1000_Ideas_and_Activities_for_Language_Teachers

1000 Ideas and Activities for Language Teachers – Sean Banville

762.FAST FORWARD: If the news story is about relations between people, create a table that facilitates students exploring different aspects of those relationships. This is an example from the lesson “Friends help you live longer” (http://www.breakingnewsenglish.com/0506/050617-friends.html).

FAMILY OR FRIENDS

Students talk about what they like doing / their opinions / how they feel etc now and in the future. Family and friends: In pairs / groups, talk about whether you prefer to do / spend the following activities / occasions with family or friends. Do you think this will change when you are in your seventies?

Change partners and explain what you discussed with your previous partner(s). Talk about whether you will still be doing/celebrating the activities/occasions when you’re in your seventies and what difference being older will make.

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763.ANCESTORS: Students take the situation, product, circumstances, etc. described in the article and discuss what their ancestors would have done or thought about the very same thing.

764.RANKING QUESTIONNAIRE: Create a questionnaire in which students have to rank choices for each question.

•See the copiable classroom handout on page 232.

765.RATING AND RECOMMENDING: Students must provide an overall assessment for an industry, country or situation. They must grade the present problems and make three recommendations. This is an example from the lesson “Japan, France to develop the super-Concorde” (http://www.breakingnewsenglish.com/0506/050616-superconcorde.html).

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FLYING:

You have been asked by the airline industry to make recommendations on how to improve air travel. In pairs / groups, write down the biggest problem with each of the categories below. Decide on three suggestions for their improvement. Agree on and circle how serious the “present problem” is (1 = very serious).

Change partners and explain what you discussed with your previous partner(s). Give each other feedback on your ideas. Combine your ideas to make your recommendations even better (you have to agree on the three best recommendations). Return to your original partners and discuss any changes you made.

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766.BEING THE JUDGE: If the article involves moral judgment of one kind or another, create a list of points on which students must judge and rank. This is an example from the lesson “Saudi king in $32bn divorce case” (http://www.breakingnewsenglish.com/0506/050615-fahd-divorce.html).

ALIMONY JUDGE

You are a judge that has to make decisions regarding divorce payments under a new divorce law. The grounds (reasons) for divorce are listed below. In pairs / groups, put the grounds in order of seriousness (10 is most serious). Decide the percentage split of money for each ground(e.g. “Boredom” might mean a 50-50 split between the husband and wife). Explain your reasons for each split.

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Change partners and explain what you discussed with your previous partner(s). Give each other feedback on your ideas. Are the percentage splits good or bad? Which of your reasons would be accepted in a real court by a real judge?

Return to your original partners and discuss and agree on any changes you made.

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767.SAFETY: For news articles about safety, students must assess and analyze the safety of something and suggest recommendations for making it safer. This is an example from the lesson “Defeated Mike Tyson quits boxing” (http://www.breakingnewsenglish.com/0506/050613-tyson.html).

SPORTING SAFETY

You are on the panel of the Safety in Sport Committee. It is your job to (1) find the dangers involved in two sports and (2) offer safety advice to reduce those dangers. Discuss your ideas with your partner(s) and write them in the table. Students A talk together about boxing and tennis, Students B talk about soccer and marathon running.

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768.NEWS GRIDS: Create a news grid with a variety of real news headlines. The site http://english.pravda.ru/main/ usually has a good mix of serious and irreverent headlines. Create a list of criteria for students to apply to and talk about the headlines. This is an example from the lesson “Russia to start 24hour TV news in English” (http://www.breakingnewsenglish.com/0506/050607-russiatoday.html).

1.In pairs / groups, discuss your views on each of the stories. 2. Talk in greater detail about what each story is about. 3. Rate each story from 1 to 10 (1 is best) on points A-D in the table:

After you have finished, change partner(s) and compare what you spoke about with your earlier partner(s). Reach agreement on the scores you assigned to the headline criteria.

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769.YOU THE REPORTER: Students have to talk about what they should include in the next morning’s news. Give the students guidelines regarding what they should talk about. This is an example from the lesson “Pentagon reports on Korean abuse” (http://www.breakingnewsenglish.com/0506/050605koran.html).

NEWS REPORT:

You must prepare a report for tomorrow’s morning news. Your story is the Guantanamo Bay Koran abuse. The outline for your report is in the table. Think of three things to say about each of the words below to build into your report.

After you have finished, change partners / groups. Report your news items to your new partner(s) as a dress rehearsal for tomorrow’s news programme. You may use the words in the column on the left as prompts. Do not look at the other column.

Give advice / feedback to make your respective reports better.

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770.ADVENTURES: For news items that have adventure as a theme, students have to come up with their own adventure creations for everyday things. This is an example from the lesson “Everest wedding” (http://www.breakingnewsenglish.com/0506/050604-everest.html).

ADVENTURE WEDDINGS:

You are the boss of the company “Adventure Weddings”. The weddings your company offers are (1) Everest, (2) Hot air balloon over Africa,

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(3) Great Barrier Reef (underwater), (4) Baghdad – the birthplace of civilization or (5) Your choice. In pairs / groups, decide on the wedding you want to work on. Discuss the details for each of the points in the table below:

After you have finished, change partners / groups. Show your new partner(s) your wedding plans. Give advice on how your respective plans could be made better.

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771.PEACEMAKERS: For lessons that are related to peace, peace deals, peacemaking, etc., assign students a peacemaking task as a debate. This is an example from the lesson “Israel to release 400 prisoners” (http://www.breakingnewsenglish.com/0505/050530-prisoners.html).

