(age): Ensino Médio Lesson link: Upgrade, Unit 22

Focus on activity: The Ice Bucket Challenge
Target audience (age): Ensino Médio
Lesson link: Upgrade, Unit 22, ENEM practice
Aim: reading comprehension strategies with focus on social media and the ALS disease
Duration: 30-40 minutes
Organization: individual work, group work
Material: text worksheets, internet access, video and links (or printed versions)
Preparation: have worksheet copies ready, watch the videos:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uguzw4vufh4 (accessed on 9/8/2014)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ofqO1z-ZHw (accessed on 9/8/2014)
Read the links about the disease:
http://www.alsbc.ca/what-als (accessed on 9/8/2014)
http://www.alsa.org/about-als/what-is-als.html (accessed on 9/8/2014)
Procedure:
• Ask students who have already posted a video with the ice bucket challenge. Ask them to explain
what it is. Ask them who have effectively donated any money.
• Divide students into small groups and distribute questions about the disease to be researched in the
internet or the suggested printed version.
• Suggested questions:
Is ALS more common in men or women? It’s more common in men.
How many people get this disease? About 14 people a day.
What’s the most common age to have ALS? Between 40 and 60.
Is it a neural disease? Yes, it is.
What kind of neurons does the disease attack? It attacks the motor neurons that control muscles.
What’s the consequence? The upper and lower neurons stop sending messages to muscles.
What happens to these neurons? They die.
What are the symptoms of ALS? Tripping and falling, losing the use of their hands and arms, finding it
hard to swallow and some slur their speech.
What about treatment? Is there any recommendation? Medication, physical therapy, speech therapy,
assistive devices, family care.
Photocopiable – Teacher’s copy
Suggested links:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uguzw4vufh4 (accessed on 9/8/2014)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ofqO1z-ZHw (accessed on 9/8/2014)
http://www.alsbc.ca/what-als (accessed on 9/8/2014)
http://www.alsa.org/about-als/what-is-als.html (accessed on 9/8/2014)
• Have students exchange information and check if they found out the same answers.
• Hand them the worksheets and ask students to answer activity 1. Check the answers.
• Have students read individually the text and answer the questions.
• Correct them orally.
• Play the video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5sBT7wjM2Sk (accessed on 9/8/2014) and ask
students to write the correspondent number.
Wrap up: in groups, ask students to develop an ad inviting people to donate money to this cause or another
one. Have them present their results.
Answer key
1. Talk to your group and check famous people you think have ALS disease:
( x ) Lou Gehrig ( ) Cory Monteith
( x ) Professor Stephen Hawking ( ) Nelson Mandela
( x ) David Niven ( x ) Jason Becker ( ) Michael Jackson
2. Read the text.
On March 13, 2012, Pete Frates was sitting at the dinner table with his parents, siblings, and
girlfriend and he did what all great leaders do – communicate an inspiring vision. He would lead a
movement to fight ALS and change the world. The mission had become personal. Six hours earlier a
neurologist had delivered the news: Pete had Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou
Gehrig’s disease. The frustrating and crippling disease has no effective treatment and no known cure.
He sparkled a movement called the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge. And in August Bill Gates joined
millions of others who dumped a bucket of ice over their heads, posted the video on YouTube, Facebook,
and Twitter and challenged others to do the same. The viral phenomenon will go down as a case study
in social media, having raised more than $100 million in donations for the ALS Association this summer,
compared to $2.8 million for the comparable period the year before. On the day he was diagnosed, Pete
did what inspiring leaders do – he articulated a bold vision and began to assemble the team to rally
around the vision. “This is my new team,” Pete told his family. People with passion can change the world
for the better.
Based on http://www.forbes.com/sites/carminegallo/2014/09/05/how-pete-frates-found-his-calling-and-launched-the-ice-bucket-challenge/ (accessed on
9/8/2014)
Photocopiable – Teacher’s copy
2.1. Escolha a resposta correta:
( ) Peter Frates é um grande líder em sua família.
( ) Peter Frates comunicou à sua família que se tornaria um grande líder.
( x ) Peter Frates assumiu a postura de um grande líder, comunicando uma visão inspiradora.
2.2. Assinale a alternativa incorreta:
( ) A doença Lou Gehrig não tem cura nem tratamento.
