IB English B TEXT TYPES SKILLS SUPPORT: CONTEXTUAL PARAGRAPH LISTENING LESSON

TEXT TYPES SKILLS SUPPORT LISTENING LESSON: How to Write Contextual Background Paragraph
(60 minutes)
This lesson supports the writing of the following text types: Essays, Letters to the editor, Opinion columns, News and magazine articles, Speeches, Blog posts, Proposals, Official reports.
Resources:

1. No-prep, ready-made SLIDESHOW
2. Student WORKBOOK
3. Student Workbook ANSWER KEY
4. Audio Track

Lesson Outcome:
By the end of this lesson, your students will have practised listening skills to learn about a way to structure a contextual background paragraph. They will then create substitution tables based on mentor sentences to generate a range of general statements to begin their paragraphs. Their homework will be to write a contextual background paragraph based on IB-themed prompts.

Activities:

1. Activity 1 PRE-LISTENING TASK STARTER: to write 5 things they already know about writing contextual background paragraphs. (2 minutes)
2. Activity 2 LISTENING TASK: to identify 30 factual details about writing contextual background paragraphs by listening to an audio lesson and filling in listening gaps and answering comprehension questions. (8 minutes)
   (Please note: this is not a listening test; it does not have the same rigour and level of difficulty as a listening exam. Its purpose is to teach students about writing effective hooks.)
3. Activity 3 AGREE and MARK TASK: to share and agree on the answers. Then they will mark their work using the given answer key. (2 minutes)
4. Activity 4: SUBSTITUTION TABLE TASK: to work in groups to generate a range of synonyms to create a substitution table to help them structure their general statements. (20 minutes)
5. Activity 5: SHARING TASK: to share their responses with one another so that each student has the same information recorded in their workbooks. (25 minutes)
6. PLENARY: to record 5 takeaways from the lesson. (3 minutes)
7. HOMEWORK: To complete two writing tasks: 1) to create a range of general statements; 2) to write a contextual background paragraph.

Apart from the need to print workbooks and a few bits of admin, this lesson is NO-PREP, INSTANTLY-USABLE.
(You just need to run through the slideshow to familiarise yourself with the lesson elements.)