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6 Teaching Notes Starter

Vocabulary – Page 70, Exercise 3 Grammar – Page 72, Exercise 2

We know that students with reading or This free practice is simple; however, it may
processing difficulties need longer to do their seem complex for a SEN student. You ought
work and that they perform much better in to be ready to guide them by prompting each
the spoken medium. Therefore, considering action so as to elicit sentences, remembering
that this exercise is simple and does not that they are likely to find questions more
require writing, in order to guarantee enough difficult than answers. You may use repetition
exposure, when you correct the work orally, or backward build-up if necessary, even if
you should read all the options: What can these are not free production strategies.
giraffes do? a) jump? b) eat leaves from tall It is important for students with learning
trees? Or c) fly? When students give the difficulties to identify an interest or an area
complete answers, you should remember to in which they can feel more comfortable.
write them on the board neatly: 1 B. Proceed They need to feel part of the class, for which
in the same way with the three questions. You it is our duty to plan accordingly, to target
may invite strong students to read out and SEN our questions properly so as to include
students to give their answers or to write on and encourage them every time they try to
the board. It is very important to give them the participate, for expressive language is usually
chance to participate and feel part of the class! too high an objective for them.
Exercises of this type may be positive boosters.
Vocabulary – Page 73, Exercise 2
Reading – Page 71, Exercise 2
Photos have a great visual impact on SEN
To help all the class in general, but particularly students. They motivate and help students
those students with specific learning understand. Besides, visual processing is
conditions, you should implement certain related to perception – attending to and
strategies to guarantee understanding, interpreting visual information, discriminating
participation and sense of achievement. This between figure and background, sometimes
will become a boomerang and will boost discriminating letters, numbers or other signs
motivation. What should you do? Go step by on the page, etc. In this particular case, we are
step, monitoring and engaging everybody. asking students to use those subskills to match
In the first place, anticipation is a very good letters a–l with the parts of the body, but the
option, but it is clear that only some students letters are not in any natural order: not from
will remember to read the text at home. So left to right on the same line, not clockwise
before doing Exercise 2, you should work or from top to bottom. Consequently, what is
orally. First, draw students’ attention to the a simple activity for most may not be so for
title and introduction as well as to the factual a SEN student. What can you do? Reorganize
information that accompanies the picture of the visual information. You may invite the
the dolphin. Make sure, through questions class to first focus on the head as you point
even in L1, that they understand what they will and show the head. Elicit the words and write
read about and who is being interviewed. the answers on the board, eg: a: head, l: ear,
You can then give the class a few minutes etc. Alternatively, make it very clear they have
to read the first three questions and their to work anti-clockwise. Point and show this
answers, having them underline the key words several times, asking what letter comes after
in each answer, eg: for question 1, the key which one and then write the answers they
words are in tropical oceans. Check their work give on the board neatly. It is important not to
orally and proceed in the same way with the take anything for granted.
next questions and answers.
Once this has been done, the class is ready to Reading – Page 74, Exercise 3
do Exercise 2. Allow SEN students to provide Efficient learning involves the active control,
short answers and elicit complete ones from coordination and monitoring of learning
stronger students. processes and strategies. In other words, it

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6 Teaching Notes Starter

involves metacognition, which is knowledge Build your skills: Reading – Page 76

about oneself as a learner, about the task, Reading comprehension refers to the
and about the skills and strategies needed to understanding of a written text. Understanding
perform the task. Metacognition is involved in involves an intentional problem-solving
the decisions learners make such as what to process that has to be taught and practised.
attend to, what they already know that might This means students should be taught to
be used in a new situation, etc. summarize main points, predict, develop
It is very important to help learners develop questions, clarify ideas, etc. The exercises on
metacognition, which will in turn help them this page develop these subskills. It is then
become more autonomous. In this particular important to give everybody the chance to
exercise, one difficulty that may crop up is share their work with the class even when
related to the amount of writing each answer they need to do so in L1, as in Exercise 3, or
requires. There are no lines and there isn’t to let them describe a resort they have been
enough space, either. Besides, SEN students to or seen in a film, for example, which could
are often rather untidy. You may invite them be a great way of closing the lesson, since
to write the answers in their folders or to just associating what students see on the page
answer in the book using one or two words so with their own personal experience is a way of
as to expand orally during correction time. You constructing knowledge.
should not take this for granted because they
may be unable to read what they have written. Build your skills: Listening & Speaking –
You should help them become aware of the Page 77, Exercise 2
options and make a choice. If you don’t do this
openly, they will write the answers anywhere on Listening and speaking make up oracy, which
the page and when it comes to correcting, they may be defined as the ability to express oneself
will be unable to read their answers. fluently and grammatically in speech. As
teachers, we know that reading may sometimes
Grammar – Page 75 be easier than listening, but we should develop
all skills. This exercise aims at the development
This page is a revision of the main grammar of gist listening. It would also be worth trying
structures students have seen so far. We know to have the class watch the video and discuss
revisions are necessary, especially for SEN words they understand or what the video is
students. However, the page presents some about without reading key words.
challenges. There is too much information in
a way that may not look clear enough. The At this stage you may be wondering why we
activities involve reading and understanding suggest this if most of the time we have tried
sentences, reading as a complex process to simplify things in an attempt to cater for
made up of several interlocking skills which SEN. Well, the answer is simple: you should
allow the reader to understand meaning and also challenge SEN students as much as
make connections so as to construct further possible within the right pitch. You may
meaning. If this is done successfully, the sometimes provide words for them to tick the
student will understand, remember and be ones they have heard while other times you
able to use the material on the page. just tell them to find the key words themselves.
This way you develop their gist listening and
Considering the design and the amount of challenge students, which is more similar to
information, achieving this will not be very what they are likely to find in the real world
easy for SEN students. You may need to use once they leave school.
the SEN accommodation provided (see pages
56–58), remembering to go step by step and
to elicit as many examples as possible before
moving on to Exercises 1, 2 and 3.

