Contents
=> “What Have You Done?” - simply a great activity that teachers can use forever
=> Welcome to a Bunch of New Subscribers from 15 Countries
=> Have you missed some issues of ETs in Russia?
=> In the Next Issues

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“What Have You Done” - activity
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No matter what your age is, no matter how normal you think you are, you have experienced surprising events or have accomplished interesting things in your life.

I have made a little list myself, of 20 things that I have done. Read them. Afterwards I’ll explain how this can become a great class activity.

***

1. I have acted as minister in performing three official wedding ceremonies
2. I have swum with sharks
3. I have ridden a horse, a camel, and an elephant
4. I have kissed a rabbit
5. I have seen DDT, Frank Sinatra, and Mashina Vremeni in concert
6. I have lived in Mexico and Sri Lanka
7. I have been married twice
8. I have been to all 50 States in the USA
9. I have visited Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland (with Ed Solomon, the guy who wrote the screenplay for the film Men in Black)
10. I have flown in a helicopter
11. I have been to Antarctica (and seen penguins!)
12. I have been to more than 60 countries
13. I have broken my right wrist on two occasions
14. I have seen President George W. Bush in person
15. I have had a small part in a Hollywood movie
16. I have piloted NASA’s (The National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s) Space Shuttle simulator (at what must have been a great cost to American taxpayers)
17. I have taken a class in tango dancing
18. I have studied Chinese, French, German, and Swedish.
19. So far in 2006, I have taken more than 25 commericial flights.
20. I have spent the night in a Mexican jail (for a minor traffic violation)

***

So, have you read the things that I have done? Good. I admit that I lied a little. Actually, I lied quite a bit. Nevertheless, many of the above statements are true. Can you guess, or deduce, which of the above statements are FALSE?

I have not given you the answers in this issue either. Ha! If you are really dying to know, you can write me and ask. Otherwise, I’ll supply the answers in the next issue.

Now the point is not to give my list of accomplishments and experiences to students. A much better approach is to create your own list. And this is where the activity really begins.

PHASE I
Make a list of 15-20 things you have done. Roughly half should be true, and half untrue. Your students know you, and they will be interested in you.
Write your statements on the board, or dictate them, or provide handouts of them to your students.

Let students read and consider them. Give them some time. Perhaps allow them to do this in pairs.

Tell them that some of these statements are true and some are false. Their job is to find the FALSE statements.

In pairs (or small groups) they will take turns asking you (the teacher), “Have you really taken tango lessons?” or “Have you really experienced an earthquake?” They may choose ANY question from your list; they are trying to find statements that are FALSE.

If the teacher responds, “No, I haven’t,” that group or pair gets one point because they have found a falsehood.

Take turns and continue until all 20 experiences or accomplishments have been asked about. The team/pair of students who finds the most false statements is the winner.

PHASE II
When you’ve finished, allow students to ask follow-up questions. They might be quite interested about the true events. For example, they might say, “You said you have actually performed three marriage ceremonies. When was that? And how is it possible?”

Note that once we start talking about the specific event, it becomes focused in time, and we will more than likely use the past tense.

PHASE III
Now it’s the students turn and, as such, is the most valuable part of the lesson.

Students will make their own list of 10 to 20 experiences or accomplishments (the number depending on the level of your class). Again, about half of the statements should be UNTRUE.

This might be assigned as homework to give students time to be creative. Students will bring to class four copies of their lists.

Back in class, students will work in groups of four. The writer will distribute three copies to his groupmates, and they’ll take turns asking questions, “Have you really . . . ” Again, they are trying to find the lies, and the player who finds the most is the winner.

After the groupwork is done, ask students to share with the entire class some of the most interesting or surprising things they learned about each other.

BUT THAT’S NOT ALL… SIMILAR ACTIVITIES FOR THE FUTURE

If you and your students liked this, and thought it was worthwhile. Here are a couple similar activities you can do a couple weeks later.

A.
Follow the same pattern as the above activity, but students will write sentences surprising things that they have NEVER done.

Examples:
I have never swum in the ocean
I’ve never smoked a cigarette
I’ve never been to Moscow

The questions that will be asked then, might sound like this . . . “Have you really never swum in the ocean?” Or “Is it true that you’ve never swum in the ocean?”

B. We can also fix the events in the past by using the common structure “I once…” or “Once I…” These are one-time events.

Once I saw Johnny Depp on the street
I once found a 1000 Ukrainian Hryvnia in a bag on a street in Odesa
I was once bitten by a poisonous spider and had to go to the hospital

Education Purpose: Why do this activity?

1. To reinforce the idea that the “have + third form of verb” (or present perfect) is often used to reveal an experience where time is not important.

2. To give high repetition of the form.

3. To personalize the high repetition of these forms. In other words, students will write and speak from their own experience (though they will be lying some too).

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Welcome to A Bunch of New Subscribers
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ETs in Russia take delight in welcoming new subscribers from at least 15 different countries… So Welcome to folks from

Ufa, Russia, the English Language Summer Camp and the Bashkir-American University.

Ukraine (including Peace Corp Volunteers and participants from the Summer American Studies Institute in Yalta.)

Cental and South Asia who attended the International English Language Teaching Conference in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan. The organizers have done a bang-up (great) job on the web too. You can find write-ups and a photo album at
http://turkmenistan.usembassy.gov/CATEC/index.html

my friends from the International Training Center in Chisinau, Moldova (http://www.iltc.md). Hallelujah!

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Have you missed some issues of ETs in Russia?
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Have you missed an issue of ETs in Russia? With a mailing list program that often changes, and with nearly 1700 subscribers, with spam filters and whatnot, sometimes the mailing list goes awry. I had trouble with issues 97 to 100, though they were sent.

BUT, here’s the thing. If you feel like you may have missed an issue, just go to kevinmccaughey.com and click on “ETs in Russia” (under the picture of the green Suzdal onion dome). I post all issues on the web site. This also happens to be a good place to search and browse the contents of ETs.

Or you can write to me. If you do, it helps me if you’re specific, by giving me the number of the last issue you received.

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In the Next Issue
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Today’s issue contains a good activity, but it’s longish, and English teachers can be an impatient brood. So for issue #103 I promise something short and practical. I don’t know what it is yet, but don’t worry….

Look for it around July 28th…

Copyright 2006 by Kevin McCaughey & I.M. Poosheesty