A lesson of humanity - how to start the New Year with great stories?

        Start the New Year with a great story

The year 2016 is over, however, there were a lot of inspiring events happening all over the year that showed us great acts of humantiy. They were all gathered under one headline called The 12 Most Inspiring Good Deeds of 2016 That Made Us Proud of Humanity. 
(website address: https://brightside.me/wonder-people/the-12-most-inspiring-good-deeds-of-2016-that-made-us-proud-of-humanity-274060/

Today, I would like to recommend you one of the websites that I look through at times just to find a great selection of photos with amazing articles and stories.

                                    www.brightside.me

This is a perfect website if you want to stimulate your students imagination? Why? It simply has a lot of great headlines as well as pictures, which alone are  enough to run a thought-provoking conversation with your students. Haven't you tried it, yet? Just make a new year resolution and keep yourself updated by liking it on facebook. When I read it I always have a few ideas how to use them with my students - even those on lower levels.

Let's not forget that visual literacy doesn't only apply to moving images but it also refers to the photos, which tell the stories themselves. Sometimes it's enough to show them to your students. For each of them the pictures tell different stories. Headlines? Perfect for building stories in mind, It's like creating mental pictures. How to do it? Let me show you a few techniques I used to run a smooth and informal conversation as well as engage students in the conversation. It also helps to build a good relationship with your students, too.

So there have been collected 12 different stories of people from all over the world under the title:
The 12 Most Inspiring Good Deeds of 2016 That Made Us Proud of Humanity. 

Some of the photos you can see in this post but the rest is on the recommended website. Each of them is amazing. There is one of Manny Pacquiao a boxing champion who built 1000 houses in the Philipines but there is also a story of a teacher who had a lot of rebellious students brough up by single mothers so in order to help them he created a "Gentelman Club" where he teaches them good manners and behaviour. Each story is suitable for the classroom use. Just check yourself. And here is the lesson plan:

Topic: the problem of humanity, good deeds, new year resolutions, generosity, abandoned, war-torn country, shelter, single-parent family, tuxedo, struggle, starving, orphanage, donations, sacrifice, parcels, bump into, recreate, gratitude, moose, violate the rules,

Time: 45-60 minute lesson

Level: pre-intermediate +

Age group: teenagers, adults

Activity aim: 

• to practice speaking
• to use students imagination and creativity, guessing, stories in mind
• in resolutions: to use "going to" for already made decisions e.g. "This year I'm going to........"

Article address: https://brightside.me/wonder-people/the-12-most-inspiring-good-deeds-of-2016-that-made-us-proud-of-humanity-274060/

Warm up

Write on the board the words GOOD DEEDS. Ask the students what it means. Can you give me any examples of good deeds? Have you heard about any good deeds in the place where you live? (Maybe there was some story in the place where you live so you can use it as an example) Then ask your students if they did any good deeds last year. You may be surprised or disappointed with their answers. I experienced both types of feeelings:). then you move to the next stage. (3 min)

Stage one

Print out the stories and cut them into 3 seperate pieces : a headline, a picture, a story 

(If you have more than 12 students in the group prepare 2 sets)

Stage two

Using blu tack put the stories on the walls of your classroom, headlines to the board and give each of the students just the photos. Students have to use their imagination and think what could have happened. Then they tell their predictions to the rest of the class. ( 5min) Then students are given a chance to match the headline from the board with their photos and one by one come to the board and choose a suitable headline. Then students read them aloud and make a comment about it. By getting the headlines they have extra info and their stories may change. They use the language of predictions what could have happened in the stories. Help them with unknown words if necessary at this stage of the lesson. (I think the story is about...., Perhaps it's a story of a.......who...... etc.) (5min)

Stage three

Now each of the students has to find his story on the wall and match it with the headline. Then students read the stories silently. (5 min)

Stage four

Tell your students that there is a competition for the best deed of the year. Students have to rememeber as much info as posssible as they are going to choose the best story of the year and vote for it.

Students tell their stories to the rest of the group or the class. They start with a phrase: "You won't believe what has happened in my story.........." (10-15 min)

Stage five

Now the voting begins and students have to choose their candidate and present arguments for it. Sometimes they argue really seriously:) (10 min)

Stage six

Class discussion. What about you? If you haven't done any good deeds maybe this year you could do something for others? Together with my students we discussed the topic and set a week for a good deed. They were suppose to find an opportunity to do sth for others. Some of them helped the neighbour with the shopping while others just talked to the girl nobody wanted to talk to. Everything matters. You can devote the rest of the lesson to a further discussion about New Year Resolutions with the use of   "to be going to.." (10 min)

Hope you and your students will enjoy it!

Christmas commercial competition and Film in Action (part two)

Christmas commercial competition - part two

So here is another interesting Christmas story presented in a commercial by Heathrow airport. At first glance, there is not much happening and there are hardly any words. However, it's not a problem at all. Quite on the contrary, you can use it very effectively. How?

In this post I would like to present you another activity shown by Kieran Donaghy in his inspiring book Film in Action.

Memory game

It's an activity in which you need a short film with lots of details. So the above commercial seems to be perfect. You can use it as a warm up, a filler or a closer. It's up to you!

Time: 10 min

Level: elementary +

Age group: 7-12

Activity aim: to spot the visual details, to increase general understading of a story

Film address: https://youtu.be/oq1r_M5a6uI

Stage one:

Divide your class into two groups and give each of them a buzzer (you can download the app called Buzzer and just place two mobiles on the desk in the middle of each group). Select a leader in each of the groups to press the button.(the toughest part:)

Stage two:

Explain the students that they are going to watch a short film connected with Christmas. All they need to do is to remember as many details as possible while watching.

