Black Friday Lesson

I’m seldom proud enough of my lesson plans to feel the need to share them through my blog. Generally, my ideas are slightly-altered versions of ESL activities that I find online or ideas shared with me by other teachers. However, the activity I came up with for today was entirely my own, and rather creative in my oh-so-humble opinion.

I couldn't for the life of me come up with a creative Thanksgiving lesson plan. Crap, one came to me just now, I could have had the kids plan a menu for an imaginary turkey dinner. Oh well. I digress…

I decided to give up on Thanksgiving all together, but I came up with a rather genius plan. I figured that most of my students would have at least heard of Thanksgiving, but I assumed (correctly, I later discovered) that not of them knew about Black Friday. And because the world isn’t full enough of consumers as it is (I hope you all detect the sarcasm in that statement), I figured I should spread the knowledge and focus my lesson plan on teaching my students how to shop.

Don’t worry, I didn’t bypass Thanksgiving completely. I showed them pictures of the holiday and explained the history in the simplest terms possible. Then came the main event. I printed out pages and pages of Black Friday advertisements from this year and passed them out to the students. The objective was for the students to make a list of whom they needed to buy Christmas presents for, look though the ads, and choose a present for each person. Then they needed to formulate sentences using the pattern: I will buy a (gift) for (recipient of gift). It is on sale for (price). At the end, they needed to add all of the prices together to determine their budget for Black Friday shopping.

Anyways, the most enjoyable part for me stemmed from my asking them to choose a present for me. Looking through their papers and grading them has seldom been more amusing for me. The students who quickly made it into a prime spot at the top of the list of my favourites were the ones who planned to buy me cameras, laptops, and other fancy goods. I worried initially when one student said he would buy me a Playstation 4 controller, as I don’t have a Playstation to control with it. I breathed a sigh of relief, however, when one of the other students wrote that she would buy me a Playstation. Along with a Playstation, my students plan to buy me three iPhones, five cameras, about 20 sets of headphones, an electric scooter, three TVs, an iPad air, a new suitcase, and diamond earrings. 

I guess I shouldn't have corrected this student. She IS buying me a TV, after all...

Interspersed with those awesome choices were some head scratchers including an air mattress, a hockey table, a clock, and a trampoline. One kid decided he would get me a waffle maker. Another plans to buy me some Tupperware. Another kid figured I really needed an HDMI cable, and another thought I’d want some new Sharpie markers. Whatever, those kids get points for making me laugh.

Number 3. 

Too bad this is all imaginary…

One kid made me laugh out loud awkwardly in the silent teacher’s room when I read the comment he wrote. Please read his answer to "How much will you spend on Black Friday?"