Chat
Prepare a set of flashcards and on each one write the name of a famous person along with a small photograph. Add to each card a few salient facts about that person's life: dates, education, achievements and so on.
Make sure that the people you choose will be known to your class. You can build up quite a collection of these cards so remember you can always laminate them to help keep them in good working condition for longer!
One way to play this game is to give each person a card, making sure they understand the information on it. Then hold a "cocktail party" where students mingle and chat about themselves (with you, of course, mingling and chatting amongst them).
No one can reveal their own name even when asked, but they should ask and answer questions about each others identity.
and so on. At the end of the party students sit down and in small groups or pairs try to identify everyone else in the class.
As a teacher you may wish to revise some useful language functions before the party begins, phrases such as
and so on.
Alternates
- Divide the class into two teams. A student from the first team comes to the front and collects a card at random and reads it silently (you may want to make sure there are male and female cards to avoid embarrassment here). The two teams each take turn in asking questions about the person on the card - the student can either "be" the person and answer in the first person or they can answer in the third person. The team which guesses the identity of the famous person on the card wins a point.
- Prepare a homework assignment where the students have to find basic information about someone famous; in the next lesson they use this identity instead of one you have prepared.
