Powerpointing Me -EFL Tech Tip #13

The other day when I was reading Nick Jaworski's blog postings on using the Teacher as the Narrative in EFL classes, I left a comment behind regarding one of my used-a-gazillion-times-first-lessons...


The Getting to Know You, Getting to Know Me game

I've no idea where I originally picked up the bones of this before techitizing it for my own purposes, so 'xcuse me if I don't reference the source - however, if you know, let us all know below.


Objective

• Create an atmosphere of sharing right from the get-go.

• Find out your students' communicative abilities and weaknesses: particularly when making small talk /asking and answering questions.

Prep

• Approx 2 - 4 hours, depending which option you choose below. However you'll be able to use it an infinite number of times in an infinite number of (first day) lessons for an infinite number of years.
  

Brainstorm

Who are you?
Jot down quick notes on words that describe you and your life.

• country of birth
• countries lived in
• marital status
• family & siblings
• current job
• previous jobs
• a job you dreamed of having
  
• degree(s)/ other studies
  
• hobbies and interests
• group/ associations you belong to
  
• places you've been on holiday
• your age (number)
  
• how long you've been teaching (number)
• your house number
  
• fave food /drink
• fave music /musicians
  
• fave book(s)
  
• something unusual about you
• anything else you feel like sharing
  

Procedure Option 1 (no tech, photocopier optional)

• Dig out photos that match the above list, clip pics out of a magazine
• Type the numbers using a large font and print
  
• Photocopy the pics to A4 if you'd like them to be uniformed in appearance
  
• Stick on to colored card and laminate

Procedure Option 2 (low tech)

• Open up a PowerPoint document
• Insert personal pictures from your computer
• Search www.flickr.com or google images (cc-licensed*) for the images/maps you don't have yourself - import these into your ppt.
• Type the numbers in a large font.

Procedure Option 3 (medium tech - quickest)

• Go to Wordle.net
• Enter the words you brainstormed
• Print several copies of your wordle & laminate (or capture as a jpeg / insert into a ppt slide)

Procedure Option 4 (will take >4hrs)

• PhotoPeach your life. Use with intermediate learners+ re fast imagery.
• Same as option 2
• Save all slides as jpegs
• Upload into Photopeach
• Select music: something related to your own culture or fave band works best.
  

PhotoPeachingMe on PhotoPeach



NB. It doesn't matter what order you present your images in.



In class

After briefly introducing yourself to your new students and getting their names, ask if they know anything about you and if they'd like to.
Optional: depending on your students' levels you may like to review question structures (wh-q/auxiliary and modals/conditionals/present-perfect) prior to doing this exercise, but not necessary.

Tell your students you're going to show some pictures and you'd like them to guess what the images have to do with your life by asking you questions.

Show the first picture / beam the first slide / show the first 30secs of movie.

Once you've elicited the correct answer, elicit the best question form which would produce that answer.

A rough example:
Picture: A boy and girl which look like me
Teacher: What does this have to do with me?
Students: "Brothers and sister?"
Teacher: How can you make that into a good question?
Students: "Do you have brother and sister?"
Teacher: Brothers and sisters are called siblings, you can also ask "Are they your brother and sister?"
Students: "Do you have (any) siblings?"
Teacher: Yes, I do. I have 2 brothers and a sister. My little brother wasn't born yet - in this picture - he's only 19. Do you have any questions about them?
Students: "Where they live?"
Teacher: Where do they live
etc...

Show the rest of the pictures or slides and continue getting students to ask about your life.

If you chose the movie option, show the whole film and then get students to ask questions about your life based on the images they've seen.

If you chose the Wordle option, get students to work in groups to figure out what the words might have to do with your life before getting them to ask the questions.


Their turn

Get students to jot down 5- 10 questions they'd like to ask each other. Circulate and correct their structures and vocabulary.

Form pairs or small groups and encourage them to ask each other about each others lives.

After around 15 minutes, switch members of groups and now ask them to tell their new partners about the lives of those they were talking to, as well as themselves. Depending on the size of your class, you can repeat this step as often as you like.


Post task

Students can create their own powerpoint presentations, wordles or movies based on what they're able to learn from the internet and/or other sources regarding one or more of the following:

• politicians /local or international
• sports figures
• entertainers: singers, movie stars, tv personalities
• their googlegänger
• anyone else

Ask students to bring what they learned to the next class in order to present it - share and discuss what they learned - again encouraging them to ask each other to ask questions & prompting for extended answers.





Useful links related to this posting:

Getting to know you, video with lyrics (can be used pre-task)
Getting to know you introduction games
Getting to know you - conversation prompt cards (available free to registered members of my website).


Do you have any questions or a creative tip for first lessons that you'd like to share with us?

Best,
Karenne

Note: you can print these lesson tips as a pdf by clicking on the title of the post, scrolling down and then clicking on the green "print as pdf" button.