Science: A Girl Thing!

TASK 5.1 MobileLessonPlan- ... by Eva Gutiérrez

Bang Bang

This activity combines picture and video telling to revise simple past tenses in an attempt to give a practical edge to the wide array of tools we are presented with as part of the INTEF course for storytelling as I cannot see the point in making videos without any purpose for actual use in the classroom.

STEP 1

Tell students that you want them to draw two sketches to activate vocabulary. Tell them to listen to your complete instructions before they start. Give the following instructions:

I’d like you to draw a scene from a western film: the main characters are, as usual, Indians and cowboys. There is a young Indian all tied up with a rope around his body standing immobile at gun point, while an equally young cowboy, holding him close by the rope, threatens to shoot him down. There are speech bubbles coming from their mouths.

I also want you to draw a second picture. In this one a bride dressed in a beautiful white wedding dress holding a bouquet is standing alone in the middle of the church aisle in front of the altar. Church bells are ringing, benches are decorated with flowers but there’s no one sitting there. There’s a thought bubble coming from her head.

Ask students to repeat the instructions back to you before drawing. Ask students to consider what the characters in their sketches might be saying/ thinking about and what might have happened (i.e. she must have been left at the altar, they might be children playing Indians and cowboys…etc.) Elicit as many possible answers as you can.

STEP 2

Show them the following bunch of pics and add they tell the whole story. Ask them to order them chronologically and get them to try and tell the story behind the pictures using simple past tenses.

Bunch of Pics by Eva Gutiérrez

STEP 3

Play the video without sound to show how the images link togetger. Luckily by now, some of them may have recognized the images illustrate a popular song. Teach students the full song lyrics and play the video with sound.

STEP 4

Tell them to choose a song (Tom’s Diner to work with present continuous, California Dreaming for conditional sentences… etc.) and encourage them to illustrate the songs with pictures or their own drawings, by scanning them and using editing software to create a collage to accompany the song just like Jamie Keddie did and inspired me to create these activities with his lesson plan here.  

E.