Tuesday's Torch Story

Having a good discussion is like having riches.

~ Kenyan proverb

Our new semester has started up and for the most part I'm following the same schedule of activities as last semester - weekly vocabulary quizzes, phonetics practice, five cognates & 1 false cognate, learning songs and grammar lessons - with one exception. I've added an activity to help the students practice conversing - the weekly discussion question.

Each week we'll break into small groups and spend some time talking (in English, obviously) about that week's question. I passed out a schedule that listed each week's question for the entire semester, so that the students will have time to think about each question before the class and prepare themselves to talk about it (maybe look up some words in the dictionary, etc.)

I tried to come up with a mix of serious and silly questions - nothing too controversial, but all things that people will have opinions on. Here is my list:

1. Do you believe in New Year’s Resolutions? Did you make any this year? If no, why not? If yes, would you mind telling us what they are? Are you good at keeping your resolutions or do you usually break them?
2. What are the most important lessons to teach a child?
3. If you could be any animal, what animal would you be? Why?
4. What is your favorite movie? What is the plot of that movie? Why is it your favorite?
5. If you could visit any place in the world, where would you go? Why?
6. What is the secret to a happy marriage?
7. How is the world different for children today than it was when you were a child? How is it the same?
8. If you had to leave your house forever and could only take one suitcase, what would you take with you? Why?
9. What things are the same in the United States and your home country? What things are different?
10. If you won a million dollars in the lottery, what would you do with the money?

We'll see how it goes - keep your fingers crossed for all of us! :)

Photo credit: Eleaf