A woman stands in the middle of a court. She can’t believe what is happening. She has her hand over her mouth. She is speechless. What is going on? In this activity, students collaborate to construct a narrative before watching the video and discussing the issues.

• Language level: Intermediate (B1) +
• Learner type: Teens; Adults
• Time: 20 minutes
• Activity: Videotelling
• Topic: Sport; Love
• Language: Collocations

Speechless [downloaded 110 times]

Lesson plan outline

1. Tell students that you have a puzzle for them. Dictate the paragraph below and put students into pairs to share their ideas and explore possibilities.

A woman stands in the middle of a court. She can’t believe what is happening. She has her hand over her mouth. She is speechless. What is going on? In this activity, students collaborate to construct a narrative before watching the video and discussing the issues.

2. Take feedback. Invite students to share their ideas with the rest of the class.

Note that most people will assume that the word ‘court’ refers to a court of law. They may think, for example, that the woman has been found guilty of a crime, etc.

3. Tell students that in order to work out what is going on, they will have to look at alternative meanings of one of the words in the paragraph (i.e. ‘court’) Ask students to identify the word and then brainstorm meanings and collocations. Write these on the board as they arise (see possibilities below).
• A court (of law)
• To take someone to court
• A royal court
• A basketball court
• A badminton court
• A tennis court
• A squash court
• A volleyball court
4. Use this as an opportunity to elicit other sports areas:
• Golf course
• Football pitch
• Rugby pitch
• Hockey pitch
• Ski slope
5. Show students the image below (click to enlarge). They will see that the women is standing on a basketball court.



6. Repeat the paragraph from step 1 (A women stands in the middle of a court. She has her hand over her mouth, etc.) Ask students to reconsider their answer.
7. Take feedback and ask students to share their new ideas.
8. Tell students that the incident is taking place at half time in a basketball match. Tell them that the key to working out what is happening is to identify who else is on the court. Elicit the people that you would expect to find on a basketball court. Add these to the board (see possibilities below).
• Basketball players
• Referees
• Cheerleaders
• Mascots
• Unruly spectators
9. Tell students that the woman’s boyfriend is also present. Ask them to guess what he is doing (answer = he is kneeling in front of her asking her to marry him live on TV).
10. Ask students to guess what happens next. Find out:
• Who thinks the woman will say ‘yes’
• Who thinks the woman will say ‘no’
• Who wants the woman to say ‘yes’
• Who wants the woman to say ‘no’
11. Watch the video from beginning to end. Students will see the woman rejecting her boyfriends marriage proposal.
12. Put students into pairs or small groups ask them to discuss the following:

• Is it a good idea for a man to propose in this way? Why or why not?
• Who do you feel more sorry for – the woman or the man? Why

This is a simple technique that can be used to introduce a topic: Find a book on Amazon that deals with the topic in question. Cover up the title on the book image with a blob (Use Microsoft Paintbrush, for example). Show it to students and ask them to guess what the title is by reading a synopsis of the book. To demonstrate the activity, I have chosen a book on health.

• Language level: Intermediate (B1) +
• Learner type: Mature teens; Adults
• Time: 15 minutes
• Activity: Collocations
• Topic: Health
• Language: Collocations

Book puzzle [downloaded 142 times]

Lesson plan outline

For this activity, you will need two book cover images – one with the title covered and the other with the title in view. Download the above images and decide how you are going to display them (mobile device, tablet computer, laptop, projector, paper hard copies, etc.)

1. Tell students that you have a puzzle for them. Show them the first image and ask them to guess what the missing title word is. Note that you might want to put students into pairs or small groups for this and ask them to write down all possible answers rather than shouting them out.
2. Let students compare answers. Whether or not someone has guessed it correctly, point out (or dictate) the following:

   The title is a play on words. It has two meanings.

   The first meaning is: Issues and topics related to health

   The second meaning is: Health is important

   As far as book titles go, this one is a bit of a cliché. The same formula has been used for the titles of books on football, money, family, etc.

   Perhaps the title could be described as a Part of Speech pun – the word ‘matters‘ can be comprehended as either a verb in the third person singular form or as a plural noun.

3. Tell students that you are going to let them read a synopsis of the book which is taken from Amazon.com. Tell them that the book title appears twice. Give out copies of the synopsis which is included in the PDF lesson plan. Ask students if they can work out the missing word.

Health _ _ _ _ _ _ _ is an innovative new book about lifestyle, disease risks, diseases and treatments covering a vast range of subjects from period pains to heart attacks; spots to skin cancer; itchy bums to sore heads; and big ears to big bellies. In this book, all is revealed. No subject is regarded as too trivial or too tragic. Health _ _ _ _ _ _ _ and as long as you’ve got yours, nothing else does.

4. If students still can’t work out the full title, play hangman with the missing word.
5. Show students the second image – the one with the title uncovered.

Comment

This format can be used to introduce virtually any topic in the classroom:

• Use Amazon.com to find a book or DVD on the topic in question
• Download the image
• Use Microsoft Paintbrush (or a similar application) to cover up the title
• Give out copies of the synopsis of the book, film, etc. taken from Amazon.com
• Ask students to read the synopsis and guess the title.

Don’t feel that you have to limit yourself to the actual synopsis on Amazon.com. You can change it as much as you like to incorporate juicy target language that you want to introduce – health and body collocations, for example. Here is an example of one I made earlier:

Everything you ever wanted to know about your body but were too afraid to ask! This book answers all of your questions about lifestyles and disease risks, bodily functions and embarrassing problems. Just how easy is it to avoid a heart attack? What are the best ways to prevent skin cancer? Ever wondered what causes body odour, period pains, hair loss, runny noses or even just an itchy bum? From headaches and bad backs to beer bellies and bingo wings, no subject is regarded as too trivial or too tragic. Health _ _ _ _ _ _ _ and as long as you’ve got yours, nothing else does.

Fairytale of New York tells the story of the downfall of a young Irish couple who emigrate to New York in search of better things. Their dreams are ruined by alcoholism, substance abuse and homelessness. In this activity, the teacher delivers the story before letting students hear the song. The storytelling process should not be thought of as a teacher presentation, but more as a whole-class communicative event.

• Language level: Intermediate (B1) +
• Learner type: Mature teens; Adults
• Time: 60 minutes
• Activity: Interactive storytelling
• Topic: Homelessness at Christmas
• Language: Remember + -ing
• Materials: Song

Fairytale of New York [downloaded 443 times]

Notes about the lesson plan

During the storytelling, make things as interactive as possible by looking for ways to involve your students. For example:

• Look for language teaching or practice possibilities along the way (dictation, drilling, etc.)
• Identify questions to put to students throughout the story.
• Explore issues along the way (homelessness, pejorative language, etc.)
• Ask students to recap the story so far. This consolidates student comprehension and also provides an opportunity to reproduce language that has been introduced by the teacher.
• Draw attention to any new language that you introduce (words, phrases, structures, etc.)
• Teach unknown language (words, expressions, collocations, etc.) as you go along.

The lesson plan below and on the PDF file is presented as a series of teacher script notes and suggestions for making the storytelling session possible. Make use of the notes but aim to communicate with your students rather than read from them coldly.

I. Introduction

1. On the board, write the following words:
If I can make it there, I can make it anywhere.
2. Ask students the following questions:

• Whose words are these? (Answer = Frank Sinatra’s)
• What does it mean to make it? (Answer = to become successful)
• Where is ‘there’? (Answer = New York. The line comes from the song New York, New York)

3. Tell students that you have another song for them. Tell them that it is a famous Christmas song that was written in 1987. Ask students how old they were and what they were doing in 1987.
4. Tell students that you are going to dictate four lines from the song. Dictate the following:

• You took my dreams from me when I first found you.
• I turned my face away and dreamed about you.
• I’ve built my dreams around you.
• I can see a better time when all our dreams come true.

5. Make sure that everyone has written the lines correctly. Let them pair up or form groups to compare what they wrote for this purpose.
6. Ask students to guess what the song is about and who it involves. Establish that it is about two people and ask students to guess what kind if people they are and what kind of relationship they have with each other.
7. Tell students that the song is in three parts. Tell them that you are going to tell them the story before letting them hear it.

II. Part one – High Hopes

Note that from here on, details and information about the story are given in normal text. Suggestions for students interaction are given in italics.

• The song is about two Irish immigrants – a man and a woman – in New York.
• In the song, we don’t find out their names.

Ask students to give names to the couple. Perhaps they could choose Irish names (Sean, Liam, Kevin, Siobhan, Cara, Bridget, etc.)

Note that here we will refer to them as Shane and Kirsty (the names of the singers).

• The couple arrived in New York at the same time and quickly formed a relationship.
• He was handsome, she was pretty.
• He promised her that the city offered everything that Ireland didn’t – endless possibilities and high hopes.
• Everything in New York was bigger and better than back home.

Find out if anyone has been to New York. If so, ask them how it compares with their own town.

• These were happy times. Years later, both of them can remember that first Christmas Eve that they spent together in New York. Here is what they remember:

• They remember Christmas bells ringing.
• They remember hearing Frank Sinatra on the radio.
• They remember the NYPD (New York Police Department) choir singing an Irish song.
• They remember Shane taking Kirsty’s cold hand.
• They remember drunks singing in the street.
• They remember kissing on the corner of Broadway.
• They remember dancing through the night.

Drill these sentences and draw students’ attention to the structure of reminiscence.

• To remember doing something
• To remember something happening

Ask students to think back to the happiest Christmas that they can remember, perhaps a Christmas from their childhood. Ask each student to write five sentences of reminiscence that make use of the above structures. Let students pair up, tell each other about their chosen Christmases and share their sentences.

Bring students back to the story with the words, “where were we?” Encourage students to recap the story so far.

Ask students to guess what happens next. Did the couple in story ‘make it’ or not?

III. Part two – In the drunk tank

• The next part of the story takes place years later, also on Christmas Eve.
• Things are very different: the couple’s dreams have been lost.

Ask students to guess why / what has happened. Elicit social urban problems that can contribute to lost dreams. (Possibilities = alcoholism, drugs, gambling, poverty, homelessness, relationship in ruins.)

• The pair are what some people might refer to as ‘bums’.

What does that mean? Is it a term of affection? (Answer = it is a word that is often used in American English. It refers to someone without a job or place to live who asks people for money in the street. Rather than being a term of affection, it is often a derogative word.)

• On this Christmas Eve, Shane is in the drunk tank.

What is a drunk tank? Is it the sort of place you would want to be on Christmas Eve? (Answer = traditionally, a drunk tank is a police jail cell for temporarily keeping drunken individuals until they sober up. Intoxicated subjects may be put in the drunk tank if they are seen to be endangering themselves or others, breaching the peace, etc.)

• There is an old man next to him.
• The old man says: “Won’t see another one.”

