It's official

I finally have my life back. This is the first Tuesday in three weeks where I don't have to go to computing lessons. It's such a relief knowing that I can do something else with my time, like tidying up the place, washing the dishes, go shopping, prepare lessons etc. etc.. Sorry, what was I saying about getting my life back.LOL.


Anyway, My idea for today using War of The Worlds (book, film, musical and radio play).



Material needed

War of the Worlds DVD (2005 version)
Orson Welles's production in mp3 format
Jeff Wayne's musical on cd/mp3
The original book by HG Wells in electronic form

Lesson Plan

1 Ask students if anybody has seen the film, read the book etc (make a note of them for later reference). Ask the students to talk about the story.

2 If you have access to the internet students should spend 10 minutes doing research. At the end of the 10 minutes get your students to talk about what they learnt, away from the computers and share what they remember. Elicit answers from the class.

Alternatively, set this for homework or get the students who have seen the film tell the others about it.

3 Ask students to imagine what would happen if aliens invaded their city. Consider;

How they would feel
where they would go
what they would take with them
what would everyone elso do

Give students a couple of minutes to jot down ideas then get them into groups of two to four. Elicit answers.

4 Divide the class into three groups (don't forget to assign students who've seen the film or read the book a different format). Assign one group the film, one group the radio play and one other the musical for homework.

5 The students then summarise the basic plot and say what they liked and disliked about the film/play/story for homework.

6 In the next lesson put students in groups of three and ask them to compare their answers and come up with as many differences as they can between the different versions.For example when it's set, ending, characters etc.

7 Give out a photocopy of a scene from the original book and ask students to compare the way it was interpreted in each version.

If you try this let me know how it worked out and how you'd improve it. Thanks in advance.