Students talk about hypothetical situations by putting themselves in the shoes of the DimmiDeck characters.
What You Need
Deck of Character Cards – choose six to ten ‘sad’, ‘bored’ or just a bit ‘fed up’ looking characters
Pre Teach
Students should be familiar with the second conditional and be ready to try and practise it freely.
Lesson Plan
- Choose one of the cards at random. Ask students about the character. Who are they? How do they feel?
- Elicit reasons why the character is feeling the way they are. For example the secretary card could be ‘bored because she doesn’t like her job’, or ‘tired because she stayed up all night’.
- Encourage more speculative reasons for the characters’ mood, like ‘she’s just broken up with her boyfriend’ or ‘she’s had an argument with her boss.’ Encourage creativity – the sillier the better!
- Ask the students how they would deal with the same situation. They must use the form ‘if I were him/her… I would…’ or a variation of it.
- Correct any grammar errors and provide any necessary vocabulary support. Clarify the form and repeat the example if necessary so students are clear about what to do.
- Next, have students choose one of the remaining ‘sad’ characters at random.
- Give the students a couple of minutes to think about why they are feeling sad or annoyed and to think about what they would do in that situation.
- After a couple of minutes, have them explain their card to the class and give their opinion. ‘This is Bob. He’s crying because he’s just dropped his ice cream. If I were Bob, I would grow up and go and buy another one!’
- Correct target language on the spot, and save pronunciation or vocabulary issues for delayed correction at the end.
- Repeat with every student or group. Go again if there’s time!