Activities for April Fool’s Day
Peter Clements, UK
Peter is an ESOL teacher employed in Adult Education. He teaches on a number of courses of various levels within the UK ‘Skills for Life’ ESOL sector and also prepares students for the CAE and CPE exams at the Canterbury Adult Education Centre. He is regular subscriber to HLTmag and has also had two short contributions published in recent editions. E-mail: peter.clements@talktalk.net
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Background information
The activity below has been tried with success in the classroom with an elementary level group during April 2009. It provided lively speaking and listening discussion practice for a diverse group of about 10 students and incorporated an ILT based element at the beginning. A data projector and connection to the internet is required to show the video footage.
The following description and paraphrase is from an elementary level lesson also held in April 2009 using video footage available from either of the following links:
http://edublogs.tv/play.php?vid=820
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SyUvNnmFtgI
http://www.wikio.co.uk/video/163100
T: “OK, it’s our last lesson before the holiday – yes that’s right- the Easter holiday, so for two weeks, no lessons…yes, I’ll put the date of the next lesson on the board before we go. So…yeah, we’re going to …do….play some games today and that’s what the plates of….yes - games for last day of term- the sweets are prizes for each time you ….speak…yes, sweets for points…but before that….ok games later…and some songs yes, I’ve brought it in look (students see guitar case)…But first a group discussion. Uh huh… yeah, first we’re going to have two serious group discussions. (Puzzled faces – they’ve just passed their
speaking and listening exams and didn’t expect to be doing any more formal group discussions).
Right…three groups …no, better make that two groups on two tables; Gabor can you come over and join the students on this table please? (This should be a lively one!) and Devi…? You say want to go to the other table? Great. OK. Now…Angie and Sabrina…yes you can stay together but English only please…
A&S But Peter! Mais Oui! We never speak French!
T: Naturalment! I know you usually do speak in English…I’m just reminding you! No it’s just that I know Sabrina’s going home for five weeks and you’ll miss her so it’ll be nice if you can work together…yes, with Manu and Gabor as well OK…
OK right so let’s think about…the weather. Is it getting warmer? You don’t think so? No, I mean worldwide…yes it’s getting hotter… what do scientists call it?
Ganga: Warming?
T: Yes. And another word with that?
Dil: Earth warming?
T: Almost…er …this shape… (gestures with palms as if holding a football) er… better still (points to globe at back of classroom) , that’s a globe … “
Dil: “Er globe warming?”
T: “Almost…globe adjective with –al…”
Chan: “Global warming!”
T: “Yeah! Good. Now is it new? Hmm. Happening now yes…what happens? Warmer…”
Asha: “Weather…and ice melting...”
Devi: “And flood… flooding.”
T: The seasons too - what happens to the plants and flowers sometimes?
Sts: “They die?”
T: “Sometimes…but actually I mean they come early…the plants grow early…too early.
Sts: Too soon?
T: “That’s right. OK. Is it a new thing? Now…year 2000? Only in the 21st century? ”
Sts: “Maybe happen before that… since a long time.”
T: “Yes it’s been happening for a long time. Did you know it happened in1957; 50 years ago?
So, next we’re going to watch a video from 1957 about farmers. Then talk about it. So, watch and listen carefully then we’ll discuss it, OK? The film was made in Switzerland … yeah, in 1957, so it’s an old film…black and white so…Gabor and Man Kumari, can you close the blinds please and Gloria would you mind doing the lights… thanks. Right can everybody see Ok? OK then here goes… “
The teacher clicks on ‘start’ and opens ‘view full screen’’ and a rather shaky grey film comes into view accompanied by breezy mandolin music and the characteristically clipped 1950ish RP voice of the narrator begins, describing the unseasonable warm spell in Switzerland in the spring of that year.
As the film plays, the students at first seem mildly interested but perhaps not to keen on the picture quality of a 1950’s film but as the film and narrative proceed, some students give each other funny looks not quite sure of what to make of the content.
The film comes to an end, the blinds are opened and the students are whispering, some in serious tones and others with suppressed giggles.
T: “Right…please discuss what you saw and answer: Why did the harvest came early? What did we say earlier?
The students discuss and the teacher and classroom assistant circulate and listen.
