Bank Robbery Prompt. Dick and Jane Scene

 Use this robbery scene as an oral prompt or a writing task prompt. 

Materials: short silent video (2 minutes, 16  seconds)
Level: students need to be able to explain the story in the past. This can be done using simple past or compound tenses, depending on the level of students
Useful vocabulary:  Robbery, bank, safe, machine gun or weapons, wig, fake moustache,   rubber gloves, ground.
Useful verbs:  to rob, to faint, to pretend (to faint), to wear, to breath, to swipe a card, to shoot, to impersonate, to ring the bell, to walk on  all fours = to  crawl, to wave at somebody.

If  you want to download the video,you can do it HERE 

Underneath you the You Tube link. Clink on the image to see the You Tube video on-line . 

Oil and Vinegar

 Use this scene as an oral prompt or a writing task prompt.  


This short film features a night in the kitchen. Utensils fall in love while the oil bottle feels lonely. The the Modena Vinegar bottle shows up. Wait until after the credits so see the struggle of Mrs. Modena

Materials: short silent video (3minutes)
Level: any as long as student...
Option A) students are  able to explain the story in the past
Option B) students can tell the story using present/ present continuous.
The  outcome will depend on the level of your students. See below for higher level vocabulary
Possible special occasion: Saint Valentine
Useful  upper level vocabulary: Tears, pool of oil, bottle spout, moonshine, cutting board, salt shaker, pitcher, mucus, lonely, wooden salad servers, bouquet/posy, the sink, slippery
Upper level Verbs: cry /weep, rub against, sniff, frolic,pick up, fall in love, hope, shine, reflect on the eyes, slip, sigh, drop, try to climb up

To see the video in You tube, click HERE

You can also watch the video underneath

Don't Judge Too Quicky: Man walking his dog

 Use this scene as an oral prompt or a writing task prompt.  

Materials: short silent video (33 seconds)
Level: students need to be able to explain the story in the past. This can be done using simple past or compound tenses, depending on the level of students

If you want to practise the future, stop the video when the man  drops his biscuit  and students can predict the end of the story.
Useful vocabulary:  Biscuits/cookies, paper bag/wrapping, dog's pooh = dog's poop= faeces / ˈfiːsiːz/, dog's leash,  bench
If  you want to download the video,you can do it HERE 

View the video  here. It is a link to YOUTOUBE

Present Simple or Present Continuous

Purpose: students  listen to a video in which scientists and inventors Mark and Betty prepare to receive a host.

Creator: the video and exercises have been created by Martams, at ESL quiz. tudents
  
Two options to view the video and questions
A) You can project the questions on the whitboard. Click here to see the video and the questions online, at the ESL quiz page.


B) Click here if you want to download a photocopiable version of the questions 

This is the video

To see it on Youtube, click Here

Blockbusters

Do you want to go over the vocabulary to revise for a test or just for fun?
Blockbuster is a good way of doing it

Click  HERE  to view or donwload a PowerPoint with instructions and two possible boards to play Blockbusters in class with your students.
Just project the Blockbuster Board on your White Board and play!!

Past Tense: Don't Judge Too Quickly: Potential Cat Killer

General Description of Activity:

Students are confronted with a picture in which a man is seen with a knife on one hand, a cat on the other and a red stain on the floor. The students  need to decide what happened. After watching a 30 second  video  they may realize they judged too quickly

Level:  Students need to be able to explain the story in the past. This can be done using simple past or compound tenses, depending on the level of students

The students well need these words:

• Verbs: enter, open/ carry, look at, cook, add spices/salt, chop food, set table, lean on pot/drop sauce, jump, pick up cat,  look guilty, hold, be scared/alarmed
• Other nouns: cat, key, kitchen counter, flower vase, knife

Materials:

1. Instruction sheet

2. Related picture

3. Related short silent video (30s)

4. Overhead projector

To download the materials: Instruction sheet + Video  click HERE. 


