Lesson:Noah's Ark personality test

Personality tests generally appeal to the ego of an individual, however they have a number of uses for the language classroom such as to practise reading and listening skills, provide a stimulus for conversation, to teach vocabulary and to act as a warmer, cooler or filler.

Aims

 * 1) To develop students` knowledge of personality adjectives in a controlled activity.
 * 2) To practise listening skills
 * 3) To allow free speaking practise

Preparation
Students will need paper and a pen and will benefit from having a list containing plenty of adjectives of personality to refer to. The teacher may want to go over (their version of) the guided visualization narrative before they tell it in class.

Procedure
(To shortern this activity, simply skip the guided visualisation)

T: Guided visualization
Explain to the students that they are going on a journey and that they should close their eyes and listen carefully. Once all the class have their eyes closed, tell them the following narrative, filling in details where necessary:
 * You are in time machine
 * Travel back in time
 * Get out and rain is pouring
 * See nothing except huge ship
 * Go to ship and walk on board
 * Meet a man called Noah and explain time travel visit
 * He takes you around ship - each deck has different creatures
 * Fish below, amphibians next, mammals above, insects then bacteria and birds and reptiles - all in ship
 * Noah asks you to choose favourite 3 creatures, whether or not you know their names

(pause for 30 seconds to allow students to choose)


 * Noah sees you off ship in the rain
 * Run back to the time machine through deepening water
 * Get in and travel back to the present day
 * Get out and open your eyes

Ss: Draw favourite 3 creatures
Ask the learners to draw their three (favourite) creatures, numbering them in order of preference and thinking of the names afterwards (you can monitor and help with this).

Ss: Describe creatures with adjectives
Ask the students to use their list of personality adjectives to give each creature 3-5 which accurately describe their nature e.g. "aggressive, patient, sly, lazy & quick" for a crocodile.

T: Explain personality test key
Announce that they have just done a personality test with the following interpretation:
 * Animal 1 (their most favourite creature) is how they see themselves
 * Creature 2 represents how others see them
 * Creature 3 represents how they really are

Ss: Mingle and compare
Allow students to mingle and compare their results!