And the Winner Is...

There are times when I really like my job. Really, really like my job.

Right after the Oscars I did a lesson with 3b (the same class I had Thanksgiving breakfast with) about the Academy Awards. We talked about the fashion, the celebrities, and the winners. Then we did a listening exercise about what the academy is and how voting works. Next, we had our own Academy Awards.

I made two categories of movies and assigned a pair of students to each category. Each pair had to write an acceptance speech in case their movie won, so I taught them phrases like, "I'd like to thank...", "A big thank you to...", and "I appreciate the support of...".

Then we voted (each student got one vote for each category) and the winners had to deliver their acceptance speeches.

I wasn't expecting much from the speeches because the kids seemed
1) to be really confused
2) to be writing some pretty interesting speeches... I answered vocabulary questions like, "Ay-mee-lee, what means 'Kaninchen' in Englisch?" (it's rabbit... to be fair I did tell them they could thank whomever they wanted)
3) to have poured Red Bull all over their cereal that morning

So I was completely surprised when I announced the first winner and they all clapped and cheered for the students who won, who actually looked excited and prepared.

Even better, their speeches were really good. I had expected something along the lines of, "Today thank I the dog Fluffy," but what I got were things like, "We'd like to thank our team for being the best team ever. We couldn't have done this without you!" and, "A big thank you to our editors for working so hard. We really appreciate all you did!" These kids are only in their third year of English, but they'd obviously seen an acceptance speech or two before.

After each speech the class would applaud again without even being prompted. I'm not sure whether they were ever really confused or if they just always look lost, but what started as chaos turned out to be almost as good as the lessons I did on Michael Jackson and the No Pants Subway Ride (Google it).