Stage three:

Play the video and later ask the questions prepared in advanced. Here are some examples:

1. What was the colour of the blanket on the plane? (purple)

2. What was the name of the airport they landed? (Heathrow)

3. Did  grandma teddy bear have a bag? (Yes, she did)

4. What did grandma have on her coat? (a brooch, a light blue clover)

5. What did the driver of the airport car have on his head? (St. Clause cap)

6. How many buttons did each of the coats have? (3 each)

7. Where did the plane land? (UK, London)

8. What colour was grandma's hat? (red)

9. What was the name and the surname in the passport? (Bair Edward)

10. When was he born? (10th March 1944)

11. Who was wearning glasses? (grandpa)

12. Who used the toilet? (grandpa)

13. What colour was grandma's suitcase? (red with white dots)

14. What did granpa want to buy? (a box of biscuits)

15. Who was waiting for them at the airport? (grandchildren, a boy and a girl)

Of course, with less advanced students you can use questions with Present Simple or Present Continuous form eg. What is he wearing?

In such activity, students are completely engaged and watch eagerly as they want to win. Because Christmas is soon so why not to give them some treat as a reward:)

Have fun! Tomorrow another Christmas commercial and more ideas to use.

Christmas commercial competition and Film in Action ( part one)

     Christmas commercials competition - part one

Over the past few weeks there has been an intense competition regarding Christmas TV commercials. Every year the big companies such as Coca Cola, John Lewis, Sainsbury, H&M, and many others enter the competition to surprise their clients. However, as it was stated yesterday in the Telegraph, the most "moving and touching the heart" seems to be the Polish version (2.5 mln people can't be wrong). It is a story of a man who desperately wants to learn English. In order to do so, he orders a set of books for the beginners from one of the Polish auction sites Allegro. Yes, you are right, it is a commercial of the auction site but what an expressive one. But why does he want to learn English in the first place? And how can we use such short but heartbreaking stories with our students? In three days I would like to present you three ways in which I use  these short films with my students. At the end you will be able to decide which of the ads appeals to you the most.

But before that I would like to present you a ground-breaking resource that I find useful every time I want to run a lesson with the use of a short film. 

Film in Action by Kieran Donaghy is a fascinating edition directed to all professionals who have something to do with films during their work, teachers in particular. With over 100 activities for different levels I'm sure you can find something for yourself.  At the beginning you will find some introduction concerning the history of the film in education, visual literacy and the benefits of using films.  Then the ways of exploiting the film, the sound, the music as well as the characters and the script of the film follow. It has a clear chapter dvision and ready to use activities with the examples. Just try!

1. Screenshots in action!

"Forget the John Lewis Christmas advert - this year's tear-jerker comes from Poland" - The Telepgraph

So let's come back to the story. An older man orders a parcel from the auction site. Inside, there is a set "English for beginners", It's just the beginning of the story during which he uses various ways to improve his speaking skills. Purpose? Among two million Poles living in the British Isles is his first and probably the only granddaughter, who unfortunately doesn't know any Polish. That is why, his prime aim is to be able to communicate with her. Despite his age and difficulties he finally manages to communicate both with his granddaughter and his new daughter-in-law. There are many aspects that can be discussed while and after watching the film. 

Topic: the problem of immigration (over 2 mln Poles living in GB at the moment), family bonds, relationship between grandparents and grandchildren, aims in life and persistance required to achieve them and finally Christmas

Time: 20-30 min

Level: pre-intermediate +

Age group: 12+

Activity aim:

• to practice group speaking, class discussion
• to use the language of predictions: perhaps, I'm not sure but I think, probably, modals of deduction: must be, might be, can't be

Vocabulary to pre-teach: sticky notes, parcel, delivery boy, memorise, aim, emigrate, revise

Film address: https://youtu.be/XT7EVri0RDc

One of the ways to use such a story is to prepare a few screenshots of the most important scenes and give it to the students. Here are some examples:

     

     

Stage one: (group work)

There are two ways of doing it. 

1) Show a selection of screenshots to a group of max 5 students and ask the students to put them in a logical order and then ask to tell the story to the other group.

2) Give students only the first and the last screenshot and ask them to guess what might have happened in between. After they have read their version of the story, the students are given the other photos and they try to put them in a logical order.

Set the time limit about 5-8 min.

Stage two:
Now play the film but pause at a suspenseful moment when the taxi arrives at the house. Rememeber you cannot reveal the ending at this point. After that, students check whose version was the closest to the original one.

Stage three: (group work)
Students still work in the same groups. This time their task is to discover the reason why the man is learning English so intensively. You can write on the board the expressions that they can find useful when guessing: He may/might be -ing/ Perhaps he is...... and so on. (2 min)

Stage four: (Class discussion)
Play the rest of the film. Ask the students about their reaction. Did they guess correctly? Now you can have a follow up discussion about family bonds and how important they are for them. You can also ask if they have any relatives living abroad and if Christmas is the time they get together. Why? Why not? With my students at this point we also talk about their aims in lives and how to achieve them. Was the man successful? Why? Why not? Did they notice that it was a commercial? What was advertised?

Stage five:
For homework the students can write a narrative with an alternative ending. Just trust their imagination.

Tomorrow the next Christmas commercial with new ideas based on the practical book Film in Action.

Good luck!