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Superheroes

Page history last edited by Sendaiben 17 years ago

Superheroes

 

David Thomson

 

GRADE LEVEL: SHS (any grade/ medium level and above)
SKILLS: Listening, Reading, Writing, Speaking
TIME: 50 minutes
MATERIALS: Worksheets, small prizes (i.e. stickers) for bingo

 

OBJECTIVES:

 

1. To expose the students to a range of interesting and useful vocabulary

2. To captivate students with a popular, non-textbook topic

3. To allow lower level students to exercise their imaginations and express themselves

 

PROCEDURE:

 

1. First up is bingo: a useful way to deliver the big chunk of vocabulary required for this topic. Have the students repeat words on the first page after you and subsequently compose their own bingo grids. Play bingo, choosing words at random. When a student has completes a row, have them read aloud the words in that row before rewarding them with a small prize. (In a class of 40 I usually explain at the start there will be 5 winners, but usually succumb to the students’ calls of “one more!”)

 

2. Next: superhero bios. Read aloud the Spider-man character bio, emphasising that the majority of the vocab. is translated on the first sheet and with the JTE translating other words as necessary. After that read through that of Superman using the tried and tested fill-in-the-blanks routine, with the JTE again translating when you see fit.

 

3. Then: custom character bios. Conforming to the template at the top of page 3, create an example superhero on the blackboard using the vocab. from page 1 (“Super ALT man” - type: alien - is a student favourite). Once finished, have the students design their own (including a picture), making sure they know to use that page 1 vocabulary.

 

4. Finally, in the event you still have time and your students are skilled enough, have them attack the self-explanatory fourth exercise.

 

NOTES:

 

  • The “elements” are not all elements in the traditional sense and, no, “ele~strength” and “ele~weakness” are not standard English. However, variety and imagination are the name of the game in this lesson; the use of such a terms was a simplifying concession to contribute to giving low-medium students the chance to act individually.

 

  • Some of the vocabulary may seem difficult, and there may seem to be a lot. However, in my experience, the students really enjoy shouting out some of these bizarre words – and love it when they nail something tricky like “invisibility.” For instance, having won at bingo and initially struggled to read that word out loud, the list of powers one student later chose for her superhero would read “invisibility, invisibility, invisibility” – which she later read to me with a smile on her face.

 

  • Another thing: if the students know other relevant vocabulary – for example animal names or other occupations – there is nothing stopping them drawing upon these terms (the reason the given vocabulary is so dense is actually for the benefit of lower ability students lacking in relevant words). For me, though, it shows more ingenuity if their chosen attributes just “add up” – for example: electric eel (type), breathe underwater (powers), lightning (ele~strength), ice (ele~weakness), fisherman (cover).

 

WORKSHEETS and HANDOUTS:

 

The worksheets for this lesson are here

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