T: “Good, ‘Because of global warming isn’t it?’ You could use past simple here, ‘Because of global warming wasn’t it?’ if you wanted to…. OK so why did they put it out in the sun first? Why was that important?
Manu: “But it doesn’t come from trees isn’t it?”
T: “It doesn’t come from trees does it? Make sure you use the same verb for the tag…remember…from last week?”
Devi: “It’s to dry it isn’t it?”
T: “Well done! Now you’ve used the right tag Devi haven’t you …no seriously, it’s important to get this right isn’t it? Heh! Now I’ve said it too!”
Sabrina: “It’s not coming from trees…it’s pasta!”
T: Well, that’s what the man on the video said, but you need to use the simple ‘It doesn’t come from trees,’ or it’s better to say ‘It doesn’t grow on trees.’ yes, the grammar’s very important …’ (student has a puzzled expression and gives friend a sideways glance)
“OK, now why was it all the same length? How do the farmers manage to do that?”
Manu: “Er…they cut same?”
Dil: “No, it grow all same….”
T: “Uh huh…it all grows the same – remember third person ‘-s’ – yeah they …
Chan: “Chemical…maybe change …?
T: “You mean GM – that’s ‘Genetically modified’, you know, like our DNA in our bodies and how we grow….Genetically modified – try and say that? “
Gabor: Geneti…But spaghetti isn’t growing on trees is it?
Angie: “I think someone makes a joke”
Devi: “... but the film…?
T: “OK repeat… dʒə - net - I kli:…genetically…”
Sts: “Geneticlee”
T: “/mɒdI/faId/…modified”
Sts: Geneticlee… modifyd.
T: “Great!”
The teacher activates PowerPoint slide and words ‘The Spaghetti Harvest’ appear on the screen.
T: So, repeat please… (Puzzled looks and some laughter….) OK next phrase repeat please… (Another mouse click reveals large font ‘Ha! Ha!’ ) OK repeat please…”
Sts: “Ha. Ha.”
T: OK but try to make it sound more … expressive, remember what these marks mean …exclamation marks…so HA! HA!!’ (teacher emphasises both words in serious tone with deadpan expression) In fact use some intonation at the end…you know, up on the first ha and down on the second ( gestures with hand to illustrate)
Sts: “Very funny! Ha! Ha!”
The next mouse-click causes colourful words ‘April Fool!’ to float across and settle on screen – some students sigh and groan.
Sts: “Well we knew it wasn’t real!”
Ganga: Oh I want tell everybody about this new person staring at work and the workers make a joke with her and my boss ask her to go and clean a room for a new important guest but no-one was coming and... (Ganga goes on to relate her own Apeil Fool’s Day experience)
After the film had originally been broadcast in 1957 it is reported that there was a mixed response to the hoax. As spaghetti was not common fare in post-war Britain, some viewers believed the documentary. Many calls were made to the BBC either to question the truthfulness of the broadcast or to congratulate the producers on the joke.However, a few callers complained that “the BBC had taken liberties with the trust of their audience.”
As a teacher I had to question therefore whether I might have presumed on the good nature and trust of the students under my care. My justification for structuring the lesson in the way described above is made on the basis of having worked with my class for two terms and that they know me as well as I know them. I’m not sure of how appropriate it would be to try this with a recently formed class however. It has to be acknowledged that there is a difference between openly using humour in a lesson when it is expected in a familiar context and springing a surprise on the students with the risk of embarrassment of those who ‘don’t get the joke’. So really I must conclude by adding that such activities come with a ‘health warning’ and care is needed in using this kind of pseudo- serious approach with students who may similarly take the content seriously only to then be affected by the response of others in comparison to their own.
See also www.museumofhoaxes.com/hoax/Hoaxipedia/Swiss_Spaghetti_Harvest/
for interesting background information on the original broadcast.
The activity below has been tried with success in the classroom with an advanced level group during April 2009. It provided further practice for the ‘English in Use’ word reformulation part of the exam and incorporated an ILT based element at the end. It is suggested that the teacher try the activity first before deciding whether to use it in class.
A data projector and connection to the internet will be required to show the video footage.
