FIVE STEPS TO SUCCESS

Theme: Personality (10^th form);

Objectives:

—   to facilitate students’ free speaking by eliciting personal experience and knowledge;

—          to encourage critical thinking  on life issues;

—          to explore one’s own values within  the group discussion;

—          to provide an opportunity for personal expression; to teach pupils to analyze and draw conclusions; to learn life lessons;

—          to promote positive attitude towards different life situations;  to teach students to meet life challenges with optimism and overcome them.

Equipment: handouts with  texts for reading and exercises, a cassette recorder, a record of the song “Time” by “Pink Floyd”, a story for listening from the book “Chicken Soup for the Soul” by Jack Canfield and Mark Hansen

1. I.                   INTRODUCTION

T.:  Our lesson will be devoted to an issue which is considered to be of great importance today  — success in our life. By the end of the lesson you will learn some important things about yourselves and life. And I hope you will be able to define the word success.  We shall try to find out  how many steps can lead us to success.

First of all, I want  you to complete the quotation and comment on it  And in the course of the lesson we’ll try   to prove it.

 Success doesn’t ________to you – you _____ to it.            (come, go)

S1:  I agree with this quotation because I think that success doesn’t  fall to you from the skies.

You must work hard to achieve something in life. And what about you, S2, what do you think about it?

S2: But I have my own point of view. I’m personally sure that luck and fate play a far more important role than hard work. You may work very hard all your life but remain poor and miserable.  So, I believe in luck. Do you agree with me, S3? Etc.

II.         WARMING UP

Word study:

1)      Word-building and word-combinations to be used:

T.: Form all possible parts of speech and give word-combinations with them:

Succeed- success- successful- successfully;

to succeed in V-ing (Gerund)

to meet with success, to gain success, to achieve success, to  have great success in life,  to be a great success, make a success of something.

2) Creating a mind-map:

What is  the word success associated with?

SUCCESS

___________

                                                             job                                 education

love                               happiness

family                           health

friends                          money

luck                              fate

chance                          knowledge

glory                            wisdom

3) Write on a strip of paper a name of a person whom you consider to be a successful one. Stick your strips onto the blackboard and explain  your choice. Be specific and give examples.

e.g. P1: I think, V.Klychko is a successful man because he has achieved  the highest level of popularity and has become well-known around the world.

P2:  I would definitely consider  my grandpa to be a successful person because, in spite of  being an orphan and having no family support, he managed to get education and succeeded in job career. He started from a small man in the plant and became a director of it. Etc.

1. III.              GROUP WORK (three groups of students).

Let’s look upon what successful people say of success. (Handouts)

Students get scrambled quotations and their task is:

—          to unscramble them,

—          read the quotations,

—           choose the one they like  and

—      comment on them;

—       name the authors of some quotations:

1. others/ some/ while/ people/ dream/ wake up/ hard/ of/ at it/ success/ work/ and

2. have/ you/ if/ to succeed/ the courage/  you/ to begin/ the courage/ to begin/

3. succeed/ with goals/  they/ know/ people/ because/ are going/ where/ they

4. twenty/ it/ to become/ years/ hard work/ of/ success/ an overnight/ takes

5. fail/ men/ not/ are/ to succeed/ born/

6. the ability/  no loss/ success/ failure/ to go/ is/ to another/ from/ with / enthusiasm/ of/ one

7. failure/ success/ you/ way/ pass/ your/ on/ to/ always

8. then/ you/ first/ to yourself/ say/ to do/ have/ you/ what/ would be/ what/ do/and

9. the world/changing/  of/ himself/ but/ thinks/ no one/ everyone/ changing/ of/ thinks/

1. Some people dream of success while others wake up and work hard at it.

2. If you have the courage to begin you have the courage to succeed.

3. People with goals succeed because they know where they are going. (E. Nightingale)

4. It takes twenty years of hard work to become an overnight success.   (Diana Rankin)

5. Men are born to succeed, not fail. (H.D. Thoreau)

6. Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm. (W. Churchill).

