THE EMPIRE STATE BUILDING

New York City is situated at the mouth of the Hudson River on the East coast of the USA.
It is made up of five boroughs with a combined population of over 17 million people. The heart
of New York City is the island of Manhattan, where, in the Midtown and Downtown districts, the
buildings ‘scrape the sky’.
One of these skyscrapers is the Empire State Building on Fifth Avenue, between 33 rd and
34th Street. Like the Statue of Liberty and Brooklyn Bridge, it is instantly recognized as a symbol
of New York – a symbol which captures the power, energy and excitement of one of the world’s
most-loved and most-hated cities.
When the 102-storey structure was built in 1931, it was the tallest building in the world.
From the top, on a clear day, you can see over a 50-mile radius. Its record as the world’s tallest
building has since been beaten – the World Trade Center in New York and the Sears Tower in
Chicago are both taller – but the Empire State Building remain uniquely fascinating.
At night is floodlit with coloured lights. Some people love the lights but others complain
that their favourite New York building has been turned into the biggest Christmas tree in the
world.
EMPIRE STATE FACTS
• The Empire State is ‘steeped’ above a certain height, rather like a pyramid, to prevent it
from blocking light and air from neighbouring area.
• There are 6500 windows nearly seven miles of elevator shafts and enough floor space to
shelter a town of 80000 people.
• The building was first cleaned in 1962. it took thirty people six months to complete the job.
They were all experienced at high altitudes, including one who was a former paratrooper.
• In the famous film ‘King Kong’, the giant gorilla, King Kong has his final battle from the
top of the Empire State.

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 LESSON PLAN

A – Description of the class

Level : Intermediate
Students between the ages of 16 – 25. 21 women, 9 men (6 secretaries, 5 housewives, 10
university students, 3 teachers, 1 doctor, 1 businessman, 4 secondary students)
The class takes place from 7.45 – 9.00 p.m. on Mondays and Wednesdays. The students are
generally enthusiastic, but often tired: concentration sometimes suffers as a result. Students
have completed approximately 200 hours of English.

B – Recent work

• Students have been studying the passive – discovery activities followed by language
practice.
• Writing complete passive sentences about e.g. the world’s first postage stamp, the VW
Beetle, etc.
• Listening work (listening for detailed comprehension).
• Writing notes based on the listening.

C – Objectives

1. To create interest in the topic of buildings: to promote discussion.

2. To raise expectations and create involvement in a reading task.
3. To read to confirm expectations.
4. To study relevant words.
5. To prepare a description of a famous building.

D – Contents
Objective 1: (Estimated time : 15 minutes)
(a) Context: Students’ own lives – buildings
(b) Activity/class Discussion (buzz groups) in small groups. SS are asked to agree on the five
organisation: most famous buildings in the world and say how they make them feel.
(c) Aids: None.
(d) Language: All and any.
(e) Possible problems: Students may not have much to say. The teacher will be prepared to
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 prompt if necessary – or shorten the activity if that seems appropriate.

Objective 2: (Estimated time : 10 minutes)

(a) Context: ‘Creating expectations’ about the Empire State Building.
(b) Activity/class Whole class contributes suggestions to T who writes them up in 3 columns
organisation: on the board.
(c) Aids: Board; chalk or board pen, etc.
(d) Language: All and any; ‘buildings’ vocabulary.
(e) Possible problems: Students don’t know anything about the Empire State Building! T can
prompt with ‘Is it tall?’, ‘Where is it?’, etc.

Objective 3: (Estimated time : 25 minutes)

(a) Context: A text about the Empire State Building.
(b) Activity/class Students read individually and then check in pairs to see if the
organisation: questions/doubts written on the board have been settled by the information
in the text. T then leads the feedback session and discusses with the whole
class.
(c) Aids: The text; the ‘expectations’ chart on the board.
(d) Language: All and any – especially vocabulary related to buildings.
(e) Possible problems: The ‘expectations’ questions may not be answered in the text. T will
have prepared a series of type 2 questions for detailed comprehension (or will find them in the
book being used) e.g. ‘How many boroughs make up New York City? Where exactly is the
ESB situated in Manhattan? When was it built?’, etc.

Objective 4: (Estimated time : 10 minutes)

(a) Context: Words about different kinds of building.
(b) Activity/class In pairs students have to put ‘buildings’ words (e.g. block of flats,
organisation: skyscraper, house, bungalow, hut, palace, cottage, semi – detached,
terraced, etc.) in order of height, overall size, privacy, worth, etc. T then
discusses their conclusions.
(c) Aids: Wordlist/textbook.
(d) Language: As in (b) above; discussion language. ‘Buildings’ words.
(e) Possible problems: Students don’t know any of the words. Maybe they know all of them.
T assesses the situation and is prepared for more explanation or to cut
the activity short and move on.

Objective 5: (Estimated time : 15 minutes)

(a) Context: Buildings – the world/students’ lives.
(b) Activity/class T and SS talk about paragraph organization of a text about a famous

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organisation: building (e.g. Para 1 : identify building, say where and when it was built;
Para 2: describe the building and its distinctive features; Para 3 : say what
the people think of the building, why it is famous, what happens/happened
there, etc.). Students get into groups to plan a composition about a particular
building. They are then asked to write the composition for homework.
(c) Aids: the board and/or handout and/or textbook to elicit passives with notes/hints about
paragraph organization. SS’s notebooks, etc.
(d) Language: As in (b) above. T will try to elicit passives and building vocabulary when
discussing organization.
(e) Possible problems: SS might not know much about any famous building! T has some
information about other famous buildings, e.g. Eiffel Tower, Taj
Mahal, etc. to help out just in case.

E – Additional possibilities
1. Find the differences. The teacher gives each pair two pictures of urban landscapes –
with different buildings, etc. They have to find at least ten differences between their
pictures without looking at each other’s.
2. Describe and draw. In pairs one student tells another student to draw a building (of the
first student’s choice). Then they do it the other way round.
3. A co – operative writing exercise in which students group –write a story starting
‘When she saw the building for the first time she knew there was something wrong.’