Here's a lesson idea I came up the other day. I was trying to spice up a rather dry FCE coursebook reading on animal cheats so I decided to add a video to the mix. After figuring out these activities, I realised that I wasn't so much improving the reading activity as I was replacing it with a listening, so I changed direction and did something else.
But rather than waste all that hard work, I thought I'd share it with you here instead...
1) In groups, ask the students to list all the things they think of when they think of the word 'cheat'.
2) Put their answers on the board in a mind map.
3) Ask them to discuss for a couple of minutes if they think animals can cheat. Get feedback on their opinions.
4) Put students into pairs. One student is A and the other is B. A watches the video without sound.
5) Students A then describes the video to their partner. B tries to remember what happened.
6) Mix up the pairs so all the A's have new B's to talk to. B's have to try and describe the video to their new partner. A's add any missing information to their description.
7) Play the video still without sound. Ask the students to see how they did and what they missed. Did it look how they expected?
8) Ask a couple of students to volunteer to describe the video while it plays. Put some of their best sentences on the board and analyse them with the class. Use them to create a script which class collectively builds with your help.
9) Show the students some vocabulary from the video. You could put it on the board or show it to them visually like this:
Ask if any of the students know what these words and phrases mean. If they don't (and they probably won't know most of them), ask them to identify whether they are nouns, verbs etc.
10) Now play the video with sound. ask the students to try and understand the new vocabulary from the video. You might need to play it more than once.
11) Once students have grasped the meaning, ask them to fit the new vocabulary into the script that you created together.
12) Ask the students to discuss a time someone played a trick on them or deceived them in small groups. Optional homework: Write a description of when someone deceived you.
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But rather than waste all that hard work, I thought I'd share it with you here instead...
1) In groups, ask the students to list all the things they think of when they think of the word 'cheat'.
2) Put their answers on the board in a mind map.
3) Ask them to discuss for a couple of minutes if they think animals can cheat. Get feedback on their opinions.
4) Put students into pairs. One student is A and the other is B. A watches the video without sound.
5) Students A then describes the video to their partner. B tries to remember what happened.
6) Mix up the pairs so all the A's have new B's to talk to. B's have to try and describe the video to their new partner. A's add any missing information to their description.
7) Play the video still without sound. Ask the students to see how they did and what they missed. Did it look how they expected?
8) Ask a couple of students to volunteer to describe the video while it plays. Put some of their best sentences on the board and analyse them with the class. Use them to create a script which class collectively builds with your help.
9) Show the students some vocabulary from the video. You could put it on the board or show it to them visually like this:
Ask if any of the students know what these words and phrases mean. If they don't (and they probably won't know most of them), ask them to identify whether they are nouns, verbs etc.
10) Now play the video with sound. ask the students to try and understand the new vocabulary from the video. You might need to play it more than once.
11) Once students have grasped the meaning, ask them to fit the new vocabulary into the script that you created together.
12) Ask the students to discuss a time someone played a trick on them or deceived them in small groups. Optional homework: Write a description of when someone deceived you.
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| Hopefully nobody will write about this... |