7. You always pass failure on your way to success. (Mickey Pooney)

8. First say to yourself what you would be; and then do what you have to do. (Epictetus)

9. Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself. (Leo Tolstoy)

  IV.  STUDENTS  DISCUSS (in groups and choose and introduce their representative to speak)

S1: Our group have chosen the  following quotation: “Men are born to succeed, not fail” Let me introduce our speaker S2 to you.

S2: I want to express the opinion of our group. We have chosen the quotation by Thoreau: “ Men are born to succeed, not fail”, because we think that people must dream and succeed in life. Even if they meet failure on their way to success, they must not stop but strive further, to achieve their goals in life. Etc.

IV.   A SUCCESS PROGRAMME.

1)T.: So, we have come to the point to define the initial  first step to success, the first step is the hardest but the most important. As the Chinese proverb runs,  A JOURNEY OF A THOUSAND MILES MUST BEGIN WITH A SINGLE STEP. And what should this first step be like?

Ps: give ideas:

— Attitude to yourself: study your strong and week points.

— The more we know ourselves the better we understand life. (Elen  Greenland)

-Study yourself and love yourself.

-You are a much nicer person than you think you are. (Herbert A.Otto)

-Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself. (Leo Tolstoy)

2) Revision of lexical vocabulary on the topic “Personality”:

Personality is made up from a lot of different traits of character. Let’s look at some of them from A to Z. In some of the personal characteristics vowels are missing. Fill them in.

A:  absent-minded, _ct_v_, _ggr_ss_v_, _mb_t_ _ _s, arrogant, _m_ _bl_, argumentative

Keys: A: active, aggressive, ambitious, amiable; B: brave, bossy, bright; C: calm, careless, charming; D: docile, dishonest, diligent, direct; E: energetic, easy-going; F: friendly, forgiving; G: gentle, gullible, grateful; H: honest, hostile, helpful; I: ignorant, important, intelligent; J: jolly; K: kind-hearted; L: lazy, leader, M: modest, materialistic; N: noble, nervous, noisy;

O: observant, optimistic, organized; P: passive, pessimistic, proud; Q: quiet; R: reliable, responsible; S: sepfish, shy, stubborn;

T: timid, tactless; U: understanding; V: vain; W: warm, witty, wise

3) S-s read in turn the ABC-characteristics to check.

4)T. It’s high time you described yourselves and pointed  out what you think of yourselves. Ask your classmates to confirm your descriptions.

e.g. S1: I think that I’m an amiable person with strong character, sometimes ambitious and stubborn. S2, do you agree with my description? How do you see me?

S2: I accept you exactly the same person that you’ve described. And I want to add that you are assertive at that. Well, as for me, I am serious …etc.

T.: Now that you know yourselves we can state —  the first step towards success is to study yourself. Let’s mark it on our “Ladder To Success”.

And what about the second step?

S-s:   The second step is to   put a goal.

T.: You have  unscrambled the quotation above by Epictetus it runs the following:  FIRST SAY TO YOURSELF WHAT YOU WOULD BE; AND THEN DO WHAT YOU HAVE TO DO.

T.: As you know, goal setting is the strongest force for human motivation. Set a goal and make it come true. It’s a fact, if you want something very much, you will surely get it.

What features of character one needs to set a goal and go to the top?

S-s: ( name features of character)

V.  LISTENING.

1)Pre-listening task:

a)Anticipation of the contents of the story:

T.: The story is entitled “RISKING”.  Can anyone predict what it may be about in the terms of the topic of our lesson?

(Students try to guess)

b) Introduction of the new words from the text.

T. In the text you will come across some words which may appear unknown to you.

Look  at the picture and let’s name the parts of a plant, which are the main characters in the story.

Seed, roots, sprout, buds, petals, blossoms, beneath, thrust, earth’s crust.

c) while listening task:

Write out one Conditional sentence from the story:

d) Be ready to draw the morale of the story in the end.

