Activity I: Mastering Vocabulary

1. Find words or phrases in the article which mean the same as the words and phrases listed below.

Before, children, influence, to make sb nervous, defenseless, a fierce struggle, a supporter, quickly, practically, a check, to compel

2. Match the words and phrases on the left with their definitions on the right. Then make up nine sentences using the new vocabulary.

3. Explain what the underlined phrases mean.

1. Educators rave about the benefits of early childhood schooling.

2. “They understand carpet time, clean-up procedures, how to share crayons, or even getting their pants on and off without the teacher’s help; that’s big.”

3. If a large portion of their brain is figuring out what they’re going to do next, there’s less room there to spend on learning.

4. Preschool has a huge impact on their ability to keep up in class.

5. We are in danger of overinstitutionalizing them.

6. A child will develop naturally if the parents give the child what he or she needs most in the formative years – plenty of love and attention.

7. “The only way for school programs, including preschool programs, to show accountability of public funding for education is through testing,” says Diane Flynn Keith.

8. That’s part of a broader test-them-sooner move across many grades.

9. In 2006, for instance, the Massachusetts legislature passed, by unanimous vote, an increase in state-funded high-quality prekindergarten programs.

4. The prefix over- means more than normal, too much, e.g. overinstitutionalize. Here are five more verbs with this prefix. Use them in the sentences below in the correct form.

1. I feel that private schools are ___________, they are more of a social status.

2. Many preschools __________ parents and provide poor quality care in terms of both safety and education.

3. Standardized tests _________ knowledge and do not test higher-order thinking skills.

4. Many parents think they __________ out of kindness, but they're training kids to be helpless and irresponsible.

5. Why does the USA completely _________ formal education? For the most part the thought is that anybody and everybody needs to graduate from a university.

5. Do you know what K-12 and No Child Left Behind are? Find information about it and present it in class.

Activity II: Analyzing the Structure and the Content

1. Look at the headline. Does it give you an idea of what the article should be about? Suggest other variants of headlines for this article.

2. Is it a news article or an opinion article? Is the author objective or biased? Why do you think so?

3. Make a summary of the article.

Activity III: Answering Questions and Comparing

1. Describe a typical preschool in the USA (age of children, curriculum, etc). How is it different from Russian kindergartens?

2. How has the American kindergarten changed over the last ten years? Do you think the Russian kindergarten has changed, too?

3. Does the American government support the idea of publicly funded preschool education? Why/ Why not? What is the situation like in Russia?

Date: 2015-01-02; view: 882