Last year, we ran a series of posts sharing some of the best entries to our monthly competition which asked how you’d use some of the exciting images from Cambridge English Empower in the classroom. We’re very pleased to announce that the winner of our grand prize – a two-week language course in Cambridge – has just been announced: congratulations to Marcia Crellin from Centro Britanico Ilhabela in Brazil!
We’re sharing Marcia’s winning entry below.
Lesson Aim: to consolidate modal verbs learned in previous lessons and to introduce some elaborate adjectives
Duration: 1 hour and 30 minutes
1) Lead-in: 15 min
Show the picture and elicit answers from the students. They must guess where the scene is taking place and what is happening. Then ask them to describe the scene with adjectives, and write their answers on the board. Assuming that many use the same common adjectives, point this out, and try to elicit synonyms for these adjectives.
2) 15 min
Using PowerPoint or an interactive whiteboard, show some information about the place that may either be true or false; students have to guess which statements are true. This information can include things to do there, the best time to go, a description of the place, and so on.
3) 10 min
Now pre-teach some unusual adjectives related to the scene (e.g. freezing, huge, amazing, picturesque, unspoilt etc) with an adjectives wheel game, using either software on your whiteboard or with a piece of cardboard with an arrow pinned in the middle, so that learners get a random adjective every time they spin the arrow.
4) 15 min
Each student takes their turn to spin the arrow and use the adjectives he/she got to describe the scene or the place. They are not allowed to repeat to repeat other students’ previous answers. e.g. “The hotel is huge; the temperature is freezing, and amazing photos can be taken there.”
5) TRANSFER: 10 min
Allow the students, in pairs, to perform a quick internet search about the location.
6) 20 min
Ask them to produce an advertisement about the place, convincing tourists to visit. In this, they must use the adjectives learned in this lesson and the modals could, must, should and will (learned in previous lessons.)
7) 5 min
In the final 5 minutes of the class, students vote for the best advert, which is then exhibited on the school´s notice board and website.
Thanks to everyone who entered the competition – we had so many excellent entries it was so difficult to choose a winner! And don’t forget that you can read some of the many excellent suggestions in our other posts!
You can find out more about Cambridge English Empower here.