RISKING

  Two seeds lay side by side in the fertile spring soil.

          The first seed said, “I want to grow! I want to send my roots deep into the soil beneath me, and thrust my sprouts through the earth’s crust above me… I want to unfurl my tender buds like banners to announce the arrival of spring… I want to feel the warmth of the sun on my face and the blessing of the morning dew on my petals!”

And so she grew.

The second seed said, “I’m afraid. If I send my roots into the ground below, I don’t know what I will encounter in the dark. If I push my way through the hard soil above me I may damage my delicate sprouts…What if I let my buds open and a snail tries to eat them? And if I were to open my blossoms, a small child may pull me from the ground. No, it is much better for me to wait until it is safe.”

And so she waited.

A yard hen scratching around in the early spring ground for food found the waiting seed and promptly ate it.

e)Post-listening activities:

What Conditionals have you written out?

S-s read: If I send my roots into the ground below, what I will encounter in the dark? Etc.

f) Questions:

What is the story about?

What does the story personify?

Can you remember any proverbs to illustrate the story?

e.g.: All things are difficult before they are easy.

The first step is the hardest.

Let’s draw the MORAL OF THE STORY:

S-s give suggestions:

S1: Risking  leads to victory and success.

Those of us who refuse to risk and grow get swallowed up by life. ( Patty Hansen)

VI. RELAXATION WITH MUSIC:

Listen to the song, give a name to it and  be ready to make a story about it:

1)      Insert the missing words:

Ticking away the __________that make up a ______day.  (moments, dull)

You _________ and waste the hours in an _________way. (fritter, off-hand)

Kicking around on a piece of _________ in your ___________, (the ground, hometown)

Waiting for ____________ or ___________ to show you the way. (someone, something)

2)Cross out an extra word from each line:

Tired of lying sitting in the sunshine, staying home to watch the rain,

And you are young and life is long short and there is time to kill today.

And then one day night you find ten years have gone behind you

No one told you when where to run, you missed the starting gun.

3)Arrange the lines in the right order:

The sun is the same in a relative way, but you’re older (3)

Racing around to come up behind you again. (2)

And you run and you run to catch up with the sun, but it’s sinking, (1)

Shorter of breath and one day closer to death. (4)

4)Find a spelling mistake in one word in each line:

Every year is geting shorter, never seem to find the time (getting)

Plans thet either come to naught or half a page of scribbled lines.( that)

Hanging on in a quiet desperation is the english way (English)

The time is gone, the song is over, thought I’d something mor to say… (more)

5) Questions to the pupils:

Is it a happy or a sad song? What makes it sad?

Into how many parts can we divide the song?

Who is the main character of it?

What is he doing in the song?

And what has happened to him?

S-s fulfill the pre-listening task:

S1: The song is about a young man  who is idling his life.

S2: We can divide this song  into two parts: how the young man wasted his time when he was young and when he became older and near to death he regrets of possibilities and chances in his life that he has lost and missed.

S3:

Can you say any proverb related to its plot?

e.g.: LOST TIME IS NEVER FOUND AGAIN.

VII. GYMNASTICS FOR PEOPLE OF MENTAL WORK.

But we must not forget that health is above wealth and we won’t achieve any success if we don’t take care of our health. So it’s time for gymnastics.

1)Exercises to take away the strain:)

(Sitting at the table.)

Hold the back straight.

1-4 Move your head forward – back – to the left – to the right  (2-3 times)

1-4 Make slow round movements of your head from the left;

5-8 Make slow round movements of your head from the right.

2) Exercises for raising the tonus of  the muscles of your shoulders and back: (5-6 times)

1-Hands on your shoulders;

2-Hands up and high – stretch yourself;

3-Hands on your shoulders;

4-Hands down.

