Who and What is Worst
Mario Rinvolucri, UK
Mario Rinvolucri teacher, teacher trainer and author. He has worked for Pilgrims for 32 years and used to edit Humanising Language Teaching. Regularly contributes to The Teacher Trainer. His books include: Creative Writing, with Christine Frank, Helbling, Multiple Intelligences in EFL, with Herbert Puchta, Helbling, Unlocking Self-Expression through NLP, with Judy Baker, Delta Books, New edition of Vocabulary, with John Morgan, OUP, Humanising your Coursebook, Delta Books, Using the Mother Tongue, with Sheelagh Deller, Delta Books, Ways of Doing, with Paul Davis and Barbara Garside, CUP, Imagine That with Herbert Puchta and Jane Arnold, Helbing, Creative Writing with Christine Frank, Helbing. Mario's first CDrom for students, Mindgame, was written with Isobel Fletcher de Tellez, and engineered and published by Clarity, Hongkong in 2000 . E-mail: mario@pilgrims.co.uk
This "morality" exercise is in the style of Challenge to Think activities, by Christine Frank, OUP 1982.
| Level: |
Intermediate and up: teenager and adult |
| Activity: |
Reading and discussion |
| Preparation: |
Photocopy this story, one per student. |
The three of them lived together in a tiny, two -roomed flat in Moscow. The mother, Irma was a crane driver and she had a 17 year old son and a 15 year old daughter. Tatiana, the daughter, loved expensive clothes and worked in a brothel to pay for them. One night, Ivan, the son, raped his sister. Her screams woke their mother, Irma. Next day Irma hired an ex-convict she knew to kill Ivan. She paid the hitman a deposit of $100 against a full payment of $500. The hitman denounced her to the police. The police inspector came to see Irma and promised her he would drop the case if she gave him a back-hander of $500.
In Class:
- Ask the students to read the story and help them with words they don't know.
- Write this list on the board:
The mother
The Moscow housing situation
The son
The daughter
Corruption
The hitman
Capitalism
The police inspector
Tell the students to work in groups of six and rank the people and systems in order of moral responsibility, from worst to least bad.
- Ask for brief majority and minority reports from each group.
Please check the Creative Methodology for the Classroom course at Pilgrims website.
Please check the Humanising Large Classes course at Pilgrims website.
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