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Build your skills: Writing – Page 78, Formative assessment helps teachers
Writing task understand students’ progress and their
level of understanding. In contrast, if we just
Although some teenage students may find focus on the result, on the piece of writing,
writing engaging, most of them find it boring we are likely to lead SEN students to failure
and frustrating. This may be due to several rather than motivation and success. Formative
factors: lack of attention while we explain, assessment is known as assessment for
lower linguistic level or simply other memory learning because this information can help
issues. SEN presents several challenges. teachers adjust their procedures while the
Some students within the autism spectrum, student goes on learning. It is a question of
for example, may enjoy writing more than focusing on processes rather than on results.
speaking or listening as it does not involve If, having tried close monitoring, you decide
interacting. Others may simply need a you need a SEN accommodation, you may use
presentation accommodation in which the the one provided (see page 59).
free written production is transformed into a
sentence completion activity or even a choice Progress check – Page 79
exercise. But before doing away with the If you have SEN students who need
creativity aspect of free writing, you should presentation and time accommodations, you
try monitoring closely in a way similar to may use the SEN accommodation provided
formative assessment. (see pages 60–62).

Consolidation B – Page 82
You may use the SEN accommodation provided for the Consolidation if you have students who
need more time or require extra help (see pages 63–67).

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6 Grammar – Page 75

Revision: be, have got, present simple, there is / are, can

A Analyze these sentences. B Classify the sentences in Exercise A.

Their tail is very long. be

• They are very small.
They like sugar. • 
• 
They have got poison in their skin.
have got
Their poison can kill ten adult men. • They have got small ears.
• 
They live in rainforests. • 

They have got big eyes. present simple

• They sleep during the day.
They can glide 90 m. • 
• 
There are rainforests in South America.
there is / are
• There is nectar in flowers.
There are poison dart frogs of different
• 
colours. • 

They are amazing animals! can

• They can catch insects.
• 
• 

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1 Correct these sentences. Write a negative and an affirmative sentence.

1 Dolphins live in lakes.

Dolphins don't live in lakes. They live in oceans.

2 A gorilla has got four legs.

3 Cats have got a short tail.

4 Tigers are weak animals.

5 Sugar gliders can fly.

6 Elephants can jump.

2 Now underline the verbs.

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3 Circle the correct options. Then complete the answers.

1 Are / Do tigers live in Asia?

No, they don’t .

2 Can / Have horses sleep on their feet?

Yes, they _____.

3 Is / Are there any monkeys in this forest?

Yes, there _____.

4 Has / Have crocodiles got a small mouth?

No, they _____.

5 Is / Has there a desert in Africa?

Yes, there _____.

6 Does / Are the dolphin trainer live in the aquarium?

No, he _____.

4 Free practice. Choose an animal and complete the sentences.

1 are .

2 They’ve got .

3 They during the day / at night.

4 They can .

5 They can’t .

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6 Build your skills: Writing – Page 78, Writing task

Plan > Choose an animal to describe. If necessary, do an online search to find information about it.
Write > Write the description of the animal. Remember to:
• include vocabulary from pages 70 and 73.
• use but to join contrasting ideas and too to add information.
• include a physical description and information about habitat, habits and abilities.
• add a photo and a fact file to your description.
Check > Check your writing.

LLAMA
LIVE: South America, Andes mountains
EAT: grass and plants
DESCRIPTION: long ears, big teeth, 4 long legs,
long hair, short tail
ABILITIES: can walk long distances and run

FACT FILE
Size:
Weight:
Life span:

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6 Progress check – Page 79

1 Complete with the words from the box.

see tigers climb birds swim

1 can fly.