1-2 Raise the right bended hand up and back while the right hand down and make a lock behind your back.    3-4 Vice versa  (5-6 times)

 3)Exercises for the belly and self-massage of the stomach: (4-5 times)

1-2     Draw the belly in to the utmost and slowly breathe in;

3-4Protrude the belly as fully as you can and slowly breathe out.

4)Exercises for improvement of blood circulation in your legs (5-6 times)

1- Stand on your toes;

2- Abruptly low your feet on your heels.

5) Exercises for restraining the eyes(3-4 times):

1-Raise your eyes up;

2-Low them down;

3-To the right;

4-To the left.

1-4“Draw” the sign of eternity with your eyes , first from the right side and then from the left.

T.:Now shut your eyes for 10-15 seconds and make affirmation for fruitful and successful work.

VIII. READING:

1)Before –reading task:

Why do Americans honour Abraham Lincoln as  one of the greatest presidents in US history? What are his merits before the nation?

2)While-reading task: scan the text for information and say, how many times Abraham Lincoln failed.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN DIDN’T QUIT

Probably the greatest example of persistence  is Abraham Lincoln. If you want to learn about somebody who didn’t quit, look no further.

Born into poverty, Lincoln was faced with defeat throughout his life.   He could have failed many times – but he didn’t and because he didn’t quit, he became  one of the greatest presidents of the U.S.A.

Lincoln was a champion and he never gave up. Here is a sketch  of Lincoln’s road to the White House.

1816    His family was forced out of their home. He had to work to support them.

1817    His mother died.

1831    Failed in business.

1832    Ran for state legislature – lost.

1832  Also lost his job – wanted to go to law school but couldn’t get in.

1833  Borrowed some money from a friend to begin a business but was bankrupt. The next 17 years of his life he paid off his debt.

1834Ran for state legislature again –won.

1835  Was engaged to be married, his sweetheart died, his heart broke.

1836 Had a total nervous breakdown and was in bed for six months.

1838  Sought to become a speaker of the state legislature – defeated.

1839  Sought to become elector – defeated.

1840  Ran for Congress – lost.

1846  Ran for Congress again – this time he won.

1848  Ran for re-election to Congress – lost.

1849  Sought for the job of land officer in his home state – rejected.

1854  Ran for Senate of the United States – lost.

1856  Sought the vice-presidential nomination at his party’s national convention – got less than one hundred votes.

1858  Ran for U.S. Senate again – again he lost.

1860  Elected president of the United States.

   The path was long and slippery. My foot slipped from under me, knocking the other out of the way, but I recovered and said to myself,

“It’s a slip and not a fall”.  (Abraham Lincoln after losing a senate race)

Post-listening activities:

1) (Students count the failures)

(He lost eight elections, twice failed in business and suffered a nervous breakdown).

2)      The points for discussion:

Why didn’t he quit after all? What other victories by A. Lincoln do you know?

What’s the lesson of A. Lincoln ?

IX. FREE SPEAKING. ROLE-PLAY.  TALK-SHOW  “ What does it mean to be successful?’: (Two journalists, a successful businessman, an actor, a politician, a millionaire, a sportsman, etc., common people in the studio)

Questions for discussion:

What are the criteria of success?

Do we need success in life?

Who can be considered successful?

Can only people who become public figures call themselves successful?

Can all people gain success in life?

How should one act to make a success?

What is the way to success like?

Is it very difficult to gain success?

What are the main steps to success?

Does success depend on a person?

Do you believe in luck and fate?

Is there any difference between success, luck, chance, fate and happiness?

If you’re not lucky, don’t even try?

Can we achieve success? Some people say, no, because every time you put a goal and achieve it, you put another goal and you have to work more and harder and go to the fulfillment of your next goal.

X. BUILDING A SUCCESS-LADDER:

1) Brainstorming in groups and discussing the variants:

 

Job career =   Success

e.g.                                                                  Education

Hard work

Goal

Yourself

2) T.: As you see, we’ve tried our best to prove the words that we read at the beginning of our lesson: “Success doesn’t come to you – you go to it!”

XI. SUMMING UP: So, we have come to the conclusion of the lesson and you can make a definition what success is.  SUCCESS IS….

S1:

S2:

T.:Success is gaining of what is aimed at. (Oxford Student’s Dictionary of Current English A.S.Hornby)

XI.  THE FINAL TOUCH TO THE LESSON:

T.: I want you to read  the words by Anatol France, a famous French writer and point out the verbs of action which teach us what to do and how to live:

” To accomplish great things, we must not only act, but also dream, not only plan, but also believe”  Anatol France.

  So, the verbs are: accomplish, act, dream, plan, believe. Can you arrange this words in the order that can make up the way to success?

Dream – plan  — believe – act – accomplish – and reach success.

XII.  HOMEASSIGNMENT:

Write a success story of any successful person and show the way how s/he moved towards his/her success.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

1. Дейл Карнеги. Язык успеха. Москва. Эксмо-пресс, 2001.
2. Наталья Правдина. Я привлекаю успех. Санкт-Петербург. «Невский проспект», 2004.
3. Н.В. Тучина, Т.К.Меркулова, В.С. Кузьміна.  Speak English with Pleasure. Torsing Publishing House. Харків.2003.
4. Н.В. Тучина, Т.К.Меркулова, В.С. Кузьміна. Read and Speak English with Pleasure. Torsing Publishing House. Харків.2004.

1. Chicken Soup for the Soul. Health Communications, Inc.
2. O.D. Karpiuk. English. 10^th Form. “Видавництво Карп’юка, 2003.
3. Oxford Student’s Dictionary of Current English. A.S. Hornby. Oxford University Press, 1984.
4.  New Headway English Course. Liz and John Soars. Upper Intermediate. Oxford University Press.
5. Internet Resources.

APPENDIX: Materials for the Lesson

1. 1.    Song

Ticking away the moments that make up a dull day.

You fritter and waste the hours in an offhand way.

Kicking around on a piece of ground in your hometown,

Waiting for someone or something to show you the way.

Tired of lying in the sunshine, staying home to watch the rain,

And you are young and life is long and there is time to kill today.

And then one day you find ten years have gone behind you

No one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun.

And you run and you run to catch up with the sun, but it’s sinking,

Racing around to come up behind you again.

The sun is the same in a relative way, but you’re older

Shorter of breath and one day closer to death.

Every year is getting shorter, never seem to find the time

Plans that either come to naught or half a page of scribbled lines.

Hanging on in a quiet desperation is the English way

The time is gone, the song is over, thought I’d something more to say…

ACTIVITIES WITH THE WORDS OF THE SONG:

1)    Insert the missing words

Ticking away the __________that make up a ______day.

You _________ and waste the hours in an _________way.

Kicking around on a piece of _________ in your ___________,

Waiting for ____________ or ___________ to show you the way.

2)Cross out an extra word from each line

Tired of lying sitting in the sunshine, staying home to watch the rain,

And you are young and life is long short and there is time to kill today.

And then one day night you find ten years have gone behind you

No one told you when where to run, you missed the starting gun.

3)Arrange the lines in the right order

The sun is the same in a relative way, but you’re older

Racing around to come up behind you again.

And you run and you run to catch up with the sun, but it’s sinking,

Shorter of breath and one day closer to death.

4)Find a spelling mistake in one word in each line

Every year is geting shorter, never seem to find the time

Plans thet either come to naught or half a page of scribbled lines.

Hanging on in a quiet desperation is the english way

The time is gone, the song is over, thought I’d something mor to say…

1. 2.     Questions for the Talk-Show

IX. FREE SPEAKING. ROLE-PLAY.  TALK-SHOW  “ What does it mean to be successful?’: (Two journalists, a successful businessman, an actor, a politician, a millionaire, a sportsman, etc., common people in the studio)

Questions for discussion:

What are the criteria of success?

Do we need success in life?

Who can be considered successful?

Can only people who become public figures call themselves successful?

