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 1883 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)

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?

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 692 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?

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.

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

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 648 times]

Business cards - Slideshow [downloaded 435 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?

• 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.)

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?

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 667 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.

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 383 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.

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 659 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

• Golf course
• Football pitch
• Rugby pitch
• Hockey pitch
• Ski slope

• Basketball players
• Referees
• Cheerleaders
• Mascots
• Unruly spectators

• 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’

• 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

Since 2007, Google has been sending specially-adapted cars into our streets, each one equipped with nine cameras on a pole. The aim has been to obtain pictures for Street View, which can be accessed via Google maps and Google Earth. As is the case with life, the random images that are generated are usually mundane and unremarkable. But as would also be expected, there are hidden moments of love and beauty, life and death, tragedy and destruction, and absolute bizarreness. For a project titled The Nine Eyes of Google Street View, artist Jon Rafman has spent the last few years collecting and curating such images. This lesson plan aims to make use of some of the issues that he raises.

• Language level: Intermediate (B1) +
• Learner type: Teens; Adults
• Time: 30 minutes
• Activity: Mental image dictation
• Topic: Google; Privacy
• Language: Looking at; Looks like; Looks as if; etc.

Google street view [downloaded 617 times]

Preparation

For this activity, you will need to choose and download a few of the Google Street view images from The Nine Eyes of Google Street View project. Find images at the following links:

• Slideshow on the Guardian website
• Essay and images by the artist
• More images

Spend some time preparing a short description of each image that you choose. Grade the language to your learners’ abilities whenever possible. Some examples are given below and possible language points are discussed in the PDF lesson plan.

This is a street scene. It is almost certainly New York. How can I tell? There are no landmarks but there are two yellow cabs. There is a man standing on the street corner. He isn’t paying any attention to us. He looks ecstatic. He’s got his arms in the air as if his football team has just scored the winning goal.

This is strange. In this picture, there is a little boy hiding outside a house. He is crouching down behind a rubbish bin. He is looking at us and looks frightened. It looks like he is hiding from us. Is he frightened of us?

This isn’t a nice picture at all. In this photograph, there’s been an accident and it doesn’t look good. The victim is lying in the middle of the road and there is a crowd of people around him. He is receiving attention from medics but I can’t see his face and I can’t tell if he’s dead or alive.

In this picture, there is an old man walking on the pavement. He’s wearing jeans, a beige jacket and a black hat. He is carrying a walking stick. He isn’t looking at us. Perhaps he doesn’t see us. The strange thing is that a few meters behind him, there’s another old man who seems to be wearing exactly the same clothes and is also carrying a walking stick. It looks as if they are clones.

This looks like a scene from a David Lynch film. The adjective to describe it might be ‘eerie’. We are looking down a desert road. There are four people in the picture and they are all staring at us. It’s as if they are checking us out. The scary thing is that they are all dressed up. One of them is dressed up as a wolf, one of them is dressed up as a cowboy. And two of them are dressed up as what could be the ghost character from the film ‘Scream’.

In this photograph, there a pick up truck outside a house. There is a woman opening the door of the truck. It looks like she is getting in. There is also a man standing beside her. But there is something sinister going on here. Perhaps. In the back of the truck, there is a third person – someone lying down on his back (I think it’s a man). It looks as if he might be dead and the idea comes into my mind that he might have been murdered.

In this picture there are two men. They are looking directly at us as if we are intruders. Perhaps we have interrupted their conversation. The guy on the right is a big guy and he’s holding a tiny dog. The guy on the left is waving his arms at us as if to say, “What are you doing here?”

Lesson plan outline

1. On the board, write the following:
The Nine Eyes of __________ __________ __________
2. Tell students that this is the title of an art project which involves a number of photographs. Ask if anyone can suggest what the missing words are.
3. Read (or dictate) the following passage to your students:

According to the artist, the images are artless and meaningless. They lack human intention and give no particular significance to any person or event. As a result, the world that the images represent is more truthful and transparent than the world that is represented by conventional photography. They represent true documentary photography.

4. Ask students to speculate about the nature of the project. Don’t worry if no one has anything to say at this stage. The aim is to get them engaged.
5. Tell students that you are going to describe a number of the images to them. Tell them that their task is to work out what the images have in common. If they can do this, they will be able to identify the nature of the art project and identify the three missing words from the title in Step 1 above.
6. One by one, describe the images to your students. As you do this:
   

   • Make sure that your students do not see the images.
   • Read directly from the texts if you like.
   • Make students believe that you are looking at images rather than reading from a text.
   • Ask questions and encourage student interaction when possible.
   • Draw attention to new or useful language and write this on the board.

7. Describe all of the pictures a second time. This can serve as a recap of the language. Aim to elicit words, phrases, grammar structures, etc. that you have already used (crouching down, eerie, a walking stick, dressed up as, as if his football team has just scored the winning goal, it looks as if they are clones, as if to say, “What are you doing here?”, etc.)
8. If students are unable to work out the connection (this will probably be the case), tell them that you are going to give them a number of clues. Read out the sentences below:
   

   • The quality of the photographs is not excellent but they have all been taken since 2007.
   • The name of the artist behind is Jon Rafman. However, he didn’t take any of the photographs himself. For the last few years, he has been collecting and curating images like these.
   • The artist found all of the images online.
   • For reasons of privacy, all faces and license plates are blurred.
   • All of the images have a little icon in the top left hand corner that looks like a compass.
   • The photographs were taken with an automated camera. They were all shot from the middle of the street from a height of 2.5 meters.

Note: Try to prevent students from shouting out answers at this stage. The aim is to give each student the opportunity to work out the answer for himself. You could ask students to write down their answers. Alternatively, put students into pairs and ask them to discuss their ideas in private.

9. Take feedback and find out who has guessed the answer and managed to complete the title of the art project (The Nine Eyes of Google Street View.) Ask students if they know what the Nine Eyes refer to. Show them a picture of a Google camera car and point our the nine lenses that it uses to capture images.
10. Show students the slideshow. Use each image to recall as much language as possible from your prepared descriptions.

