The evolution of now: Vocabulary practice :)

This activity will increase the use of new vocabulary by promoting interaction amongst the students, and introducing a topic they are quite familiar with: Social networks.

1) Tell your students that they are going to watch a video that shows where we are in terms of social evolution. Ask them to write down all the information they consider surprising. 

2) Divide your students in pairs or trios and give each group a copy of the text below: The power influence has to make things happen.

3) Still in groups, the students can make posters about the social evolution numbers. Display on the board the social network word bank (check below).

4) Depending on their level, they can create a social network hit that has a great potential to go viral:

Eg:

 protect the environment

 protect the animals

 children’s rights, etc…

OBS: Remember, you don’t need to use a real social network to do this activity, it all can be done using paper, cut outs, or even drawings, what really matters is their creativity, and the use of new words and structures.

The Power Influence Has to Make Things Happen

source: http://mysuperchargedlife.com/blog/be-an-influence-you-are-a-powerful-force

Think of your influence like water.  Water in motion is a very powerful force.  We’ve all seen the pictures of a flood carrying away cars and even homes.

This is similar to what can happen today if you launch an idea and it goes viral on the Internet.  It becomes like a flood.  It moves rapidly over all the obstacles in its way.  Nothing can stop it.

We often hold back launching our ideas because we think it won’t make a difference, but what if others embrace it?  It happens every day.  Common people become famous in an instant.  Movements are created.  People rally together behind a cause.  Influence makes big things happen.

Of course, not all ideas go viral, still influence is powerful.  It can work like erosion.  Slowly, but surely, over time erosion changes entire landscapes.

You have this power inside you.  We all do.  It is all about how we choose to use it.

Social network word bank:

Tweetup - noun: a meeting or other gathering organised by means of posts on the social networking service Twitter. [from tweet + up on the pattern of MEETUP].

Hashtag - noun: a # [hash] sign added to a word or phrase that enables Twitter users to search for tweets (postings on the Twitter site) that contain similarly tagged items and view thematic sets.

Tag cloud - noun: a visual depiction of the word content of a website, or of user-generated tags attached to online content, typically using colour and font size to represent the prominence or frequency of the words or tags depicted.

Slashdot effect - noun: the slowing down or crashing of a small website due to a huge increase in traffic when the website is linked to another, much more popular one.

Unfriend/defriend - verb: to remove from one's 'friends' list (e.g. on a social networking website).

Freemium - noun: a business model in which some basic services are provided for free, with the aim of enticing users to pay for additional, premium features or content.

Paywall - noun: a way of blocking access to a part of a website which is only available to paying subscribers.

source: http://www.pcworld.com/article/185729/social_network_terms_go_mainstream.html

What is your dream about?

Tell your students that they are going to pretend they are dream analyzers and they are going to evaluate their classmates’ dreams. Divide your group into pairs and tell them to get prepared to ask other students about dreams they can remember. Guide them to write down just keywords as “door”, “cat”, “river”. After listing a few keywords, tell your students to access the link below:

http://www.dreammoods.com/dreamdictionary/

In this website, it is possible to search keywords and symbols in a dream dictionary. Tell the students to search every word they listed, and write the best meaning they find 

(e.g. : "Cat – unlucky" "Door – big changes").

Next, they have to work together and write a dream interpretation paragraph to report to the student they have asked in the beginning of this activity.

The grammar point is that the students must use first conditionals in order to write their interpretation.

E.G.: “If you dream of a river and a door, you will have a joyful change in your life.”


The interviewed students will be looking forward to receive their results. This interaction is very productive and the students feel very motivated and involved, but more importantly, they are learning “if clauses” in a fun way!