What does he mean by that? (Answer = he means that this will be his – the old man’s – last Christmas. In other words, he won’t survive the next year.)

• The old man starts singing.
• Shane turns his face away and starts thinking about his long-suffering partner.
• When he is released from the drunk tank, he heads straight for the bookie’s.

What is that? What would you do at the bookie’s? (Answer = a bookie or bookmaker is an organisation that takes bets on sporting events.)

• Shane puts his money on a horse which comes in 18 to 1.

Does anyone here bet? Can you explain what that means?

• He decides to take the winnings to Kirsty.

IV. Part three – The argument

• Kirsty is quite ill. She is in bed.
• Shane still smells of alcohol but hopes that his winnings will make up for it.

Do you think that she is pleased to see him? (Answer = no, especially not in this state)

• An argument turns into a slagging match.

What is a slagging match? (Answer = an argument or dispute which involves an exchange of insults and accusations.)

What words of insult do you think they throw at each other? What insults do you know in English?

• Many of the words in this part of the song caused it to be banned by the BBC on several occasions.
• The slagging match turns into a heart-to-heart in which the pair of them share their regrets of how they destroyed each other.

V. Lyrics

1. Give out copies of the lyrics (included in the downloadable PDF lesson plan). Ask students to read them and guess the title of the song if they don’t already know it.
2. Go over any unknown words or vocabulary (a glossary is included in the PDF download).
3. Ask students to look for clues in the lyrics to answer the following questions:
   • When do you think the couple moved to New York? (Possible answer = the fifties as “Sinatra was swinging”.)
   • What sort of work do you think they were looking for? (They may have been musicians or performers since “Broadway was waiting”.)
   • Specifically where was Kirsty when Shane visited her? (Possibly a hospital bed “on a drip”.)
4. Tell students that the title is Fairytale in New York. Play the song and find out if they have heard it before and if they know anything about The Pogues and Kirsty MacColl.
5. Tell students that they are going to hear the song a second time. Before doing so, ask them to read the lyrics again and attempt to recall which lines:
   • Are sung by Shane
   • Are sung by Kirsty
   • Are sung by both Shane and Kirsty together
6. Play the song a second time and let students check their answers.

For an article on the legacy of the song, click here.

Business cards are a “wondrous and intricate medium for design and culture. And in this era of Internet …, they are highly underrated. Is print dead? Hardly. These days business cards are more innovative and beautiful than ever.” These are the words of Prescott Perex-Fox, the man behind the Your Business Card Sucks blog. In this lesson plan, students take a critical look at design, both good and bad.

• Language level: Upper-intermediate; Advanced (B2; C1)
• Learner type: Teens; Adults; Business
• Time: 45 minutes
• Activity: Speaking
• Topic: Business cards
• Language: Language of design
• Materials: Video; Slideshow

Business cards - Lesson plan [downloaded 247 times]

Business cards - Slideshow [downloaded 177 times]

Lesson plan outline

1. Use the example teacher script and questions below to conduct a whole-class discussion about the business card scene from the film American Psycho.

I want to describe a scene from a film. Listen and see if you can identify the film. In the scene, there are five men sitting around a table. Each man has something which is very important to him. The men start comparing these things.

What are these things that the men are comparing? Can you guess?

[Possible answers include: mobile phones, pictures of their family, pictures of their cars, etc. Note that you may want to tell students that although the answer is nothing rude, the scene in the film does have phallic undertones.]

While they compare these things, they refer to:

• Type
• Colouring
• Thickness

[Write these words and all other bullet points on the board.]

Any more ideas?

Here are some of the adjectives they use to talk about these things:

• Impressive
• Tasteful
• Subtle
• Really nice
• Off white (= almost, but not quite white)

Here are some of the things they say / features that they discuss:

• (It’s got) raised lettering.
• It even has a watermark.
• I picked them up from the printers yesterday.

What do you think that these these men are comparing?

2. After exploring all possibilities, show students the video clips as well as the following kinetic typography version:







3. If you are teaching professionals, ask them to take out their business cards. Ask each person to give a brief history of their card. For example, ask them to discuss the questions below:

• How long have you had your business card?
• How often do you give it out?
• When did you last give it out? Who did you give it to and where were you?
• How does it compare with previous ones who have had?
• From a design point of view, what do you like / dislike about it?

(Note that this might work best if students are put into pairs / groups.)



4. Brainstorm ideas for what makes a good business card. Write ideas on the board under the following headings: Layout; Lettering; Information; Size & shape; Card & printing (example answers are given in the PDF download).
5. Show students a selection of images of business cards taken from the website Your Business Card Sucks These are contained in the downloadable PDF slideshow. Tell students where the images came from and ask them what they think about each card (focus on good as well as bad).







6. Give out copies of the Business Card Worksheet (included in the PDF download) which asks students to match comments taken from the website with the images of business cards.
7. If applicable, ask students to have a second look at their own business cards. Can they re-evaluate aspects of design following this activity.

Credit

Thank you very much to Prescott Perez-Fox at Your Business Card Sucks for giving me permission to use adapted comments from his site. Prescott says that these days he is much less angry about bad business cards.

Follow up

Ask students what they think of this man, the notorious ‘Best business card in the world’ guy. Wouldn’t you like him to be your life coach?

This activity makes use of a technique that, until I think of a better name for it, is called an organic gap fill. That means that everyone in the classroom lives the text. There is no paper and there’s no drag and drop.

