________________________________________________________

HOMEWORK

1. VOCABULARY EXTENSION: Choose several of the words from the text. Use a dictionary or Google’s search field (or another search engine) to build up more associations / collocations of each word.

2. INTERNET: Search the Internet and find out more about war crimes. Share what you discover with your partner(s) in the next lesson.

3. THE MIDDLE EAST: Make a poster about the Middle East. Show your work to your classmates in the next lesson. Did you all have similar things?

4. RULES: Write a magazine article about the rules of war. Include imaginary interviews with soldiers and victims of war.

Read what you wrote to your classmates in the next lesson. Write down any new words and expressions you hear from your partner(s).

5. LETTER: Write a letter to an Israeli or Hamas leader. Ask them three questions about Gaza. Give them three reasons why they should work for peace. Read your letter to your partner(s) in your next lesson. Your partner(s) will answer your questions.

ANSWERS

TRUE / FALSE:

SYNONYM MATCH:

1.	rejected	a.	dismissed
2	conflict	b.	war
3.	observes	c.	notes
4.	unarmed	d.	weaponless
5.	invaded	e.	attacked
6.	biased	f.	one-sided
7.	distorted	g.	twisted
8.	comply	h.	follow
9.	committing	i.	carrying out
10.	accusations	j.	allegations

PHRASE MATCH:

1.	the 22-day Gaza	a.	conflict
2	The 117-page document accuses both	b.	sides of war crimes
3.	unarmed civilians who took no	c.	part in the conflict
4.	accusations include Israel’s use	d.	of weapons
5.	Israel invaded Gaza to stop Hamas	e.	firing rockets
6.	naturally	f.	biased
7.	the human rights group siding	g.	with Hamas
8.	democratic states battling	h.	terror
9.	reduce the risk of civilian	i.	casualties
10.	used children as human	j.	shields

GAP FILL:

Israel and Hamas reject Amnesty report

Israel and Hamas have rejected an Amnesty International report into the 22-day Gaza conflict that started on December 27, 2008. The 117-page document accuses both sides of war crimes. Amnesty says: "The scale and intensity of the attacks on Gaza were unprecedented." The report observes that: "Some 300 children and hundreds of other unarmed civilians who took no part in the conflict were among the 1,400 Palestinians killed by Israeli forces." Other accusations include Israel’s use of weapons that should never be used in built-up areas like Gaza. Amnesty accused Hamas of killing three Israelis in rocket attacks during the conflict. Israel invaded Gaza to stop Hamas firing rockets on Israeli towns.

Israeli officials believe Amnesty International is naturally biased towards Hamas. A military spokesman said the report clearly showed the human rights group siding with Hamas, and called it “unbalanced”. He said it was “a distorted view of the laws of war that does not comply with the rules implemented by democratic states battling terror." Israel insisted it did “everything humanly possible” to reduce the risk of civilian casualties. Officials accused Hamas of committing war crimes, saying they used children as human shields. A Hamas spokesman told reporters: "Hamas rejects all the accusations made against it in Amnesty's report," because Amnesty "haven't met or heard from any of Hamas' leaders".

LANGUAGE WORK

1 - d

2 - a

3 - b

4 - c

5 - c

6 - b

7 - d

8 - a

9 - b

10 - d

11 - c

12 - a

Breaking News English

July 3, 2009

Israel And Hamas Reject Amnesty Report