Follow up and Variations

See the PDF lesson plan download for these.

This activity uses translation to encourage students to notice structural differences between certain noun clauses and question forms (see above image). The activity uses 12 book titles to supply the language for study.

• Language level: Pre-intermediate (A2) +
• Learner type: Teens; Adults
• Time: 20 minutes
• Activity: Translation
• Topic: Book titles
• Language: Questions; Noun clauses; Indirect questions

Question words [downloaded 402 times]

Question words - Slideshow [downloaded 307 times]

Language point

Words like who, where and what are commonly referred to as question words. But they are not always involved in questions:

• Who I am (Noun clause)
• Who am I? (Question form)
• Where the heart is (Noun clause)
• Where is baby’s belly button? (Question form)
• What the dog saw (Noun clause)
• What did the cat say? (Question form)
• What a lady wants (Noun clause)
• What does she want? (Question form)
• Where babies come from (Noun clause)
• Where do babies come from? (Question form)
• Where Willy went (Noun clause)
• Where did Pluto go? (Question form)

Lesson plan outline

1. Before students enter the classroom, write the following on the board:

• Who I am
• Who am I
• Where the heart is
• Where is baby’s belly button
• What did the cat say
• What the dog saw
• What a lady wants
• What does she want
• Where babies come from
• Where do babies come from
• Where did Pluto go
• Where Willy went

Comment

This is activity is known as an L2-L1-L2 translation. It can be effective for at least three reasons:

1. It allows learners to compare the target language (in this case English) with their mother tongue.
2. It forces students to work with whole language chunks rather than with individual words. Compare the activity with a standard gap fill which generally focuses on individual words.
3. It encourages students to notice aspects of structure and grammar in the target language (the need for the ‘do’ auxiliary in present and past simple question forms; subject-auxiliary inversion).

Follow up 1

Go through the slide show again and ask students to convert all of the question forms into noun clauses and vice versa. This will give them the opportunity to consolidate understanding of the grammar.

• Where Willy went → Where did Willy go?
• Where the heart is → Where is the heart?
• Where do babies come from? → Where babies come from
• Who I am → Who am I?
• Etc.

Follow up 2

Use this grammar point to introduce more complex structures (indirect questions for example). See link to PDF lesson plan for more information.

• Who am I?
• Do you know who am I?
• Who I am
• Do you know who I am? (see clip below)

This is an adaptation of an activity from my book Images. Munch’s Scream became topical in May 2012 when it was sold in auction for $120 million. This puts it in the list of most expensive paintings ever sold. The activity makes use of an entry from Munch’s diary in 1892 (see below). The descriptive passage describes a recurring vision that is said to be the inspiration for the iconic image.

• Language level: Intermediate; Upper Intermediate (B1; B2)
• Learner type: Teens; Adults
• Time: 30 minutes
• Activity: Illustrating a text; Text reconstruction
• Topic: CLIL (Art); Auctions
• Language: Past simple; Past continuous

The Scream [downloaded 516 times]

Lesson outline

1. Show students the image below and ask the following questions:
   • Who do you think these people are?
   • Where do you think they are?
   • Who do you think they are talking to?

(Click on image to enlarge)

2. Tell students that you are going to show them a text which has a connection with the picture. Put students into pairs or small groups and give out copies of the text which is included in the PDF download.

I was walking along a path with two friends. The sun was setting. Suddenly the sky turned blood red. I paused, feeling exhausted, and leaned on the fence. There was blood and tongues of fire above the blue-black fjord and the city. My friends walked on, and I stood there trembling with anxiety and I sensed an infinite scream passing through nature.

3. Ask students to work together to do the following:
   • Share and pool knowledge of any unknown words or language.
   • Consider where the text came from.
   • Consider what the connection between the text and the image is.

Note: It is possible that some students will know the connection between the text and the image. This is why they are discussing their ideas in pairs or small groups and not with the whole class. You can circulate and find out if any group knows or has worked out the answer. If this is the case, congratulate them and then ask them to keep it secret from the rest of the class.

4. Ask students to read the text again and pay close attention to the images that form in their heads as they do so. Tell students that before you tell them where the text came from, you want them to capture these images on paper.
5. Give out blank paper and coloured pencils. Ask students to illustrate the text in any way that they see it.
6. Put the drawings up on the walls and turn the classroom into a gallery. Let students compare their artwork.
7. Find out if anyone has any more ideas about where the text came from before showing them the second image.

(Click on image to enlarge)

8. Ask students what is happening in the picture (answer = an auction). Ask them to guess what is being auctioned (i.e. what is behind the blob).
9. Show students the third picture.  They will see that the item on sale at the auction is Munch’s Scream.

(Click on image to enlarge)

Establish that the people in the first picture are taking telephone bids. Also establish that the text comes from an 1892 diary entry from the artist. It describes a recurring vision that was said to haunt him. It was the inspiration for The Scream, his most famous painting. On 2nd May 2012, a version of the painting was sold by auction for $120 million. This put it in the list of most expensive paintings ever sold.

10. Find out what students know about the artist and the painting. You could ask them to go online and find out about any of the following:

• The artist and his life (here)
• The different versions of the painting and comparisons of them (here)
• The theft of The Scream in 2004 (here and here)
• The sale of the painting on the 2nd May 2012 (here)
• Other works in the list of most expensive paintings ever sold (here)

Note that another piece of art that finds itself on the list of most expensive paintings ever sold is the subject of another Lessonstream activity.

Language study follow up 1

Ask students to examine the text carefully and answer the following questions:

• How many past simple structures can you identify in the text?
• How many past continuous structures can you identify in the text?

Let students compare their answers before feedback.

