Family CREATE
Language Collaboratively making up an alibi accounting for one’s location, actions and motivations for a three-hour period of time, and attempting to memorise all the details
Independently narrating invented past events and answering questions about them as accurately as possible, using the past simple in both cases
Asking questions about past events, using the past simple
Procedure
1 Invite learners to work in pairs, imagining that they have to create an alibi for a given evening. Tell them they must produce a story that accounts for every minute between 7 p.m. and 10 p.m. during the evening, then try to memorise all the information they have invented.
2 When the learners have prepared their alibis, tell one pair that they are now being called into the police station for questioning. Ask one of the two ‘suspects’ to wait outside while the other faces the rest of the class.
Encourage the class to question the first ‘suspect’ at length to find out the details of the alibi.
3 Invite the second ‘suspect’ in, and let the class subject him or her to a similar interrogation, attempting to find inconsistencies in the ‘stories’
and looking for contradictions between them. If they find any, the alibi is broken and the class wins. If not, the two who made up the alibi win.
Examples of questions that the class might prepare, and then use when interrogating the ‘suspects’
Where were you at 7.15 p.m?
Who else was there?
What time did you leave?
What did you do next?
Why did you go there?
Did you speak to anyone?
How much did it cost?
Who paid?
Did you get any change?
When did you leave?
How did you get home?
Note
An alternative procedure is to divide the class into two interviewing teams.
Each team takes it in turn to interview each learner. A time limit is given, for example, five minutes. The first team to note an inconsistency wins. If neither team notes an inconsistency between the statements of the two ‘accused’
then they are proclaimed innocent and free to go!
7.23 Passing on a story
Family CREATE
Language Making up stories collectively, using the past simple and past continuous as well as a wide range of language points
Procedure
1 Explain to the learners that you are going to begin a story and that they must continue it, each learner in turn adding a sentence or part of a sentence. Make sure to include a verb in the past tense in your starting phrase or sentence, so the learners will continue the story in the past. You can contribute to the story periodically if you feel it would help to give it a boost.
2 Retell the story with each learner contributing his or her sentence, in sequence.
Teacher: I saw a horse sitting ...
Learner 1: ... in the kitchen.
Teacher: It was eating ...
Learner 2: ... a piece of cake ...
Learner 3: ... and drinking tea from a bucket.
Teacher: I said ...
Learner 4: ‘Don’t you have milk in your tea?’
3 When the story is finished, ask the learners to write their version of it.
Variation 1 Remembering and continuing a story
Follow the same game procedure as above, only in this variation ask each learner to remember and repeat all the previous contributions! This should not be seen as a test! Learners may help a classmate who is stuck.
Some examples of sentences you might begin the story with In the middle of last night I was lying in bed when I heard a strange noise ...
Last Saturday I went to the shops and I saw ...
I opened the door and there was ...
The woman was crying, and she said ...
I heard the wolves howling ...
7.24 Interrupting a story
Family CREATE
Language Asking questions, using present, past or future tenses according to the tense forms the storyteller uses
Procedure
Try to tell a story or describe an experience in less than five minutes.
Challenge the learners to prevent you from doing so by interrupting you with questions about the story (any questions!) which you must stop your
storytelling to answer.
Teacher: There was a man who ...
Learner 1: What was his name?
Teacher: Henry.
Learner 2: What was his family name?
Teacher: Ponsonberry.
Learner 3: What did he eat for breakfast?
etc.
Note
You might like to divide the class into two teams and give them one point for every question asked.
7.25 Pattern poems
Family CREATE
Language Using the present simple for everyday activities (e.g. I get up at seven o’clock), and contrasting them with activities in progress, using the present continuous (e.g. I am lying in bed), following a model provided to channel the poet’s creativity
Focussing on almost any language point through the writing of poetry
Preparation The poetry-writing activity presented here requires almost no preparation. You need only choose a ‘frame’ in which poems can be created, and concentrate on the intended language focus. Possible
‘frames’ are presented below.
Procedure
1 Help the learners to brainstorm a few sentences, using the present simple tense, about their everyday lives. Write these sentences on the board.
2 Ask the learners to write five more sentences of their own.
3 Invite the learners, working in groups of four, to select a total of four of the sentences taken from any of the ones they have written. They should write them in a list under the first line of Every day.
4 Next, tell all the groups that they should add a new line, But now, but now.
5 Encourage the learners to brainstorm together at least ten sentences containing the present continuous. Their sentences should represent their ideal dream alternatives to their everyday lives!
6 Ask the learners to choose four of their present continuous sentences and list them under But now, but now.
7 Invite the learners to compose a line to finish off their poem.
8 Finally, ask each group to find a dramatic way of performing their poem for the class.