Description: Read and understand a blog of a person who tells a story about why they became vegan.
[wptabsy shortcode_id=”894″ alignment=”left” active=”#ffffff,#1e73be,#CECECE” inactive=”#111111,#fcfcfc,#CECECE” tabcontent=”#111111,#ffffff,#CECECE”][tab icon=”fa-check-square-o”]Teacher Guidelines[/tab][tab icon=”fa-thumbs-o-up”]CAN-DOs[/tab][tab icon=”fa-smile-o”]Activity[/tab][tabcontent]Title of ER: The Road to Veganism
Level: A2
Target audience: all college level students
General goals/objectives:
- reading comprehension
- understanding the structure of narratives
Specific goals/objectives:
- read and understand a blog of a person who tells a story about why they became vegan
Materials needed for activity: (check the following)
- internet access
- BYOD (Bring Your Own Device – smartphone, tablet)
- Read & Write Google Chrome extension for Ss who would like the texts read aloud
Time: 90 minutes
Overview: Read each section of the blog narrative and answer the questions.
Activity 1
- Introduce the concept of a narrative using the following suggested material:
What is a narrative?
- A narrative is a story about a person who faces a challenges and then solves this problem. Authors write narratives to entertain us and teach us something new.
What are the generic stages of a narrative?
- Narratives have five parts:
| Time & place | tells the reader when and where the story takes place |
| Problem | identifies a problem that the person experiences |
| Dramatic Point/Challenge | describes an action that changes the person |
| Result of the Dramatic Point | explains how the person changes after the dramatic point |
| Ending | shows the overall effect of the story and closes the story |
Where can we find narratives?
- We can find narratives everywhere, for example in: stories, TV shows, and movies.
How can I introduce narratives to my learners?
- It might be helpful to review the information above, concentrating on the five generic stages. Perhaps use a well-known narrative such as ‘Little Red Riding Hood’ or this interactive tutorial about Cinderella as an exemplar.
Activity 2
- Ss read and answer the questions. It is at the teacher’s discretion to decide when to check answers and move on to the next generic stage.
- It would be a good idea to relate the answers to the questions to the particular stage being addressed.
Activity 3
- As a follow up discussion, have Ss narrate significant decisions they’ve made. What kind of process did they go through?
- Perhaps the Ss would like to write their own narrative. See the resources below for framing and writing.
Supplementary Materials
Focus on the past perfect:
Using had tells us that all of these things had happened before the write visited Animal Place. Watch this video for a great explanation. Watch this video for more examples. Here’s a helpful exercise.
Resources for students to use to write their own narrative:
Related Activities
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| Reception / Reading | Overall reading comprehension | Can read straightforward factual texts on subjects related to his/her field and interest with a satisfactory level of comprehension, i.e., understand most main ideas and supporting details (adapted B1) |
| Reception / Reading | Reading for orientation | Can scan / read selectively in order to find desired information (adapted B1+) |
| Reception / Reading | Reading for information and argument | Can recognize significant points in straightforward articles on familiar subjects (adapted B1) |
| Production / Writing | Creative writing | Can write very short, basic descriptions of events, past activities and personal experiences (A2+) |
| Production / Speaking | Overall spoken production | Can give a simple description or presentation as a short series of simple phrases and sentences linked into a list (adapted A2) |
| Production / Speaking | Sustained monologue | Can briefly give reasons and explanations for opinions, plans and actions (A2) |
| Reception | Identifying cues and inferring (spoken and written) | Can identify unfamiliar words from the context on topics related to his/her field and interests (B1) |
| Can extrapolate the meaning of occasional unknown words from the context and deduce sentence meaning provided the topic discussed is familiar (B1) |
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The Road to Veganism
By the time you complete this LO, you should be able to:
- Read and understand a blog of a person who tells a story about why they became a vegan.
From Bullfight Fan to Vegan Activist
by joyfulvegan
This LO is based on the blog ‘From bullfight fan to vegan activist’ by joyfulvegan.
Read the first and second paragraphs and answer the following questions:
Time & Place
- What language tells you about the time and place of this story?
- Who are the two actors in this story?
- ___________________________
b.___________________________
3a. What language tells you what the storyteller did?
3b. …with whom?
- What language tells you what the storyteller felt/thought?
- What language tells you what the bulls did?
- What language does the storyteller use to describe the bulls?
- What language tells you about the storyteller’s impression of ‘The Running of the Bulls’?
Problem
Read the third paragraph and answer the questions.
- What does each actor do?
| actor | action |
| my friends | |
| I | |
| dozens of bull-runners | |
| these bulls | |
| the fans | |
| men |
- What do these actors feel/think?
| actor | feel/think |
| I | |
| these bulls |
- What language tells you about the storyteller’s impression of what was happening to the bulls?
Dramatic Point/Challenge
- The storytellers asks two questions. Whom is he asking?
- Why does he ask these questions?
- Why does the author have the following feelings?
| feeling | why? |
| feel shame | |
| felt alone | |
| feel more sympathy |
Read the fourth paragraph and answer the following.
Time & Place (2)
- Mark the time and place markers.
- What did the storyteller do?
- What did the storyteller think/feel?
- What language tells you about the storyteller’s impression of his meals?
Read the fifth paragraph and answer the following:
Result of the Dramatic Point
Here, the author tells us about how she ‘develop[ed] a new personal philosophy’.
- What actions helped her develop her new philosophy?
- What thinking/feeling helped her develop her new philosophy?
Read the sixth paragraph and answer the following:
- Note what had happened to the animals when the writer visited Animal Place. Fill in the chart below:
| Animal | What had happened? |
| hens | They had |
| cows | They had |
| goats | They had |
| sheep | They had |
Who’s responsible?
In some cases, the animal had done something. In other cases, someone had done something to the animals. Why do you think that the writer decided not to mention the “do-er” sometimes – or to mention the do-er at the end of the sentence?
Read the seventh paragraph and answer the following:
- The paragraph tells us that some of the people that the author knew ‘stopped eating animals’.
Why does the writer think this happened?
| author’s actions/statements | Why did these influence the people? | |
| 1 | ||
| 2 | ||
| 3 | ||
| 4 | ||
| 5 |
Read the eighth and ninth paragraphs and answer the following:
- Why do you think that the author feels that ‘being a joyful vegan’ isn’t difficult?
- Why is this the author’s ‘take-home message’ to us?
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