Презентация, доклад по английскому языку Problem-solving activities

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students receives a handout and reads the description of the situation. Comprehension difficulties are cleared up, and the teacher may ask a few comprehension questions, e.g. How many of the hiking group are feeling ill? How many can read a map?
STEP 2 The groups try and find as many courses of action as possible. They should write them down. Then they discuss the advantages and disadvantages of each solution and decide on the best one. Again they should write down the reasons for their choice.
STEP 3 Each group presents their solution. The other groups should challenge the arguments and conclusions of the reporting group.
VARIATIONS:
If a solution cannot be agreed on within the group, the students can try and work out a role play. Each students takes over the part of one of the people in the task and argues from that person’s point of view.

on a hiking trip in the Scottish Highlands with a group of seven pupils, three boys and four girls aged between 13 and 16. You are carrying your own food and tents. You have planned to be out of contact with other people for a whole week, and are expected on Sunday at a small village on the Scottish west coast where you will be picked up by a bus.
Today is Thursday. It has been raining already since Tuesday night and everyone is wet and cold. You know that you have not come as far as you should have done by this time, and you start feeling anxious about getting to the meeting point on Sunday. During the morning a dense fog starts coming down, and within half an hour the mountains and the path are covered in thick fog. You have to walk by compass now, which slows the group down even further.
At lunch time two boys and two girls start complaining about stomach pains, diarrhea and feeling sick. You suspect that some of the water you took from mountain streams may have been contaminated. In the afternoon they feel worse and can only walk very slowly. While climbing down a steep hillside the youngest girl, Rosie, stumbles and falls. She cannot get up. You set up camp and discuss with your group what is to be done.
You are in a valley between two mountain ridges. The nearest road is about 15 kilometres away as the crow flies, but there is no path across the mountains and the moor is beyond them. There is no bridge across the river, and with all the rain of the last few days it may be too deep to wade across.
About 5 kilometres back the way you have come, a relatively easy path turns off which takes you to a lake and a fisherman’s hut about 30 kilometres away. However, you don’t know whether anybody lives in the hut or whether it has a phone. The next village is about 40 kilometres away. About 10 kilometres back the way you have come there is a small forest where you could find some firewood. You have enough food till Sunday and there are mountain streams nearby. You also have camping gas cookers and enough gas for three hot drinks and two warm meals a day, but there is no firewood. The only people who can read a map and use a compass, apart from you, are one of the sick boys and Fiona, the oldest girl (she is feeling all right). Rosie is in a lot of pain and needs a doctor soon.

disagreeing, comparisons.

The teacher explains the situation: “ The Earth is gloomed. All life is going to perish in two days due to radiation. A spaceship from another solar system lands offer to rescue twelve people, who could start a new world on an empty planet very much like the Earth. Imagine you are the selection committee and you have to decide who may be rescued. Think of a list of criteria which you would use in your decision.”
Each group discusses the problem and tries to work out a list.
Each group presents its lists of criteria to the class. The lists are discussed.
Variations:
The task can be made more specific, e.g. “Find ten criteria. You can award up to 100 points if a candidate gets full marks on all counts, e.g. appearance-5; intelligence-30; fertility-15; physical fitness-20; etc.
Remarks:
Although the basic problem is a rather depressing one, it helps
students clarify their own values as regards judging others.

broken out where you live. You have a few minutes to grab five of your belongings and rescue them. Which five things would you take? Remember you have to carry them all.”
STEP 1: Each student writes down up to five things he would rescue from the fire.
STEP 2: Some students read out their lists and explain why they would take these things. The others should ask questions like “ Why wouldn’t you take…? What about your…?”
Variations: A different situation may be chosen:
“ You are staying on your own in a holiday cottage in Scotland for three month next summer. The cottage is miles away from any village or farm. It has electricity and water and a big store of food. The sea is not far away and there is also a trout stream and a small forest. Which things (e.g. radio, books, musical instruments, materials and equipment for hobbies and sports) would you need to survive the three months without being bored?”
Each student makes a list of all the things he would like to take with him. A few students then report back to the class. The most commonly chosen and the most unusual objects can be found out.

executing the solving of a task, cooperation, drawing up tables and lists, note making.

The class is divided into groups of equal size. Each group receives one topic in the opinion poll. Each group member prepares an interview sheet with 2 or 3 questions to ask about his / her topic. He / she should fill in his / her own answers first. Example: “ What do you usually have for breakfast?”

