The weekly column
Article 22, July 2000
HEAVEN AND HELL - a CALL session involving jigsaw reading
By Rolf Palmberg, Department of Teacher Education
Abo Akademi University Finland
The purpose of the lesson plan outlined below is to suggest ways in which a CALL program entitled Heaven and Hell (click here to download) can be used in class to develop EFL learners' reading skills. More specifically, the program gives the learners an opportunity to practise their ability to understand the plain sense of what is stated in the text ("plain sense reading") as well as their ability to read between the lines ("projective reading"). While the program forces the learners to read and re-read the emerging text for both specific and global information, it also develops their flexible and critical reading skills (and, if emphasised by the teacher, their note-taking and dictionary skills).
Suggested pre-computer work
Start the lesson by letting the learners listen to the song "I left my heart in San Francisco" (originally recorded by Tony Bennett but subsequently made famous by Frank Sinatra) and make sure that they identify the song title correctly (it might be a good idea to write the title on the blackboard). This step is necessary to give young people who are probably not familiar with the song a chance to fully appreciate the play on words contained in the punch line of the program text. Do not, however, point out to the learners that there is a connection between the song title and the computer session to follow.
Depending on the proficiency level of the learners you may have to pre-teach (or revise) some of the vocabulary items included in the text, for example accident, angel, bet, blush, discotheque, drugs, earn, expel, gamble, greet, harp, heaven, hell, immediately, Pearly Gate, priest, teenager, and wing.
Suggested computer work
Ask the learners, in pairs, to work with the program Heaven and Hell. Encourage them to make notes of all wrong guesses and to use bilingual dictionaries to check the meaning of any unfamiliar words. Make sure that the song title is still displayed on the blackboard (but do not point this out to the learners).
As the learners have completed the text, ask them, still in the same pairs, to discuss the punch line of the story. Is it funny? If yes, what makes it funny? If not, why not?
Suggested post-computer work
When all learners have completed their texts, ask them, in new pairs or groups of three, to share their views about (a) the punch line; (b) the moral of the story. Depending on the teaching goals of the session, ask the learners to walk around in the class and interview each others to find out who liked this text in particular and who likes this type of stories/puns/jokes in general. Next, invite the learners to tell similar stories or jokes that they may know, concentrating, if possible, on riddles and misunderstandings caused by similarities between words and sentences.
If you have the lyrics of "I left my heart in San Francisco", you could display them on an OHP transparency and invite the learners to sing the song (this would appeal to musically intelligent learners). Or, if you don't have them, you could invite the learners to look for the lyrics on the internet for homework. You could also ask the learners to bring with them their favourite jokes and riddles for the following language session, or, you could challenge them to find other versions of the "Sam Frank's disco"-story on the internet to be read out in class on the following EFL session. (Type in "Sam Frank's disco" and request the exact phrase. There are many versions of the story.)
Heaven and Hell - about the program
Heaven and Hell provides EFL learners with an alternative approach to reading comprehension. The program starts with a blank screen, and the learners' task is to complete the story by giving correct answers to multiple-choice questions appearing on the screen in random order. For each correct answer given, the appropriate portion of the story will be displayed in its correct place on the screen like a piece of a jigsaw puzzle. By learning from their wrong answers and by carefully examining the portions of the text that are already displayed on the screen, the learners can practise deductive thinking that will eventually help them complete the story.
Heaven and Hell - the text*
This is the story of two brothers, Sam and Joe Frank. Joe was a hard-working pupil and left school as the best student ever. He continued his studies at the university and became a priest at the age of 25.
Sam, the older brother, was quite his opposite. He was lazy, mixed with the wrong kind of people and was expelled from school for stealing money. He did not even try to get a proper job, but instead earned his living by gambling, selling drugs to teenagers and betting on horses.
The two brothers kept seeing each other daily until one day they died in a car accident. Joe came to heaven, where he was given angel's wings and a golden harp. Sam was sent to hell, where he opened a discotheque.
Two years passed. One evening Joe asked Saint Peter whether he could visit his brother in hell. "Of course", Saint Peter said, "but you must take your harp with you and be back before midnight." Joe went to hell, was greeted by Sam and spent several hours talking in his discotheque. But when it was time to go, he forgot to take his harp with him.
Back at the Pearly Gate, Saint Peter immediately saw that Joe's harp was missing. "Where's your harp?", he asked. Joe blushed, but instead of answering, he started to sing: "I left my harp in Sam Frank's disco ..." ______
* This is a modified version of a story that circulated among university students in Finland in the 1970's. The origin of the story is unknown, but there exist many versions of it on the internet.
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