• Language level: Intermediate (B1) +
• Learner type: Young learners; Teens; Adults; CLIL
• Time: 50 minutes
• Activity: Organic gap fill; Videotelling
• Topic: A predator and prey relationship
• Language: Present narrative tenses; Collocations
• Materials: Video clip

Breathing holes [downloaded 350 times]

Lesson plan outline

1. Tell students that they are going to hear about a special kind of relationship. Write the following on the board and ask students to guess what the missing letters are:
A p _ _ _ _ _ _ _ -p _ _ _ relationship.

(Answer = a predator-prey relationship)



2. Put students into pairs. Ask each pair to think of as many predator-prey relationships as they can and ask them to make a list. In order to give this a competitive edge, set a time limit and see which team can think of the most.
3. Ask for feedback.
4. Tell students that they are going to see a video clip from a nature documentary which involves a predator-prey relationship. Tell students that you are going to give them a number of phrases that the narrator uses. One by one, write the following phrases on the board in the order shown.
• right next to a breathing hole
• a very long wait
• worth the wait
• to listen out for
• as long as
• keep it going for a week
• no way of knowing
• in use at any one time
• strike lucky
• when the bear stops

After writing each phrase on the board, drill its pronunciation, ask students to copy it into their books, and ask if they can guess what the two animals are.

Note: The term ‘breathing hole’ will give them a clue. When students get to the last phrase, they find out that a bear is involved. Will they realise that it is a polar bear?

5. Tell students that the animals in question are a seal and a polar bear. Ask them if they can tell you where the story takes place (Answer = the Arctic).
6. Tell students that you are going to read them the video text from the nature clip. Tell them that this is a gap fill. When you pause, they will have to supply the correct phrase to fill the gap.
7. Read out the text. Each time you come to a phrase in bold, pause and elicit the missing words.
   Underwater, there is a certain sound that the seal needs to listen out for: Pad-pad-pad-pad-pad. That is the sound of the polar bear walking across the ice. The seal is safe as long as the bear keeps moving. The problem starts when the bear stops. The problem for the seal is that the bear could be standing right next to a breathing hole. The seal has no way of knowing. The seal can have as many as 12 breathing holes in use at any one time. But which is the dangerous one? The bear’s best strategy is simply to choose a hole and be prepared for what could be a very long wait. But it is worth the wait. The fat from one seal will keep it going for a week. And every week or so, it will strike lucky. Before it surfaces, the seal has one last check for danger because once it begins the ascent it is it committed. It is too buoyant to change direction at the last minute.

Note: Manage students so that they don’t all shout out at once. Encourage them to think about the grammar and logic of their answers. Nominate students when possible or ask students to put up their hands.

8. Clean the board and ask students to close their books. Repeat the reading and this time students will have to make use of their memory to fill the gaps.
9. Find out who wants the polar bear to catch the seal and who wants the seal to escape. Ask students to give reasons for their answers. Students could be put into pairs or groups to discuss this. See Follow Up 2 below for additional discussion fuel.
10. Show the video clip.

Follow up 1

Ask students to reconstruct the text as accurately as they can remember it. In doing so, they should incorporate all of the phrases that were written on the board. You can give students some flexibility of structure (order of ideas, for example) but they should incorporate all of the phrases without changing them in any way. Once this has been done, invite students to be the narrator of the video – allow them to read out their texts as the clip plays with the sound down.

Follow up 2

Use this activity to introduce a project on the IUCN (International Union for the Conservation of Nature) red list of threatened species. It divides threatened species into three categories according to their risk of extinction.

• CR Critical endangered (most serious)
• EN Endangered
• VU Vulnerable

The polar bear is classified as a vulnerable species. The ringed seal (which features in the video clip) is listed in the (sometimes) ambiguous Least Concern category (see below). If a species is listed as Least Concern, it means that it has been evaluated but doesn’t belong to any of the other categories. It does not necessarily mean that it is thriving.

Other abbreviations used:

• EX Extinct
• EW Extinct in the wild
• NT Near threatened
• LC Least concern

This activity deals with bucket lists – wishlists of things to do before you die (or ‘kick the bucket’). For example: participate in a demonstration; appear on the front cover of a newspaper; be an extra in a film; do a runner from a restaurant; get arrested; photocopy your bottom at work.

• Language level: Intermediate (B1) +
• Learner type: Mature teens; Adults
• Time: 90 minutes
• Activity: Grammar drill; Speaking
• Topic: Life & death
• Language: ‘Have you ever …?’ questions; Past simple questions; Pronunciation of regular past participles
• Materials: Materials free

Things 2 do b4 u die [downloaded 999 times]

Disclaimer: Students should be aware that some of the suggestions in this lesson plan are intended only as fun. It should be absolutely clear that you are *not* encouraging them to break the law (or any photocopiers, for that matter).

Lesson plan outline

Note: The inspiration for this lesson plan comes from this book. I recommend buying a copy or at least being able to show students an image of the front cover.

1. On the board, write: 101 Things To Do Before You Die. Tell students that it is the title of a book. Show it to them if possible (see above).
2. Ask students to guess what sort of accomplishments are listed in the book. Elicit as many as possible and write them on the board.
3. Wipe the board clean and write the following verbs:
   
   • Appear …
   • Be …
   • Catch …
   • Do …
   • Donate …
   • Dye …
   • Gatecrash … *
   • Get …
   • Go …
   • Invent …
   • Milk …
   • Participate …
   • Photocopy …
   • Plant …
   • Visit …

* If you gatecrash a party or a social event, you go without an invitation.

