Lesson Plan - World Cup Finals Video

Everybody seems to be talking about soccer at this time of the year, and,  we, educators, are always trying to find the most effective way to incorporate current news in our lesson plans. The World Cup will keep current for some more weeks, so let's not miss the chance to use precious resources out there in cyberspace to do something fun, effective with our students. Tasks that keep them on task, eager to contribute and produce.

Today, I'll show you a video a friend of mine, Cleide, a very talented teacher at Casa Thomas Jefferson, recorded and the pedagogical suggestions to go with it:

• First, brainstorm with your students words related to the World Cup, favorite teams, best players, gaffes that have happened. Take this time to work on vocabulary development.
• Ask your students to watch the video, and focus on the following:

Which World Cup is she talking about?

Was he a huge soccer fan?

What made her change her mind?

How did she feel at the end?

Suggestions for Wrap up:

• Students imagine the Finals of the 2010 World Cup series, deciding which teams would be playing and what the score would be. They draw their World Cup Finals scene. Post the drawings in the classroom. As the teams play, just keep hanging the ones that still have the right prediction. At the end of the World Cup, the class will be able to see who was right.
• Students record a video in this Plain-English style (drawings with voice) narrating the Finals (Great for creatively using the vocabulary they had been exploring)
• Groups make a big poster to keep track of the games and the scores. Every week, a student is in charge of scorekeeping.
• Students predict who will be voted as the best soccer player and the best Goalkeeper in the Cup.
• For more advanced students, your might really enjoy exploring photos, videos and World-Cup related stories that Lonely Planet is featuring at http://www.lonelyplanet.com/south-africa/travel-tips-and-articles/42/60294 . You can assign different posts to different groups, and after they read them, they can report how people are celebrating around the globe.
• Students can go to http://www.flickr.com/groups/1384096@N25/pool/ and explore the World Cup photos taken by users. Or even better, they can search for specific photos using tags, such as "south africa worldcup". Great chance here to enhance your students' digital literacy.

Just some ideas for now. Please, add any other suggestions as a comment. We'd love to have a nice pool of cool classroom activities related to the World Cup.


Some links of interest:
http://pocketcultures.com/topicsoftheworld/tag/worldcup2010/
http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/
http://www.worldcupblog.org/ 
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/world_cup_2010/default.stm