To see the video in YouTube click HERE

You can also see the video on line underneath.
 

Procedure

1. Show the picture of the potential killer:

    Ask the questions:

How did this happen? Why did the man do this?   

(Make sure you don’t mislead the students by using the word “kill” in your sentence)

2. Make teams. Students have 10 minutes to explain the situation

3. Students compare their answers

4. Students watch the video and decide whose explanation was closer to the one seen in the video 
To download the VIDEO: click HERE
To see the video in YouTube click HERE

Business Card Role Play

Purpose: students role-play a business card exchange. They learn how to be polite by commenting on the card that is given to them.

Level: students need to know how to say basic sentences about the design or content of a business card. The sentences can be only in the present simple. Students are given model sentences that they can use later when they practice the card exchange.

Examples of model sentences in the exercise: This here is very original! / One colour on each side. I really like the combination/ I really like the logotype!!/ So your company is in Leeds.  Are you from there? /

Materials:

a) provided PowerPoint to show to the students (provided underneath)

b) teacher’s instructions (provided underneath)

c) projector

Procedure:

Part 1) the teacher uses the overhead projector to show students the provided PowerPoint. Students need to decide if the comment under each business card relates to content or to design.

Then the students need to write their own comment for some provided business cards.

Teachers can preview the PowerPoint on the blog before downloading it.See underneath

Part 2) students create their own cards and role play a business card situation. Students need to add a comment on the content or on the design of the business card they receive. Students can create the business card on paper or use a provided page for designing cards (see teacher’s instructions) 

Click HERE to download both the teacher's instructions and the PowerPoint.
Here you can PREVIEW the Business Card PowerPoint

By María Zabala Peña

Using a picture prompt to ask questions to intertwined characters

Purpose: students practice asking questions in the past. The level of the questions and answers depends on the level of the students. At the end of the activity, as a follow-up to the speaking task, students could write a letter or email.

Level: students need to know how to ask questions in the past using question words and they need enough vocabulary to ask about age, family, relationships, job, likes, dislikes and past life.  Students may have to use modals and a variety of pasts in their answers.

The teacher may have to help the students with vocabulary or can give them a dictionary.

Materials: a photo of a person. At the end of this post I propose some photos the teacher can project on the white board with the  Projector . There are many more pictures/portraits available at google images.  I offer a variety of pictures that  may appeal to children, teenagers and adults. The one of the girl in the office could cater for the needs of students in administration related vocational training programs.

Procedure:  Students may work individually or in groups.

A) Show a picture of a character to the students and ask them to write down 15 questions for that character. Note that the first 6 questions will be very similar in all groups (how old are you? Are you married? etc.) The aim of asking the students to write down 15 questions is to force them to produce more creative questions as well as to practice question structures.  You may not have to wait until everybody has 15 questions if the production is adequate.

B) When the students are ready, tell one of them to come to the front of the class and impersonate the character in the picture. He/she has to answer his/her classmates’ questions.  As he/she answers, the other students will spontaneously change their questions according to the characters' answers. This allows students to practice question structures without previously having written them down.

Note that as the character-student answers, new characters will pop out: his/her mother, his/her husband, his/her boss...

C) When you spot an interesting character (the husband, for example), tell the student at the front of the classroom to go back to his/her seat. Ask another student to come to the front of the classroom. His/her role is to impersonate “the husband” by answering  his/her  classmates’ questions.

D) Proceed this way until 4 or 5 students-characters have answered their classmates’ questions.

F) Possible follow-up: divide the students in 4 or 5 teams, depending on how many characters you have had.

Each group of students represents a character (eg. the mother, the husband, the cleaner, the child, the boss, or the secretary of the person in the picture).  Ask students to write an email or a letter to the character.  

Thanks to Roger Hunt, our English methodology teacher at International House, summer 2010 for this idea. The course  I took was "Language Analysis for Teaching Purposes"