Writing & Listening
Lessons 3 and 4
Real World of Work Scenario Games for English Students
Lesson 3
Play I got the facts "Extracting Information"
Difficulty: Silver
Scenario A: A Case of Negligence
To extract key information from text or something you have heard is an important skill that is taught to English students. In this quiz you will be tested on finding the main details from a text, and making a note of those details. Imagine you are a firefighter with the London Fire Department. You and your crew have been subpoenaed to appear in court to testify. The firefighters need your help extracting specific information that needs to be placed in the file. To do this quiz, place your mouse on each picture in scenario A to read the scripts. Pay close attention to the main details of this fictional fireman's account of the fire that took place in London, November 18th, 1987 at The King's Cross station, then answer the questions that follow below. Complete it before your day in court!
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Skill: Learn to extract specific information from a passage or textbook. Read the dialogue below and answer the questions.
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Our dialogue is based on this passage. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King%27s_Cross_fire
We were in the lunch room having a light snack. Fire call came in at 7:30 p.m. Quickly, we reviewed action plans, monitored radio reports, and reviewed our hydrant map.
On arrival, we met the Captain of fire engine 1, officer Pamphile. We, along with three other officers, began attaching the hoses to hydrants. The officers were Sesmo, Ted, and Bernard. There were 180 people trapped in terminals 1 and 2, while the ticket office was engulfed in flames. The fire fighters of fire engine 1engaged on the offensive immediately at terminal 1 with attaching their hose to a hydrant, then providing water to fire engine 2.
The crew of fire engine 2 stretched hoses to Division 1to confine, extinguish the fire and protect life at the subway station. We soon forced entry, aiming water at the blaze. The heat was intense since the blaze roared under the wooden escalator where the fire started. We heard shouting on the floor, and rescued 4 trapped commuters on the left side of the ticket room. The heat intensified rapidly, because the fire was trapped several feet below street level.
Be Encouraged!
If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?
Luke 11:13 KJV
Lesson 3
Play I got the facts "Extracting Information"
Difficulty: Silver
Scenario B: "1st Semester Class: "Persuasion and Media 101"
Do you listen well? It is easy to apply a biased spin to what another person is saying, which is why developing active listening skills is extremely important. Good relationships depend on excellent lisenting skills, and success in class or a career happens with a person's ability to actively listen to a speaker before them. In this quiz, you will be tested on your ability to find specific points from the speaker below based on your listening skills. In this scenario, imagine you are a 1st year University student. This semester, you have signed up for the class "Persuasion and Media 101." As a requirement for the fulfillment of this class, you must attend a live talk on "The Power of Introverts." Listen carefully to the speaker, then answer the questions that follow.
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Skill: Learn to extract specific information from what is heard.
Extracting important details from a passage or any text is a very necessary skill that all students need to learn. What is extracting? Extracting is taking something out. Extracting information is all about zeroing in on important parts of a textbook, or page that will have the information you need.
Before you can begin to extract, you first want to know how relevant is the information your reading. Will it have what you need? A good way to find this out is by skimming through the text before you. Start by moving your eyes across a sentence, with two or three keys words in mind that describes what you're looking for, or what you want to know. Keeping these keywords in thought would help you focus on the text that you want while ignoring the text you don't want.
While skimming through material ask yourself this question "does this material have anything to do with what I want to know?" Evaluate your sources by searching for clues that will prove the material's relevancy. Scrutinizing a source is a lot like detective work, and a very important skill to have.
To begin extracting information from what you read, follow the steps on the info gram below:
Dentists Extract Teeth...
English Students Extract
Words!
All Ears Over Here Please!
Extracting information from what is heard, is different from extracting from what is read. When we read our focus is on the print, with very few distractions (listening requires you to sift through both verbal and non-verbal messages from the speaker). Listening to an audio or a speaker standing right before us, requires us to be attentive so we can quickly grasp what is being said.
If the person is standing in front of you, listen by maintaining relaxed eye contact. There is no need to keep your eyes fixatedly on the person. Remember speakers use different speech mannerisms while talking, so stay focused on the message without becoming distracted by this, or a speaker's accent.
Even your thoughts, own biases, or feelings about a topic can distact you from
listening, or can cause you to jump to your own conclusions. Watch out for those listening blunders.
To begin extracting from what you hear, follow these steps:
Here is a quick guide to skimming + getting information:
Be Encouraged!
And this is the promise that he hath promised us, even eternal life.
1 John 2:25 KJV
Do you need more practice with extracting information?
Do the quiz below!
Our predecessors also lived in caves or build crude shelters; they made stone tools and weapons, and clay culinary ware, and acquired their food by hunting in the forests and waters of the earth.
These pre-historic hunting groups were also small, manageable, and non-hierarchical. Their crude level of technology was insufficiently advanced to allow for the production of significant economic surplus.
Much later, just prior to the dawn of recorded history marked the beginning of planted crops, domesticated animals, the use of fire in the preparation of food, and the building of small towns and cities making possible permanent human settlements and some assurance of continuity as well as a chance of economic surplus. It was under these circumstances that the first complex human civilizations developed.
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More recent components that have been crucial in speeding up the rate of social change include the development of language; the invention of printing; the commencement of trading with other communities of goods and ideas; the ushering in of modern science; and, the change in manual processes of production which is referred to as the Industrial Revolution in the 1750's when the first factories using power-operated machines came into prominence.
"No one said anything about us having to work while being on this trip," said Mike as he turned to get the tent out of the bag.
"I don't know how these stupid poles go together!" yelled Tony.
"It might help if you tried putting the right ends together, dummy," Lacy said."
"Lacy, remember the rule of respect. 'You are to treat others with the same respect you ask others to give you, 'remember?" Diane stated as she stood above the group of teenagers.
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Try another one!
After the group made it through the rapids and to shore, they got out to assess the damages. Cal had hit his head on a rock in the river and was bleeding. Luckily, Steve and Diane had packed a first aid kit in each raft. Diane bandaged the cut on Cal's head.
O.K one more!
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Seth, who was sixteen, had been arrested for attempting to steal a car. Tony and Cal, who were fourteen and fifteen, were picked up for vandalizing the inside of their school. Lacy, fifteen, and Gia, sixteen, were both picked up for shoplifting at two local department stores. Mike was the oldest, at seventeen; he had been picked up for trying to sell stolen property.
Students, Practice Note Taking here!
Learn how to extract important points from a speaker!
Listen for
repetitive key clues.
Jot notes
when a clue is heard.
Follow the format on note taking:
Jot down the 5 essential elements for success.
Jot down the first five Idealab companies that did not succeed.
Lesson 4
Listening Practice "Taking Notes"
Difficulty: Silver
Scenario B: "Practice taking notes from a speaker"
Here is a great way to practice note taking in class or to improve your listening skills. Test this skill now by listening to the short video below, then answering the prompts that follow.
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Skill: Learn how to take good notes from a speaker.
Jot down the first five Non-Idealab companies that succeeded.
Jot down the factor that accounted most for the companies that succeeded.
Jot down the percentage that made up the number one factor.
Jot down the top five Idealab companies that succeeded.
Jot down the example of YouTube using timing and succeeding.