November
15
It’s all in the eyes…
If you want to bring a bit of creative freedom into your classroom and need a quick activity to get students talking at the start of the lesson, why not try this one?
Draw a stickman, or indeed stickwoman, on the board and invite a student to the front to draw the facial expression. Then ask as many questions as possible to build up a character, giving the students the opportunity to be as imaginative as they like.
I tried this activity with a group of teachers at the ACEIA conference in Sevilla yesterday and they came up with some great ideas:
- One pair had a man who was really thirsty because he was stranded in the desert after being abducted by aliens
- Another teacher had drawn a guy who’d had one of his eyebrows shaved off after a drinking session with a friend
- There was also a stickman who was so angry he had smoke coming out of his ears (what do you think could have made him so angry?)
The beauty of this activity is that it requires no preparation and it will really motivate your students to speak. You may need to keep pushing them with more questions, but once they realise that there are no right or wrong answers, they’ll be more encouraged to reply. It’s also a great opportunity to practise a whole variety of tenses:
- What’s happened to Tom? (or whatever name they choose to give the character)
- And where was he?
- What was he wearing when it happened?
- What could he have done to stop it from happening?
- How is he feeling now?
- What do you think he’s going to do next?