READING ACTIVITIES

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 562.

PRE-READING ACTIVITIES

1. In small groups, discuss this great annual event – the start of the academic year and the feelings connected with it – expectation, anticipation, joy, fear…

2. Decide whether a teacher's appearance plays any role in teacher-student relationship. Can an attractive and smartly-dressed teacher motivate students to study (or vice versa)?

3. Discuss the problem of student pranks and teachers' attitude to them. Prove/disprove the idea that a teacher's relation to a student joke can make or break friendship between them.

4. Read the opening paragraphs and comment on the mood the author creates. Do you think this mood will prevail throughout the whole story?

Early in October school began as usual in Ponder's Mill. Sarah and Lilly walked up the hill together, wearing their new school clothes. Yellow leaves from the elms along Main Street fell on the girls' heads and whirled in gentle circles around their feet.

Sarah and Lilly were beginning the fifth grade. The brick schoolhouse had four grades on each of its three floors. The higher the grade went, the higher up in the schoolhouse the classroom was. So now, for the first time, the girls would be in a room on the second storey.

"Do you think the new teacher will be nice?" Lilly asked.

Sarah started every year by liking the teacher she was used to better than the new one. This year there was a special mystery because the regular fifth-grade teacher had moved away. No one knew anything about her replacement.

"I hope so," said Sarah. "But it will be worth having a new teacher to be in one of the rooms with a fire escape."

"You bet," Lilly agreed. "That'll be fun."

The fire escapes were two big metal tubes. They started in one room on each of the upper floors. They sloped from the school building to the ground outside. Whenever there was a fire drill, Mr Bostrum, the principal, rang the bell in the tower. Then all the children on the second and third floors hurried into a room with a fire escape in it. One by one they sat down at the top opening of the metal chute and pushed off. They whizzed down the giant slides and quickly emptied the top floors of the school. On the second floor, the fire escape began in the fifth-grade room.

All the upstairs pupils in the school learned how to use the tubes and thought they were fun. But Mr Bostrum only clanged the bell two or three times a year. Everyone agreed that it would be a shame to waste such great slides by using them just during fire drills. So sometimes, when the teacher wasn't looking, one of the children disappeared down a chute.

Now Sarah would have her turn in a fire escape room. Sarah and Lilly hang their jackets on hooks in the dark, wood-lined hall. The first thing they noticed was the new sign mounted on their classroom door. M. EMERSON, FIFTH GRADE was printed on it.

"She sounds old, don't you think?" Sarah guessed.

"And maybe mean, too."

Lilly gave a little shudder. They exchanged worried looks. Then they crossed their fingers for luck and went timidly inside. But the teacher wasn't there yet. It was still ten minutes early. The other pupils were gathered around the top of the metal tube at the back of the room. They were talking in whispers. They motioned to the girls to join them.

Pete Robbins, who was the biggest boy in their class, said, "We've got this plan, see. Whenever the new teacher goes to the blackboard and turns her back, some of us will go down the chute. As many as can before she figures it out. Maybe she doesn't even know about the slide yet."

Sarah thought it was risky, but she had to admit, it was a great temptation. At least they'd find right way what the new teacher was like.

5. Read on. Pay attention to the adjectives the author uses to depict the new teacher.

Now there was the sound of footsteps in the hall. The pupils scurried to their seats. They were looking straight ahead when the knob turned. The door opened. And the new teacher stepped into the room. He had broad shoulders and narrow hips. He was dressed in a tan suit with a plaid waistcoat. A heavy gold chain hung across his chest. He walked briskly to the front of the room.

"I am Mr Maxfield Emerson. I will be your teacher for the next year."

His voice was pleasant and golden, like his watch chain and his hair. His mustache was the same color. It curled up on the ends. Even his eyes glinted gold. He smiled in a dignified way at the children in front of him and brushed his hand over the curl on the top of his head. The curl bounced back, as if it were determined for Mr Emerson to be as handsome as possible.

The class sat perfectly still while he called the roll. There had never been a man teacher in Ponder's Mill School except in the very highest grades! Sarah swallowed. Mr Emerson was the handsomest man she had ever seen. She couldn't believe he was going to be her teacher. Mr Emerson walked to the blackboard at the front of the room.

"These are the subjects we are going to study together during the year," he announced. He picked up the chalk and turned his back to the class. At the top of the board he wrote HISTORY. He had only written THE UNITED STATES underneath it when Pete Robbins disappeared down the slide. Three of his friends quickly followed him. A few other pupils slipped into the seats that were now empty closest to the back corner of the room.

Mr Emerson finished his list under HISTORY and turned his face to the class. He took the shiny watch out of his vest pocket and glanced at it. Then he turned his broad shoulders back to the board.

He hadn't noticed a thing!

"Another subject will be English."

He started a new column on the blackboard. Five or six more children seemed to be sucked down the chute while others shifted to the places they left vacant. Their parents would never have believed they could move so quietly.

The sound of chalk stopped. Then Mr Emerson began another column headed ARITHMETIC. Sarah tiptoed quickly to the tunnel and swooshed down it. The others were waiting in a circle around the end of the tube.

"Did he see you?" they asked. "No, he doesn't suspect at all."

Someone said, "Boy, he must be sort of dumb." They'd never believed they could be so successful. Finally Piggy Hayden, the last of the missing, popped out of the tunnel.

Poor Mr Emerson. His whole class disappeared on his very first day. Sarah almost felt sorry for him.

6. Now finish reading the story. Does the ending make you smile? Why?

Just then there was another sound. It was a soft swishing noise as if Aladdin's hand was rubbing his magic lamp. Obediently the genie appeared.

Mr Emerson stood up at the bottom of the fire escape. Carefully he smoothed the curl on top of his head. He adjusted the chain across his vest. The class didn't know what to do — so it did nothing.

Mr Emerson looked around the circle of staring faces.

"Congratulations. You're a very alert class. I confess I didn't even hear the fire drill bell myself." The smooth golden voice went on. "But soon after this young man left, I started timing you." His hand dropped casually on top of Pete Robbins's bristly head. Pete groaned.

"From then until the last one was out" — Mr Emerson looked at Piggy now — "it only took you four-and-a-half minutes. That's excellent. You were so quiet and orderly, too. Mr Bostrum will be pleased. Now, if you'll all march back upstairs, we'll see if you're as smart at your studies."

Without a single word, the fifth grade marched.