The original group reassemble to organize their data. This may involve quite a lot of discussion where tables or diagrams have to be drawn.
Each group presents their results either in the form of a short talk or by putting up lists, tables, etc. on the wall, so that everyone can have a look.
When everybody in the class has heard what the findings were, questions like “Was there any result that surprised you?”, “What is the most important result?”, “How can we act on these results?” can be asked.

The groups are rearranged so that each member of the new group has to get the answers to his / her questions from all the other members of the group. This means that in order to fill in his / her interview sheet each person has to talk to everybody else in the group.

Statements: Girls are more easily frightened than boys.

Question / Statement: You have just taken off from Heathrow airport, when the Captain welcomes you on board. The Captain is a woman.

you find the most stressful? Why? Which of the following items do you find the least stressful? Why?
1. Transportation problems ( metro, traffic jams ) 2. Overcrowding, noise
3. Money problems, the state of the economy 4. Crime
5. Break-up of relationships ( divorce, separation, etc. ) 6. Work pressures
7. Political situations ( war, boundary disputes, etc. ) 8. Environmental dangers
9. Balancing work and family 10. Lack of privacy

STEP 2 PROBLEM SOLVING

The teacher gives the explanations to the students: “ One way to minimize stress in our life is to make small, but definite changes in our behavior or lifestyle. Below are a variety of different problems whose solutions are related to self-improvement. What advice would you give these people? ( pair-work / group-work )
PROBLEM 1: Judy is a single mother with two kids. She has one full-time and one part-time job to be able to support her kids. Her jobs are very demanding and she is always tired. She feels guilty that she doesn’t have more time for her kids.

wakes up in the morning he drinks liqueur in his coffee. During breaks between classes, he drinks a few beers. Most nights of the week, he goes out and gets drink.

PROBLEM 3: Ruth has a very close friend who recently died of AIDS. She is filled with grief and is finding it difficult to carry on with her life.

PROBLEM 4: Steve has a problem with obesity. He is 50 pounds overweight. He has tried a number of diets and nothing has worked.

PROBLEM 5: Carol and Richard are having marital problems. They have been married for 9 years and recently have not been getting along at all. They have a two-year-old daughter. They are thinking about a legal separation.

Students can solve different problems in the following areas:
Reading books talking to a friend travel astrology meditation
Support group hospitalization drugs exercise shopping
Rehabilitation psychotherapy money religion work change

draws the following diagram on the board. The situation is outlined to the students:
“These are five houses in Baker Street. One person lives in each house. The aim is to find out each person’s name, whether he / she is married or not, what pet he / she owns, which book he / she likes and what he / she likes to drink. Each of you will get a piece of paper with some information on it. Share what you know and try to fill in the table.”

Each student receives his strip of paper. It should be left entirely to the students how they organize the collection of information. The teacher’s sole function is to remind students to use English.

Miss Dudd owns a dog.

Miss Evans is married.

The woman at № 12 has two pets; a tortoise and a rabbit.

The dog owner drinks beer.

The pet at № 14 is a dog.

Mr Abraham lives at № 20

Mr Abraham is a widower; his neighbor is divorced.

The married woman reads thriller.

The woman who likes coffee does not own a pet.

№ 18 is the only house without a pet.

The bachelor likes historical novels.

There are five pets in Baker Street; a cat, a dog, a canary, a rabbit and a tortoise.

Mr Abraham cannot read, he watches TV.

The widower and the spinster like beer.

The whisky drinker owns a canary.

The married woman drinks wine.

Mr Charles lives between Miss Dudd and Mrs Birt.

The dog owner and the cat owner do not live next door to each other.

The dog owner living next door to the bachelor is keen on love stories.

has to find the answer to these questions:
How many men and women work in the management of Friendly Biscuits Inc.?
What are their names and jobs?
Each group receives a different handout which contains only a quarter of the necessary information. The groups have 5 minutes to decide which pieces of information they need and how they can organize their search for more information. Writing things down is only allowed at each group’s “home table”. Members of different groups must not show each other their group handout.
The groups have 5 minutes to interview members of other groups in order to find the answer. The teacher should stress the two rules again: No writing except at the “ home table” of each group No showing of the handout.
After 5 minutes everyone returns to his groups, where all the information is collected. The answers to the questions are written down and handed to the teacher.