Can all people gain success in life?

How should one act to make a success?

What is the way to success like?

Is it very difficult to gain success?

What are the main steps to success?

Does success depend on a person?

Do you believe in luck and fate?

Is there any difference between success, luck, chance, fate and happiness?

If you’re not lucky, don’t even try?

Can we achieve success? Some people say, no, because every time you put a goal and achieve it, you put another goal and you have to work more and harder and go to the fulfillment of your next goal.

3. Unscramble the Quotations.

1. others/ some/ while/ people/ dream/ wake up/ hard/ of/ at it/ success/ work/ and

_________________________________________________________________

2. have/ you/ if/ to succeed/ the courage/  you/ to begin/ the courage/ to begin/

__________________________________________________________________

3. succeed/ with goals/  they/ know/ people/ because/ are going/ where/ they

___________________________________________________________________

4. twenty/ it/ to become/ years/ hard work/ of/ success/ an overnight/ takes

___________________________________________________________________

5. fail/ men/ not/ are/ to succeed/ born/

___________________________________________________________________

6. the ability/  no loss/ success/ failure/ to go/ is/ to another/ from/ with / enthusiasm/ of/ one

______________________________________________________________________

7. failure/ success/ you/ way/ pass/ your/ on/ to/ always

_____________________________________________________________________

8. then/ you/ first/ to yourself/ say/ to do/ have/ you/ what/ would be/ what/ do/and

_________________________________________________________________________

9. the world/changing/  of/ himself/ but/ thinks/ no one/ everyone/ changing/ of/ thinks/

_________________________________________________________________________

B:  br_v_,  bad-tempered,   boastful,  b_ss_,  br_ght,

C:  c_lm,  caring,  c_r_l_ss,  cautious,  conscientious,  ch_rm_ng,  curious, courageous,  cowardly,

D:   d_c_l_,  decisive,  dutiful,  d_sh_n_st,   d_l_g_nt,  dogmatic,  domineering, d_r_ct,

E:  _n_rg_t_c,   enthusiastic,   _ _s_-g_ _ng,   emotional,

F:  fr__ndl_,   forgetful,   f_rg_v_ng,   fussy,

G:    generous,   g_ntl_,    gentlemanly,   g_ll_bl_,    gr_t_f_l,   greedy,

H:  hard-working,    h_n_st,    hospitable,    h_st_l_,    humorous,    h_lpf_l, hypocritical,

I:  idealistic,    _gn_r_nt,    indifferent,     imaginative,    _mp_rt_nt,    impulsive, _nt_ll_g_nt,

J:  j_ll_,   jealous,

K:  knowledgeable,    kind,     k_nd-h_ _rt_d,

L:  likable,    l_z_,      lively,    loyal,      l_ _d_r,

M: merry,     messy,      m_d_st,     moody,      m_t_r_ _l_st_c,

N:  naughty,  naive,   nasty,    n_bl_,      non-competitive,    n_rv_ _s,     n_ _s_,

O:  obedient,    _bs_rv_nt,     open,    _pt_m_st_c,   original,     _rg_n_z_d,

P:  painstaking,    p_ss_v_,    patient,    p_ss_m_st_c,   polite, persistent,, pr_ _d, passionate,    punctual,

Q:  quick-witted,    q_ _ _t,

R:  realistic,      r_l_ _ bl_,   reserved,    r_sp_ns_bl_,     reasonable, ruthless,

S:  selfless,    s_lf_sh,,     skeptical,   slow,   sociable,   sensitive, serious, sincere,  sh_,      st_bb_rn,

T:  tactful, t_m_d, thorough, trustworthy, t_ctl_ss,

U:  unpunctual,   untrustworthy,    uncooperative,      _nd_rst_nd_ng,

V: v_ _n,    vengeful,

W:  w_rm,     weak-willed,   willful,      w_tt_,      w_s_,    well-balanced,

X: xenomaniac

Y: youthful

Z:  zealous