Whole class Melee “Teenagers’ Problems”

Type of activity: whole class melee. Retelling about teenagers’ problems and finding the person with this or that problem. Pair work/ small groups.

Level: intermediate.

Games material: 8 texts (A-H) questionnaire.

Function practiced: narrating present tenses.

Structures: present tenses.

Lexical areas: childhood, love, accidents, teens, violence, and various.

Skills development: reading, auding and speaking.

Problem vocabulary:

A – Ann: smoking, drug, addiction, to avoid.

B – Betsy: to complain, enough money, to deal with.

C – Carol: joining the army, awful, violence, cruelty.

D – Diana: to feel independent, being treated likes babies, to respect.

E – Eric: to eager, individuality, and adult, patient.

F-Frank: to be independent, experience, reject, rebel.

G – Gary: experience, to appear, freedom, teen’s pregnancy.

H – Helen: an exception, to be useful in life, to solve, education, well-paid.

The object of the activity is to listen to as many stories as possible in order to complete a questionnaire later.

Type of activity – class melee retelling texts and finding the person with the punch line.

Level/Time required- intermediate/shorter than average

Games material- texts: 1-8, punch lines

Function practiced- narration

Structures-present tenses

Type of activity – class melee then pair work/small groups retelling texts and completing a questionnaire,

Level/Time required- intermediate/shorter than average

Games material- texts: A Ann; B Betsy; C Carol; D Diana; E Eric; F Frank; G Gary; H Helen. Questionnaire

Function practiced- narration present events

Structures-present tenses

Lexical areas-various

Lexical areas-childhood, love, accidents.

Texts A-H

Teenagers’ problems.

A - Smoking, drug, addiction, to avoid.

To begin with I’d like to mention such teens’ bad habits as smoking, taking alcohol or even adduction that are becoming urgent problems of the young and difficult to solve. I know there are many shocking problems. There are teenagers who complain about going to school or having a younger brother or sister.

B – To complain, enough money, to deal with.

Some teenagers complain about buying transport tickets as they haven’t enough money and sometimes it’s difficult for them to deal with their parents strange as it may seem but there are teenagers who do nothing to organize their spare time and so they complain about life.

C – Joining the army, awful, violence, cruelty.

Continuing education, choosing a career, getting a job or joining the army and even being young are awful problems for them. There are of course many things that worry teens. They are not school or family problems only but also aggressiveness, violence and cruelty that come from TV screen and are becoming a fact of people’s everyday life.

D – To feel independent, being treated like babies, to respect.

Many young people and my classmates are also worry about drinking problems, drug addiction and discrimination. No doubt that many teens both to be taken seriously and feel like doing well at school and it’s natural that they want to be treated with respect.

E – To eager, individuality, adult, patient.

I want to add that there are a lot of teens who are eager to have a chance to express their own individuality and so I think that the adults, our parents as well, must be sometimes more tolerant and patient. In my opinion all people have various ambitions. The same about teenagers.

F – To be independent, experience, reject, rebel.

It seems to me that practically all of them want to be independent. Many young people are sure that have already got enough life experience and this I believe makes them want to be treated with respect. They also want to make their own mistake and overcome all the life problems themselves certainly. There are teens that reject everything and even rebel against the society as they are going to enjoy life only.

G – Experience, to appear, freedom, teen’s pregnancy.

I for one think that there are real teen’s problems. Our parents can’t but complain about different things. According to mass media violence, teen pregnancy and AIDS cases are increasing. It’s fact that there are teens that have already had an experience with alcohol or drugs. It’s a pity but many parents suppose that their children are old enough. This makes many teens feel freedom.

H – An exception, to be useful in life, to solve, education, and well- paid.

To my mind however it’s an exception. Most of the young want to be useful in life and always try to help in solving each other’s problems as my classmates do. They are doing well at school and they want to have the guaranteed rights to education, well- paid work and rest.

How to use the activity.

Make enough copies of the fifteen texts or jokes the students to have one text, with as much variety as possible in the class. Copy the same number of corresponding punch lines. Give out one text each student and one punch line to each student. The punch line should not correspond to the text the student has! Make sure that somewhere in the class there is a punch line for every text. If you have more than fifteen students, do the activity in two groups. Students should read their text and walk around the class telling it until they find the person who has the corresponding punch line.

The object of the activity is to find their own punch line and to give away their original punch line. When they have done this, they should sit down. When everyone is sitting down, students can tell their complete texts to the whole class. Key: The punch lines are printed together on one page in the same order as the texts appear.

Follow - up: Students tell texts they know in English.

How to use the activity

Make enough copies of the eight texts, A-H, for the students to have one text each with as much variety as possible in the class. Make enough copies of the questionnaire for the students to have one each. You might like to start with a brief introduction of your own about teenagers’ problems. Give out one text to each student, ensuring that as far as possible everyone gets a different text. If you have twenty or more in the class, it is probably best to do the activity in two groups. Ask the students to read their texts and to memorize the information it contains, in order to be able to tell the story to other students. While they are reading, circulate and deal with queries. When they are ready, ask them to get up and walk around the class, telling their story to other students.

The object of the activity is to listen to as many stories as possible in order to complete a questionnaire later.

You might like to give a time limit for this activity. With a strong group, you can collect in the stories. With a weaker group, you may like to let them retain the stories as support.

Questionnaire. Teenagers’ problems. Answer as many questions as you can and then ask other students for help.

1. Who complains about going to school or having a younger brother or sister?

2. Can they organize their spare time? Have teens enough money?

3. Is continuing education choosing a career an awful problem?

4. Who says that many teens want feel independent?

5. Many people have various ambitions. And what about teenagers?

6. Do teenagers make their own mistakes? What do they want?

7. Why can’t our parents but complain about different things?

8. What the guaranteed rights do teens want to have?

Questionnaire. Teenagers’ problems. Answer as many questions as you can and then ask other students for help.

1. Who complains about going to school or having a younger brother or sister? - Ann complains.

2. Can they organize their spare time? Have teens enough money? - There are teenagers who do nothing to organize their spare time and complain about life. They can’t buy transport tickets as they haven’t enough money.

3. Is continuing education choosing a career an awful problem? - Yes, continuing education, choosing a career, getting a job are awful problems.

4. Who says that many teens want feel independent? - Diana says.

5. Many people have various ambitions. And what about teenagers?-The same about teenagers.

6. Do teenagers make their own mistakes? What do they want? - Yes, they do. They want to overcome all the life problems themselves.

7. Why can’t our parents but complain about different things? - Our parents complain about different things because of violence, teen pregnancy and etc.

8. What the guaranteed rights do teens want to have? – They want to be useful in life and have the guaranteed rights to education, well- paid work and rest.