Past simple:

• The sky turned blood red (1)
• I paused, feeling exhausted and leaned on the fence (2 & 3)
• My friends walked on (4)
• I stood there (5) trembling with anxiety
• I sensed an infinite scream (6) passing through nature
• Also, you may want to include: There was blood and tongues of fire above the fjord and the city (7)

Past continuous:

• I was walking along a path with two friends (1)
• The sun was setting (2)

Potential confusion:

Draw students’ attention to the following structures which are not to be mistaken for past continuous:

• I paused, feeling exhausted
• I stood there trembling with anxiety
• I sensed an infinite scream passing through nature

language study follow up 2

Tell students that you are going to give them a memory test. Give them two or three minutes to read and memorise as much as possible about the text. Tell them to pay attention to order of ideas, key words, grammar, number of sentences, etc.

While they are doing this, write the following on the board:

• Walk (past continuous)
• Set (past continuous)
• Turn (past simple)
• Pause (past simple)
• Lean (past simple)
• There was …
• Walk (past simple)
• Stand (past simple)
• Sense (past simple)

When time is up, ask students to put away their texts and rewrite them from memory. They should attempt to reconstruct the text as accurately as possible. They should make use of the prompts that you have written on the board as they do this. Finally, ask students to compare their work before letting them check it with the original text.

Image credits

Images were taken from Wikipedia (here) and stills from this video clip at the Guardian.co.uk

In this activity, students visualise a castaway alone on a desert island. They collaborate and construct a narrative to explain how he got there, how he attempts to escape, and what he writes in his message in a bottle. Finally, students listen to the 1979 song by The Police.

• Language level: Pre-intermediate – Upper intermediate (A2 – B1)
• Learner type: Teens; Adults
• Time: 45 minutes
• Activity: Building a story; Writing a message; Listening to a song
• Topic: Castaways; Love and loneliness
• Language: Present perfect; The verb to wish

Message in a bottle [downloaded 684 times]

Part one: Introduction

1. Introduce the topic by showing students the first image (see below). Find out if anyone has seen the film. If so, ask them to recall the title (which is obscured on the image) and tell the rest of the class what the film is about.
2. Confirm by showing the second image (see below). Students will now see that the title of the film is Cast Away which tells the story of a FedX employee stranded on an uninhabited island after his plane crashes in the South Pacific.

(Click on images to enlarge)

Part two: Visualisation

1. Tell students the following:

“I want you to imagine a castaway,

lost at sea on a desert island.”

Notes:

• This small description contains three pieces of target language contained in the song lyrics (the terms in bold). Write these on the board if necessary.
• Don’t feel that you have to ask students to close their eyes for visualisations like this. Students can feel awkward about doing so and it isn’t actually necessary. After all, visualisation is an important part of reading and it is impossible to read with your eyes closed!

2. Ask students the following questions:

• Is the castaway male or female?
• What is his or her name?
• What else do you see in the image? (Popular suggestions = monkeys, parrots, sharks, palm trees, coconuts, a shipwreck, etc.)

Draw a picture on the board and add to it as the image develops. If you are bad at drawing, ask for a volunteer student to do the artistic work.

Part three: Narrative construction

1. Dictate the following questions that relate to the scene:
   • How long has he/she been there? (Present perfect)
   • How did he/she get there? (Past simple)
   • How does he/she feel? (Present simple)
   • What is he/she thinking? (Present continuous)
2. Put students into pairs or small groups. Ask them to consider answers to these questions.
3. Feedback ideas and write new or useful language on the board (note that the PDF lesson plan contains suggestions for language to study during feedback).

Part four: Escape plan

1. Ask your students if they could bear the loneliness of a desert island.

Note that this question contains two pieces of target language contained in the song lyrics (the terms in bold). Write these on the board if necessary.

2. Tell students that their character is feeling particularly lonely and needs a plan for escape. Ask students to suggest as many things as possible that he could do (build a raft, get a fire ready for a passing plane, send a message in a bottle, etc.)
3. To the board drawing, add two thought bubbles coming from the castaway’s head.

• In the first thought bubble write the words: I’ll send an SOS to the world.
• In the second thought bubble write the words: I hope that someone gets my message in a bottle.

Note that these two lines come from the song Message in a Bottle. There is no problem if students realise this at this stage.

Part five: Writing messages

Ask students to write castaway messages (i.e. the messages to go in bottles). They should write in the first person and should include as much new language as possible (language that you have written on the board). They should include the following information:

• The castaway’s name.
• Roughly where the island is (the ocean, for example.)
• A description of the island.
• How he/she got there.
• How long he/she has been there.

Note that if students are unaware of the idea of a message in a bottle, you could demonstrate the idea with a bottle with a screw cap and a piece of paper. Fold up the paper so that it fits into the bottle and drop it in. For real messages in bottles, plastic bottles are the most practical.

Part six: The song

1. Tell students that they are going to hear a song called Message in a Bottle. Ask students if they know who it is by (answer = The Police).
2. Tell students to listen to the song and pay attention to what happens after the castaway sends the message in a bottle.
3. Ask students to form pairs and share what they understood.
4. Play the song again.
5. Give out copies of the song lyrics. These are included in the PDF download. Ask students to complete the ‘Find a word or term’ task (also included in the PDF download).
6. Let students hear the song one more time. This time they can read and listen to the lyrics at the same time.
7. Ask students to consider whether the song lyrics are to be taken literally or metaphorically. In the case of the latter, ask students to speculate on the meaning behind them.

So you probably already know this one. But just in case you’ve never seen it before:

In early 2011, an abandoned Los Angeles water tank was turned into an interesting piece of street art. In this picturetelling activity, students analyse the artistry and the story behind Banksy’s elephant.

• Language level: Intermediate – Upper intermediate (B1 – B2)
• Learner type: Teens; Adults
• Time: 20 minutes + homework
• Activity: Picturetelling
• Topic: Street art
• Language: Look like
• Materials: Image and text

Banksy's elephant [downloaded 189 times]

Lesson plan outline

1. Ask students if they like street art. If necessary, show some photographs (see here for example). Ask students if they can describe any specific examples of street art from their / your environment.
2. Tell students that you have a photograph of a piece of street art. Tell them that you want to describe it to them. Make use of the folliwng text for this purpose.

