Stereotypes: First thing that comes to your head when you think of England...

One minute express English video. National Stereotypes. 

Aim: students talk about stereotypes
Level: from basic to higher intermediate
Procedure:

• ask  the following question to the students/give the students time to write down their answers

What do you think of when you see the word

 ENGLAND

• students compare their answers
• studedents compare their answer and the  answers of  London dwellers in the video

THIS  IS WHAT PEOPLE FROM LONDON SAID:



Video Source : BBC express English HERE
Go  HERE to download the script too

Extension for Multicultural classrooms

1. Give students countries,  continents or world areas that are not their own but that are present in the classroom 
2. Ask the same question:  What do you think of when you see the word: ..............................
3. Students from those areas tell us whether the information their classmates gave is accurate

 

Third Conditional Drill. The story of Penelope and Ferdinand + three wishes extension

OLD TASK WITH EXTENSION EXERCISE ADDED. CHECK THIS AGAIN!!

Aim: practice the third conditional structure

Procedure: teacher tells students an extravagant story, which includes an evitable death. The plot is devised in such a way that various characters (or weather conditions) could be blamed for the demise of one of the characters.
Ask students to take notes as you tell them the story. Otherwise they will forget the plot.
When the teacher finishes telling the story, students work in pairs to decide who is to blame and why. They need to produce several different sentences.

Sample sentences you may expect from your students:

• Caroline is guilty: If she had not said anything about Ferdinand and Penelope, Gabriela would not have listened. 
• Ferdinand is to blame:  If he has not driven fast, the car would not have crashed.

This can be your  base story. Adapt it to the level of your students.

The story

A friend of mine has just died. I am going to tell you how it happened.

My friend’s name was Ferdinand. Not a long time ago he started dating a girl, whose name is Penelope. Penelope’s family is really upper class and since Ferdinand was the son of the baker, Penelope’s mother disapproved of their relationship. Last week the mother, Caroline, said publicly that Ferdinand was not worth of her daughter. She said this aloud while shopping on market day. Unfortunately Ferdinand’s cousin, Gabriela, was among the listeners. Gabriela could not help but tell Ferdinand about the gossip in the market...

Click HERE to download the rest of the story.

EXTENSION: 

THREE WISHES 1 minute  VIDEO  by BBC Express English

Procedure:

• Ask the students this question:

IF YOU HAD THREE WISHES WHAT WOULD THEY BE? 

• Watch BBC three wishes video
• Compare your answers 

   
  
Video source. BBC Learning English HERE 

Describing and drawing a picture

 PICTURES  FROM THE PROVIDED POWER POINT

OLD TASK WITH NEW  ADDED PICTURES!!!
Materials:

• Students need a blank sheet.
• Students need to see the picture you/they  describe at the end of the task

 You can print the picture you describe, use one from the textbook or  use any of the options in this Power Point

Level:  Some of the pictures provided might be difficult to describe. Use or find pictures that cover vocabulary  seen in class. Whatever the level, students should know prepositions/expressions of location (to the left, underneath..)
Remember, click Power Point if you want to use the provided options.

Procedure:  
First STEP: Model the task 

• Pre teach necessary" location"  vocabulary (background, to the left, to the right, underneath …) and/or mime necessary vocabulary (wheelchair for first picture, for example) as you describe the pictures.

• Describe any of the pictures in the Power Point (or any other from the text book). Students should not see the picture until the end of the task.
•  Show the picture
• Students compare their pictures and decide if they missed something or misunderstood something

Next STEP: Depending on the level:

Option A) Students can  create a short text responding questions about the picture. Some possibilities are:
What are the characters thinking/saying?
Why are they there?
What are they going to do next?

Option B) Most students  sit with their back to the board  so that they don't see the projected picture.

• One or two students,  facing the board and watching the picture (from a print or the projector),  describe a picture to his/her/their  classmate(s) 
• Students compare their pictures and the projected picture.

Option B works better if the students explaining the picture have had time to prepare. I allow them to take a picture of the image to describe some days before so that they can prepare the presentation. 

REMEMBER: The teacher can use one of the pictures included in the power point, a picture from the textbook or bring his/her own picture.

By Maria Zabala