At first, I just walked past. Later I thought, what if...
And I started fantasizing about the briefcase holding wads of crisp bills...
Then the language teacher ego took hold of me and said, hell, there's an awful lot of possibilities there for a conversation lesson, full of lexical challenges.
So, what would you do if you saw something like this? Ponder over it while I go back to my fantasies...
This image is part of the Project 366 series. If you're involved in it, (and if not, why don't you start?) please let us know in this Google Doc. My images are in Flickr, free for non-commercial use as long as they are properly attributed.
Once in a while I read something and I find myself thinking, "Now, why didn't I think of that?". Well, Richard Gresswell had such an idea. He started a blog, called it ELTBITES, and challenged us:
"Describe an activity that requires no more than the teacher, students, and possibly making use of the board, pens, and paper. Describe the activity aims and procedure concisely in no more than 200 words."
Here is my contribution, which may not be all that original.
Level: any Time: as long as interest prevails Material: your tongue, and students who obey instructions Aims: vocabulary, warmer, filler, exercise, fun, ... Procedure:
This is a simple activity to get the students moving, but, be warned, it can be addictive. I had students wanting to do it again and again, but, perhaps, it was just an excuse for them not to do any 'school work'! ;-)
Think of the language you want your students to work with. Say, you want to revise colours and clothes:
Those of you whose bedroom is white, stand up. (Notice use of relative pronoun, imperative.)
Remain standing.
What about blue?
And black? (I once had a student who has a black bedroom! Of course, we started a mini-conversation.)
Now, if you're wearing white trainers, sit down.
If you're wearing blue jeans, stand up.
You can vary the movements:
If you don't have a belt on, take one step to the left.
If you're wearing black underwear, take two steps back. (This will raise a lot of sniggers!)
Keep it dynamic. Think of unusual stuff (if you can touch your nose with your tongue...). Get them to observe each other (those who have short curly hair...). With higher levels, think of more challenging questions (those who believe in... those who would like to...).
Basically, the limit is your imagination. Hand the activity over to your students. Get them to ask the questions, and use their own commands. Encourage them to be creative.
Read my analysis of emergent language based on lessons using the above image in my guest post for Barbara Sakamoto's Teaching Village. Thanks, Barb, for the invite.
Ted Talks has a speaker with a difference - he isn't going to speak!
Don't worry - it isn't a silent video, lol.
Jackson Browne is one of my favourite singer-songwriters, and he has written many powerful songs in his long career, this one here being no exception. What I would like you to do first is to watch and listen to the song, and try to understand as much as possible.
Then, watch it a second time; this time, scroll further down and follow the lyrics.
When you've finished, think about the message Jackson Browne is trying to put across. Comment below by clicking on the pencil icon.
Sliding through the shimmering surface between two worlds Standing at the centre of time as it uncurls Cutting through a veil of illusion Moving beyond past conclusions Wondering if all my doubt and confusion will clear
If I could be anywhere, If I could be anywhere If I could be anywhere right now, I would want to be here
Searching for the future among the things we're throwing away Trying to see the world through the junk we produce every day They say nothing lasts forever, But all the plastic ever made is still here No amount of closing our eyes will make it disappear
If I could be anywhere, If I could be anywhere If I could be anywhere in history, I would want to be here
The Romans, the Spanish, the British, the Dutch American exceptionalism, so out of touch The folly of empire, repeating its course Imposing its will and ruling by force On and on through time
But the world can’t take it, very much longer We're not gonna make it, unless we're smarter and stronger The world is gonna shake itself free of our greed somehow
If I could be anywhere, If I could be anywhere in time If I could be anywhere and change things, it would have to be now.
They say nothing lasts forever, but all the plastic ever made is still here No amount of closing our eyes will make it disappear
And the world can’t take it, very much longer It's not gonna make it, ‘less we're smarter and stronger The world is gonna shake itself free of our greed somehow
And the world can’t take it, that you can see If the oceans don’t make it, neither will we The world is gonna shake itself all the way free somehow
If I could be anywhere, If I could be anywhere in time If I could be anywhere and change the outcome, it would have to be now.
We have already seen an activity for second conditional with Norah Jones, and I'd also touched on the subject of countries prior to this. However, from my experience, the concept of conditionals isn't too hard to grasp, but it could be used as a springboard for speaking activities. Please see my post on The Best Countries as well.
With that in mind, I introduce to you this interesting website, If It Were My Home. I'll have to admit that I first heard of it from Nik Peachey. Andy Lintner and Annette Calabrese first started the page in 2010 to highlight the magnitude of the BP Oil Spill disaster, but have since expanded it to include interesting information on many countries.
If you click on 'Country Comparison', if I remember correctly, it will ask you permission to access your IP address to know where your home country is. This happens only once. If you do this, it will assume you wish to compare your home country with another. Click on another name further down the page.
When you've done that, something like this will be what you get:
Here, we're comparing Spain to Australia. On the map, you can see the difference in size of the two countries. It also lists a few comparisons between the them, e.g.
"If Australia were your home instead of Spain, you would have 68.51% more chance of being employed."
If you wish to compare your home country (Spain) to a different country, select another from the drop-down list by clicking on the arrowhead, then on 'compare'. However, if you want to compare the chosen country (Australia) to another, you select the following button, where it says 'Compare (Australia) to other countries'. When you click this, a list of countries will be displayed. Select one.
In this way, you can compare any two countries you wish. Below, you can see a comparison between the two most digital countries in the world, according to a recent survey.
Notice that the statistics are highlighted in three different colours. Red is negative (e.g. ...you would consume 5.1 times more oil), green is positive (e.g. ...have 87.74% more chance of being employed), and blue is for babies! At least I haven't seen any other statistics highlighted in blue.
If you want to see additional information on a particular statistic, just click on the arrowhead to its right, and more information will appear.
Further down, you'll see a thumbs up and a thumbs down sign. These are for you to vote. Below this, you'll see more information on the country you're comparing to.
If you scroll even further below, you are allowed to enter your comments, and read those of others (if there are any) of the compared country.
So, as you can see, there's ample material for students to come up with second conditional sentences. Conversation shouldn't be restricted to this grammar structure; students should be encouraged to speak about any of the statistics they see or even the comments. For more ways of using the site, I'd recommend your reading Nik's post.
Here's a simple fun activity for you to practise listening and conditionals.
First, listen to the song, and you can follow the lyrics if you want (there are some minor errors).
Then, click on the image below the lyrics, and this will direct you to an interactive cloze activity, prepared using Lucy Georges' Cloze Creator. Try to fill in the gap (with or without listening to the song again).
Tip: You can use the TAB key to move from one gap to the next.
When you've finished, answer these questions:
1. Under which genre would you classify this song?
2. What's your opinion of the song?
3. Did the singer love his lover 'all night long'? How do you know? How does he express this?
4. Is the singer still with his lover? How do you know?
5. Construct three sentences with a similar grammatical structure.
Here's a simple beautiful song by the equally beautiful Norah Jones. Look at the word cloud - all the lyrics are there - and see if you can put the words in the order in which Norah sings. You can click on the image to see a larger version.
As you probably already know, we use the conditional sentence type 2 to talk about conditions that, although possible, are not likely to be fulfilled:
If I had an iPad, I would use it in class. If I used it in class, I would create a commotion.
Once you've managed to get the lyrics, try to interpret the song. Do you like the song? Why/Why not? Who is she singing to? Does she need him? Have you ever felt that way?
For teachers, you can use this other activity to practise the second conditional, too.
