Tag Archives: halloween

A Little Bit of Thriller on Halloween

Raise your hand if you have never seen Michael Jackson’s Thriller video. No hands? Right! Just what I thought! You might like it or not, but what is undeniable is that this video has become a classic.

I was racking my brains about the activity I could give my students for Halloween this year when suddenly the image of the undead rising out from their graves in Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” appeared in my mind out of nowhere. Yeah! I know! Weird!

A spooky video but also a masterpiece. I hope you enjoy the activity and also the homework.

Level: Intermediate to Advanced

Time required: about 60 minutes

SETTING THE  ATMOSPHERE.

Ask students some of these questions:

  • Do you believe in ghosts? Do you know any stories about ghosts?
  • Has anything ever happened to you that you cannot explain?
  • Do you believe that vampires or zombies  exist?
  • What is the most frightening experience you have had?

THE VIDEO.

Pdf of the lesson here.

Ask students if they know who Michael Jackson was. Can they name any of his songs? Most probably students will know who Michael Jackson was and will probably mention the song “Thriller”. If you deem it appropriate, give students some information about this video, like for example, that it was voted the most influential pop video of all time.

More information about the video here.

The video lasts about 13 minutes. It is going to be divided into two parts, with a different task for each part .

 

TASK 1. Dictation (from the beginning to 4.40)

Tell students they are going to see the first part of the video where there is a dialogue between Michael Jackson and his girlfriend. Half the class will take Michael’s role and half the class the girl’s role.

  • Have the students work in pairs. Half the pairs in the class will write down the part of Michael Jackson and the other half the part of the girlfriend.
  • I suggest you give students the beginning of the dialogue as M. Jackson’s first sentence might be difficult to understand.

Jackson: Honestly, we’re out of gas.

Girlfriend: So, what are we going to do now?

  • You might need to play it twice.
  • Students help each other complete the dialogue
  • Pair students once again, this time you want to pair a student with Michael’s part and a student with the girlfriend’s part.
  • Ask students to act it out.

TASK 2. The Song (from 4.40 until the end)

Write/display the following words on the board and ask students to guess meanings. Explain if necessary and drill pronunciation.

Download the pdf with the activity here

  • Play the video once.

Play the song and ask students to fill in the gaps with the words in the box. Words can be used more than once.

  • Play the video a second time

Students complete task 1 and try to fill in the blanks for the words in phonemic transcription.

  • Check and listen again to enjoy the video and maybe… sing along?

TASK 3. The homework

I am well aware that I won’t be able to check this homework and I am  also pretty sure  my students, which are all adults, won’t be volunteering to show how much they have learnt from doing this homework, but I guess that at home they will be having a  great time and that’s important too. Enjoy!

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I Short Scary Story Writing Contest

Open to all my students at intermediate level until October 31st!
Are you willing to try your hand at writing a short scary story in English? This could be your chance to be internationally known. Who knows who might be visiting the blog and reading your stories. You might end up being a well-known writer !!!
Yeah! I know ! Probably too far-fetched ! But, what is undeniable is that this activity can help you improve writing and this is what really matters!
As in every single contest of some importance, there are RULES. These are mine:

Please ensure you read the rules carefully before entering the competition.Entry implies acceptance of all the rules and failure to comply may result in disqualification.

Theme: a scary/horror story

 ♥Stories must be written in English

♥Stories must be entirely your own work and must be previously unpublished

♥Only one entry per person can be submitted

♥ Stories may be of any length

♥Stories shall be titled

♥Submit your story via email by 11.50 p.m on October 31, 2015. Late entries will not be considered. Please, don’t  paste your work  into the body of the email, send it as an attachment with your name in the upper left-hand corner of the page

♥Prizes to be determined

♥Winners will be announced the first week of November, online and on this blog

Some pictures that might inspire you, below!!!

Halloween Party Video

Now, I promise this will be the last post about Halloween but I took some nice pictures of our Halloween party at the high school and I wanted to show you how much fun we had and how hard students worked; because not only did they spookily decorate our common room and prepared the games for the party but , they also cooked delicious creepy dishes,which I’m afraid are right now sitting comfortably around my hips.
Anyways , thank you guys for making our Halloween celebration a big creepy crawly success!!!
Enjoy the video!!!!!

Jack-o-Lanterns in Halloween History

I hope you’re not getting sick of so many posts about Halloween. This, if my memory doesn’t fail, is my third post about this tradition but I’m afraid you haven’t seen the last of it as we’ll be throwing our Halloween party on Wednesda . I’ve boarded the Halloween train and I have no intention of getting off .
As if cooking and decorating were not enough for my students, this video about the history of Jack O’Latern will set the mood for the halloween party and do the trick

QUESTIONS FOR PRE-INTERMEDIATE STUDENTS. Click here

QUESTIONS FOR INTERMEDIATE STUDENTS . Click here