Урок-экскурсия по Москве (английский для 9-11 классов)

A. Students and Settings

Age: 14-15 y.o.

Grade level: 9^th Grade

Type of Institution: public school

Number of students: 15

Students have access to a multi-media lab where they can scan images, use computers for writing, create PowerPoint presentations, access the Internet, etc. There is a whiteboard, TV, and VCR in their classroom.

The class meets three times a week for 6 years.

Length of each class meeting: 60 minutes.

B. Lesson background

The previous lesson concerned our native country, Russia. Now we are expanding this topic and speak about the capital of Russia - Moscow. Following this lesson we are going to make a virtual excursion of the city, to talk about its places of interest, some history points, etc. Also we are going to take a quiz with the help of PowerPoint presentation.

C. Learning objectives / expected results

Objectives:

• to name the main places of interest of Moscow;

• to recognize some important historical events;

• to illustrate some interesting facts about Moscow;

• to answer the question of the quiz;

• to summarize the information about Russia and Moscow.

Expected results:

• to collect knowledge about native city;

• to improve listening, reading and speaking skills;

• to get ready for the writing assignment.

D. Materials and sources

The PowerPoint presentation is made for the lesson. It includes the whole necessary material.

List of sources:

1. Description of places of interest:

2. Some facts about Moscow:

E. Procedures / timing

Teacher does / says

Students do / say

Approximate time needed

Good morning, boys and girls. Today we continue talking about our country and of your native city. We'll have a virtual excursion to Moscow. You will learn the history of the city, its places of interest and a lot of useful information. You will read, speak and do some exercises. I will be your guide at our lesson.

Good morning, teacher.

1 minute

Let's start our excursion. The first station is a "Phonetic" minute. Look at the whiteboard and repeat after me:

The land of Moscow -- the land that is my native,

Where in the dawn of my best years,

I spared the hours of carelessness, attractive,

Free of unhappiness and fears (A.Pushkin).

Children read the fragment of the poem "The Land of Moscow..." written by A.Pushkin together.

2 minutes

Tell me, please, what attitude to the city did the author express in these lines?

• Alexander Pushkin loves his native city.

• He recalls careless time that he spent there.

• He has positive emotions speaking about Moscow.

1 minute

Now let us revise the previous material about Russia.

• Russia is a transcontinental country, extending halfway around the northern hemisphere and covering much of eastern and north-eastern Europe and the whole of northern Asia.

• In terms of population, Russia is the ninth largest country in the world, even though it's the world's biggest country.

• Russian language uses the Cyrillic alphabet instead of the Latin and is one of the 5 most spoken languages in the world.

• Russia is the only State in the world, on the territory of which there are 12 seas.

• Russia is the only country in the world that hosted 2014 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games on the Black sea coast in a humid subtropical climate

2 minutes

Thank you. Let's pass to our topic. Look at the whiteboard (Slide 1).

As you should know, Moscow is the capital of Russia.

Moscow is governed by a city council and a mayor and is divided into boroughs. The five major sections of Moscow form concentric circles, of which the innermost is the Kremlin, a walled city in itself. Its walls represent the city limits as of the late 15th cent. The hub of the Russian railroad network, Moscow is also an inland port and has several civilian and military airports.

Moscow's major industries include machine building, metalworking, oil refining, publishing, brewing, filmmaking, and the manufacture of machine tools, precision instruments, building materials, automobiles, trucks, aircraft, chemicals, wood and paper products, textiles, clothing, footwear, and soft drinks.

Children look at the whiteboard and listen to the teacher.

2 minutes

Now let's read about some history events which took place in Moscow.

Children read the statements one-by-one:

• 1147 - The first mention in the Historical Chronicles.

• 1328 - Moscow became the capital city of the Great Moscow Principality and of all Russian Lands.

• 1612 - A people volunteers' corps under the commandment of Minin and Pozharsky liberated Moscow from the Polish invaders.

• 1713 - Under the reign of Peter I the capital city of Russia was moved from Moscow to Petersburg

• 1755 - The first Russian university called Moscow University (MSU now) was founded.

• 1812 - The Patriotic War with Napoleon. Big fires in Moscow. During that fire almost all the buildings were destroyed and few ancient buildings keep intact.

• 1918 - On the 12th of March the city of Moscow became the capital of the Soviet Russia.

• 1935 - The first line of Moscow Metro was opened and put into operation.

• 1941 - Defeat of the German forces in the battle of Moscow

• 1980 - Organization and carrying out of the XXII Olympic Games.

• 1991 - In august 21 there was a small revolution set in Moscow. The government was changed and there had been tanks for several days in the centrum of Moscow. At this time the Soviet Union was over, but it was a strange time for some period.

• 2006 - High from all the oil and gas money Moscow proudly becomes the most expensive city in the world.

3 minutes

Write down sketchy the main events of this chronicle.

Children briefly make schemes or table or short notes.

5 minutes

Now it's time to pass to the most famous attractions of Moscow.

Tell me, please, what places of interest of you city come to your mind first?

• Red Square

• Mausoleum

• The Kremlin

• Arbat street

• Gorky Park

• Sparrow Hills

1 minute

Good. Now let's have a look at the whiteboard again. Did you know that:

• The Moscow Kremlin is a very old historic fortified complex at the very heart of Moscow and it has four palaces, four cathedrals, the well-known Kremlin Wall around it and great Kremlin towers. The complex used to be an official residence of the head of Russia when Moscow was its capital and is now the government's headquarters.