( ) A doença ALS deixa a pessoa aleijada.
( x ) A doença ALS é um pouco diferente da doença Lou Gehrig.
( ) O médico que trata a doença ALS é um especialista em neurologia.
2.3. Assinale a resposta correta:
( ) Bill Gates doou milhões para a campanha de ALS no verão.
( x ) O fenômeno dos vídeos está sendo considerado um estudo de caso de mídia social.
( ) As pessoas que participam do vídeo jogam um balde na cabeça.
2.4. De acordo com o texto, verdadeiros líderes:
( ) lançam novas campanhas.
( x ) apresentam nova visão e agregam pessoas a esta visão.
( ) montam novos times.
3. Watch the video and number the sentences in the correct presented order.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5sBT7wjM2Sk (accessed on 9/8/2014)
( 4 ) The patients are completely aware of the situation but unable to respond and react in ways that most
people do.
( 1 ) The name of the disease is Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis.
( 3 ) It’s not contagious.
( 2 ) The early symptoms of ALS include the weakening and stiffening of muscles in the body.
( 5 ) There’s no cure. The only thing we can currently do is to detect the symptoms as soon as they
happen and manage them.
Photocopiable – Teacher’s copy
Name________________________________________________________ Date___/___/____
1. Talk to your group and check famous people you think have ALS disease:
(
) Lou Gehrig
(
) David Niven
(
(
) Cory Monteith
(
) Professor Stephen Hawking
) Jason Becker
(
) Michael Jackson
(
) Nelson Mandela
2. Read the text.
On March 13, 2012, Pete Frates was sitting at the dinner table with his parents, siblings, and
girlfriend and he did what all great leaders do – communicate an inspiring vision. He would lead a
movement to fight ALS and change the world. The mission had become personal. Six hours earlier a
neurologist had delivered the news: Pete had Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou
Gehrig’s disease. The frustrating and crippling disease has no effective treatment and no known cure.
He sparkled a movement called the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge. And in August Bill Gates joined
millions of others who dumped a bucket of ice over their heads, posted the video on YouTube, Facebook,
and Twitter and challenged others to do the same. The viral phenomenon will go down as a case study
in social media, having raised more than $100 million in donations for the ALS Association this summer,
compared to $2.8 million for the comparable period the year before. On the day he was diagnosed, Pete
did what inspiring leaders do – he articulated a bold vision and began to assemble the team to rally
around the vision. “This is my new team,” Pete told his family. People with passion can change the world
for the better.
Based on http://www.forbes.com/sites/carminegallo/2014/09/05/how-pete-frates-found-his-calling-and-launched-the-ice-bucket-challenge/ (accessed on
9/8/2014)
2.1. Escolha a resposta correta:
( ) Peter Frates é um grande líder em sua família.
( ) Peter Frates comunicou à sua família que se tornaria um grande líder.
( ) Peter Frates assumiu a postura de um grande líder, comunicando uma visão inspiradora.
2.2. Assinale a alternativa incorreta:
( ) A doença Lou Gehrig não tem cura nem tratamento.
( ) A doença ALS deixa a pessoa aleijada.
( ) A doença ALS é um pouco diferente da doença Lou Gehrig.
( ) O médico que trata a doença ALS é um especialista em neurologia.
2.3. Assinale a resposta correta:
( ) Bill Gates doou milhões para a campanha de ALS no verão.
( ) O fenômeno dos vídeos está sendo considerado um estudo de caso de mídia social.
( ) As pessoas que participam do vídeo jogam um balde na cabeça.
Photocopiable – Student’s copy
4.4. De acordo com o texto, verdadeiros líderes:
( ) lançam novas campanhas.
( ) apresentam nova visão e agregam pessoas a esta visão.
( ) montam novos times.
3. Watch the video and number the sentences in the correct presented order.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5sBT7wjM2Sk (accessed on 9/8/2014)
( ) The patients are completely aware of the situation but unable to respond and react in ways that most
people do.
( ) The name of the disease is Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis.
( ) It’s not contagious.
( ) The early symptoms of ALS include the weakening and stiffening of muscles in the body.
( ) There’s no cure. The only thing we can currently do is to detect the symptoms as soon as they happen
and manage them.
Photocopiable – Student’s copy