Topic: Moral values
Objectives: Practical: to enrich the vocabulary on the topic "Crime"
Developing : to develop students reading skills ; to develop students" speaking skills
Upbringing: to motivate students towards learning English
Materials needed: the magazine article "How bad are they? "
Procedure
1. Beginning
1) Introduction of the lesson
2) Warming-up
T. Answer the question: What would you do if you found a large quantity of money, enough to change your life, in the street ?
2. The main part
Reading activity
Pre-reading activity
1)First lines.
Read the headline "How bad are they ?"
What will the text be about? Make as many possible predictions as you can.
2)Vocabulary
Word associations
Complete the following as a group:
Write down two headings on the page:
1. Crime. 2. Money
Write down each of the words or phrases in the list that follows under one of the two headings, according to which one they best describe. Be ready to share your lists with the class.
Vocabulary
fine |
To make someone to pay money as a punishment |
sentence |
A punishment that a judge gives to someone who is guilty of a crime |
custodial |
The punishment of spending time in prison |
thief |
Someone who steals things from another person or place |
crime |
Illegal activities in general |
Vocabulary check
Complete the sentences using the words from the list above :
1. He was given a two-year ------------- sentence.
2. --------broke into the offices and stole 150,000, worth of computer equipment.
3. Street -------- was rising rapidly in London.
4. She was --------- for speeding.
5. She received an eight-year -------------.
While-reading activity
Read the text and find the answer to the following question: What are the two reasons for feeling that this kind of crime is less serious ?"
How bad are they ?
When the Crosdale family discovered a cash machine that wouldn't stop giving out money, they withdrew 134,10. Now three of them are in prison. Was their crime really that bad ? Philosopher Julian Baggini considers that case.
Friday January 17, 2003
The Guardian
Free unlimited cash. It has got to be the ultimate dream of the contemporary consumer who wants it all and wants it now. And it's what the Crosdale family of Coventry thought that they had found when they, along with many others in their neighborhood, discovered an obliging cash machine that just couldn't say no. On repeated visits to the machine, the four of them took out 134,410, and with a shopping list straight from Alan Patridge, they splashed out on an Alfa Romeo, a Jamaican holiday.
The first reaction of many people to this story is, I suspect, like mine. I laughed… But if you begin to think about it you can start to feel like the ashamed schoolchild who has just been caught drawing smutty pictures. For why should theft be funny ? These people were thieves. We are much less likely to laugh along with people who take money from cash tills in shops, or who walk out of a department stores with digital cameras stuffed down their trousers.
And let's be clear that this is theft…That is what the courts have decided and now Mr Crosdale and his daughter are to serve 15 months in jail, while his son will spend 12 months behind bars and his wife awaits sentencing.
Theft it may be, but these sentences are absurd…The first- or even second time burglars should not face custodial sentences, they just seem perverse. And the Crossdales are unlikely to reoffend ,unless of course, lightning strikes the same cash machine twice. So a slap on the wrist and a modest fine or light community service would seem much more appropriate.
But…why do we instinctively find this kind of theft less serious or even harmless ?
There are two types of reason. One us purely psychological. We can imagine what it is like to be in such a situation, and once in it, all of the social conventions and cues that help to prevent theft just disappear. You are not confronting a person but a machine. It doesn't feel like theft, because the transaction on is completely impersonal …And the threat of being caught does not seem real.
But there is a second, more principled explanation. As Mr Crosdale said : " It is a victimless crime and the bank gets its money back from insurance anyway. "This is probably how most people view taking money from large corporations: harms no one and benefits the theft. So what's the problem ?
Its'not quite true that such crimes are victimless. We all pay higher process in shops, for example, because companies need to add on the costs of stolen goods and security measures.
Do we want to be the kind o people who are only willing to refrain from doing wrong if others do the same and we all benefit ? The kind of people, who. If we see wrongdoing, shrug our shoulders and join in, afraid that if we don't others will get ahead and we will just be mugs ?
The alternative view is that leading a moral life requires us to be kind of person who does the right thing without always stopping to work out if we gain or lose by doing so…
Post-reading activity
Pair up with your classmates and discuss the following problems :
1. What happened to the Crosdale family ?
2. What is the author's attitude towards the crime of the Crosdale family ?
3. What punishment did the family receive ?
Discussion
Make up dialogues on the topic asking "the Journalistic six "
Who ? |
Who is involved ? What are the people aspects of the problem ? |
What ? |
What went wrong ? |
When ? |
When did this crime occur ? |
Where ? |
Where did it happen ? |
Why ? |
Why did it happen to the Crosdale family ? |
How ? |
How can it be understood ? |
Summing-Up
Home Assignment : to write the essay on the following problem " This kind of crime is less serious and deserves light punishment "