At the library

Objective & content

A two-page pack for one everyday situation: finding a book and learning the rules at the library. Pupils learn the words (book, bookshelf, library card, computer, magazine, newspaper) and the phrases to ask for help (I'm looking for a book about dinosaurs. Can I use a computer?), ask about the rules (How many books can I take? When must I bring them back?) and understand the answers (Do you know the title? You can take five books.). Then they hear the same language in a real conversation, the Listen Up! episode "At the library", and use it themselves in a role-play. By the end, they can ask a librarian for a book, find out the rules, and understand the answers.

Pedagogical guide

Page 1 is the language of the situation. Pupils talk about a picture of a boy showing a book to the librarian in a bright town library, write six words under new drawings (the first is done), read a box of useful phrases (what you say or ask, and what you hear), and match five questions to their answers. Page 2 puts the language to work. Pupils complete a short dialogue with words from a box (Mia, who is looking for a book about dinosaurs), then listen to the episode: Oscar needs a book about the Romans for his school project, but someone took it out. A QR code on the sheet plays the recording on a phone or a tablet, with no app and no login. Pupils tick true or false, listen again for four short answers, then do a role-play with A and B cards: a new visitor asks the librarian about the rules. Card B holds the information card A needs, so pupils have to ask. Every task opens with an example. Page 1 and the dialogue use other names, places and prices, so they never give away a listening answer. Page 3 is the answer key with the teacher notes.

Suggested procedure

1. (5 min) Pupils look at the picture on page 1 and say where the people are and what they are doing.
2. (5 min) Pupils write the words under the pictures; check together.
3. (5 min) Pupils read the useful phrases aloud in pairs, one asking and one answering.
4. (5 min) Pupils match the questions to the answers.
5. (5 min) Page 2: pupils complete the dialogue with the words in the box.
6. (10 min) Play the episode once for true or false, then again for the short answers.
7. (10 min) Role-play in pairs with card A and card B, then pupils swap cards.
8. (5 min) Check the answers with page 3.

Adaptations

[S] Pupils read the useful phrases aloud in pairs before the role-play, and keep page 1 in front of them while they play it. [A] Pupils invent their own problem in the same place and act it out without the cards.

Materials & prerequisites

One copy of pages 1 and 2 per pupil; cut out the role cards on page 2. Page 3 is the answer key: keep it. To play the episode, pupils scan the QR code with a phone or a tablet, or you play it to the class from the app (Listen Up!, "At the library"). Pupils need numbers and days of the week, must, and how many.