El concepto de fase histórica de desarrollo

1 Ask learners to form groups of four or five, then to write a fortune or prediction for each member of their group. In other words, each learner writes three or four fortunes.

2 When the learners have completed this first step, invite them to give each of the fortunes to the learner concerned.

3 Invite learners to read their fortunes out to their group and comment, for example, on whether some of them are the same, or just what they had hoped for, or highly unlikely.

Notes

• The learners need not know each other well. People love having their fortunes told, even if the prediction is clearly without any foundation!

• At some future time you can ask if the fortune telling proved to be correct or not. This invites a natural use of the future in the past tense and the simple past tense.

Teacher: John said you were going to meet a strange person. Did you meet a strange person?

Learner: Yes, I did.

Teacher: What happened?

7.9 Why did they say that?

Family IDENTIFY

Language Imagining and writing explanations for exclamations and questions Listening to descriptions of extraordinary circumstances, and reacting orally with an appropriate exclamation or question Procedure

1 Write ten exclamations and/or questions on the board.

Examples of exclamations and questions

No! Good luck! Really!

Yes! Good luck? Really?

Sorry! Bad luck! Wow!

Sorry? Bad luck? Not now!

Never mind! Careful! Of course!

Never mind? Careful?

2 Invite pairs to write a sentence explaining a reason for somebody saying one of these exclamations or questions. Ask learners to take turns reading out their sentences, and the rest of the class to identify which exclamation or question is being referred to in each case.

Example 1

Explanation: A pet owner said to a friend, ‘Would you like to kiss my tarantula?’

Exclamation: No!

Example 2

Explanation: A man told his friend he was going to get married. His friend said,

‘Good luck!’ And the man said … Question: Good luck?

3 Ask the learners to take another exclamation and to invent an even funnier reason.

4 Once they are ready, invite the learners to stand up and mill about, reading out their extraordinary explanations and asking the other learners to identify the exclamation it refers to.

7.10 Objects in a box

Family IDENTIFY

Language Naming objects and describing them in as many ways and as much detail as possible (using adjectives, making true statements about them)

Using possessives to indicate the owners of objects

(optional) Guessing the name of a hidden object, using the question Have you got a …?

Preparation You will need a box or bag big enough to hold 10 small objects.

Procedure

1 Go round the classroom picking up about ten small objects. Ask the learners to name each object before you put it into the box or bag.

2 Put your hand into the box, take hold of one of the objects but do not take it out.

Teacher: What have I got in my hand?

Learner 1: A comb. (guessing, because the learners cannot see what the teacher is holding)

or: The comb. (if only one comb was put in the box) Teacher: No.

Learner 2: A/The watch.

Teacher: Yes.

You may ask learners to guess what you’re holding by telling them to ask you Have you got a ...?

3 Explain that the learner who guessed correctly has won the object, unless someone else can call out something true about it before you hand it over.

Start to walk towards the learner to give them the object, and immediately change direction if another learner says something true about it, for example:

Learner 1: It’s black! (walk towards Learner 1) Learner 2: It’s small! (walk towards Learner 2)

4 Learners may continually attempt to ‘win’ the object by calling out true statements:

Learner 3: It’s a silver watch. (walk towards Learner 3) Learner 4: It’s fast. (walk towards Learner 4)

Learner 5: It’s ticking. (walk towards Learner 5) Learner 6: It’s not Big Ben. (walk towards Learner 6)

Learner 7: It’s like a person. It has a face and two hands. (walk towards Learner 7 and give it to Learner 7 if no other learner calls out anything before you get there) 5 When the game is over, make use of possessive forms in returning the

objects to their owners.

Teacher: Whose is this?

Learner: It’s mine/his/John’s.

7.11 Where’s the mouse?

Family IDENTIFY

Language Main game Asking questions using Are you + preposition + place (e.g. Are you on top of the cupboard?) in an attempt to locate someone

Variation Making suggestions using Let’s + verb + object +

preposition + place (e.g. Let’s hide the watch on top of the cupboard.) Asking questions using Is it + preposition + place (e.g. Is it under the table?) in an attempt to locate something

(optional) Asking questions using the present perfect (e.g. Have you hidden it near the door?) or the passive form (e.g. Is it hidden at the back of the classroom? or Has it been hidden at the back of the classroom?)

Preparation (optional) You may like to bring a picture showing lots of places in which a mouse could hide (see step 1).

Procedure

1 Invite the learners to take it in turns to imagine being a mouse. The

‘mouse’ should think of a hiding place in the room, or in a larger place, for example the school or the town. (Alternatively, show the class a picture and ask the ‘mouse’ to imagine where in the picture he or she is hiding.) Ask the ‘mouse’ to write down their location on a bit of paper.

(This will prevent the ‘mouse’ from cheating!)

2 Challenge the other learners to ask questions to try to find where ‘the mouse’ is, for example:

Learner 2: Are you in the cupboard?

‘Mouse’: No.

Learner 3: Are you under the desk?

‘Mouse’: No.