Image credit: http://www.tribunahacker.com.ar/2014/05/android-a-las-camaras-o-el-regreso-de-la-polaroid/
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Thanks to Nicky Hockly at The Consultants-e for the inspiration for this lesson plan. It’s an icebreaking lesson in which students can use their mobiles (shock horror) for intermediate levels and up.
Introduction
In a new class students are always keen to learn a bit about their new teacher and if you’re willing to share and personalise your classes the students will reciprocate with you and each other. So start by projecting some photos of things from your life on to the board with some sentence stems for deduction.
Intermediate levels:
He/she/it could/might/may be his girlfriend (possibility)
He/she/it must be his brother (almost certain)
He/she/it can’t be his sister (impossible)
Higher levels:
I’d say that…
I’d hazard a guess that…
I bet you €X that’s his brother.
I (don’t) reckon that…
I’m absolutely certain that…
There’s no doubt in my mind that…
There’s a good/strong/slim chance that…
I could be wrong but I think…
Drill sentence stress and intonation. Then put students in pairs and show them some of the pictures. Monitor them as they make guesses about who the people in the pictures are and have students share their deductions with the class. Award points for correct guesses.
Here are some example pictures from my life:
Other useful language:
You look just like (your mum)
You don’t look anything like (your sister)
You are the spitting image of (your Dad) (you look exactly the same)
You take after (your Dad) – you look/act the same.
Step 2: Pair work
Put students in groups of 2/3 and tell them to take out their phones and go to their photo albums. They must then take it in turns to show their group a picture of the following things:
- A parent
- A grandparent
- A pet
- A very close friend
- An activity you love
- A great meal
- A fantastic day
- An amazing view
- A selfie
The others in the group must use the language of deduction to guess what the picture is and then they can ask questions to discover more information about their partner.
You might want to model some questions on the board:
When was the photo taken?
How long ago did you take this photo?
Where were you when you took the photo?
What does your Dad do?
How long have you been …ing?
Language for reactions:
Wow! That looks amazing/lovely/gorgeous
No way! Me too!
Your Dad works in finance? No way, mine does too!
That must be (amazing/fantastic etc.) – present event/state
That must have been (amazing/fantastic/so much fun) – past experience
Give SS 10-15 minutes to talk, encourage the use of the vocabulary, award points to groups using the most.
Students then report back to the class about the favourite photo their classmates showed them. If you can, project the photos onto the board so the whole class can see them.
Follow up/Homework
Story behind the picture. SS write a composition (150-200 words) telling the story behind one specific picture. Encourage them to copy paste the picture at the top of the page. This is a good opportunity to practice narrative tenses: “I had been walking all day, that’s why I look a bit tired in the photo.” “The sun was shining, the wind was blowing in the trees” “It was the scariest thing I have ever done.” “I was walking down the street when I saw a…”