An Abundant Harvest comes early to Switzerland
| Name_____________________ |
Date 01 / 04/ 2010 |
| The slopes overlooking Lake Lugano have already burst into flower at least a fortnight earlier than usual. “But what,” you may ask, “has the early 1___________of bees and blossom, got to do with food?” Well it’s simply that the past winter, one of the mildest in living memory, has had its effect in other ways as well. Most important of all, it’s resulted in an 2_______________ heavy spaghetti crop.
| LOOK
ARRIVE
EXCEPT
|
| The last two weeks in March are an 3__________________time for the spaghetti farmer. There’s always the chance of a late frost which, while not entirely ruining the crop, generally 4____________ the flavour then making it difficult for him to obtain top prices in world markets. But now, these dangers are over and the spaghetti harvest goes forward with no 5__________________. |
ANXIETY
IMPAIRMENT
|
| Spaghetti 6_____________ here in Switzerland is not of course, carried out on anything like the tremendous scale of the Italian industry. Many of you, I’m sure will have seen the vast spaghetti 7________________ in the Po valley. For the Swiss however, it tends to be more of a family affair. Another reason why this may be a bumper year lies in the virtual disappearance of the Spaghetti Weevil, a tiny creature whose 8______________ have caused much concern in the past. |
CERTAIN
PREDATOR |
| After picking, the spaghetti is laid out to dry in the warm 9_______ sun. Many people are often puzzled by the fact that spaghetti is produced at such uniform 10__________, but this is the result of many years of patient endeavour by plant breeders who’ve 11________________ in producing the perfect spaghetti. |
ALP
LONG
SUCCESS
|
| And now, the harvest is marked by a 12________________ meal. Toasts to the new crop are drunk in ‘Poccolinos’ and then the waiters enter bearing the 13__________________ dish. And it is of course spaghetti, picked earlier in the day, dried in the sun and so 14_______________ fresh from garden to table at the very peak of condition. For those who like this dish, there’s nothing like real, home-grown spaghetti. |
TRADITION |
| Write your answers in the spaces provided: |
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overlooking |
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8 |
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11 |
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TOTAL MARKS: |
The video and spoken narrative can be accessed by clicking on one of the following links:
http://edublogs.tv/play.php?vid=820
www.youtube.com/watch?v=SyUvNnmFtgI
www.wikio.co.uk/video/163100
This activity was used at the beginning of an evening class made up of about 11 unsuspecting CAE students. The rationale was humorous – it was after all April 1 and I’d been working with the class for some time and knew them pretty well. The task was made to appear serious and very similar to other texts the students were used to engaging with as part of their exam preparation course so at the start they didn’t suspect anything.
Carefully observing the students as they worked in pairs, it was surprising just how much the attention to lexical detail obscured the overall message of the text and how the context only served as a means to the end of solving the task rather than to understanding and analysing and evaluating the overall meaning. The overall atmosphere of the class was one of seriousness and in the early stage I only noticed one pair of students who suspected something amiss and who cast me a knowing glance and a wink which I returned. Surely others must have worked out that it was a spoof text and maybe they didn’t want to reveal it just in case they were wrong.
During the stage where the video was played, most students then realised it was a joke yet two students were still distracted by the nature of the task and were frantically making changes to their answers as they heard the spoken narrative, not watching the screen at all!
It definitely seemed as if the meaning of the text itself was unimportant which in this kind of task it almost certainly is. Although students are advised to consider global meaning and not to take words and sentences in isolation it seems that the context is only another tool for achieving those all important convergent answers. In many ways this is a shame as the richness of student’s individual interpretations and divergence of thought is lost as they are all channelled to think in the same way. Admittedly this wasn’t a true reading task but one designed to test lexis and grammar, the ‘Use of English’ but it was an interesting process which I’m sure is repeated by all of us when faced by masses of texts requiring us to come to the point and converge on the things we want or expect to find. It’s just a shame, how often, to adapt a well known phrase; we may fail to see the ‘spaghetti for the trees’.
Background Information to the original film can be found at:
www.museumofhoaxes.com/hoax/Hoaxipedia/Swiss_Spaghetti_Harvest/
“To this day the Panorama broadcast remains one of the most famous and popular April Fool’s Day hoaxes of all time. It is also believed to be the first time the medium of television was used to stage an April Fool’s Day hoax.”
Please check the Methodology and Language for Primary Teachers course at Pilgrims website.
Please check the Methodology and Language for Secondary Teachers course at Pilgrims website.
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