Hi Steemit! 

This post has been inspired by @steemiteducation. 

As the new academic year is almost upon on us, time for some ice-breaker activities. I have one that, as an English teacher, I've been using for some years with Pre-intermediate groups and upwards. I usually do this lesson after the very first or second class.

The basic idea is to find out what kind of teacher the students expect to have. 

The lesson is based on character adjectives, so it also allows the teacher to find out what the students know already and potentially introduce more the following classes.

Procedure:

1) Put students in pairs or small groups and ask them to brainstorm as many character adjectives as possible. 

If you have a big group you could ask some students to think about positive character traits and some to think about negative. Collect feedback write the pluses and minuses on the board (or have members of each group write them on the board)

2) Show the students four pictures of famous people. 

I usually show: Mr. Bean, Sherlock Holmes, Hamlet and Fidel Castro. 

Of course in your country, your culture you may have different famous people/personalities. What I am aiming for  is a specific set of characteristics. Look below:

If you think any of these people above might be too controversial or unknown to your students, change them to fit your culture.

VARIATION: if most of the students know Mr. Bean but only a few don't, ask the other students to explain who the people are. Show some pictures, play short videos etc.

3) Same groups/ pairs:  ask students to brainstorm personality traits of the people above.

If you have a general list of characteristics on the board or elsewhere, ask students to refer to them or check words in a dictionary. The should come up with a list more or less similar to the one above.   Give them more adjectives if the list is too small.

4) Discussion: who would make a perfect teacher?

This is the essential part of the lesson. Students have the characters, personality traits, now they need to discuss who they think would be  perfect English teacher for them. To make it easier you can say it is possible to have a mixture of two. 

It's important for you to listen to the arguments students give. Some might like the Fidel Castro type - to be demanding, give a lot of homework, give regular tests etc. Some prefer the Mr. Bean type - the lessons should be funny, engaging, creative. Usually Hamlet is at the far bottom and the mixture is between Sherlock - Castro, or Sherlock-Mr.Bean.

5) Ask students to write their suggestions on a post-it note anonymously and collect the notes.

Read out the suggestions, and count the votes. Then tell them about your style of teaching and the mixture you represent.  If all of them choose Mr Bean (which happens as well), tell them about the other people and how they are also needed.

6) HOMEWORK :)

Ask the students  to think about themselves and who they would be (eg. mixture of Batman and Bart Simpson because....)  If it is too difficult, maybe simply list the personality traits they have? Then in the next lesson the class could try to think of the character? There are many many things we can do after this session

Why do this lesson in the first place?

I wouldn't  do this as the very first lesson, even though I still think it's an ice-breaker. It helps you to understand the students' needs and helps them to realize that a various set of traits is needed to be a good teacher.

Also, it allows you to find out the the personality traits of your students (in the following lesson).

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I hope you enjoyed this idea. 

(I stole it from my mom who is also an English teacher and she read about this a long, long time ago in a book). 

Remember to follow me (@cwbrooch), upvote, re-steem and so on :)

Stay tuned for another IDIOM WEEK post today as well! Day 2 coming up shortly!!!!