Find your partner...

The teacher prepares SELF-ADHESIVE TYPEWRITER ADDRESS LABELS.

Each label contains a real person's name or the name of a character from fiction or television cartoons. Each named person should have a natural partner, for example if you write a label with the name ROMEO, there should also be a label with the name JULIET stuck on somebody's back. If you have an odd number of students in your class, stick a label on your own back, but let the students do the questioning.

Questions must be of the type that can either be answered with YES or No:

Am I man or a woman? Alive or dead? European or American? Real or fictitious?

Am I a character from a cartoon or a book? Am I rich? Am I famous?

Have I been in the news recently? Am I someone from your country? Britain?

Do I work in sport / music / entertainment / the cinema / the theatre?

ROMEO	JULIET	TOM the cat	JERRY the mouse
POPEYE	OLIVE OIL	Prince Philip	Queen Elizabeth II
Micky Mouse	Minnie Mouse	Stan Laurel	Oliver Hardy
King Juan Carlos	Queen Sofia	André Agassi	Steffi Graff
Nelson Mandella	Winnie Mandella	John Lennon	Yoko Ono
Richard Burton	Elizabeth Taylor	Bonnie (gangster)	Clyde (gangster)
Tarzan	Jane (jungle girl)	The Lone Ranger	Tonto (cowboy)
Prince Charles	Princess Diana	Cinderella	Prince Charming

Asking for personal details...

SPEAKING 

We have some hypothetical new students in class. The teacher is going to pick three students to play the new students and the rest have to ask for their personal details.

This exercise is good for reviewing descriptions, verbs in present simple, have got, etc.

They have to ask simple questions about nationality, personality, likes and dislikes, hobbies, reason why they moved, etc.

Here you have the cards for the hypothetical new students. 

Maja Age: 14 years old Country: Poland Nationality: Pole Languages: English, Spanish and Polish Likes: Swimming and dancing Dislikes: Maths and videogames Family: Mum, dad, two sisters and a dog Reason why she moved: Her father’s job

Santiago Age: 15 years old Country: Portugal Nationality: Portuguese Languages: Portuguese, Spanish and English Likes: football and street dance Dislikes: Homework, French Family: A dad and a sister. Reason why he moved: They start a new life

Claire Age: 14 years old Country: US Nationality: American Languages: English and Spanish Likes: Internet and pets Dislikes: Salsa and cooking Family: Grandparents, mum, sister, three pets. Reason why she moved: her grandparents wanted to live in Spain

The new student role-play

click on the link: role-play

This is a role-play activity in which your students practise asking for and giving personal details and directions.

Level: Elementary and above

Description
Role-play is a great way for students to try out their English. Most of my students love having the chance to use their language in a realistic way, and often take the role-play much further than I would have thought possible! The quieter students also come out of themselves, their 'new identities' giving them the confidence to speak.

In this role-play, one student is the receptionist of a language school in London and the other is a new student. Each student has a 'role card' which details the information they need to find out from their partner and also the answers that they will give to their partner.

The 'receptionist' needs to find out the name, age, telephone number etc. of the new student. The 'new student' needs to find out the address and directions to the school from the nearest train stop. The receptionist's role card has a simple map which they must describe to the new student. Registration cards and blank maps are provided for students to complete with the information they find out. (If photocopying is an issue, ask your students to use their own notepads to jot down their answers rather than making these additional cards for them.)

More activities in: http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/try/activities/new-student-role-play

enhance your creative writing skills!

For each picture, do the exercise detailed below, to enhance your creative writing skills. You can do it orally too.

• Describe the picture in detail
• Write three questions for the photos (For example:  Why are the women in the street?
• Why did the photographer take this picture?
• If this were a picture from a movie, what would the name of the movie be? (Use your imagination)
• What happened just before this picture was taken?
• What happened just after this photo was taken?
•  What colors can you see in this picture?  Try to look up unusual shades in the dictionary.
• Describe the character and personality of any one of the people in the photos.