4. Tell students that the 15 verbs relate to things that are in the book. Give a couple of examples to get them started and see if they can work out/guess the rest in pairs or small groups. In some cases, students will have to make use of their knowledge of collocations. In other cases, they will have to be creative.
5. Feedback: Allow students to share their ideas with the rest of the class.
6. Write the correct answers on the board but don’t allow students to copy them.
• Appear on the front cover of a newspaper
• Be an extra in a film
• Catch a fish with your bare hands
• Do a runner from a restaurant
• Donate blood
• Dye your hair a crazy colour
• Gatecrash a party
• Get arrested
• Go skinny dipping at midnight
• Invent something
• Milk a cow
• Participate in a demonstration
• Photocopy your bottom at work
• Plant a tree
• Visit the 7 wonders of the world

Definitions:

• If you do a runner from a restaurant, you leave without paying.
• If you gatecrash a party or a social event, you go without an invitation.
• Skinny dipping: swimming naked
• An extra: someone who has a very small, non-speaking part in a film or drama production (e.g. as a member of a crowd)

7. Tell your students that you want them to remember all of the verbal phrases on the board. Negotiate a time limit (90 seconds, for example) and ask them memorise as much of the language as possible, in silence.
8. Clean the board. Put students into pairs or small groups and tell them that they are going to recall and write down the 15 things to do before you die from memory. However, instead of writing the phrases as they were, students should convert them into Have you ever … ? questions. Give a couple of examples and clarify the grammar (see PDF download for information).
9. Elicit feedback of the 15 Have you ever …? questions. Use this as an opportunity to drill the language – both the isolated past participles and the full Have you ever…? questions. Make sure students copy all of the language into their notebooks.
10. Ask students if they can see a pattern for the pronunciation of regular past participles. They should be able to see that when a past participle ends in -ted (or -ded), an extra syllable is added to the stem of the verb. See PDF download for a more detailed discussion of this.
11. Play the ‘Lying Game’. Instructions are included in the PDF download.

Variation 1

Ask students to compare their own lists of things they would like to accomplish.

Variation 2

Introduce the activity with a poster of the film The Bucket List. Start by writing the words ‘Kick the Bucket’ on the board. Find out if anyone can tell you what the expression means (answer = to die). Show students the film poster image. Find out if anyone has seen the film and if so, can they tell you why it is called The Bucket List (answer = two terminally ill men decide to compile a list of things to do before they die or ‘kick the bucket’).

Variation 3

Choose different Have you ever …? questions for the game or invite students to create their own.

• Have you ever run a marathon?
• Have you ever saved someone’s life?
• Have you ever dropped your mobile phone down the toilet?
• Have you ever eaten octopus?
• Have you ever dreamed in English?
• Have you ever been on TV?
• Have you ever done a parachute jump?
• Have you ever been in love?

The Life and Death of a Pumpkin won the Best Short Film and Best Concept at the 2006 Chicago Horror Film Festival. It was directed by Aaron Yonda, who is probably best known for his part in the Chad Vader series. Note that some of the language in the story is quite grotesque. Please be aware of this and be sympathetic to your students.

• Language level: Intermediate; Upper intermediate (B1; B2)
• Learner type: Teens; Adults
• Time: 45 minutes (+ Follow up)
• Activity: Reading (+ Writing follow up)
• Topic: Halloween; Horror
• Language: Past perfect
• Materials: Video clip; Worksheet

Halloween horror story [downloaded 1275 times]

Lesson plan summary

1. Write the following on the board and ask students to suggest words that could fill the gap:
__________ story

(Possibilities include: sad, news, love, ghost, horror, tragic, true, etc)

2. Tell students that they are going to hear a story. Write the following questions on the board:
   
   * What type of story is it?
   * Who do you think the main character is and what does he look like?
3. Play the video clip from 0:12 to 3:00 but importantly, do not let students see the screen. Ask students to consider the questions from Step 2 as they listen.

Note: It is very important that you play the video / audio from 0:12 after the words “I am a pumpkin. Hello”. If your students hear these words, the main task will be ruined.

4. Let students share their ideas.
5. Give out copies of the word cloud. Tell students that it contains some important words from the story. Clarify the meaning of any new words or allow students to look up definitions in a dictionary.
6. Ask students to reconsider the questions in Steps 2. Perhaps their ideas have changed now that they have seen the word cloud.
7. Give out copies of the Horror Story worksheet (see below). Let students follow the text as you let them hear the clip a second time (0:12 – 03:00). Ask students if they can work out the missing word. Ask them to write down answers rather than shout them out.

Halloween Horror Story


I am a ________________. Hello

In the beginning, my life was peaceful: Days spent with my family in the garden; The sunlight warming my skin. Peaceful.

Until they came without warning – cruel hands dragging me roughly from my dreams into a wheeled box.

I was carried past my brothers and sisters and friends. My family. I cried out for rescue but my kin remained silent and unmoving, perhaps fearing similar fate.

My home began to fade in the distance. And suddenly, everything went dark.

When I came to my senses, I saw that my abductors had placed me on hard grey earth. I was afraid I had just been left to die. Now I know if I had, I would have been lucky.

The pain was incredible. I became dizzy – I felt sick. They had cut a giant hole in my skull and were now tearing my innards from my body and throwing them in front of me, like ribbons from a gift.
Moments later, the knives returned, stabbing me over and over again.

What made those people do what they did that day?  I do not know. I began to think they were playing some sort of mad game especially when they put a really big knife inside me and just sort of waved it around.

