Class theme/topics discussed: The future and superstitions
Goal of the class: to practice future tense and predictions
How did you structure the class?
How was their Halloween? What did they wear?
Open discussions: do they believe in any superstitions or anything without scientific proof? Can you really predict your future? Horoscopes?
Can they name some supersitions?
Activity 1: In pairs one person is the fortuneteller and the other one wants to have their cards read. I give each group some pictures (that represent love, money, luck etc). The “client” chooses three cards, one is the past, the other the present and the last one is the future. The fortuneteller has to interpret these cards and come up with a story. After this they change roles and do the same.
Students share the results of their visit to the fortuneteller
Activity 2: I ask students to tell me their zodiac signs; they pair up with people of the same sign. I give each group the “personality profile” of their sign and they have to discuss how accurate it is. We comment as a class. After this each group has to change the profile to fit their personalities, change what wasn’t accurate and we share the new profiles with the class and we discuss if they actually describe the people or not.
What worked well in this class? What did not work?
They really liked the activity of predicting the future; they came up with funny stories. They were also very open to sharing superstitions.
For the horoscope activity there weren’t enough students to make pairs so I handed each of them their sign and we discussed what characteristics they share and what was totally off. Since there were some Asian students they also shared their horoscope.
How could this class be improved/ modified?
Perhaps next time I could print some superstitions from around the world so we can comment on those instead of relying on their own experience.