BAM! You're it!: A lesson plan for Halloween

Halloween is not something that is celebrated in my country, but that does not stop me from doing scary lessons with my students. I don't know what it is about horror stories, but for some reason, the students love it. Perhaps, it is because they are all college students and love the thrill of being frightened.

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One of the activities I did with them was a lesson on how to identify adjectives and adverbs. It was an English as a Second Language grammar lesson and the students were tasked with identifying the adjectives and adverbs through a listening task which later would transition into a writing task.

As such, here is an example of the lesson plan:

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Introduction

The energizer for this lesson is called, BAM! You're it! The activity does not require any special tools and can be done quickly. All you need is superbly quick reflexes and an understanding head of department who would not come complaining about the noise. This is because this activity can get very loud.

The activity is simple, The teacher will first divide the class into four groups. After instructions are given, the teacher will then start to read through a haunted text of their choosing. The students will be required to listen attentively and can at any point of time, hit the table together, stand up and point to another team shouting, "You're it!"

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The team would then have to stand up and identify all the adjectives and adverbs in the sentence that the teacher is currently reading. If there are no adjectives nor adverbs, the students can just state that there are none and sit down. If the team that stood up were able to identify the adjectives and adverbs correctly, they will be awarded a point. However, if they are not able to, the team that hit the table will obtained a point.

Aside from being fun and entertaining, this activity promotes some extent of active listening. This is important especially if the class is conducted in the afternoon and the students are feeling sleepy. The hitting of the table would wake some of them up. If you are in a class where it is in close proximity to other classes, I recommend changing the hitting of the table to just shouting "Bam!"

Activity

Now that the introductory activity is done, the teacher will then tally the points of the groups. The group with the most points gets to choose the essay topics for each of the group that lost in the first activity. The genre of course is horror and the students will have to complete an essay in groups on a large piece of paper. Some suggested titles of this include:

• My first haunted house experience.
• Last night, I was awoken by...
• Zombies

To win in this activity is simple, the group that completes the essay the quickest gets awarded 10 marks. The group with the least grammatical errors gets 20 marks and the group that is able to place the most adjectives and adverbs in the essay gets 20 marks.

However, there is a twist. The winning group may be able to choose the essay for each of the group that lost. However, each of the group that lost will have to write a random word on a piece of paper. These pieces of paper will be handed to the winning group. The winning group's task will be to write an essay with each of these random words in it.

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By doing so, the teacher gives each group an opportunity to win back some marks. This also encourages further interest in the activity, or else, most will just give up due to the advantage the winning group holds over them.

Conclusion

Upon the completion of the activities, the teacher can recap and reiterate key differences between adverbs and adjectives. The teacher can also award the group with the highest marks with a prize. This is an activity that was implemented in a classroom that did not have internet nor an LCD projector.

I hope this lesson was helpful. If you have any suggestions on how this lesson can be made better, do let me know!

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