“This is a photograph of a piece of art. I suppose you would call it street art although the work isn’t in a street – it’s an object on the side of a road – a highway to be exact – in Los Angeles. The object is, I think, a piece of farm equipment – it looks like some kind of water tank. It looks like it was designed to be pulled by a tractor. It is long and cylindrical, it is made of metal and it’s got wheels. It’s white and it’s got a horizontal pipe sticking out the end. It’s old and it looks like it has been abandoned. I imagine that the artist drove past the object and saw it as an opportunity. He clearly thinks that it looks like a certain type of animal and he has added something to it to draw our attention to this. In other words, he made a subtle change to the object.”

Note: In a picturetelling activity, the teacher looks at an image and communicates it to students. The teacher should be able to see the picture but it should be hidden from students’ view. Although you might want to make use of a prepared text as a prompt (the one above, for example) it should not be apparent that you are reading from a script. Try familiarisng yourself with the text and consider how you are gojng to deliver it to your learners.

3. Repeat the description a number of times. This will allow students to strengthen the mental images that they develop.
4. Ask students to consider the following questions:
   • As you visualise the water tank, what kind of animal do you imagine it could look like?
   • Specifically, how has the artist he changed the object? In other words, what has he done to draw our attention to the fact that it resembles an animal?
5. Let students share and compare their ideas.
6. After asking students for their suggestions and discussing ideas, show students the actual image of Banksy’s water tank elephant.

Follow up 1

Dictate the following sentences and draw student’s attention to the look like + noun / clause structure:

• It looks like some kind of water tank. (noun)
• It looks like it was designed to be pulled by a tractor. (clause)
• It looks like it has been abandoned. (clause)
• It looks a bit like an elephant. (noun)
• I think it looks nothing like an elephant. (noun)
• I think it looks more like a … (noun)

Ask students to express their opinions about the water tank. Do they agree with the artist or do they have different ideas? Encourage students to make use of the dictated structures.

Follow up 2

Banksy’s water tank elephant found itself at the heart of a story of ownership, overly-priced art and homelessness. Ask students to go online and find out who or what each of the following are and how they are connected:

• Banksy
• Mint Currency
• Tachowa Covington
• Calex

Students can then write a summary which explains the people, the companies and the events involved in the elephant water tank story. Click here for an article.

In this activity, learners listen very carefully to the audio track of a short film. From there, they collaborate in an attempt to work out what happens in the story. Before reading the activity, it is suggested that you try this for yourself. Click on this link which will take you to the video on YouTube and listen carefully – with your eyes closed!

• Language level: Intermediate (B1) +
• Learner type: Teens; Adults
• Time: 35 minutes
• Activity: Listening to a audio track and constructing a narrative
• Topic: Luck; Honesty
• Language: Narative languge; Sounds like …
• Materials: The audio track of a short film

Blind luck [downloaded 110 times]

Lesson plan outline

Note that this activity may work beter if you convert the video on YouTube to MP3 (audio) file. To do this, make use of a site such as SnipMP3, Xenra, or listentoyoutube.

1. Tell students that they are going to hear a story. More specifically, they are going to hear the audio track from a short film. Tell them to listen very carefully and make a note of as many things that they hear, or think they hear. To avoid the Virgin Media jingles, play the clip from 0:15 and stop it at 1:50.
2. Put students into pairs or small groups and ask them to compare their notes.
3. Play the audio a second time and let students consolidate or reconsider their ideas.
4. Conduct feedback: Elicit as many different sounds as possible in the order that they are heard in the audio track. Spend time asking questions about the relevance of each sound in the context of the story. The PDF lesson plan (above) includes notes of possible questions to ask during this stage.
5. Let students hear the audio track a third time. This will allow them to consolidate or reconsider ideas even further.
6. In pairs or small groups (the same ones as before) ask students to construct a narrative to accompany the audio track. In other words, they should attempt to guess or work out exactly what happens in the short film – what is the story?

Note that in order to do this, students need a vital piece of information: The ker-ching sound in the clip doesn’t happen in response to a physical action. It represents something that happens in one of the character’s heads.

7. Let pairs or groups of students merge. Allow them to share their ideas. Encourage each group to come to a consensus story. They should do this by collaborating and selecting the good ideas and rejecting weaker ones.

Note: You may, or may not, decide to give students a second clue prior to this step: The title of the short film is Blind Love.

8. Allow a spokesperson from each group present their group’s story.
9. Show the video and let students compare their stories with the actual short film.

From Wikipedia: “Uncle Sam (initials U.S.) is a common national personification of the American government that, according to legend, came into use during the War of 1812 and was supposedly named for Samuel Wilson.” In the last few years, the original poster has become a bit of a meme. Instead of enlisting recruits for the US Army, Uncle Sam says, “I want you to tidy your room!” or “I want you to give up smoking!” Recently, I used this online poster generator to try to remind some naughty teens about the class rules that we had set up the week before. It worked (for a day).

• Language level: Intermediate (B1)
• Learner type: Teens; Adults
• Time: 15 minutes
• Activity: Translation
• Topic: Rules
• Language: Want you to do something; First conditional
• Materials: Slideshow of images

Uncle Sam [downloaded 72 times]

Preparation

Use one of the following poster generators to make a personalised slideshow of classroom rules posters. Good structures include ‘Want you to do something‘ and first conditionals (see examples below). Also include the original Uncle Sam poster in the slide show.

• Poster generator 1
• Poster generator 2
• Poster generator 3

Lesson plan outline

1. Show students the original Uncle Sam poster. Ask them if they know who the man is and what he represents (see Wikipedia for details).
2. Tell students that you have some more similar images for them. One by one, show the images in the slideshow and in each case, ask students to translate the message into their own language(s). Let students with the same mother tongue work together for this purpose.
3. In the absence of the images, ask students to translate their texts back into English.
4. Allow students to compare what they have written.
5. Show the slideshow a second time and allow students to correct their translations.

Comment

This activity is known as an L2-L1-L2 translation.