The teacher announces which answers are correct.
Variations: Instead of grouping the students at the beginning, this can be done by the students themselves, when each of them has received a handout.

Solution:
Friendly Biscuits Inc.
Board of directors: Ron Preedy, Brenda Pilot, David Parsons
Personal assistants: Mary Hill, Angela Woodhouse, Philippa Gordon.
Secretaries: Carole Ward, John Martin, Jean Carter
Typists: Sheila Rogers, Christina Stead, Roger Haldane.

4 men / 8 women

A directors, he has an all-female staff.
Philippa Gordon is personal assistant to one of the other director.
John Martin is the only male secretary, but he does not work together with the male typist.

There are three directors, a personal B assistant, secretary and typist for each director.
All in all there are four men and eight women.
The personal assistants are Mary Hill, Angela Woodhouse and Philippa Gordon.

Only one of the typists and one of the C secretaries is a man.
The male secretary works for Angela Woodhouse, who is assistant to Brenda Pilot.
Sheila Rogers is not Philippa Gordon’s typist.

Christina Stead is the only typist working for a D male secretary.
Director David Parsons is quite content both with Roger Haldane as typist and Jean Carter as secretary.
Carole Ward would rather work for Angela Woodhouse. Her typist Sheila Rogers can not understand that.

man once or twice a week for the past year. I enjoy his company and have always regarded him as a good friend. He has been very good to me and bought me anything I have asked for. But lately he has talked of marriage. He seems to assume that I’m serious about him and will eventually settle down in some dull little semi in the suburbs. But I have no intention of even contemplating marriage for years yet. And he isn’t successful enough or rich enough to be the man I would choose. I don’t want to hurt him or frighten him off because he does give me a good time. But how can I get over to him that I am only prepared to allow him to be in my company; and not my future husband. (Miss R.W.)

I suppose it is difficult to tell a man who obviously loves you that all you want from him is what you can grab. You are not a fool and you know that sooner or later you are going to hurt him badly. Be straightforward with him now. Think of him for once rather than of yourself and what you might be missing out on if he never saw you again.

I recently broke up with a man I loved and he married another girl. I have been going out with someone else since. He’s 29 and I’m 26. Now he has asked me to marry him and I suppose I would be mad to refuse. But I don’t love him, though I’m fond of him. I live in a small village so I’m unlikely to get another chance. I don’t want to be left on the shelf. My mother says love grows if you marry someone who is good to you. Do you think she is right? (Miss P.J.Suffolk)

I think she is right but I wouldn’t take any bets on it. And I certainly wouldn’t bet on the success of a marriage that’s based on the fear of never getting another chance. Imagine hoe you’d feel if the position was reversed – and he was willing to wed you as a last resort. Wouldn’t you resent it? Maybe you think he’ll never realize the reason you accepted him, but he’s bound to get the message, for no one can keep up a pretence of love for long. You’d be far better off unwed than married to a man who might bore you or irritate you or even repel you Passionate love can overcome the minor irritations and even the major ones. Where there’s no love, there really isn’t much hope either. Why don’t you show a little enterprise and get out of your village? There’s a big world waiting outside.

This girl lives in our neighbourhood for five years, but though she fascinates me. I have never plucked up enough courage to speak to her. I’m also interested in a girl I see at work, and another one I meet at the bus stop. In fact there are lots of attractive girls in my vicinity. Why haven’t I enough nerve to approach them? (Hesitating)

Dear Hesitating, You don’t sound as if you have enough nerve to approach a puff of thistledown and that’s what must be in your brain-box if you’re content to carry on this way. I suggest you peer in the mirror, open your mouth and look closely at the little pink object behind your lips. It’s called your tongue. Until you start using it you’ll never get a girlfriend.

Holiday romance This year I went with my parents to Majorca for a holiday. I was very fed up at the time and I met and fell in love with a waiter from another hotel. It’s really love and it’s changed my whole life. The trouble is that now I’m back home just writing to Pete isn’t enough. I want to go back to him, but I can’t on my own as I’m 16, and on my dad’s passport. Please don’t think it’s infatuation ’cos it’s not. Pete feels the same. We’re both Catholic. Mary (Liverpool)

Dear Mary, If you really love Pete, it won’t matter if you have to wait a while before you are able to go back to him. I suggest you discuss the whole matter with your parents and then perhaps you could arrange with Pete that he comes over and visits you and your family this summer so that you can really get to know each other again.