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Related materials from ESL Discussions.com on prisons and video games. THE ARTICLEPlayStations banned in UK jailsThe heads of British prisons have banned prisoners from playing computer games that have an adult rating. Under new rules, prison authorities have also decided not to buy any more games or games consoles for prisoners. However, they are allowing prisoners who behave well to buy their own PlayStations or xBoxes. Prisons can also allow prisoners at risk of suicide to play games to keep them occupied. The new crackdown on the games culture in prisons is because of a fear that many games make prisoners more violent. The Prison Service has called an end to its PlayStation Project, where games consoles were given to highly dangerous prisoners. The reason for introducing prison gaming was to stop prisoners from getting too depressed.
The British government sparked anger last year when it admitted to spending $20,000 on games and equipment for prisoners to use in their cells. There was public uproar when a convicted killer was photographed with a PlayStation in May. A leading prison reformer, Geoff Dobson, said games did serve a useful purpose to keep order in prisons. “We should not forget the usefulness of these games to prison officers…keeping order in overcrowded prisons,” he said. Dobson added that because of overcrowding, prisoners were spending more time in their cells doing nothing and becoming more frustrated. He summed up the problem, saying: "The bottom line is access to computer games is no substitute for [useful] activity like work or education classes.”
WARM-UPS1. PRISON: Walk around the class and talk to other students about prisons. Change partners often. After you finish, sit with your partner(s) and share your findings. 2. CHAT: In pairs / groups, decide which of these topics or words from the article are most interesting and which are most boring.
Have a chat about the topics you liked. Change topics and partners frequently. 3. PRISON OPINIONS: Do you agree with these opinions? Talk about them with your partner(s). Change partners and share what you talked about.
4. PRISON CELLS: What do you think prisoners should be allowed to have in their cells? Rate the items below: 10 = “Prisoners must have this” 1 = “No way on Earth should prisoners have this”. Discuss your ratings and reasons with your partner(s).
5. HEADLINE PREDICTION: With your partner(s), use the words in the “Chat” activity above to predict what the news article will be about. Once you have your story, change partners and share them. Who was closest to the real story? 6. PRISONER: Spend one minute writing down all of the different words you associate with the word ‘prisoner’. Share your words with your partner(s) and talk about them. Together, put the words into different categories. BEFORE READING / LISTENING1. TRUE / FALSE: Look at the article’s headline and guess whether these sentences are true (T) or false (F):
2. SYNONYM MATCH: Match the following synonyms from the article:
3. PHRASE MATCH: Match the following phrases from the article (sometimes more than one combination is possible):
WHILE READING / LISTENINGGAP FILL: Put the words into the gaps in the text.
LISTENING: Listen and fill in the spaces.The heads of British prisons have ____________________ playing computer games that have an adult rating. ____________________, prison authorities have also decided not to buy any more games or games consoles for prisoners. However, they are allowing prisoners ____________________ buy their own PlayStations or xBoxes. Prisons can also allow prisoners ____________________ to play games to keep them occupied. The new crackdown on the games culture in prisons is because of a fear that many games ____________________ violent. The Prison Service has called an end to its PlayStation Project, where games consoles were given to highly dangerous prisoners. The reason for introducing prison gaming was to stop prisoners ____________________ depressed. The British government ____________________ year when it admitted to spending $20,000 on games and equipment for prisoners to use in their cells. There was ____________________ a convicted killer was photographed with a PlayStation in May. A ____________________, Geoff Dobson, said games did serve a useful purpose to keep order in prisons. “We should not ____________________ of these games to prison officers…keeping order in overcrowded prisons,” he said. Dobson added that because of overcrowding, prisoners were spending more time in their cells doing nothing and becoming ____________________. He summed up the problem, saying: "The bottom line is access to computer games ____________________ [useful] activity like work or education classes.” AFTER READING / LISTENING1. WORD SEARCH: Look in your dictionaries / computer to find collocates, other meanings, information, synonyms … for the words ‘prison’ and ‘cell’.
2. ARTICLE QUESTIONS: Look back at the article and write down some questions you would like to ask the class about the text.
