Mary to the rescue
I did an activity with my classes that was supposed to be great fun. I brought in six magazines from America: 4 Rochester magazines, with my stories in them; a New Yorker style issue; and an issue of Outside. The students got into six groups, and each got one magazine. I assigned each group one or more pictures in the magazine and told them to, basically, write their own caption for it.
It's a takeoff of the New York Times Magazine feature called "What Were They Thinking," in which a provocative photo of someone living daily life is shown, followed by a description, in the subject's own words, of what was going through his or her head at the time. I thought it would be a great opportunity for creativity and silliness, all in English.
Unfortunately, the activity seemed a little beyond the reach of most of my students. For the most part, each group gave a very bland, factual account of what was happening: a photograph in Roch mag of me striking a ballet pose was described as, "I am trying to keep balance;" a photograph in Outside mag of a naked man standing under a waterfall in Oregon was described as, "I forgot my towel;" another photo in Outside mag, of a woman in a South American rain forest looking through binoculars, was described as, "I'm so happy it's a sunny day."
Thankfully, Mary saved the collective reputation of my students. She described the naked man standing under the waterfall as, "I am Teacher Daniel. I think it is so wonderful that I can have a bath, free-of-charge. I am a little bit afraid of an alligator right now. I better finish my bath soon, for I am getting very cold." The class erupted in laughter.
About five minutes later, we were discussing the next photograph, of the woman looking through binoculars as she sits in a boat in the South American rain forest. I asked the students to describe what the woman sees through her binoculars.
Showing true comic timing, Mary raised her with about a minute left before the bell was to ring. "Through my binoculars," Mary said in the most innocent of voices, "I am watching Teacher Daniel take a bath." The class burst into laughter at precisely the moment the bell rang, and no one moved for two minutes, paralyzed by Mary-inspired mirth.
