Activity

"Who is (s)he?" celebrity guessing game

pairs conversation game practicing gender pronouns (he, she) and occupation words while using question word "Who?", creative expression opportunity

I created this activity when I was working in a JHS where they couldn't understand anything no matter how simple or slow I said it. I used this activity to help my first years practice making questions with "who" and to also practice using gender pronouns (he, she) while in unit 7 of New Horizons 1. It may seem a bit strange to combine those two goals, but it was exactly what my classes needed at the time and it proved to be useful.

This activity is a speaking activity first, then a creative activity. It works if your school is using ipads for students (and apps such as roiro note). If you have no way to send data to students instantly in such a way, the last creative part can be cut from the activity.

The first part is a general practice for using "he" for men and "she" for women. The second part adds their name in a sentence after asking "Who is (s)he?". These parts are meant to be for the whole class and to mostly act as a review of what they have already learned, so they should not take long or need much facilitating.

The third part adds occupation words, some that may be beyond what they learned from elementary school. It's meant to add a small challenge as well as give them words that might be used in daily life. First there's a drill for all of the words I want them to use before we dive into the pairs part of the activity. After drilling the occupation words, pair the students up to try the conversation of asking who someone (in a picture) is. Give them all a few seconds to try guessing in their conversations before revealing the true answer. After each picture, have students switch within their pairs so both students can practice asking and answering. Some are people students should be familiar with, but don't let the activity linger too long on each picture. Up to this point should only take 10 minutes (maybe 15 with slower-paced classes).

The last part (if your school technology allows for it) is a creative activity. I created the last slide to be the same structure as my examples but blank. If you can send the data to students, they have a chance to fill it in with a character/celebrity of their choosing. I give students only 5 minutes to fill it out because it only requires a picture, the name, and the occupation. After that, I used the school ipad to display the students' creations on the main screen and students could volunteer to introduce their characters/celebrities. This was the best part of the class every time I did this lesson because some students made funny introductions.

If you choose to omit the creative section, this can be a good warm-up to help students get comfortable with gender pronouns and to practice making "who" questions.

I hope that this activity can be helpful to someone else who has a very specific need!

Files:
Medium files (requires an account to download) -
  • NH1 - unit 7 - him,her introduction.pptx (4.7 MB)
  • 2
    Submitted by stadiumkaylam June 6, 2022 Estimated time: 20-25 minutes

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