author: Jennifer Willett
level: Junior High
target_English: Simple responses
My third year junior high kids donft want to run around, so I came up with this competition for them, Ifm sure younger kids would like it too.
The target language in this lesson was appropriate responses to comments or questions e.g. eIfm sorry to hear that.f, eThatfs surprisingf, eWell done.f Etc.
1. Prepare a large size sheet with images of celebrities, politicians and people the kids will find funny (Ifve used Ivor from Frankenstein in one of mine).@
2. Give the people speech bubbles containing a simple conversation using the key phrases.
3. Use the example sheet to demonstrate to the kids then split the class into groups of 5 or 6.
4. Students work in groups with 3 sheets to a group. Each sheet has an A4 image of one of the example pictures and a speech bubble containing one of the new phrases with the rest of the conversation removed.
5. Students have to fill in the blanks in their groups, making a funny conversation containing the key phrase. If students canft think of anything funny to write in then they can come up with a simple everyday conversation containing the key phrase in the appropriate context.
6. Students have about 15 minutes to think of the phrases and write them on the sheets.
7. Students present their phrases and the best group wins a prize.
You can display the funniest captions around the school to try and provoke a bit of interest in English.
N.B. You can easily set the caption competition task as a homework, as long as youfve presented the examples during the lesson and the kids are clear what to do, or you could get kids to find their own pictures and add speech bubbles.
