Unit 3 A taste of English humour

1. A sample lesson plan for reading
(NONVERBAL HUMOUR)
Aims
To help students develop their reading ability.
To help students learn about English humour.
Procedures

I. Warming up
Warming up by defining “Humour”
What is “Humour”? Does any one of you know anything about humour? Look at the sreen and read the definition of Humour from the Internet.
• temper: a characteristic (habitual or relatively temporary) state of feeling; "whether he praised or cursed me depended on his temper at the time"; "he was in a bad humor"
• wit: a message whose ingenuity or verbal skill or incongruity has the power to evoke laughter
• humor: (Middle Ages) one of the four fluids in the body whose balance was believed to determine your emotional and physical state; "the humors are blood and phlegm and yellow and black bile"
• liquid body substance: the liquid parts of the body
• humor: the quality of being funny; "I fail to see the humor in it"
• humor: the trait of appreciating (and being able to express) the humorous; "she didn't appreciate my humor"; "you can't survive in the army without a sense of humor"
• humor: put into a good mood
Warming up watching and listening
Hi, everyone! We are going to learn about A taste of English humour today. Now watch the slides/ pictures and listen to the English humour poems.
 
Why worry?
There are only two things to worry about:
Either you are well or you are sick.
If you are well, then there is nothing to worry about.
If you are sick, there are two things to worry about:
Either you will get well or you will die.
If you get well, then there is nothing to worry about.
If you die, there are only two things to worry about:
Either you will go to Heaven or Hell.
If you go to Heaven, there is nothing to worry about.
But if you go to Hell, you will be so damn busy
Shaking hands with friends, you won´t have time to worry.
Whose job ...?
This is the story about four people named Everybody,
Somebody, Anybody and Nobody.
There was an important job to be done,
and Everybody was sure that Somebody would do it.
Anybody could have done it, but Nobody did it.
Somebody got angry about that
because it was Everybody´s job.
Everybody thought Anybody could do it,
but Nobody realised that Everybody wouldn´t do it.
It ended up that Everybody blamed Somebody
When Nobody did what Anybody could have done

II. Pre-reading
Telling the truth —Why do you like to laugh at?
I like to laugh at cartoons,for they’re lovely and fun.
I like to laugh at fairy tales. They are amusing and interesting.
Many years ago there lived an Emperor who was so exceedingly fond of fine new clothes that he spent vast sums of money on dress. To him clothes meant more than anything else in the world. He took no interest in his army, nor did he care to go to the theatre, or to drive about in his state coach, unless it was to display his new clothes. He had different robes for every single hour of the day.

III. Reading
1. Reading aloud to the recording
Now please listen and read aloud to the recording of the text NONVERBAL HUMOUR. Pay attention to the pronunciation of each word and the pauses between the thought groups. I will play the tape twice and you shall read aloud twice, too.
2. Reading and underlining
Next you are to read and underline all the useful expressions or collocations in the passage. Copy them to your notebook after class as homework.
Collocations from NONVERBAL HUMOUR  
Slide on…, bump into…, round a corner, fall down…, in the road, see other people’s bad luck, at times, feel content with…, be worse off, astonish… with…, inspire…in sb., play a character, be born in poverty, become famous, use a particular form of acting, ancarry  entertaining silent movie, a charming character, be well known throughout the world, play a poor and homeless person, wear large trousers, carry a walking stick, a social failure, be  loved by…, overcome difficulties, be unkind to …, make…entertaining, a sad situation, a boiled shoe, make… funny, use nonverbal humour, in the middle of the nineteenth century, discover gold, in search of…, rush there, pan for gold, wash… from…, in a pan of water, pick up…, be fortunate enough, be cought on the edge of…, in a snowstorm, in a small wooden house, have nothing to eat, boil a pair of leather shoes, sit down at a table, a drinking cup, pick out…, cut off…, treat… as if…, eat every monthful with enjoyment, direct a movie, give… a special Oscar, one’s lifetime outstanding work, live one’s life in…,
3. Reading to identify the topic sentence of each paragrap
Skim the text and identify the topic sentence of each paragraph. You may find it either at the beginning, the middle or the end of the paragraph.
4. Reading and transferring information
Read the text again to complete the table.
NONVERBAL HUMOUR
What is nonverbal humour? 
Who is Charlie Chaplin? 
How does he make a sad situation entertaining? 
What is the story of The Gold Rush? 
Facts about Oscar 
A brief life history of Charlie Chaplin 
5. Reading and understanding difficult sentences
As you have read the text times, you can surely tell which sentences are difficult to understand. Now put your questions concerning the difficult points to me the teacher. 

IV. Closing down
Closing down by doing exercises
To end the lesson you are to do the comprehending exercises No. 1and 2 on pages 18 and 19.
Closing down by watching a silent movie by Charlie Chaplin
 
Do you like watching movies? Do you like humourous movies? Now let’s watch a silent humourous movie by Charlie Chaplin. It’s Charlie Chaplin's first film: Making a Living
Closing down by reading about Charlie Chaplin
To end the period we shall read an article about Charlie Chaplin. Now look at the screen and read it aloud with me.
Charlie Chaplin (April 16, 1889 - December 25, 1977)

Charlie Chaplin, who brought laughter to millions worldwide as the silent "Little Tramp" clown, had the type of deprived childhood that one would expect to find in a Dickens novel. Born in East Street, Walworth, London on 16 April, 1889, Charles Spencer Chaplin was the son of a music hall singer and his wife. Charlie Chaplin's parents divorced early in his life, with his father providing little to no support, either financial or otherwise, leaving his mother to support them as best she could. Chaplin's mother Hannah was the brightest spot in Charlie's childhood; formerly an actor on stage, she had lost her ability to perform, and managed to earn a subsistence living for herself, Charlie, and Charlie's older half-brother Sidney by sewing. She was an integral part of Charlie's young life, and he credited her with much of his success. Sadly, she slowly succumbed to mental illness, and by the time that Charlie was 7 years old, she was confined to an asylum; Charlie and Sidney were relegated to a workhouse (a government facility for orphaned and abandoned children) -- not for the last time. After 2 months, she was released, and the family was happily reunited, for a time. In later years, she was readmitted for an 8-month stretch later, during which time Charlie lived with his alcoholic father and stepmother, in a strained environment.