Some bad language in this one. But you might like that! In the activity, students hear the story of the rescue from the point of view of the people on the ground – the ones flying the radio-controlled airplane. After being asked to guess what happens next, students are given a mysterious dialogue. Intense reading of it should give them the answer – the dialogue is based on the one between the helicopter pilots in the above clip.

• Language level: Intermediate (B1)
• Learner type: Teens; Adults
• Time: 35 minutes
• Activity: Videotelling; Reading
• Topic: Aviation
• Language: Still & yet
• Materials: Video clip

Treetop rescue [downloaded 112 times]

Lesson plan outline

1. Tell students that they are going to play a game. You are going to think of a hobby and they have to guess what it is by asking closed questions (i.e. questions to which the answer can only be yes or no). The hobby in question is: flying RC (radio-controlled) model aircraft.
2. Find out if anyone in the class has ever tried flying an RC model aircraft. Perhaps they know someone who does it as a hobby.
3. Write the following words / phrases on the board. Ask students if they can define them / explain what they mean:
   • An aircraft: Any flying vehicle (a plane, helicopter, etc.)
   • A fighter: A military plane that is designed for battles with other planes
   • A kit: All the pieces that are necessary to build something (such as a model airplane)
   • An airfield: A place where aircraft land and take off (especially military or private, as opposed to commercial)
   • A runway: A road which allows planes to land or take off
   • To take off: Leave the ground and start flying
   • To land: Return to the ground after flying
4.  Tell students that you have a story for them. Give them the following situation:

Brian is a remote control model aircraft fan. He spends almost $500 on a P-51 Mustang kit (a P-51 Mustang is a Second World War US fighter). He spends three months building and painting the model plane. When the plane is finally ready, Brian takes it to an airfield in the country. It is a small airfield especially for RC aircraft. It has a runway which allows planes to take off and land. Brian is accompanied by his best friend Ian, and Ian’s son, Leo. To this day, Brian still can’t believe what happened next.

1. Tell students that something goes wrong. Elicit as many things as possible and write new language on the board. For example:
   • The plane doesn’t start.
   • The wings fall off.
   • It blows up in the air.
   • It gets struck by lightning.
   • It crashes into another plane.
   • It crashes into the ground.
   • It collides with a bird.
   • The radio control doesn’t work and they lose the plane.
2. Tell students that the plane crashes and gets stuck in the top of the trees.
3. Tell students that less than five minutes later Brian has his plane back. Ask students to suggest how this happens. Possibilities include:
   • They climb the tree.
   • They send Leo up the tree to get it.
   • The cut the down.
   • The wind blows it down.
4. Tell students that you have a text for them (included in the PDF download). Tell them that it is a dialogue between two people. Ask students to read the text and work out who and where the people are. Tell students that if they can do that, they will be able to work out how Brian got his plane back.

1. Ask students to underline any words or phrases that they don’t know.
2. Ask students to share ideas about a. Where/who these people are and b. Unknown words and phrases.
3. Take feedback and go over unknown language.
4. Show the video.

Follow up

Use this activity to introduce still and yet. Give the following gap fill and ask students to complete it before referring back to the text for the answers and moving onto a language study activity.
Complete the following with still or yet:

1. I see the guy and see the runway but I can’t see the plane ________.
2. I ________ don’t see it. Oh now I see it. I see the plane.
3. Have you got it ________? Almost.
4. Don’t worry – I’ve ________ got it. It’s safe.
5. To this day, Brian _______ can’t believe what happened next.

In this activity, students are given key phrases from the video before watching it. Students use these phrases to construct a narrative – a predictive description of how the experiment works and what they think happens.

• Language level: Intermediate (B1) +
• Learner type: Teens; Adults; CLIL
• Time: 50 minutes
• Activity: Speaking
• Topic: Fairness, morality and ethics
• Language: Describing an experiment; Present tenses
• Materials: Video clip

Angry monkeys [downloaded 373 times]

Lesson plan outline

1. Show students the book cover image which can be downloaded here. Ask them to translate the phrase It’s not fair! into their own language and find out if it is something that they used to say when they were children. If so, ask them to share their stories.
2. Elicit the following words and write them on the board:

Positive adjective: Fair | Negative adjective: Unfair
Positive noun: Fairness | Negative noun: Unfairness

3. Tell students that you are going to show them an excerpt from a 2010 publicity video for a British political party. Play the first 20 seconds of this clip.
4. Ask students if they are aware of any political campaigns from their own backgrounds that centred around the idea of fairness.
5. Suggest that the video clip demonstrates the importance of fairness to humans. But despite the importance, the word fairness can be difficult to define. Tell students that for the next 5 minutes, they are going to be dictionary writers. Ask them to write definitions for either the adjective fair or the noun fairness. Also ask them to include synonyms and collocations if possible. This will work best if students collaborate in pairs or small groups.
6. Allow a spokesperson from each group to share their definition with the rest of the class before looking at some real dictionary definitions of the words (here, for example).
7. Ask students to recall a time in their lives (the memory of an experience or an incident, etc.) that that involved unfairness. Put them into pairs or small groups and ask them to share their stories. This could be done as a writing activity.
8. Tell students that you are going to show them a video in which a man called Frans de Waal demonstrates a famous experiment on fairness. Write the following phrases on the board:

• “A very famous experiment”
• “A fairness study”
• “A simple task”
• “Grapes”
• “Slices of cucumber”
• “Creating inequity”

Tell students that these are phrases which Frans uses in the video to explain the experiment to us. Make sure that they are aware that the word study means research project and inequity is a synonym of unfairness.

Put students into pairs or small groups to try and answer the following questions:

• How does the experiment work?
• How does the experimenter create inequity?
• What do you think happens as a result?

Follow ups

Follow up ideas are included in the PDF download.

Image credit

The capuchin monkey photograph used in this activity was taken by David M Jensen and was found on Wikimedia Commons.

Comment

The video clip used in this activity is an excerpt from a TED talk by Frans de Waal: Moral behavior in animals.

This is an activity that I call a storytelling gapfill. Preparation involves selecting a short narrative text and isolating a number of phrases or sentences from it. The text that I have chosen is a simplified version of Simon Armitages ‘Knowing what we know now’ from his book Seeing Stars.

