SAMPLE LESSON PLAN:
"Medicine Man"


Types of Language:

Description
Instructions/Commands
Doctor-Patient Communication
Satire

Grammar: Indirect and direct complements with 'Buy' [something] for [some price], 'Pay' [some price] for something;
Past Tense, imperative, future tense in if-then clauses, two-word verbs

1. LISTENING: Lyrics

2. INTERLUDE: Basic Vocabulary; notes on Black English dialect

3. INTERLUDE: Grammar: Simple past tense

4. INTERLUDE: Grammar: buy/pay: buy something for a price; pay a price for something; 2-word verbs: drink up, eat up, wake up

5. LISTENING: Again, the lyrics; students may sing along

6. ACTIVITY: Describing Physical Symptoms; descriptive language

7. ACTIVITY: Role-playing: Dialog: Doctor-patient communication (with if-then grammar review and discussion of tenor's affect on language used in the dialogs)

8. ACTIVITY: Link to: Council on Family Health's "Read the label" initiative: reading medicine labels in Spanish and English; terminology, & instructions (with a discussion of the 'imperative' forms of verbs).

9. DISCUSSION: Doctor-patient communication
* Jargon and power in doctor-patient communication
* Male doctors and female patients: sexism?

* * *
SUPPLEMENTAL

10. DISCUSSION: satire/ridicule in "Coconut," and in songs in general

BASIC VOCABULARY (food nouns, brother, sister, doctor, aches; verbs with irregular simple past tense)

coconut
lime
brother
sister
doctor
say (said)
buy (bought)
put (put)
drink (drank)
eat (ate)
take (took)
wake (woke)
belly ache
Brother bought a coconut, he bought it for a dime
buy
buy/bought [something] for [something]

she paid it for a lime.
pay
pay/paid [something] for [something]

{She paid a coconut for a lime.}

And brother? Brother paid what for a what?

{ He paid a dime for a coconut.}

Sister bought what for what?

{She bought a lime for a coconut.}

She put the lime in the coconut
put
put/put [something] in [something else]

she drank them both up.
you drank them both up
drink { up' }
drink/drank [something] { up' }

eat/ate [something] { up' }

she . . . woke him { up' }
wake [someone] [up']
wake up' [someone]
wake/woke

"Ain't there nothing I can take"
take/took [something] for [something]
to [do something, for example, to relieve/cure something]

"Ain't there nothing I can take, . . . to relieve this belly ache?"

to relieve

belly ache
stomach ache
headache
earache
backache
toothache


"Now let me get this straight."
get straight, get [something] straight

feel better (feel good, feel bad, feel 'well')
get better (get well)

Call me in the morning
call [someone] { sometime' }

in the morning
in the afternoon
in the evening

Shades of meaning: funny/silly/ridiculous How are these words alike? How are they different? What is a funny person? A silly person? A ridiculous person? Is a silly woman different than a silly person?

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' is used to indicate that a word is not needed grammatically, that it's 'optional'

 
LYRICS

Harry Nilsson: "Coconut"

Brother bought a coconut, he bought it for a dime
His sister had another one, she paid it for a lime.
She put the lime in the coconut, she drank them both up
She put the lime in the coconut, she drank them both up
She put the lime in the coconut, she drank them both up
She put the lime in the coconut, she called the doctor, woke him up,
And said, "Doctor, ain't there nothin' I can take,
I say, Doctor, to relieve this belly ache?
I say, Doctor, ain't there nothin' I can take,
I say, Doctor, to relieve this belly ache?"
"Now let me get this straight ",
Put the lime in the coconut, you drank them both up
Put the lime in the coconut, you drank them both up
Put the lime in the coconut, you drank them both up
Put the lime in the coconut, you called your doctor, woke him up,
And say, 'Doctor, ain't there nothing I can take,
I say, Doctor, to relieve this belly ache?
I say, Doctor, doctor, ain't there nothin' I can take,
I say, Doctor, dooooctor, to relieve this belly ache?'
Put the lime in the coconut, drink them both together,
Put the lime in the coconut, then you feel better,*
Put the lime in the coconut, drink them both up,
Put the lime in the coconut, and call me in the morning
Wouh wouh wouh wouh wouh***
Brother bought a coconut, he bought it for a dime
His sister had another one, she paid it for a lime.
She put the lime in the coconut, she drank them both up,
She put the lime in the coconut, she called the doctor, woke him up,
Say "Doctor, ain't there nothin' I can take,
I say, Doctor, to relieve this belly ache?
I say, Doctor, ain't there nothin' I can take,
I say Doctor! let me get this straight".
You put the lime in the coconut, drink them both up,
You put the lime in the coconut, drink them both up,
You put the lime in the coconut, drink them both up,
Put the lime in the coconut, you such a silly woman!,
Put the lime in the coconut, drink them both together,
Put the lime in the coconut, then you feel better.
Put the lime in the coconut, drink them both down
Put the lime in the coconut, and call me in the morning
Woo Woo,*** ain't there nothin' you can take, I say
Woo Woo, to relieve my belly ache,
You say woo woo ain't there nothin' I can take, I say
Woo woo, to relieve your belly ache,
You say yah yah, ain't there nothin' I can take, I say
Waah waah, to relieve this belly ache,
I say doctor!, ain't there nothin' I can take,
I say doctor!, ain't there nothin' I can take,
I say doctor!, ain't there nothin' I can take,
I say Doctor!, you such a silly woman!,**
Put the lime in the coconut, drink them both together,
Put the lime in the coconut, then you feel better,
Put the lime in the coconut, drink them both up,
Put the lime in the coconut, and call me in the moooooorning,****
Yes, you call me in the morning,
If you call me in the morning, then [X5]

