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Unit 1
http://www.ivillage.co.uk/pregnancyandbaby/babynames/
Unit 1 is all about identity and yet one important aspect of identity appears to be missing – names.
Often a name has a meaning or a link to a particular day. Ask your students to work in pairs and, if they know, tell their partner what their name means and why they were given their name. Use the two sites above to check out the meanings. Use the search box to enter a name and get a quick response. The main drawback is that only English names appear to be on the site – ask your students (or tell them if they do not know) to enter the English equivalent of their name.
Page 10 takes a closer look at phrasal verbs, always a problem area for learners of English. Here are a couple of sites to help your students with this tricky language area.
http://eslcafe.com/pv/
A really good, comprehensive, page brought to us by Dave Sperling. Use the resources here to get your students to check out the meanings of hundreds of phrasal verbs.
http://english-zone.com/verbs/1phrasals.html
Explanations and exercises from English-Zone – well worth your students trying out these pages devoted to phrasal verbs.
Unit 2
http://www.timeout.com/
Wherever you are and whatever your taste this is the place to look. Put your students into groups and ask them to choose a city. Then get them to discuss what kind of food they’d like to eat, or what type of restaurant they want to visit. It might be an idea to give them a budget (eg. £20 per person). They can then use the guide to read up on the restaurants in their chosen city and try and come to a group decision on which one they would visit and why.
http://www.aitech.ac.jp/~itesls/anagrams/
A number of interesting pages devoted to anagram games. The words under food verbs are quite difficult - http://www.manythings.org/anagrams/foodverbs.html. Set your students a timed challenge and see how well they do. After they have completed this why not get them to design their own anagrams using the vocabulary in unit 2?
Finally, try http://www.btinternet.com/~ted.power/discfodv.html for a food related ‘Odd One Out’. Again, on completion get your students to design their own.
Unit 3
http://www.cities.com/
Unit 3 starts off with a mini quiz on cities. Here is a site which brings you information about over 4,300 cities in 150 countries. Ask your students to pick three cities and then to make a comparative study of them. They can then post their results on a noticeboard, write a short quiz of their own and create a graphic representation of the information they have discovered.
http://www.lonelyplanet.com/destinations/
Using either the www.cities.com link or the Lonely Planets link ask your students to write a brief description of a place. They can post these around the classroom and other students can try and guess which place is being described. This activity is a continuation of the one on page 26. Alternatively, try the online "Where in the world?" Quiz at http://encarta.msn.co.uk/quiz/quiz.asp?QuizID=185
http://www.nth-dimension.co.uk/vl/author.asp?id=119
On pages 32 and 33 your students are introduced to a poem by Carol Ann Duffy. If your students enjoy this poem why not try out some more? There are lots of her poems collected on this site and you could try a variety of activities: blank out some words (particularly collocations, phrasal verbs, rhyming words or adjectives); chop up lines and students reassemble; ask comprehension questions and have a critical discussion about the poem; or simply appreciate the beauty of the poems.
Unit 4
http://www.geocities.com/TelevisionCity/Stage/2262/jam.html
As unit 4 deals with both talking and jokes how about introducing your students to the radio show Just a Minute. This site, although a bit cluttered with the names of all the people who have appeared on the show, does have the rules and some transcripts which make amusing – if complex – reading. After your students have read the rules and one or two transcripts, see if they can explain the rules to you – and write them up on the board. To complete the task play the game in your class.
http://www.makeemlaugh.com/j-doctor.htm
http://www.scatty.com/jokes/doctor
http://www.whatalulu.com/doctor.html
Understanding jokes in a foreign language can be quite difficult. On page 43 students are introduced to ‘Doctor, doctor’ jokes. Do you have jokes like these in your country? Can they be translated or do they lose their humour? Most of these jokes rely on word play – why not see if your students can explain the double meanings that are often central to the jokes. Try out a matching activity where you mix up the first lines and punch lines and your students have to match them. And then see if your students can write their own.