You are the head of a new organization called “International Peacemakers Inc.” that finds answers to any problems. It is your job to create a master plan (in pairs or groups) to bring peace to a current dispute. It can be a world, national, regional, school, family or friends dispute. Prepare your notes and suggestions in this table:

The dispute is between ________________ and _______________

Describe the two sides

Explain the history of “Side A”

Explain the history of “Side B”

What does “Side

A” want?

What does “Side

B” want?

What are your proposals to make the two parties totally happy?

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After you have finished, tell the whole situation and your proposals to a different partner / group. They will provide you with feedback. You comment on that feedback.

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772.SECOND BY SECOND: For news articles that are about routine or habitual things, students try to give a second-by-second account of all the actions entailed in doing these everyday things. Examples might include cleaning your teeth, making a cup of coffee, sending an E-mail, etc. Students must ensure they don’t skip any steps in describing and explaining every tiny movement of arms, hands, body, etc. Encourage partner(s) to point out whether or not a student misses any logical step. Which student can describe the most steps?

773.TASKS: If the article is about people’s responses to different situations, students must think of the tasks different people should do, or should have done better. This is an example from the lesson “Hurricane Katrina kills hundreds” (http://www.breakingnewsenglish.com/0508/050831-katrina.html)

HURRICANE TASKS: In pairs / groups, discuss the different tasks and duties the following people have when a devastating hurricane hits. What extra things do you think these people could do?

•The country’s leader

•The city mayor

•The head of the national weather forecast center

•Neighbors

•Police officers

•Fire fighters

•Coastguards

•TV news reporters

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774.SQUEEZING TIME: For news items about busy people and hectic schedules, students talk about how they can squeeze more time into their days. This is an example from the lesson “Time stands still in London” (http://www.breakingnewsenglish.com/0505/050529-bigben.html).

Most people are very busy and need to squeeze more time into their days. Talk with your partner / group about your lifestyle and where you would like to squeeze more time into. Your partner(s) will give you advice on how to be more time efficient. Use this table to help you:

Breakfast Morning Lunch Afternoon Dinner Night

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

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Thursday

Friday

Saturday

Sunday

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775.WORD EXTENSION: Students complete statements based around a key word from the article. Students talk about them with their partner(s). An example here uses the noun “time”.

•I need to find more time to ________________________________.

•I need to devote more time to ______________________________.

•I spend too much time ____________________________________.

•I should invest more time__________________________________.

•I kill time _______________________________________________.

•I waste too much time _____________________________________.

•I could save more time by __________________________________.

776.NEW SOMETHING: Students have to make decisions regarding the inauguration of a new project. This is an example from the lesson “S. African capital to have new name” (http://www.breakingnewsenglish.com/0505/050527-tshwane.html).

NEW WORLD CAPITAL

You are head of the newly created “World Capital City Council” Decide on the name and location of the city, among other issues. In pairs / groups, make the decisions regarding the new capital city:

PHYSICAL PRESENCE

a.New site

b.Existing city

CONTINENT

a.Africa

b.Antarctica

c.Asia

d.Australia (and Australasia)

e.Europe

f.North America

g.South America

NAME

a.Worldia

b.Worldtown

c.Globevski

d.Earthton

e.Planetville

f.Other

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LANGUAGE OF STREET NAMES

a.English

b.Latin

c.Esperanto

d.No language – just symbols

e.No names – just numbers

f.Other

CITY COUNCIL MEMBERSHIP

a.One representative from each world country

b.One representative per continent

c.Just representatives from the G8 country members

d.A revolving city leadership in country alphabetical order from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe

e.Other

Change partners and compare your “World Capital City”. Give each other feedback on the choices made. Combine the best of your different proposals to form one “perfect” plan. Show your revisions to your original partner / group.

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777.MATCHING PREFIXES: Use prefixes and suffixes to create matching activities for students. This is an example from the lesson “’Naked sushi’ banned in China” (http://www.breakingnewsenglish.com/0505/050523nakedsushi.html).

“UN-“

In the text you will find the word “unhygienic”, which means “unclean”. Match these other words prefixed by “un” with their correct meanings.

Try to make one question for each of the “un-“ words and ask your questions to your partner(s).

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778.TALK PREFIXES: A variation on the above, with students being assigned a few questions about a list of words sharing the same suffix. This is an example from the lesson “Long hours hazardous to health” (http://www.breakingnewsenglish.com/0508/050819-overtime.html).

OVER~:

In pairs / groups, talk about whether and how often you overdo these things:

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779.DEBATE: Students take part in a debate. They must first prepare their arguments and predict their opponent’s arguments. This is an example from the lesson “Al-Qaeda’s Zarqawi wounded in Iraq” (http://www.breakingnewsenglish.com/0505/050525-zarqawi.html).

IRAQ DEBATE

In pairs / groups, prepare the arguments that you will need in a debate on Iraq. In column 1, write down your reasons for supporting your argument. In column 2, write down weaknesses in your arguments and ideas to refute them. In column 3, write down your opponents’ arguments. In column 4, write down weaknesses in your opponent’s argument.

•Pair(s) Team(s) A: The US-led coalition should pull out of Iraq within the next month.

•Pair(s) Team(s) B: The US-led coalition should stay in Iraq indefinitely.

After the debates, talk with your partner / group about how the discussions went. Which student(s) argued well? What did you learn? Did you hear anything that changed your opinions on Iraq? Did you agree with what you were saying? Do you think you debated well? Were you happy with how the debate ended?

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