What size is it? (all levels)(description)

Arrange the students in teams. Write the following words on the board:
small large tall smart
smaller larger taller smarter
smallest largest tallest smartest
Discuss the comparative qualities of each with the students. Ask what the difference is between the words in each set. Have them demonstrate their understanding by first creating some type of drawing or picture that depicts the difference in the degree of words. After they have completed their drawings or representations, have them write their descriptions or explanations.
Example
long, longer, longest
Drawing

Descriptions/Explanations
Lina has long black hair, but Sue's hair is longer. Jennifer has the longest hair of all the girls in our room.
Encourage the students to be as creative as they can as they think of ways to describe the comparisons. Have each team share how they described each set of words. Ask whether they can think of other words to compare. Students may contribute other words, such as:

• big, bigger, biggest
• bright, brighter, brightest
• white, whiter, whitest
• black, blacker, blackest
• mad, madder, maddest
• narrow, narrower, narrowest
• wise, wiser, wisest
• neat, neater, neatest

My name is me (A2-B2)

Students will use prior knowledge, vocabulary knowledge, and creative thinking to complete the following activity. It can be done individually, in pairs, or as cooperative teams.

Each student will print his or her name vertically down the left-hand side of a sheet of lined paper, writing each letter separately. The student will try to think of a self-descriptive word or phrase that matches each letter of their name.

Students are to write a descriptive paragraph or story about themselves, using the words or phrases they have selected and any others they can think of as they are writing their paragraphs. The students are to share their writing selections with the class.
Example

My name is Miguel. I am an intelligent young man with a magnificent mind. My friends like me because I am a very unselfish person, who is always willing and eager to help others. I am also an extremely eager and ambitious leader, who can follow as well as lead. I am brave and gutsy. I am not afraid to try new things and go to new and different places.


In this link you have more strategies for empowering students and practise their english: http://urbanext.illinois.edu/ce/strat98.html

DESCRIBING PEOPLE (ALL LEVELS)

Each student will write a self-description without names on a sheet of paper. Emphasize that the students are to concentrate on their positive characteristics. The descriptions should include physical attributes such as color of eyes, hair, skin, height, and weight. Other non-physical attributes should also be included, for example, loves to play jokes on friends, always smiling, very helpful, never late for school, is unselfish, and plays fair.

The students' self-descriptions are to be folded and placed in a box or bag. Have a student, one at a time select a folded sheet from the box or bag and read the descriptions to the class. The class will then try to guess who the mystery person is. This process should be repeated until all slips of paper have been drawn.

¡HAGAMOS UN CASTING EN CLASE!

Este juego fue una idea de una profesora de español como lengua extranjera. La idea es que se presenten una serie de papeles ficticios para una película. Cada alumno debe preparar su audición para el personaje que más le guste. Debe describirse y resaltar sus cualidades para ese papel.
Hay un jurado formado por 3 o 4 alumnos que escucha todas las presentaciones y decide qué alumno es el más adecuado para cada papel.
Funciona bastante bien para trabajar la descripción física en cualquier lengua extranjera.

CELEBRITIES GAME/JUEGO DE FAMOSOS (VÁLIDO PARA CUALQUIER CLASE DE LE)

Cada alumno recibe la foto de un personaje famoso. Los alumnos deben ser pares para que todos tengan a su pareja dentro del aula.

El juego consiste en que cada alumno describe a su personaje. Una vez que todos hayan descrito su personaje deben sentarse con la persona que consideran que es su marido o su mujer. 

Si no hacen trampa, lo normal es que muchas parejas no sean las correctas. 

Es posible que aparezcan parejas como  Ken (el novio de Barbie) y Victoria Beckham, por ejemplo. :) 

De ahí la importancia de que las descripciones sean lo más detalladas posibles. Es gracioso observar los resultados finales. 

Aquí os dejo algunas parejas que los adolescentes de hoy en día conocen bastante bien, por si os interesa. Recordad que solo hay que darle un miembro de la pareja a cada alumno por lo que estas imágenes habría que cortarlas en dos.