INTERNET LESSON PLANS
by Jarek Krajka
Maria Curie-Skłodowska University,
Lublin, Poland
jarek(dot)krajka(at)wp(dot)pl

INTERNET LESSON ONE. FOOD ALL OVER THE WORLD

I. Introduction

1. What is your favourite dish? Can you describe its taste?

- It's salty, sweet, spicy, hot, bitter

- It's a kind of/it's made of/it's similar to/it tastes like

2. Do you remember the most unusual thing you have eaten abroad? What was the country, the name of the dish and the taste?

II. Internet work

1. Learning the new:

• Go to Food Museum (http://www.foodmuseum.com/index.html), then click "Exhibits" (or directly http://www.foodmuseum.com/exhibits.htm) and have one group choose a food category, another choose food origins, and the last one some edible animals
• Collect the following information:

  What is its name?
  What does it look like?
  Where is it grown?
  What is its taste?
  What is it used for?

2. Tasting the tastes:

• Do you know any well-known dishes from all over the world that have become global? Pizza? Anything else?
• Go to http://www.topics-mag.com/ and find the issue about foods (http://www.topics-mag.com/foods/world-of-food.htm), then "Global Foods - special foods" (http://www.topics-mag.com/foods/special-foods/global-foods.htm) to go to foods from different parts of the world
• Choose one dish, read about it and describe it to your partner - would you like to eat it or not?

3. Reading recipes

• Are you able to make any dish? Could you tell the recipe for it?
• Go to http://www.ekidchefs.com/index.html or http://www.bettycrocker.com/ and choose either a recipe for snacks, salads, meat or meatless dishes, veggies, desserts or drinks
• Copy the recipe to a word processor and change it slightly. DO give the name of the dish.
• Print the recipe and give to some other student, they need to find the recipe online and correct the mistakes.

4. Comparing cultures:

• Do you know the special features of different cuisines? What makes dishes from different countries distinct? Think about the following:
  Mexican Italian Japanese British American
• Divide the class and assign a country for them to investigate (Korea - http://iml.jou.ufl.edu/projects/STUDENTS/Hwang/home.htm, Greece - http://www.greecefoods.com/, Italy - http://www.mangiarebene.net/index.html, China - http://library.thinkquest.org/C0122155/)
• Complete the table:

  Country
  Typical dish
  Usual ingredients
  Kitchen utensils used
  Tastes

IV. Homework

1. Writing recipes: take the recipes from exercise 3 as a model and write a simple recipe. You can use the foods from http://www.foodmuseum.com/index.html to make as unusual a dish as possible. Later collect the recipes on a class website or a bulletin board.

INTERNET LESSON TWO. MONEY - THE PAST AND THE PRESENT

I. Introduction

1. If possible, ask students to bring money (notes or coins) from different countries they might have visited.

2. Get students in groups and make them tell where the money is from, how much it is, whether they liked the country or not, what the weather is like there

II. Online work

1. Ask students to try to decide if the following statements are True or False

• The first people to produce coins were the Romans.
• Some of the earliest coins were found at the beginning of the 20^th century.

• In Europe coins were made by casting, while in China by striking.
• Holograms are special ways of protecting banknotes against forgery.
• Coins are important source of evidence about the ancient times.
• Money has always been round and of the same shape as we have it now.

2. Groupwork - divide the class into groups. Work on the tasks using the websites given.

• Put the following ways of payment in the chronological order and match each with the year given below:
  base metal coins | credit cards | cattle and crops | paper currency | precious metal coins | cowrie shells
  
  9000 BC | 1200 BC | 1000 BC | 700 BC | 800 AD | 2000 AD
  
  (The History of Money, http://www.pbs.org/newshour/on2/money/history.html)

• Use The History of Money site (http://www.pbs.org/newshour/on2/money/history.html) to explain the terms:

  wampum - beaded shells, called wampum, were the most common form of money in North America
  continentals - the first currency printed by the new republic of US
  wildcat - the name for currency notes printed without the state's consent and worthless
  greenbacks - the informal name for US currency used to finance the Civil War
  Federal Reserve Notes - following the Federal Reserve Act of 1913, these notes became the dominant form of paper currency in America
  

3. Get students in pairs and make them explain the terms and answer the questions.

4. Make students work in pairs or bigger groups. They go to http://www.pbs.org/newshour/on2/money/design.html and use the information given online to correct the mistakes in the following text about the beginnings of US dollars:

Thomas Jefferson, James Adams and Benjamin Franklin designed the dollar. Charles Thomas, who helped create the dollar, was the Secretary of State. The design was adopted by the President of the United States in 1790. On the back of a dollar there is a seal with the American bald eagle. Above the eagle's head there is a burst of light with 12 stars. The pyramid on the bill represents Egypt. All the three powers of the state, the Congress, the executive and the Supreme Court, are represented on the bill.

III. Post-Internet work

1. Ask students to form new groups and devise a US dollar of their own, looking at examples in http://www.pbs.org/newshour/on2/money/design.html.

2. Mix groups and have students describe their design of a dollar without showing the note created.

IV. Homework.

1. Students read the story of a shoplifter (either online at http://www.pbs.org/newshour/on2/money/shoplift.html or printed out) and list some of the reasons why he took to stealing.