Blankety Blank

Objectives Practice/reinforce emotions vocabulary, pronunciation practice Materials scrap paper for students, question sheet. Time 60 - 75 Minutes No. of students 7 - 15 Level Intermediate Preparation
The statements can either be cut up as cards or used as they are. Make one copy for each student for follow up activities. Pre-teach vocabulary related to emotions and feelings, below: relieved, curious, happy, excited, confident, surprised, proud, delighted, grateful, optimistic, amazed, interested, insecure, fed up, worried, nervous, angry, jealous, self-conscious, moody, shocked, depressed, frightened, confused, puzzled, disappointed, embarrassed, impatient, pessimistic, disgusted, sad, annoyed, bored The list can easily be adapted to suit the vocabulary the teacher wishes to teach, although 15-20 words are recommended.

Stage 1
Having taught the meaning of the vocabulary, put the students in pairs and ask them to arrange the words into positive and negative emotions. Elicit the answers from the students and write them on the board. Negative

Positive

relieved curious happy excited insecure fed up worried nervous angry confident surprised proud delighted jealous self-conscious moody shocked grateful optimistic amazed interested depressed frightened confused puzzled disappointed embarrassed impatient pessimistic disgusted sad annoyed bored hurt After this, in the same pairs, ask student to arrange the words into opposites. Some words will not have an opposite, and some will have more than one. Feed back from students and go over any disagreements and problems that students may have encountered.

Robert Weekly and Macmillan Publishers Ltd 2005 Taken from the Lesson Share section in www.onestopenglish.com

Having completed this task, elicit from the students words that have a similar meaning. For example: happy and delighted, amazed and surprised, depressed and sad, puzzled and confused. Point out to the students that, although similar, the words have a different emphasis in strength of meaning.

Stage 2
The game is based on the TV show Blankety Blank. Introduce quiz show and ask students if they watch quiz shows on TV. Ensure that all the words you are going to use are on the board. Put two chairs at the front of the class, facing the classroom at opposite sides of the board and ask for two volunteers to come forward, student A and student B, write their names on either side of the board. Arrange the other chairs in class so that the students are facing the board and slightly apart from each other. Distribute scrap paper to all the students, about twenty each. Explain to the students that you are going to read out a sentence, however, instead of saying the emotion/feeling word, you are going to say blank. The students have to decide which word from the board should be in the blank, and write it down on a scrap of paper. Explain that student A will go first and that student B doesnt write anything. Read the statement two or three times. When all the students have written a word on a scrap of paper, read the statement again, stopping before the word blank, and allow student A to hold up and say the word he has written on the scrap of paper. Check pronunciation, repeat the word for the student if necessary and allow him to repeat until he gets it right, and then finish the sentence. Go round the rest of the class and insist that they not only hold up the word they have written but also say it, and check their pronunciation. Student A gets 1 point for every student that has written the same word as him. Write his score next to his name. Repeat for student B. The first student to get to ten points is the winner. If it is small class, then set a lower point target or a larger class a higher point target. Then pick two more students to be contestants and play the game again. A student could also be chosen to be the quiz master. My first sentence is usually - I feel really blank at the moment, because I have an English lesson with Robert. This sets the scene for a fun activity and elicits a range of positive and negative emotions from students. The students may ask your opinion on the statement, which may or may not be given depending on follow up activities.

Robert Weekly and Macmillan Publishers Ltd 2005 Taken from the Lesson Share section in www.onestopenglish.com

Follow up activities
1. Give out a copy of the statements to students and ask them in pairs, groups or for homework to write a word in the blank. By then they should have a good idea of the meaning of the words, and this would be reinforcing what they had already done. 2. Put the students into two groups and ask them to write their own statements, leaving a blank word, then play a team quiz, where they read their statement out to the other team and they have to guess what the word is. 3. A mill drill, an example of which is at the end of this lesson plan. Have the students stand up ask each other the questions. This will focus the vocabulary on the students own experience.

Robert Weekly and Macmillan Publishers Ltd 2005 Taken from the Lesson Share section in www.onestopenglish.com