3. GAP FILL: In pairs / groups, compare your answers to this exercise. Check your answers. Talk about the words from the activity. Were they new, interesting, worth learning…? 4. VOCABULARY: Circle any words you do not understand. In groups, pool unknown words and use dictionaries to find their meanings. 5. TEST EACH OTHER: Look at the words below. With your partner, try to recall how they were used in the text:
STUDENT PRISONS SURVEYWrite five GOOD questions about prisons in the table. Do this in pairs. Each student must write the questions on his / her own paper. When you have finished, interview other students. Write down their answers.
PRISONS DISCUSSIONSTUDENT A’s QUESTIONS (Do not show these to student B)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------- STUDENT B’s QUESTIONS (Do not show these to student A)
LANGUAGEThe heads of British prisons have (1) ____ prisoners from playing computer games that have an adult rating. (2) ____ new rules, prison authorities have also decided not to buy any more games or games consoles for prisoners. However, they are allowing prisoners who behave (3) ____ to buy their own PlayStations or xBoxes. Prisons can also allow prisoners at risk (4) ____ suicide to play games to keep them occupied. The new crackdown on the games culture in prisons is because of a fear that many games make prisoners more (5) ____. The Prison Service has called an end to its PlayStation Project, where games consoles were given to (6) ____ dangerous prisoners. The reason for introducing prison gaming was to stop prisoners from getting too depressed. The British government (7) ____ anger last year when it admitted to spending $20,000 on games and equipment for prisoners to use in their cells. There was public (8) ____ when a convicted killer was photographed with a PlayStation in May. A leading prison reformer, Geoff Dobson, said games did serve a useful purpose to (9) ____ order in prisons. “We should not forget the usefulness of these games to prison officers…keeping order in overcrowded prisons,” he said. Dobson (10) ____ that because of overcrowding, prisoners were spending more time in their cells doing nothing and becoming more frustrated. He summed (11) ____ the problem, saying: "The (12) ____ line is access to computer games is no substitute for [useful] activity like work or education classes.” Put the correct words from the table below in the above article.
WRITING:Write about prisons for 10 minutes. Correct your partner’s paper. _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ HOMEWORK1. VOCABULARY EXTENSION: Choose several of the words from the text. Use a dictionary or Google’s search field (or another search engine) to build up more associations / collocations of each word. 2. INTERNET: Search the Internet and find out more about prisons in your country. Share what you discover with your partner(s) in the next lesson. 3. PRISON RULES: Make a poster about prison rules and what prisoners should and should not be allowed to have in their cells. Show your work to your classmates in the next lesson. Did you all have similar things? 4. NO PS3: Write a magazine article about the life of prisoners. Include imaginary interviews with a prisoner whose PlayStation was taken away and the victim of crime. Read what you wrote to your classmates in the next lesson. Write down any new words and expressions you hear from your partner(s). 5. DIARY / JOURNAL: You are a prisoner. Write your diary entry for one day in your life. Read your entry to your classmates in the next lesson. 6. LETTER: Write a letter to the boss of a prison. Ask him/her three questions about his/her prison. Give him/her three pieces of advice on how to improve his/her prison for prisoners. Read your letter to your partner(s) in your next lesson. Your partner(s) will answer your questions. ANSWERSTRUE / FALSE:
SYNONYM MATCH:
PHRASE MATCH:
GAP FILL: PlayStations banned in UK jailsThe heads of British prisons have banned prisoners from playing computer games that have an adult rating. Under new rules, prison authorities have also decided not to buy any more games or games consoles for prisoners. However, they are allowing prisoners who behave well to buy their own PlayStations or xBoxes. Prisons can also allow prisoners at risk of suicide to play games to keep them occupied. The new crackdown on the games culture in prisons is because of a fear that many games make prisoners more violent. The Prison Service has called an end to its PlayStation Project, where games consoles were given to highly dangerous prisoners. The reason for introducing prison gaming was to stop prisoners from getting too depressed. The British government sparked anger last year when it admitted to spending $20,000 on games and equipment for prisoners to use in their cells. There was public uproar when a convicted killer was photographed with a PlayStation in May. A leading prison reformer, Geoff Dobson, said games did serve a useful purpose to keep order in prisons. “We should not forget the usefulness of these games to prison officers…keeping order in overcrowded prisons,” he said. Dobson added that because of overcrowding, prisoners were spending more time in their cells doing nothing and becoming more frustrated. He summed up the problem, saying: "The bottom line is access to computer games is no substitute for [useful] activity like work or education classes.” LANGUAGE WORK
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