• Language level: Intermediate (B1) +
• Learner type: Teens; Adults
• Time: 50 minutes
• Activity: Gapfill storytelling
• Topic: Morality and ethics
• Language: Present tenses
• Materials: Materials light

Elf story [downloaded 195 times]

The story

The Elf said to Kevin:
You’re probably wondering why I’m sitting here at your breakfast table this morning, helping myself to your toast and cereal. I’m here to make you a very special offer. You could call this a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
Today, is the 11th December and this is a very special day for you. You are exactly forty-four years and thirty-six days old and that is exactly how long you’ve got left.
Let me do the maths for you Kevin. You are going to live until you’re eighty-eight years and seventy-two days. And you have just crossed the halfway line.
Now Kevin. You have two possibilities: You can carry on – continue your life and pretend that we never met. Or you can accept my offer and let me flip the hourglass of life.
Do you see what I’m saying Kevin? Instead of getting older, you’ll be getting younger. I’ve got all the forms. All you have to do is sign here. And it’s goodbye incontinence, hello Ibiza.
What do you say Kevin?
The arthritis in Kevin’s shoulder had been painful recently. He was starting to go bald and his beer belly was getting bigger every year. The elf was right – this was a very special offer.
Kevin imagined how fantastic it would be to go back to his youth, knowing all the things that he knows now.
But what about Annie – the woman he loved? The woman he loved more than anything in the world? The only woman he had ever loved? What would happen to her? Would it be fair if, while Kevin was wearing fashionable T-shirts, she was losing her teeth?
No! I made a promise to Annie and I’m going to keep it. I won’t do it. I won’t sign.
The elf said:
Well Kevin, there aren’t many gentleman left in the world. But you are one of them. And your Annie – well, she is one in a million. She is a fantastic woman: beautiful, attractive, gorgeous, outgoing.
Yes – a great woman Annie. I had breakfast with her just the other day. And I’ll tell you something: she’s looking younger every day.
And then the elf clicked his heels together and he was gone.
 

Preparation

Isolate a number of phrases or sentences from the main story text and write each one on an individual scrap of paper. Look for structures that you want your learners to learn or revise.

Example sentences/phrases from the part one of the text could include the following:

• you have just crossed the halfway line
• flip the hourglass of life
• you’ll be getting younger
• a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity
• you’re probably wondering why I’m sitting here at your breakfast table this morning, helping myself to your toast and cereal.
• sign here
• exactly forty-four years and thirty-six days old
• pretend that we never met

From part two:

• just the other day
• his beer belly was getting bigger every year
• one in a million
• I’m going to keep it
• there aren’t many gentleman left in the world
• had been painful recently
• knowing all the things that he knows now
• younger every day

Lesson plan outline

This activity will work best if students sit in circle or horseshoe formation around the teacher.

1. Make sure that your students know what an elf is. For example, show them covers from the film Elf or the book the Elves and the Shoemaker.
2.  Tell students that you are going to tell them a story but first you want to give them some key pieces of language from it. One by one, introduce students to the isolated sentences/phrases from part one of the story (see above). Teach unknown words as you go along, drill the language and distribute the words/ phrases so that everyone has one if possible.
3. Ask everyone to put their pieces of paper on the floor, text side up.
4. Tell students part one of the story. Pause whenever you require one of the sentences/phrases and invite students to find the corresponding piece of paper, read it out aloud and hand it to you.
5. Continue this way until you have completed part one of the story.
6. Put students into pairs or small groups. Ask them to decide what they would do if faced with the elf’s offer and why.
7. Take feedback and allow students to share ideas.
8. Repeat steps 2 – 5 for part two of the story.

Comment

The Elf Story is an adapted version of a short story by writer Simon Armitage. The original title is Knowing what we know now. It is from the book Seeing Stars I am grateful to my friend Chris Rose for introducing me to the writer and this story in particular.

Follow up 1

Ask students to rewrite the story as accurately as they can in their own words. They should start by putting the isolated sentences and phrases into the correct chronological order and then continue by incorporating them into their own written versions.

Follow up 2

Get hold of a copy of Simon Armitage’s book Seeing Stars. Show students the original version of the story Knowing what we know now. Draw attention to aspects of the original version which has not been simplified. For example, the original version contains a lot of lower frequency words and idiomatic expressions, all of which may cause problems for language learners. This could serve as an introduction to the world of graded readers.

The Woman in Red Dress photograph was taken on 28 May 2013, the very first day of the clashes between Turkish protesters and police. It has come to be a defining image of the events since that time. Two weeks later it still seems to capture so much about the story, the injustice and the cause. There are several versions of the image but this is the one that is used for the picturetelling activity.

• Language level: Intermediate (B1) +
• Learner type: Teens; Adults
• Time: 50 minutes
• Activity: Picturetelling
• Topic: Protests
• Language: Describing parts of an image
• Materials: A photojournalistic image

Gezi Park [downloaded 431 times]

Image outlines

The lesson plan makes use of a sketch outline of the image. I used an iPad app called Graphite to create this (click on images to enlarge).

In the following version, I used Picasa to add text.

Another idea for using outlines would be to create a gallery of sketches based on photographs from the protests. Ask students to speculate what is happening in each picture before showing them the actual images and moving on to the story and issues.

Note the language point: Subject + ing form of the verb

• A women being sprayed with pepper spray
• A policeman spraying a women with pepper spray
• Two women escaping from the scene

Answers here: http://imgur.com/a/JvJD3

The month of October is Food Issues Month. The online event is being organized by the IATEFL Global Issues SIG. During the last couple of weeks, bloggers and lesson planners have been sharing ideas for addressing food issues in the classroom. A lot of the discussion has taken place on the Facebook page and I would suggest ‘liking’ it right now if you haven’t already. This lesson plan uses a piece of sculpture art by British artist Banksy. The Sirens of the Lambs invites us to examine and explore attitudes to animals that are bred for human consumption.

