Celebrity

The objective

To read about and discuss celebrities

The language

Present tenses: She is shooting a film..., They are getting married...

Past tenses: She was arrested..., The broke up...

Future tenses: They are going to..., She will be...

The set-up

Find and print out a page which contains some short blurbs about the latest goings on of a couple of celebrities. Choose people you think will be interesting to the learners--either for their level of fame, their age, sex, job or because they are "local" celebrities rather than Hollywood celebrities. Depending on the length of each blurb, try not to copy more than three or four. Next create a jigsaw activity from it by making two copies by taking out different pieces of key information from each copy, labeled A and B respectively--information which can be easily asked about using question forms learners know.

The low-down

Before handing out the texts, ask students if they know the latest news about one or two of the celebrities on the page you have printed out. Whether they do or not, ask them for their general opinion about this type of "news". Once you´ve got some general opinions (and hopefully some interest) floating in the air, hand out the gossip page and ask them to decide what the "news" is about each person. Get feedback and make sure they understand the vocabulary in the text they have. Next, ask them to work in pairs/groups and either work out the questions they´ll need to ask, or if they are good enough, to ask the questions directly to their partner in order to complete the text. Once they´ve finished, you can discuss a bit more the gossip itself. What do they think? Etc.

Now what?

Ask them to write one summary sentence for each celebrity on the back of their papers. When they´re ready, ask them to rewrite the original texts as closely as they can using the summaries they´ve written and without turning their papers over. Ask them to compare with other pairs/groups. Now read out the originals and ask them to make changes as necessary. How close were they?

Time to teach

Comparing reconstructed texts from memory and originals is a good way for learners to notice differences in "their" grammar and "our" grammar. In other words, are they able to use the grammar they know actively? Generate discussion on the differences: why did they use the past continuous instead of the past simple? Or they may ask you. Ask others to answer questions before you give answers.

More talk-time

Which of these gossip stories interested you the most?

Which interested you the least?

Do you read the gossip pages in newspapers or on the internet?

Why do you think we (people) are so interested in the lives of famous people?

Do you think it´s ethical to publish personal information about celebrities?

Should there be laws to protect celebrities from "paparazzi"?