When the cutting was done I sat in shock, not daring to think that the torture might be at an end. But of course it was not.

They lowered a stick of hot fire into my belly. Burning, burning flame.

My captors had carved a gruesome visage into me, as if this was all some kind of sick joke. Who were these sick people and why had they done this to me? Why? Why? Why?

Note that some of the language in the story is quite grotesque (e.g. “They had cut a giant hole in my skull and were now tearing my innards from my body…”). Please be aware of this and be sympathetic to your students. Perhaps you should let them know that they will soon realise that the story is not as bad as it sounds.

8. Go around the class and ask students to show you (i.e. only you) what they have written for the missing word.

Note that students should not share their ideas with each other at this stage. It is very likely that someone will work out that the missing word is pumpkin. As long as this is not made public, you will be able to prolong students’ curiosity and engagement.

9. Go over and clarify any new words or language in the text. In some cases, you will be consolidating students’ understanding of individual words from the cloud. In other cases, you will be dealing with new phrases (e.g. I came to my senses = I regained consciousness). Also draw students’ attention to the bold phrases in the text and ask them to guess what they refer to but don’t tell them the answers at this stage.
   

   * A wheeled box (= a wheel barrow)
   * Hard grey earth (= a door step)
   * A stick of hot fire (= a candle)
   * A gruesome visage (= a face)

10. Show students the clip (audio and video) from the very beginning until 3:00 – the same stopping place as before. Students will now realise that the protagonist is a pumpkin. Perhaps they know about Halloween and this custom in particular. If not, tell them about it (find out more at the “Jack-o’-lantern” entry on Wikipedia).
11. Ask students to predict what happens next in the clip before playing it to the end.
12. Past perfect practice: Tell students to put away their texts and dictate the following sentences:
    

    * Who were these sick people and why had they done this to me?
    * When I came to my senses, I saw that my abductors had placed me on hard grey earth.
    * My captors had carved a gruesome visage into me.
    * They had cut a giant hole in my skull and were now tearing my innards from my body.
    * I was afraid I had just been left to die.

13. Ask students to compare what they have written before identifying the common grammar point (the past perfect). Finally, ask them to put the sentences into the correct chronological order before checking their answers by looking at the texts again.

Comment

Some gentle changes have been made to the actual transcript. In most cases, this has been an attempt to replace lower-frequency terms (impaling, strewn, nauseated, etc) with their higher-frequency synonyms (stabbing, thrown, sick, etc). Although students may not notice such changes, it is something that you may decide to discuss with them (see Follow ups below).

Follow ups

• Tell students that you changed some of the language in your transcription. Give out copies of the Actual Transcript (provided in the PDF file). Ask students to compare the two transcripts to find out what lchanges were made. This is a potentially interesting activity which can lead to discussion on why teachers and course book writers amend or simplify language for learners.
• Find out how students celebrate Halloween in their own country or if they have a similar festival.
• Ask students to write their own horror stories for other everyday objects or food (boiled eggs, strawberries being made into jam, a golf ball, carpenter’s nails). There are other clips on YouTube that could be used for inspiration. E.g. show the Screaming Eggs clip with the sound turned down and ask students to write an account from one of the victims.

The No Project is an independent anti-slavery initiative that focuses on the role of demand, and specifically targets awareness through music, arts, film, education and social media. It was through The No Project that I found this video which was created by Love 146, a charity that raises awareness and resources to combat child sex trafficking.

• Language level: Pre-intermediate (A2) +
• Learner type: Young learners; Teens; Adults
• Time: 30 minutes [day 1] + 45 minutes [day 2]
• Activity: Videotelling
• Topic: Child slavery; Child sexual exploitation
• Language: Metaphors of freedom
• Materials: Song; Video; Worksheet

Love 146 [downloaded 380 times]

Lesson plan outline

The issues behind the video used in this lesson plan are potentially disturbing. If used with mature teens and adults, the material can be used to introduce the issue of trafficking children for sexual exploitation. If used with younger learners, it would be better to focus on more general issues of children in the world who are denied their freedom (or perhaps children who are trafficked into the country where you teach).

The lesson plan is divided into two parts: part one (the song) and part two (videotelling). The activity may work best if done over two days but this is not essential.

Part one (the song)

For this part of the activity, you will need the song Little Bird by Annie Lennox. You can find this on YouTube, Groove Shark, Spotify or iTunes.

1. Tell students that you want to tell them about an experiment that you did earlier: You put a single word into an image search engine and looked at the results. Tell them that you will describe some of the images and they have to guess what the word was.



The word in question is freedom. An online image search of the word gives rise to lot of visual metaphors and cliché images of birds, butterflies, wings, outstretched arms (free from constraints), standing on mountaintops, running across sandy beaches, cages with open doors, even the US flag. Describe these to your learners and see if they can identify the word in question.

2. Once students have identified the key word, ask them to consider which of the images provides the best metaphor of freedom. Also ask them to consider which metaphors provide bad, inaccurate or misleading metaphors (I can think of a telecommunications company whose advertisers associate its mobile phone network with freedom. Or how about a soft drink that supposedly gives you wings?)
3. Tell students that you have a song for them that uses the metaphor of a bird to represent freedom. Brainstorm students for bird-related words and write these on the board.
4. Give out the Little Bird worksheet (included in the PDF download) and ask students to complete the tasks. Explain any unknown words or language and write this on the board (note the the PDF download contains a glossary).