• Language level: Intermediate + (B1)
• Learner type: Teens; Adults
• Time: 45 minutes
• Activity: Videotelling
• Topic: Animal welfare
• Language: Narrative tenses
• Materials: Video clip

Sirens of the Lambs [downloaded 180 times]

Lesson plan outline

Use the following videotelling script below to take students through the narrative of Banksy’s The Sirens of the Lambs. Involve students by asking questions and where possible, teach unknown words or language as they are introduced. These can be written on the board.

Videotelling sample script

I want to tell you about a strange sight that New Yorkers have been witnessing recently. It involves a truck. On the side of the truck, there is a sign that says: Farm fresh meats.

• Can you guess what the truck is carrying?

Answer: livestock.

• What is livestock? Can you give me some examples?

The truck is packed with cattle (cows and bulls), sheep, pigs and chickens.

• Where do you think they are going?

Answer: the slaughterhouse (also called the abattoir).

• Has anyone been to New York City?
• Did you go to the Meatpacking District?

This slaughterhouse truck is moving around New York City’s Meatpacking District.

• What is the meatpacking industry? What does it involve?

Answer: The slaughtering, processing, packaging and distribution of livestock (according to Wikipedia).

• Do you think that the people who live in this part of the city are used to sights like this?

Although there are fewer meatpacking plants than 150 years ago, slaughterhouse trucks are probably a fairly common sight. But there is something strange about this truck. It’s the animals.

• Can anyone guess what is strange about these animals? What are they doing?

Many of them are pushing their heads out the sides of the truck. They are squealing. It’s as if they are calling out to the people in the street – people like me and you. Perhaps they are squealing for help.

• How do you think the people in the street react as the truck passes?

[Elicit as many ideas as possible and write them on the board. Offer some of your own suggestions such as the ones below.]
* Some stop to watch / stand and stare in disbelief.
* Some pretend not to notice.
* One girl screams and runs away.
* A baby starts to cry.
* Some people take photographs with their mobile phones.
* Young children point and wave to the animals.
Perhaps the strangest reaction of all is this: Many people smile. Some even laugh. They seem to think this is funny.

• Can you explain why people would react in this way?
• What about you? How would you react?

Next stages

1. If you wrote language items on the board, give students one minute to memorize as many of them as possible.
2. Clean the board. Go over the videotelling script a second time and elicit as many new language items as possible.
3. Tell students that what you have described to them is a piece of art. Ask them to guess about the nature of it. You could ask them to draw a picture of how they imagine it to look.
4. Show students the video (link here).
5. Tell students about the piece of art (the title, the artist, the ‘Better Out Than In’ New York residency, etc.) See link here.

Follow up 1

Dictate the following five statements to your students:

• I eat meat and I am completely comfortable about it.
• Although I eat meat. I am not always comfortable with it.
• I am selective about the meat that I eat.
• I am a vegetarian.
• I am a vegan.

Ask each student to choose which statement(s) applies to them. Each statement requires explanation/justification. Ask students to write 50 words to explain/justify their stance (allow access to bilingual dictionaries if possible). Then ask students to get into groups to share their views.

Follow up 2

Ask students to investigate the story of Temple Grandin (‘The woman who thinks like a cow’.) As a proponent for farmed animal welfare, and as a consultant to the livestock industry, her fascinating story offers a balanced view of the issues being discussed here.

Follow up 3

Kieran Donaghy at Film-English has posted a video activity on Factory Farming titled The Scarecrow. It would make a good follow up to this one.
 

In this activity, students hear about a strange restaurant recommendation. They watch a video in which Paul talks about a friend’s suggestion to visit a new restaurant in town specifically because of its brilliant toilet. But what could be so special about a toilet? And why is Paul offended by the recommendation?

• Language level: Intermediate + (B1)
• Learner type: Teens; Adults
• Time: 45 minutes
• Activity: Reading and speaking
• Topic: Restaurants
• Language: Evaluative adjectives (brilliant, wonderful, unbelievable, great, etc.)
• Materials: Video; worksheet

Brilliant toilet [downloaded 136 times]

Lesson plan outline (part 1)

1. Ask students how often they eat out. Ask them what their favourite kind of restaurant is.
2. If students eat out regularly, ask them to think of three restaurants that they would recommend to a friend (or their teacher!). For this purpose, draw the following table on the board and ask students to copy and complete it.
3. Take feedback. As you do so, compile a list of things that people generally recommend about restaurants. Possibilities include:
   • Good service
   • Friendly staff (waiters, waitresses, management, etc.)
   • The menu / the food
   • The prices
   • The cleanliness of the place
   • The location (it might have a nice view of the city, for example.)
   • The ambience or atmosphere
   • The decor (it might have a theme, for example.)

Write ideas on the board and invite students to add more ideas if they can. If anyone suggests toilets, add this to the list. But if not, don’t suggest it.

4. Tell students that they are going to see a video in which a man called Paul tells a story. Paul speaks about a strange restaurant recommendation that a friend made to him. Paul seems offended by the thing that his friend recommends. Ask students if they can:
   • guess what Paul’s friend recommends about the restaurant.
   • guess why Paul is offended.
5. Give out the Brilliant Toilet worksheet (this is included in the PDF). Explain to students that the text is a transcription of the video. Ask them to guess what the three missing words are.

I have a really good friend who goes to lots of new bars and likes to recommend these kinds of places. So he came up to me and he said Paul, Paul, I’ve got something I’ve got to tell you, and he said listen to this: There’s a new restaurant that’s opened and it’s brilliant!
So I’m expecting to hear about the menu, how wonderful the food is, the view, the service, the usual things that you would like to hear about in a recommendation and I get: You should see the toilet. It’s unbelievable!
And I’m thinking, what is so great about the toilet? And he says: It’s got a __________. It’s got a __________ that’s low down. It’s got a __________. And it’s got everything you could possibly want. You’ve got to go there!
Now if you were reading a recommendation in a newspaper and it said: go to this new restaurant because its toilet is brilliant, would you rush to that restaurant?
I haven’t been to the restaurant yet because I’m not quite sure what the food’s like. But I know that if I need to go to the toilet, I can always go there!

