Hot Potato

hot potato

When I look to my students and feel that they are very tired, stressed out or just too blasé (when we have all the blank faces) I usually like to shake things up with a very fun and quick game of hot potato. This goes with all levels and it's very easy to be done when you have some object to be used as the hot potato (in my classes I use a very soft ball that is a left over of the last World Cup's decoration) and some device where you can play a song.

I let them choose a song, which is very quick, and let them start passing the ball for some 20 seconds until the game really begins. They have to pass the ball until the music stops. When it does, the person who is holding the ball has to so something. Usually sts start to loosen up after the first round.

This 'something' is always related to class: the person has to give the answer to the next exercise, to spell the word given (when I'm teaching / recycling spelling). I usually do this activity when I'm correcting something or recycling something. It's a way for sts to get unstressed and to make the activity more fun.

Duration of the activity: 2-5 min

Improving the reading skills

Target level: A2/B1/B2/C1/C2 (CEF)

Aim of the activity: reading for gist

Duration of the activity: 15-20 min

• Introduce the subject of the text. 
• Distribute parts of the text to each student.
• Allow students some time to read by themselves.
• Group them, so they can discuss about what they just read, allow some five minutes to that. (Here you may introduce images to help them, if you have any.)
• Ask them to tell you the story and other details from the text. Add extra information about the passages, so they know they’re on the right path and keep motivated to do the task.
• Finally go over the text again, but this time you tell them the story.

You can use all sorts of texts. I recommend short stories. I have used Edgar Allan Poe's The fall of the house of Usher, Hans Christian Andersen's The Emperor's New Suit, to name a few.

Some websites already have a division of the story, such as this.

Dictionary Bluff

Target level: B2/C1 (CEF)

Aim of the activity: acquisition / recycling of vocabulary

Duration of the activity: 10-15 min

• Split the class into groups.
• Give the handout (available here) to the groups.
• Hand in the pieces of paper with the words for them to research (available here).
• The groups have to research the three (3) words given, write down the words' meanings on their papers and invent two definitions for each word (or copy from other words in the dictionary).
• Each group has to present the words they have one by one and give the 3 definitions, both real and invented ones, for the other groups have to guess the real meaning of the word.
• The winner is the one who can guess most correct definitions.
• Here's the key.

This activity was shared by Leandro Toledo, who is a very creative teacher.

TV series

Target level: A2 (CEF)

Aim of the activity: gap filling listening + writing

Duration of the activity: 5-8 min to set the activity

• Give sts the hand out (available here).
• Allow one minute for them to read.
• Play the audio (available here). (Play the audio twice, if necessary)
• Sts have to listen and fill in the gaps.
• Ask them What's your favourite TV series? - if they don't like any series, ask them about movies.
• Ask them Why do you like it? What's it about?
• Ask sts to describe the plot of the series, or one of the plots, in a composition and follow the hand out as a model.

Extra ideas:

I recorded the video myself and, yes, Moonlighting is my favourite TV series. If you want to create your own text and audio, you can write the text in a word-processor and record it with your computer and a microphone. I used the Free Sound Recorder, which is very simple. One extra thing: don't worry if it doesn't come out very well in the first try. I recorded it tree times before I considered it OK (and it isn't perfect, but my sts liked it a lot).

Valentine's Day Contest

Target level: A2 (CEF)

Aim of the activity: write narratives

Duration of the activity: 3-5 min to set the activity

• Introduce the subject. Ask sts When is Valentine's Day? 
• Talk to sts about Valentine's Day. In Brasil it's celebrated at June 12, but the rest of the world celebrates it on February 14. Ask them if they like this date and if they're into romantic stories.
• Show sts the video. Tell them it's a Valentine's Day story.
• Ask sts about what happens in the story - boy shows girl his drawings of the flert between them and, in them he tells her he loves her, she says it back, he gives her flowers, they kiss, she moves away, smells the flowers and blows him a kiss, they kiss in 'real lfe'.
• Ask sts if they lnow any love stories like this one.
• Tell sts the activity: they have to invent/tell a love story, it can be copied from a movie or tv show, it doesn't need to be an original idea. They have to write it down (composition) and it'll be a contest.
• Explain the word contest if they don't know what it means.
• You have to make sure there's a prize for the best composition (or the best ones).

Blame it on the Samba

Aim of the activity: talk about emotions (basic students)

Duration of the activity: 05-08 minutes

• Show students the first two minutes of the video (from 0:33' to 02:00').
• Ask the students about Joe Carioca and Donald Duck feeling throughout the video, such as How are they feeling? Are they happy? Are they bored? Are they sad? How does the samba make them feel? What about the waiter? Is he a little mad?

• Ask students about their own experience with music: Does samba make you feel happy? What kind of music makes you feel happy? How do you feel when you listen to The Smiths?
• Recycling: ask students about the scenery. Are they in New York? Are they in Rio de Janeiro?
• Recycling: ask students about the actions of the characters (for this you either have to play the video twice, or you play the video stopping at each action). They will probably come up with: walk(ing) / go(ing) to a restaurant / sit / bring the menu /smoke /  play an instrument or play the guitar / sing / dance
• they'll probably ask you about tear (01:20')