5. Allow students to pair up and share their answers before asking for feedback (answers are included in the PDF download).
6. Let students hear the song and ask the following:

• Have you heard it before?
• Have your interpretations changed now that you have heard it?

Part two (videotelling)

‘Videotelling’ is a technique in which a piece of visual material is turned into a whole-class communicative event. As the teacher leads students through the narrative, opportunities for student interaction are encouraged along the way.

Use the example Videotelling Script in the broken box below (also included in the PDF download) to talk students through the Love 146 flash mob video. Ask questions whenever possible. Examples are shown in italics. After this phase of the activity, show students the video.  Note that subtitles at the beginning and end of the video tell us that the Love 146 project exists to raise awareness of child sex trafficking. If you want to keep students curious during viewing, play the clip from 1:00 and stop it at 9:00.

Q: Does anyone know the film Schindler’s list? [image here.]

Q: Do you remember what it is about?

The film is about a German businessman who saves the lives of hundreds of Jewish refugees during the Second World War, by employing them in his factories.

Q: Is it in colour or black and white?

Almost the entire film is in black and white. But there are a few moments of colour.

Q: Does anyone remember any of the colour moments?

The most famous one is when Schindler sees a little Jewish girl in a red coat. Later in the film, she is seen among the dead. She is only recognisable by the colour of the red coat that she is wearing [image here.]

Although it was unintentional, the character is coincidentally similar to Roma Ligocka who was known in the Kraków Ghetto for her red coat. Ligocka survived the Holocaust. When she saw the film Schindler’s List, she identified herself with the character. She wrote her own story, The Girl in the Red Coat: A Memoir [image here.]

We will come back to the Girl in the Red Coat in a moment.

Q: Does anyone here know where Trafalgar Square is? (Answer = London)

Q: Has anyone visited London / Trafalgar Square recently? What do you know about it?

I want you to imagine that you are in Trafalgar Square [image here.]

Q: What is the weather like? (Answer = it is very nice today – the sun is out)

Q: What do you see?

Trafalgar Square is home to a fountain, a lot of pigeons, Nelson’s Colum, 4 lion statues, the National Gallery, St Martin-in-the Fields Church, demonstrations, New Years celebrations, etc.

The strangest thing that you see today is a little girl. She is alone and she looks a bit lost.

Q: Can you guess what she is wearing? (Answer = not a read coat, but a red dress)

The strangest thing is that she is carrying a sign.

Q: What do you think the sign says? (Answer = Can you see me?)

Q: Can anyone explain what is going on here?

There is a curious crowd of people looking at her. They are also wondering what is going on.

Q: What do you think happens next?

She starts singing. She starts singing a song that I am sure you know. More curious people stop to watch.

Q: Do you have any ideas what is happening?

The next thing that happens is this: Suddenly, from out of nowhere, a group of professional dancers surround her. There are about 60 of them. They start to perform a carefully choreographed series of moves to accompany the music. At one point, they pick up the girl in the red dress and hold her above them.

Q: Any ideas? Why is this happening?

All of the dancers are wearing white T-Shirts with a logo that reads: Love 146.

Q: What could that mean?

Next, four female singers join them. The singers continue with the song. More and more people turn up to watch. By this time, there is quite a big crowd surrounding them.

Q: Has anyone ever seen anything like this before?

This is an example of a flash mob.

Q: Do you know what a flash mob is?

The Macmillan Dictionary defines ‘flash mob’ as: ‘A large group of people who suddenly gather in a public place, do something for a short time, and quickly go away again.’

Q: Have you ever seen a flash mob on YouTube? Can you describe what you remember?

Q: Why do people organise flash mobs?

For the purposes of performance art, as a means of protesting, to promote something, even for fun: Silent discos (where people turn up with their own portable music devices) and street pillow fights are two such examples of the latter.

This flash mob in Trafalgar Square ends when the song finishes. The dancers and the female singers leave the scene. The only person that is left is the girl in the red dress and the confused crowd.

Q: What do you think was the purpose behind this flash mob in Trafalgar Square?

One last thing I have to tell you. The song that is used is a song that you know: Little Bird

Q: Any final ideas?

Follow up (younger learners)

Love 146 was set up to ‘bring an end to child sex slavery and exploitation’ and the story behind the name is quite graphic and potentially disturbing. For younger learners, you can use this lesson plan as a way to introduce the wider issue of human trafficking into your own country, especially that which involves children. It could be used to initiate project work, for example.

Follow up (mature teens and adults)

Give the following homework/self-study task, which will lead them to the specific issues behind Love 146.

Go online and find out the following:

• What is Love 146?
• What does Love 146 do?
• What is the story behind the name Love 146?

Variation 1

Rather than showing the video clip in class, refer students to it so that they watch it in their own time (this could be useful if you lack the technology or are run out of time). To do this, you could:

• Give students the title of the clip: Official LOVE146 Flash Mob – Can you see me? Ask them to watch it for homework.
• Put the clip on a class blog or Facebook page.
• Email the clip to everyone after class.

Variation 2

Prepare a slideshow of images to reinforce the ideas that are explored in the Videotelling stage of the activity (the Schindler’s List poster, a screen shot from the film, The Girl in the Red Coat book cover, a photograph of Trafalgar Square). Links are provided to these images above.

Comment

Thank you very much to Judy at The No Project for drawing my attention to video used in this activity. Judy works very hard to raise awareness of the issues that are considered here. The site links to an impressive selection of organisations, art projects, music videos and short films that deal with the subject of human trafficking. Please ‘Like’ her Facebook page.

