Class theme/topics discussed:
Describing Physical Appearance

How did you pick this theme or topic?
That’s one of the basic topics included in any foreign language teaching program.

How did you present the material? (handouts, group work, general discussion, student presentations, etc.)
Brainstorming, general discussion, pair work, direct questioning.

How did students react?
They enjoyed the class and were glad to know many new words.

Did they engage with each other and you?
Yes.

What materials or media did you use? (articles, satellite tv, digital projector, etc.)
Handouts with word maps, a picture, a poster with the guidelines for role play.

Please attach a copy.
Oct 1_Brainstorming
Oct 1_Instruction
Oct 1_Suspect

Would you recommend this activity for a future class? Yes.
Why or why not?
It introduces to t he students the basic lexis related to everyday communication.
The role play activity is very efficient, so when the students are equipped with the new vocabulary, they start using it.

Занятие 10. Внешность

1. Brainstorming: distribute the handout Oct 1_Brainstorming

Draw the same scheme the whiteboard and ask the students to think about the aspects of physical appearance that we usually mention when describe a person and fill out the scheme.

In the end there should be the following words in the circles:
«рост», «возраст», «фигура/телосложение», «волосы/прическа», «лицо», «особые приметы.

After that ask the students to develop the scheme and add more circles around the secondary ones. For example, around the circle “лицо” there will be several circles for «цвет лица», «форма», «черты лица» – and for the latter there will several circles for «глаза», «губы», «нос», «лоб»…

2. Distribute the handout #2 (from former LRs’ archive, exercises on physical appearance vocabulary).
Do the exercises.

3. Role play: «Фоторобот».

Students work in pairs, each student chooses to be either a police officer or a witness. The police officer gets a handout with the guidelines for the interrogation (Oct 1_Instruction); the witness gets a picture of a criminal (Oct 1_Suspect). Police officers have to draw a “photo robot” following the description provided by a witness. At the end the photo robot and the original picture are compared.