Personality types

I'm sharing an activity I developed to work on personality types and synonyms with teenagers
in a B2 level. Since I knew it would be appealing to them, I used the movie "Divergent" and although the task was challenging, their being acquainted with the story helped consideably. After looking up some words in the dictionary and discussing the different profile a person in each faction should have, they had no problems whatsoever categorizing many different words which weren't familiar to them. I'll show you how I did it.

As a warm up: Each student chose 3 adjectives that they would use to describe themselves. Then, they assigned 3 adjectives to the rest of the people in the class. After that, each of them read the adjectives he had chosen for one of their partners for the rest to guess who this person was. Then they checked similarities in their choice with the rest of the class and with the person described.

NB: Performed with respect, this can be a great self-image activity.

Activity 1: I pointed out that we are a lot more than three words and have them listen to this song to show them my point. They were expected to write as many adjectives as they could get. I stopped in every stanza.

Activity 2: They watched the movie trailer and checked whether the statements were true or false. Afterwards, we checked which exact word they had used to express those ideas.







Closure: Students classified the words given into the 5 factions shown in the movie.

As a follow up: They had to write a movie review trying to be as descriptive as possible using these sites as reference:

http://www.wikihow.com/Write-a-Movie-Review
http://www.myenglishpages.com/site_php_files/writing-film-book-review.php#.VAD3-vmSyuJ
http://www.theguardian.com/the-paperboy-movie/how-to-write-a-film-review


Here's the worksheet.

Would you use it with your students?

Stay tuned,
Claudio

Natural Disasters

I'm sharing a set of activities for students to work on the use of the first and second conditionals and imperative forms in the context of natural disasters. They will identify the structure and apply it in various ways. I hope you find it useful.

Warm up: What words regarding the topic are you familiar with? (Brainstorm). 

Possible answers: floods, hurricanes, earthquakes, etc.

Activity 1: Watch the trailer and check which of the elements mentioned in the previous activity take place in this movie. 

Activity 2: Read and answer.

If the birds go crazy, something will happen.

If any of these events took place in Uruguay, we wouldn't be ready. (appart from floods and doughts, we barely have natural disasters)

What's the difference between these sentences?
Which one refers to consequences?
Which one talks about a hypothetical situation?
How are they formed?

Activity 3: Match the sentences paying attention to their formation. Then Complete the plot summary with the words from the box.




Teacher's copy:

2009, Adrian Helmsley (Chiwetel Ejiofor), an American geologist, visits astrophysicist Dr. Satnam Tsurutani (Jimi Mistry) in India and learns that neutrinos from a massive solar flare are causing the temperature of the Earth's core to increase rapidly. Adrian gives a report on this to White House Chief of Staff Carl Anheuser (Oliver Platt) who ends up taking Adrian to meet the President of the United States. In 2010, President Thomas Wilson (Danny Glover) and other international leaders begin a secret project to ensure humanity's survival. Approximately 400,000 people are chosen to board "arks" that are constructed at Cho Ming, Tibet, in the Himalayas. At the same time as the People's Liberation Army are gathering volunteers, a Buddhist monk named Nima (Osric Chau) is evacuated while his brother Tenzin (Chin Han) joins the workers in the Ark project. Additional funding for the project is raised by selling tickets to the private sector for 1 billion per person. By 2011, humanity's valuable treasures are moved to the Himalayas under the guise of protecting them from terrorist attacks with the help of art expert and First Daughter Dr. Laura Wilson (Thandie Newton).

In 2012, Jackson Curtis (John Cusack) is a science fiction writer in Los Angeles who works part-time as a limousine driver for the Russian billionaire, Yuri Karpov (Zlatko Buri). Jackson takes Noah and Lilly camping in Yellowstone National park. There they meet Charlie Frost (Woody Harrelson), who hosts a radio show from the park. Charlie plays a video of Charles Hapgood's theory that polar melting and the Mesoamerican Long Count Calendar predict that the 2012 phenomenon will occur. He has a map of the ark project in addition to information about officials and scientists from around the world who were murdered after planning to alert the public. The family returns home as seismic activity vastly increases along the west coast of the United States. Jackson grows suspicious and rents a plane to rescue his family. He collects his family and Gordon as the Earth crust displacement begins, and they narrowly escape Los Angeles as the city slips into the Pacific Ocean. As millions die in catastrophic earthquakes worldwide, the group flies to Yellowstone to retrieve Charlie's map, escaping as the Yellowstone Caldera erupts. Charlie stays behind to broadcast the eruption and is killed in the blast of the expulsion of an ash cloud. Learning that the arks are in China, the group lands in a devastated Las Vegas to find a larger plane…

Activity 4: Watch the trailer and tick the orders they give the kids. Then discuss the consequences of not following them.

Closure: Discuss the possible reactions if there were a tornado in your town.

As a follow up: Students could do some reasearch and create a poster explaining the steps they need to follow in the case a tornado occurs in their town. They should include imperative forms and the 1st and 2nd conditional. They can use glogster to complete this task.

Here you have the worksheets for 2012 and Into the storm.

Would you implement anything in a different way?

Stay tuned,

Claudio

Passive Songs

I'm sharing an activity for B1 students to practice passive voice through songs. In this activity, they have to read active sentences and identify the correct passive version. After they choose, they listen to the audio in order to check.  I hope you find it useful.



Here's the worksheet and the audio.










Once they finish with the songs in the worksheet, they listen to the last 5 segments and do the same process, only this time they provide the passive sentences. The teacher may have to write the active sentence on the board.

Just in case, here you have the lyrics:

1- She takes me away to that special place. (I am taken away to that special place by her).
2- You shook me all night long. (I was shaken all night long by you).
3- You wrote your name right on my back. (Your name was written right on my back by you)
4- See the world in green and blue. (The world is seen in green and blue).
5- It wears her out. (She is worn out by it).

As a follow up I would definitely play jeopardy! You have some examples in my previous post on passive voice.

Can you think of other songs with passive voice?

I await your comments,
Claudio