2 Dolphins can .

3 can run fast.

4 Monkeys can trees.

5 Cats can in the dark.

/ 5 points

2 Write the words from the box in the correct place.

ears mouth arm hand nose head leg feet

1

2
6
7

3

8
4

5 / 4 points

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3 Write sentences or questions.

1 she / run / fast ✓

She 

2 crocodiles / jump ✗

Crocodiles 

3 dolphins / make / sounds ?

Can 

4 I / swim / sea ✗

I

5 Fennec foxes / jump ?

Can 

6 lions / sleep / 18–20 hours a day ✓

Lions 
/ 6 points

4 Answer questions 3 and 5 from Exercise 3.

Question 3 

Question 5 

/ 2 points

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5 Complete the questions. Then match.

1 ____ tigers got big ears? a Yes, there are some.

2 ____ sugar gliders eat insects? b Yes, they have.

3 ____ the poison dart frog live in rainforests? c Yes, it does.

4 ____ there any lions at the zoo? d Yes, they do.

1 2 3 4

/ 4 points

6 Circle the correct options.

1 Fennec foxes don’t live / doesn’t live in rainforests.

2 They lives / live in deserts.

3 Manuel doesn’t go / don’t go to the aquarium in the morning.

4 He go / goes in the afternoon.

/ 4 points

Total Score: / 25 points

Reflect and share! 

✓ This unit is about...

✓ Before working on it, I knew...

✓ After working on it, I know...

✓ I have a question: ... ?

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Consolidation B – Pages 82 & 83

A teenage yoga instructor
1 Circle the correct options.

This is Maggie. She (1) is / are from the USA. She (2) live / lives
in Los Angeles, a city with beautiful beaches.

Maggie loves yoga. She (3) do / can do yoga and she can teach it
too. She is 13 years old and she is a yoga instructor! On a typical
day, Maggie (4) get up / gets up early and (5) do / does yoga.
Then she goes to school. In the afternoon, she does homework and
on Tuesdays, she (6) gives / give yoga classes from 5.00 to 6.00 pm. (7) There are / Are there
any adults in her classes? Yes! Maggie (8) have got / has got students from 4 to 60 years old.

What (9) Maggie does / does Maggie do in her free time? She (10) sometimes watches /
watches sometimes TV and she usually studies yoga.

2 Correct the sentences. Write a negative and an affirmative sentence.

1 Maggie is from London.

Maggie isn’t from London. She is from Los Angeles.

2 Maggie plays video games in the afternoon.

3 She can teach music.

4 Her students go to class on Wednesdays.

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3 Complete the questions and answers.

1 Maggie meet friends on Saturdays?

Yes, she .

2 you watch Maggie’s videos on YouTube?

No, I .

3 there any nice beaches in California?

Yes, there .

4 Maggie swim in the ocean?

Yes, she .
4 Look at the photo and complete the text with the words from the box.

sleep climb head can live tail eat sit

(1) animals do yoga? Some animals can! Look at the

lemur in this photo. Lemurs sit in a yoga pose every morning.
And they can (2) in this pose for hours!

Lemurs have got a small (3) and a long (4) .

They (5) fruit, leaves and insects during the day and
they (6) during the night. They can (7)
trees. They (8) on the African island of Madagascar.

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A photographer’s view
1 Watch an interview with a wildlife photographer and listen. Then answer.

1 Who is James Tindal?

2 Where does he take photos of animals?

3 When does he take photos of animals?

4 What is special about the book The African Lion?

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2 Complete the sentences with the correct form of the verbs in brackets. You can
watch the segment of the video again to check your answers.

1 James Tindal (get up) very early.

2 Animals (be) usually active in the morning.

3 Some animals (play) in the morning.

4 James Tindal (not / have got) a favourite animal.

5 He (not / take) photos at night.

6 He (take) photos at the end of the day.

7 At the end of the day, animals (walk) back to their sleeping place.

8 They (not / go) to waterholes to drink water at night.

3 Complete the sentences about lions with the correct affirmative or negative form
of the verbs in brackets. You can watch the segment of the video again to check
your answers.

1 Lions (be) family animals.

2 They (live) in groups.

3 Male lions (live) in the same group all their lives.

4 Female lions (hunt) for food.

5 Male lions (hunt) for food.

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4 Put the adverbs of frequency in the correct place.

1 James Tindal gets up early. (always)

2 He sees animals in waterholes. (often)

3 Lions hunt during the day. (sometimes)

4 Lions hunt at night. (usually)

5 James Tindal takes photos at night. (never)

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