http://www.stlyrics.com/lyrics/practicalmagic/coconut.htm

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NOTES: colloquial English

1. BLACK ENGLISH
* then you feel better: colloquial/Black English--with 'will' the future tense modal omitted, = "then you will feel better"

** you such a silly woman: colloquial/Black American English: the linking verb 'be' is omitted, = " you are such a silly woman" (currently; when she calls)
http://www.jstor.org/view/00031283/sp030005/03x0092n/0 http://www.linguistlist.org/topics/ebonics/
http://courses.essex.ac.uk/lg/lg449/MikeGreg.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_American_Vernacular_English
(see http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=Ebonics&btnG=Search
for more; most links blocked from library)

2. SOUND EFFECTS
*** Woo (also 'wou'): not a word; howling; interjection

**** moooooorning: deliberate misspelling of "morning"--to draw it out; for sound effects.

_______________________________________________________________________________


ACTIVITY: Describing Physical Symptoms; descriptive language

ACTIVITY: Role Playing: Dialog: Doctor-Patient Communications

GRAMMAR Review: if/then
If you call me in the morning then
If you take/drink [something], [then'] you will . . .
How does tenor--the relationship between the speakers--affect the language in these conversations?

ACTIVITY: Link to: Council on Family Health's "Read the label" initiative: reading medicine labels (English/Other languages)

LINK:
http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/Home.portal?_nfpb=true&ERICExtSearch_SearchValue_0=Council+on+Family+Health+Read+the+Label&searchtype=keyword&ERICExtSearch_SearchType_0=kw&_pageLabel=RecordDetails&objectId=0900019b800aecd9&accno=ED411705&_nfls=false
"Contents include teacher instructions for three units (beginner, intermediate, advanced), each including learning objectives classroom procedures, and activities (dialogues, questions and answers, a matching exercise, a list of key concepts and meanings, completion exercises, new vocabulary, reading passages and comprehension exercise). A teacher's glossary consisting of health- and drug-related terms is appended. A large instructional poster on the medicine label and related handouts in English, Spanish, Creole, French, Russian, Chinese, and Vietnamese are included separately. (MSE) (Adjunct ERIC Clearinghouse on Literacy Education)"

(Mainly the read-the-label work in this activity would involve working with the health- and drug-related terms in the glossary and with medicine labels in Spanish & English; students would be encouraged to bring in more labels to read/discuss.)

GRAMMAR: Instructions and the imperative verb

DISCUSSION: Communication Breakdown: Doctor-Patient Communications (Role of Gender, Power, and Jargon in the breakdown)

LINKS to Guide Discussion:

* Abstract of

Barbara M. Korsch M.D., Ethel K. Gozzi P.H.N., M.S.1, and Vida Francis P.H.N., M.S.1, (Retrieved online 2008), "Doctor-Patient Interaction and Patient Satisfaction " ( http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/cgi/content/abstract/42/5/855 )

* Kadesha M. Thomas, Globe Correspondant (September 5, 2005; retrieved online 2008), "Communication breakdown: For foreign-born, language barrier and cultural misunderstandings can cause confusion, medical errors, and death." Boston Globe ( http://www.boston.com/news/globe/health_science/articles/2005/09/05/communication_breakdown/ )


DISCUSSION: Satire/ridicule in "Coconut," and in songs in general