Why did the chicken cross the road? is one of the most famous (and least funny) jokes in English. In this lesson plan, students are asked to draw their own road-crossing chickens and consider chicken motives before being directed to the joke.

• Language level: Elementary – Intermediate (A2 – B1)
• Learner type: Young learners; Teens; Adults
• Time: 20 minutes
• Activity: Drawing; Writing sentences
• Topic: Jokes; English humour
• Language: The infinitive of purpose
• Materials: Materials free

Chickens crossing [downloaded 416 times]

Lesson plan outline

1. Give every student in the class a scrap piece of paper.
2. Ask students to draw a picture of a chicken crossing the road.



Note: Some of your students may be reluctant artists. If so, let them know that you don’t expect masterpieces – just quick sketches. One way of getting students started is to lead by example – draw a picture of your own on the board – the simpler, the better.

3. Ask everyone to think of a name for their chickens. Students should write the chicken names on their drawings (see below).
4. On the board, write:
[Chicken name] is crossing to …

Give an example or two to illustrate the infinitive of purpose. Then ask students to think of a reason why their chicken is crossing the road and complete the sentence in any way they want. Ask students to be as imaginative as possible. They should write their sentences on the back of their drawings – in pencil if possible. Also, if possible, give access to bilingual dictionaries so that students can express their ideas even if they don’t have the necessary language/vocabulary.



5. While students are writing their sentences, go around the class and help with language. Offer corrections and suggest improvements whenever possible.

Note: The aim of this step is for every student to have a well-written sentence on the back of their chicken drawings. If students write their original sentences in pencil (see step 4 above), this will make the correction/re-writing process less messy.

6. Ask everyone to stand up. Invite them to mingle with as many other students as possible. Students should introduce their chickens to each other and explain why they are crossing the road.
7. For homework, ask students to find out why the chicken really did cross the road.

Variation

It may be difficult to correct all of your students’ sentences in class (see step 5 above). This will be especially difficult for large groups. If this is the case, ask students to hand in all of their drawings/sentences (following step 4). In your own time, write language suggestions and corrections on the back of their drawings and give them back the next day. If done in this way, the activity should proceed over two days.

Follow ups

• Put all of your students drawing on the wall to create a collage. Ask students to write their chickens’ road-crossing reasons neatly on separate pieces of paper and stick these around the collage.
• Refer back to the ‘Why did the chicken cross the road’ joke whenever you need to revise, revisit or recap the infinitive of purpose (note that a common student error that often needs corrected is: ‘For to get to the other side’.)

Image credit

The ‘Chickens Xing’ sign used in this lesson plan can be purchased online at www.randallburkey.com

In this activity, students begin with a stress pattern and have to find phrases that fit it. The lesson plan uses a song from the 1959 Rodgers and Hammerstein musical The Sound of Music. The song is My Favorite Things and it works so well because it has been written in triple time. In other words, it is a waltz: it conforms to a consistent one-two-three-one-two-three pattern. Throughout the lyrics, all strong syllables fall on the ‘one’ while weak syllables fall on the ‘two‘ or ‘three‘ (‘Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens.’)

• Language level: Intermediate (B1) +
• Learner type: Young learners; Teens; Adults
• Time: 30 minutes
• Activity: Vocabulary game
• Topic: Rhythm in English songs
• Language: Pronunciation; Stress patterns
• Materials: Images; Song

My favorite things [downloaded 561 times]

Lesson plan outline

For this activity, you will need 5 images. Use an image search engine to find pictures to represent the following:

• Raindrops on roses
• Whiskers on kittens
• Bright copper kettles
• Warm woollen mittens
• Brown paper packages tied up with strings

1. Write the following stress pattern on the board:
O o o O o

Drill a few phrases that demonstrate the sound of the stress pattern. For example:

• Quarter past seven
• Mary and Joseph
• Where are you going?
• What are you doing?
• Everyone thinks so
• Isn’t she lovely?
• Monday and Tuesday

2. Tell students that you are going to show them 4 images. For each image, they should write down what they see (they can do this in pairs if they like). Importantly, the phrases that they write should consist of 5 syllables and conform to the above stress pattern (OooOo).

Note: This activity works well if students have access to bilingual dictionaries. This will allow them to find unfamiliar words that are key to the activity (whiskers, kettle, mittens, etc.)

3. Show the images one by one. Give students enough time to think of a phrase. Once everyone has an answer, invite students to share and compare what they wrote.
4. Tell students that there is one more image. In describing it, they will have to produce a phrase that follows the following stress pattern:
O o o O o o O o o O


(i.e. ‘Brown paper packages tied up with strings’)

5. Show image and let students write their phrases as before. Compare answers.
6. Tell students that you are going to give them the answers. Play the first verse of My Favorite Things two or three times.

Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens
Bright copper kettles and warm woollen mittens
Brown paper packages tied up with strings
These are a few of my favorite things

7. Ask students to write down the words that they hear and ask everyone to sing the verse.

Follow up

Ask students to write their own personal ‘Favorite Things’ verses. This can be as free or as restricted as you want to make it. For example, you could ask students to keep the exact same stress pattern as before (see box below). Alternatively, let students be free with what they write.

O o o O o and
O o o O o
O o o O o and
O o o O o
O o o O o o O o o O
These are a few of my favorite things

This might be a good opportunity to practise or clarify the use of –ing forms as nouns (gerunds) as teacher Gina André demonstrates on her blog.