Note that the transcription has been altered slightly. On paper, spoken language can appear quite messy. By making gentle changes, we can tidy it up a bit.

6. Put students into pairs to compare their answers but don’t take feedback at this stage.
7. In their pairs, ask students to discuss the following questions:
   • Would you go to a restaurant because of its toilet? What would it depend on?
   • Would you be offended if a friend recommended that you visit a restaurant because of its toilet?
   • Why do you think Paul is offended?
8. Play the video (twice if you like) so that students can hear it but can’t see it. Ask students if they understood what is so special about the toilet.

Note: Paul mentioned that the toilet has a ramp, a mirror (that is low down) and a bar. It is possible that students will think that the bar is the drinks type. If so, entertain the idea but don’t correct them at this stage.

9. Ask students to speculate about Paul. For example, ask them:
   • What do you think he looks like?
   • How old do you think he is?
   • Where do you think he is from?
10. Play the video. Students may or may not see that Paul is a wheelchair user. This is, of course, key to understanding the story.
11. Go over the missing words: a ramp, a mirror and a bar (= a handrail).
12. Give a few examples of evaluative adjectives in your students’ own language if possible. Tell them that the text contains four English evaluative adjectives and ask them to find them (answer: brilliant, wonderful, unbelievable and  great). Ask them how many more they can think of (cool, excellent, fantastic, superb, awesome, etc.)

Lesson plan outline (part 2)

1. Make sure that students are aware that Paul uses a wheelchair. Also ask students whether or not they agree that Paul is offended by his friend’s recommendation (play the video again if necessary).
2. Split the class into A students and B students. Regardless of their own views, students have to argue the following:
   • A students have to defend Paul’s friend. They should argue that the recommendation was good and should not have been offensive.
   • B students have to criticize Paul’s friend. They should argue that it was a bad idea to make the recommendation.
3. Put students into A:A or B:B pairs and ask them to write a list of points to justify their answers (some ideas are offered below). Go around the class and offer language support as they do this.
4. Allow students to get into bigger homologous groups (i.e groups of A students and groups of B students – no mixing yet).
5. Conduct a class debate: explore the naturally conflicting points that students make and help with language along the way.

Possible reasons for defending Paul’s friend (A students):

• The friend’s intentions were good. He/she was trying to be helpful and didn’t mean to offend Paul.
• A lot of bars and restaurants don’t have a disabled toilet. Often, when they do, the toilet gets used as store room for mops, buckets, stepladders, boxes, crates of drinks, etc. Incredibly, people with disabilities can even be denied simple access to their own toilets. The image below illustrates a common situation which probably results from people who don’t have disabilities using disabled toilets. In any case, Paul would surely want to hear about a new restaurant which takes the disabled toilet seriously.
• Perhaps the friend’s intention was to encourage Paul by letting him know that facilities for people with mobility disabled are improving.
• Perhaps there was actually something outstanding about the toilet that everyone should see – a triumph of interior design, for example.

Possible reasons for criticizing Paul’s friend (B students):

• Everyone expects a clean, functional toilet in a restaurant. Why would anyone choose this as a plus point – disabled or not?
• Perhaps Paul’s friend is falling into the trap of associating disabled people with disabled toilets. Perhaps he feels that since Paul is disabled, this must surely be something that interests him.
• Perhaps Paul feels that his friend is defining him by his disability.
• People with disabilities don’t want to talk about disability issues all the time.
• As Paul said, where was the mention of the other things – the food, service, view, etc.?

Comments

1. A simple lesson to learn from this story would be: put yourself in other people’s situations and consider how you would feel.
2. Wikipedia has a Disabled Etiquette entry which lists a number of ‘Do not assume’ sentences. These could be useful for the basis of a follow up activity.
3. In the media, it is common for people with disabilities to be defined by their disabilities. Rarely do we go beneath the surface and find out about the person. Perhaps this is illustrated by the following toilet signs that I saw in a Barcelona restaurant recently.

My thoughts are:

• Why could the designers not have created a ‘bursting for the toilet’ icon for the disabled toilet?
• Why did they have to refer to the boring old International symbol of access?
• 
Were they worried that disability should never be a laughing matter?
• Does this mean that people with disabilities are exempt from the fun?
• Is this treating people with disabilities as equals?
• Does it perpetuate the ‘us and them’ attitude?
• 
Does this contribute to the tendency in the media to define people with disabilities by their disabilities?

Competition!

The Disabled Access Friendly Campaign is a voluntary campaign that provides ELT teachers with online materials that raise awareness of mobility disability issues. It is run by two friends of mine – Katie Quartano and Paul Shaw (Paul is the man in the video). Please ‘like’ their Facebook page.
All of the material is completely free. The site has lesson plans, reading texts and video clips at all levels that can be used as supplementary material, for projects and examination practice. The material allows teachers to provide insight and information about life as a person with a mobility disability, thus building pathways for caring and action. By stepping into someone else’s shoes, students explore their own and other people’s attitudes and become aware while learning English.
If you have an idea for a lesson plan of your own, then you might want to enter it in the Disabled Access Friendly Campaign competition that is currently being held. All details are provided here. Note that the deadline is the 16 December 2012. Good luck!

I would like to introduce Videotelling.

Videotelling is an approach to using video in the classroom that has evolved on this site. It is essentially an interactive storytelling technique in which the teacher is the storyteller and stories are derived from the narratives of short online videos.

The ebook will be available later this year. If you would like me to keep you up to date with news, you can subscribe at Videotelling.com.
Subscribers will also get a discount on the cover price and perhaps a free sample chapter or two.

In the meantime, Lessonstream is coming to an end. But don’t worry – the site isn’t going to vanish! You will still be able to access all content. And who knows – I may still upload the occasional lesson plan every now and again.

I would like to take this opportunity to give a big thank you to all of you good teachers who have used the site over the years and supported me with it. It’s been a lot of fun!

See you very soon.

Jamie :)