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Treasured possession

Do you have a treasured possession? A piece of jewelry? A photo? Your phone? Your cat?

I came across this nice little lesson idea from Sara-Elizabeth Cottrell's blog which would make a good ice-breaker and 'get to know you' with an advanced level class. The idea is that each student brings in a "treasured possession" to talk about. If they don't have such a thing, they could bring in any interesting item from home. Encourage students to choose something which suggests a story or experience.

You'd ask them to talk very briefly about it, say no more than a minute. Students will probably want to script that part. You could suggest they describe it, how they came across it and why it's important to them, waht event is associated in their minds with it.

After the brief introduction you and other class members could ask questions about it and explore why some items mean so much to people. Do they have usefulness value? Sentimental value? An association with a personal experience? You could bring in your own items or items of course.

As you and the students talk you can write up interesting language as it arises, which students note down.

Here some more low-prep ideas from Sara-Elizabeth's (excellent) blog.

If you wanted to introduce the task with some interesting listening input by telling students about the treasured possessions of some celebrities.

All of which made me think about my most prized possessions. Tricky one! I'd probably go with my wedding ring, iPhone, computer, drum kit and wallet.

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