• In its earliest incarnation, Red Square was known as Trinity Square, in honor of Trinity Cathedral, which stood on its southern end during the rule of Ivan III. From the 17th century onward, however, Russians began calling the square by its current name, "Krasnaya Ploschad." The name is derived from the word krasnyi, which meant beautiful in Old Russian and only later came to mean red.

Please, go on reading one-by-one.

Children continue reading facts about sightseeing of Moscow.

• The first mausoleum was wooden. In 1924 no one knew if the embalming process used would preserve the body for a long time. The government wanted to maintain it at least for several months so that people from all over of the country could come and see Lenin. But when the embalming technique was proved reliable it was decided to keep Lenin in the mausoleum forever. A new stone building was constructed by architect Shusev in 1930.

• The State Historical Museum is surely one of Russia's treasures, with more than 4,5 mln items and about 14 mln sheets of documents. From the date of its foundation the Museum was not only a storage area for Museum's collection but also the largest scientific and educational center. Every year about 1 mln people visit the Museum, and half of them are children and young people under 18.

• Museum of Cosmonautics in Moscow is one of the largest science and technology museums in the world. The museum's collection includes more than 93,000 items: samples of rocket and space technology, real relics, documents, philately, numismatics, decorative and applied art collection of paintings and graphics.

• The Central Museum of the Great Patriotic War is the unique memorial complex which serves to eternize memory of Soviet people valour, heroism and courage during the Great Patriotic War. The Museum is engaged in research, in cultural and educational work, in event management of youth patriotic upbrining.

• The pride of all Russia - Bolshoi Theater - is one of the world's biggest opera and ballet theaters, rated as high as La Scala in Italy and Covent Garden in England.

• Erected in 1967, Moscow's Ostankino TV and BC Tower is the second tallest free-standing building in the world. It has a structural weight of over 55,000 tons.

• Chystye Prudy (Clean Ponds) were called "Dirty Ponds" till 1703, when Petr Menshikov ordered to make them clean.

• The Patriarch's Pond is one of the main settings of Mikhail Bulgakov's novel The Master and Margarita, which begins with a tram accident by the pond. Although there was never any regular tram service or permanent tram tracks around the pond, for a short time in 1930s, there was a temporary service track used for night storage.

• Gorky Park is a Central Park of Moscow, with an attendance of more 100, 000 a day on the weekend.

• Built during the Stalin's rule, the seven buildings of Moscow, the Hotel Ukraina, the Hotel Leningradskaya, Kotelnicheskaya Embankment Apartments, the Kudrinskaya Square Building, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Red Gates Administrative Building, and the main building of the Moscow State University, have identical architectural style. These buildings are evenly spread around the city and are known as the Seven Sisters in English and Vysotki or Stalinskie Vysotki in Russian. The typical architectural style is called Stalinist Gothic.

• The tallest building in Europe is the "Moscow Tower" located in the Moscow city International business complex. It's 302 meter high and it has 76 floors.

• The Moscow Zoo, founded in 1864, is the largest zoo in Russia. It contains more than 3,000 specimens of 550 species.

• Moscow metro which was opened in the year 1935 is famous for its elegant architecture with art, murals, mosaics, and elaborate chandeliers. The Moscow metro has a total of 182 stations, which boast of one of the deepest subway systems and Europe's longest escalator in Park Pobedy.

10 minutes

Now tell me if you have any questions concerning our topic.

Children ask questions, teacher gives the answers.

2 minutes

Ok, guys, no let's move on to the most interesting part of our lesson. You are going to take a quiz which contains 4 tours . Please, divide into the teams.

Children are divided into three teams, five members in each one.

1 minute

The first tour of our quiz namely "Believe or not?" consists of 9 statements. You are to decide if they are true or false. You can get 9 points maximum. Start, please.

Children work in teams, there are 20 seconds for the statement, 3 minutes for the whole task.

5 minutes

Good. Next step is filling the gaps. There are 6 easy sentences 1 point for each of them. Please, add the missing information.

Children use their notes to complete the sentences.

5 minutes

The third task is called "Personality tour". It contains 6 tasks There are some portraits and facts about famous persons. Correlate them.

Children correlate the pictures.

5 minutes

The last but not least tour concerns sightseeing of Moscow. You are to do crossword puzzles. Every appropriate word brings you 0,5 points (9 points at all).

Children do crossword puzzles.

5 minutes

Let's sum up your scores. (Counts points, announces the winners, etc.).

Children get their rewards.

2 minutes

Now look again at the tasks of the quiz. What was the easier? What was the most difficult?

Children analyze their mistakes.

3 minutes

Today we made a bid step in recognizing our native town. Let's talk about the results of the lesson. (Gives the task for homework).

Children discuss new material, quiz, ask questions, give answers.

4 minutes

Thank you very much for your attention. See you next time. Good-bye.

Good-bye.

1 minute

F. Reflection

The lesson provided a lot of new material for the students and also revised some knowledge. PowerPoint presentation with a lot of pictures helped to visualize information. There were both individual and group kinds of working, students improved their reading, writing and speaking skills. Also children were able to express their emotions, to state their points of view. This lesson was very important for students, it helped them to know better our homeland.