TRUE FRIENDS SHOW EACH OTHER THEIR TRUE - SKITTLES- COLORS (JIMENA GONZÁLEZ)

CURIOUS TRADITIONS

About this activity

In this activity, students work with a video– a commercial (no need to say that to your students)– and speculate about the event that is being described.

Recommended language level:B1

Ojective: To promote the use of communicative competence through oral and written skills.

Main task: Working with a video text to carry out a listening and speaking activity to then continue with a follow up activity (writing and speaking.)

Topics: body parts, adjectives, traditions

Possible follow up activity focusing on traditions

Timing: 2 or 3 sessions.

The video:

This story is based on an a commercial for skitters during superbowl 2015. The argument is simple and bizarre (like most of these ads). Two men are eating skittles. There is one yellow left. Both men want the yellow one as it is their favourite flavour. Consequently, they must "settle it the usual way". They live in a town where disagreements are settled by an arm wrestling match. This means everyone in the town has a huge right arm. That involves everyone: men, women, elderly people, toddlers, pets...The citizens rush to the square to witness the battle. The two men arm wrestle. One man wins and he is about to get his Skittle but ….Unfortunately for him there´s a woman, she´s a leftie and she loves lemon skittles too and we know for sure she will be the winner, she is a leftie.

Technique: story seeding.

Story items: wrestling match, to settle the usual way, The wild West

The story we tell students (asking- answering questions to practice speaking):

Have you ever heard about the Wild West? Maybe you have seen in the movies (1) maybe you’re a cowgirl or cowboy at heart but the Wild West has disappeared, or not? (no) Well there are still many wild western towns in the USA And they are like the old movies With the saloon People sitting on the front door of their houses The church bell ringing And there is an interesting town in fact (2) with a curious tradition (3) And its citizens are quite peculiar too They all have something in common A clue, it is something in their physical appearance What can it be? Can you guess? (4) Yes, it is one of their arms And it is huge, it is very big Now, let me tell you that in the wild west People solved their problems in a peculiar way (here you can elicit and mimic the action of shooting a gun) Yes, shooting guns But in this town they are not so violent And they have this tradition when solving problems Huge arms and solving problems Now, can you guess what is it? They settle it the usual way By an arm wrestling match

Do you want to see how it is done? (then you can present them the video)

Ideas for student interactivity

1. Eliciting vocabulary related to it and to what will come next: Town/village, desert, sheriff, cowboys, fights, adventure, disagreements

2. Can you guess why this town is interesting? Famous person, it is a town famous because its food, there is a museum of….

3. Traditions we know (this can be said in their L1 if they do not know the vocab while we provide it to them and write down on the board): eat 12 grapes new year’s, bad luck day in Spain Tuesday 13,

4. Can you guess what they have in common? External appearance (adjectives+ part of the body: red hair, big nose, etc.) You want they find the part in this case it is the arm, and it is huge. Only one of them. And it is normally the right one.

Follow up writing activity

There are many traditions that are still alive around the world. And it is the same here right? For example, related to Christmas, celebrations, maybe in your village or in your family

YOUR TASK IS: to write down and whoever wants present a tradition of your family/ village. If possible bring a photo. Answer, at least, the following questions: What do you do? When do you do it? Why do you do it?