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Summit TV Video Program and Activity Worksheets

Teaching Ideas

Summit TV contains two features: authentic on-the-street interviews and ABC News
documentaries.

Teaching Summit TV

PREPARATION
Before you present a video segment to the class:
• Preview the segment to familiarize yourself with the content.
• Review the Teaching Notes to prepare for the lesson.
• Read the video script to familiarize yourself with the language content.
• Read the Language and Culture Notes to be prepared for questions students may ask.
• Review the contents of the Activity Worksheet if you choose to use it in class.

PROCEDURE
The procedure below is the same for both interview and documentary segments. The
interviews are totally unscripted (and feature non-actors) but they were carefully edited
for comprehensibility. A note about authentic spoken language in interview segments:
Since the interviews are unscripted, they represent the reality of how both native and
non-native speakers of English speak. You and your students will note many examples
of run-on sentences, sentence fragments, grammatical errors, misuse of words, etc.
Exposing high-intermediate and advanced learners to this sort of English is valuable,
since it increases their ability to cope with authentic spoken English.
The documentaries include both scripted and unscripted material. They are much longer
than the interview segments, and the scripts were written for native speakers, so you
should expect your students to find them more difficult.
Each video segment has concise corresponding Teaching Notes to assist with
classroom presentation. Each segment also has a corresponding optional Activity
Worksheet, which provides exercises for further practice of the material in the videos.
Following is a three-step structure for presenting a segment.

Step 1—Preview
To help prepare students’ expectations about what they are going to watch and to aid in
their comprehension, ask warm-up questions, brainstorm relevant previously taught
vocabulary, and conduct other preview activities. The Teaching Notes for every video
segment offer specific previewing ideas.

Step 2—View
After a preview activity, play the segment first for general comprehension—to allow
students to get the main ideas. Then replay it several times, focusing students’ attention
differently each time so that students grasp more details. Use the pause button as
needed to focus on sections students have difficulty understanding. Don’t hesitate to
play each segment several times to make students comfortable with the material and to
build their confidence. You may wish to ask students to complete an exercise on the
corresponding Activity Worksheet while they are watching. If you choose to use the
optional Activity Worksheet, you may wish to skip the questions in the View section of
the Teaching Notes. (Complete instructions for using the worksheets are on pages 3–4.)

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Step 3—Review
Ask the comprehension questions provided in the Teaching Notes to guide
comprehension and to make sure students understand the main ideas and key details of
the segment. In addition, or alternatively, you may wish to ask students to complete
exercises on the Activity Worksheet after they have watched a segment.

The Teaching Notes also provide the following features:

Extension Activities
These provide optional oral and writing activities to develop fluency.
Oral work. These may include any of the following: group and pair discussion,
describing, summarizing, interviewing, role-playing, debating, presenting.
Written work. These may include any of the following: summarizing, expressing
opinions, writing letters or e-mails, scripting conversations.

Language and Culture Notes

These provide explanations of oral and idiomatic language and possible cultural issues
that your students may want to know about.

OPTIONAL VIEWING AND REVIEWING TECHNIQUES

Following are some popular techniques you can use for a change of pace. Choose a
technique that is appropriate for the segment you are watching.

Freeze Frame
Purpose: To allow students to stop and think actively throughout the segment.
Use the pause button to stop frequently during viewing to check comprehension or to
ask students what they think will be presented or discussed next.

Captioned Viewing
Purpose: To focus students’ attention on language or to confirm understanding.
Summit TV provides optional closed captioning. Choose “Captions” on the menu. You
may want to play the segment with captions on at the end of the lesson so students
have an opportunity to confirm their understanding. To provide extra support when
students find a segment particularly difficult, you may want to try playing the segment
with captions on so students can listen and read at the same time.

Just a Taste
Purpose: To practice the strategy of predicting as a way to listen more purposefully.
Play the first section of a documentary segment and turn it off. Ask students to predict
what kinds of details they think they are going to see. For example, you can turn it off
right after a news anchor’s introduction. Then play the rest of the segment so students
can confirm their guesses.

Here’s the Ending

Purpose: To get students to think actively in order to make sense of what they are
watching.
Play just the last twenty seconds or so of a segment and ask students to guess what
happened or what kinds of details were discussed earlier in the segment. Then play the
entire segment so students can confirm their guesses.

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Point of View
Purpose: To get students to focus their attention purposefully.
Assign different groups of students to focus on one person each. Ask them to pay
attention specifically to what that person says or does. Then ask the different groups to
explain the topic from that person’s point of view.

Soul Mates
Purpose: To get students to make a personal connection to the people they are
watching.
After viewing a segment, ask students to think about which person they are most like in
a particular segment. Then ask them to explain why.

Letters
Purpose: To get students to actively connect with the content they are watching.
After viewing a segment, ask students to write a letter or e-mail to one of the people or
organizations in the segment. As appropriate, they can make suggestions, request
information, criticize someone’s comments or actions, give support to a particular
person, and so on. Another option would be to ask students to answer their classmates’
letters, imagining that they are the person or organization to whom the letter is
addressed.

Summit TV Guide
Purpose: To get students to practice summarizing effectively.
After viewing a segment, ask students to write a very short synopsis, as one would find
in a newspaper or magazine guide for TV shows. At the end of the term, these can be
bound together as a guide.

Culturally Speaking
Purpose: To get students to notice cultural differences.
After viewing a segment, ask students to list the things they saw or heard that seem
different from their own culture.

Using the Optional Activity Worksheets

The Summit TV Activity Worksheets provide a variety of exercise types that maximize
the value of the video for students. A separate worksheet is available for each On-the-
Street Interviews segment and for each of the two parts in every TV Documentary. It
consists of exercises that elicit both receptive and productive responses. The use of the
worksheets is optional. They can be used consistently every time the class watches the
video, or only occasionally as class time permits.
It would be best for students to do the worksheets in class, either while viewing a video
episode or soon after viewing, depending on the exercise types on a particular
worksheet. Preview the worksheets to see if there are any exercises that require
completing sentences spoken in the video. These exercises should be done while
viewing the video.

Step 1—Preview
Hand out the worksheets. Have students read through each exercise before viewing the
video. Clarify unknown vocabulary. Point out which exercises students will have to do
while viewing the video.
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Step 2—First Viewing

Tell students to turn over their worksheets and to watch and listen only. Play the
segment once or twice for general comprehension. Make sure students don’t try to
complete the worksheets during the first viewing.

Step 3—View and Complete

Have students read the first exercise to focus their attention, and then play the segment.
Depending on the exercise, you can have the students complete it while viewing or
immediately after viewing. Replay the segment as many times as needed. Then have
students complete the rest of the exercises, using the same procedure.

Step 4—Review
After students complete each exercise on the worksheet, be sure to provide feedback.
Immediate feedback will be the most valuable, since the video will be fresh in students’
minds. Here are several ways to provide feedback:
Whole class. Go over the answers as a class, calling on students for answers they
wrote.
Pair work or group work. Divide the class into pairs or groups and have them go over
the answers. Then bring the class together and go over any outstanding questions.
When going over the True and False exercises, be it in groups or as a class, instruct
students to correct the false statements.

Step 5—Evaluate
Teachers can choose to collect the worksheets to gauge the overall comprehension
level of the class. Another option is to circulate while students work on the worksheets
or while they discuss their answers in groups to see if any particular students are having
difficulties. An answer key is provided in the Teaching Notes for each unit. Note that the
final exercise on many worksheets is one that students complete in their own words.
The answer key provides sample responses to these exercises, but the wording of
students’ responses will vary and need not include all information provided in the
answer key sample.

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