A Fun Activity for the Story You’re Reading in the Class
I am working with graded readers, short stories and novels with my classes. I was also preparing my talk for TESOL France and looking for some new ideas to share, I designed the following lesson inspired from Chaz Pugliese’s Gossip activity from the book Being Creative. The activity may not sound similar but while reading it, I just thought this will be a fun activity. I’m planning to do it this week with my 12th graders.
Level: B2 and above
Put students in 3s
As and Bs will speak
Cs will eavesdrop and take notes while As and Bs are talking.
A and B are characters from the novel/short story you’re reading in the class.
Tell them they are going to gossip about another character from the story.
For example: Squealer and Napoleon gossip about Boxer (Animal Farm)
Cs are either a passerby, a student from your class or a 4th character from the story. They will take notes of what they’ve heard and will inform the class after the activity.
Variation: If the students will not be able to improvise, you can put them in 3s and give some time to write the dialogue. Then Cs from each group go to listen to another A and B’s gossip.
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My name is Taylor Parker. I am an English/secondary education major at the University of South Alabama. I really like how you share your new ideas with others. When I start teaching I plan to keep a blog as well. I hope to encourage other educators like you are doing now.
Hello again,
My name is Kelia Fagan. I am a student at the University of South Alabama in Mobile, AL. I loved how you made this a game meant for the students to work together. As well, using your resources in order to improve your own classroom by taking away something positive from someone else’s classroom.