Humanising Language Teaching
Year 5; Issue 4; July 03

Fishy adjectives

Level : Intermediate to Advanced
Time : 30-40 minutes

In class

Ask the students to follow the instructions of whichever worksheet you give them:

Worksheet I

Draw a shoal of fish in this space, big ones, small ones
and not all moving in the same direction

reflective selective deluded paranoid ostracised redundant self-centred experienced hostile creative diffident easily
influenced out-of-place gullible marginal asocial different troubled ill-at-ease discriminating
out of her/his depth victimised edgy deviant condescending intolerant
sent to Coventry unemployed questioning confused ill in a dilemma delinquent responsive proud irresponsible disruptive divided subversive
too big for his/her boots

1. If you were one of the fish in the shoal, which one would you be? Put a tick by it.

2. What three things might you say to the rest of the fish in the shoal about the fish in the bottom left-hand corner? Write your answers:

   _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

   _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

   _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

3. Pick 10-15 adjectives and phrases from the list below, or from your head, to describe the fish that is out of the shoal. Look up any words from the list you don't know, or ask your neighbour.

4. Work in pairs with several different people in the group to find how and why they chose their adjectives.

5. Talk to your partner about anyone you know who is like the fish outside the shoal, and about how they show it.

Worksheet II

draw a very different looking shoal

1. Give all these fish nicknames and write them down.

2. Which fish would you most like to be?

3. Which fish would you most hate to be?

4. Jot down 10 adjectives to describe the fish you most like and 10 to describe the one you like least.

5. Compare your answers with your neighbours'.

Acknowledgement

We learnt this exercise from Lou Spaventa.