Classroom Activity 3
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Teacher: You missed school
yesterday, didn’t you?
Pupil: Not very much!
Round 1:
Read the dialogue while acting it out with gestures.
Round 2:
Shorten
the dialogue and act it out in half the time.
Paraphrase well\ to keep
the main ideas, and use
gestures to enhance the audience’s understanding.
Round 3:
Shorten the dialogue again and act it out in 5
seconds. Be sure to keep the main idea and use
gestures.
Round 4:
Act out the dialogue in 1 second. You should use
gestures, but you have time for each speaker to say
only one word.
3. Hand out dialogues to each pair. Each pair must
have a different dialogue. Student A will have several
lines to speak, and Student B will have several lines
to speak. The best dialogues to use include some
action (gestures, facial expressions, body movement
and some kind of conflict.
If you don’t have dialogues, or if you want to give
students practice writing creatively, have them work
in pairs to write their own dialogues or create their
own cartoon strips. Students can then exchange
those dialogues.
The pair that receives the dialogue acts it out. You
can promote the creation of new dialogues by asking
students to use vocabulary they are currently
studying.
For example, if students are learning about holidays,
have them write dialogues focused on those holidays.
In this way, the activity provides vocabulary practice
and review.
4. Each pair practices the dialogue together to prepare
to present it in front of the class. Students should
practice the dialogue enough times so that they feel
comfortable reading it.
Tell students to use action with their hands or body
whenever possible and also to use facial expressions
to show meaning. Students do not have to memorize
the dialogue when they act it out and in fact should
read the script exactly for Round 1.
Round 2.
The students must shorten the dialogue so that they
can read it and act it out in half the time. Depending
on students’ abilities,they should probably write out the
shortened dialogue and practice it, making sure it
takes exactly half the time.
Round 3:
Students shorten the dialogue again, making sure they
can perform it in 5 seconds. Finally, the pair should
decide on the one word each student will say in
Round 4.
5. Have the students perform their dialogues in front of
the class. Before each pair performs, assign someone
from another pair to act as timekeeper.
Round 1:
It should take the students about 30 seconds to 1
minute to act out the dialogue. When the students
finish, the timekeeper should note how long Round 1
has taken.
Round 2:
The two students perform a shortened dialogue in half
the time. If Round 1 took 1 minute, Round 2 should
take 30 seconds; if Round 1 took 30 seconds, Round
2 should take 15 seconds. The students should
shorten the dialogue but keep as much of the original
meaning as possible.
Because the pair planned out and practiced each
round before performing, they should need only a few
seconds at the end of Round 1 to prepare to perform
Round 2. timekeeper should yell out and stop the
action when the time is up.
It is important that the pair keep the dialogue to
the
correct amount of time. It is not okay for students to
do the
dialogue in much less time or much more time
than the round allows. Controlling the time in this way
helps the class appreciate the humor of the activity.
Round 3:
The
students perform the shortened dialogue in 5
seconds. The students must
keep the meaning of
the original dialogue while also making sure not to
go over 5 seconds. The timekeeper should make
sure that the dialogue does not go over 5 seconds.
Round 4:
