Tasks: to collect collocations with joke

to compare and contrast wisdom and knowledge

to read and analyse quotations about wisdom and foolishness

Preparation: make copies of the worksheet (1 copy for each student)

Skills: speaking, reading

Language: one/ones

collocations with joke

general vocabulary

Sources: quotations from en.wikipedia.org - the FREE encyclopaedia

Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English on CD-ROM

Task 1 - lead-in

(grammar)

• Write the two sentences in Task on the board and try to elicit the meaning of the underlined words. Then, elicit April Fool's Day as the reason behind having a lesson about jokes. If time allows, ask your Ss for some associations with the festival.

• Revise the grammar of one, i.e. when and how to use it.

Key Key

in this task, ONE means a joke `one' and `ones' are used instead of a noun it is very common in spoken English

Task 2

(vocabulary)

• Before you distribute the worksheets, ask your Ss to work in pairs and write as many sentences with the word joke as they can. Ask them to obey a simple rule: the word joke must appear in a phrase, e.g. with a verb, adjective, preposition etc. Each pattern can be used only once. Write the example from the worksheet on the board to illustrate the task.

• Distribute the worksheets. Ask the Ss to transfer their sentences into the chart in this task. Ask pairs to work together and compare their collocations. Finally, collect your Ss' ideas.

Key Key

[some possible chunks, based on examples from Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English:] VERB+NOUN: to tell, hear, make, play, crack A JOKE ADJ + NOUN: a silly, practical, old, good/bad, big/little, cruel, sick JOKE NOUN+PREP: a joke about sb/sth, to play a joke on sb Other phrases: (not) get (my/one's) jokes (= not understand); you must be joking (=you can't be serious)

Task 3

(speaking)

• In this task, Ss will have a look at more serious issues, i.e. at wisdom rather than jokes (and foolishness). Ask your Ss to compare and contrast the two notions on the worksheet.

• There are no good or bad answers. The answers will largely depend on your Ss' involvement as well as the level of their intellectual development. If your work with younger/immature groups, you may even decide to skip this part.

• You may refer your Ss to the three quotations at the bottom of the worksheet (below Task ). They deal with the same issue.

Task 4

(reading, speaking, vocabulary)

• First, Ss have to read some more quotations and match the halves. This activity is not particularly difficult as a reading comprehension task and it should not take much time.

• The second part of the task is much more challenging and interesting. Namely, ask your Ss to translate the quotes into everyday English (getting rid of their nice wording, but preserving their meaning).

• Again, there are no good/bad answers as far as the meaning of the quotes is concerned. Hopefully, your Ss will be able to come up with some interesting (or even brilliant) explanations, examples and anecdotes.

Key Key

<1> e <2> f <3> b <4> a <5> c <6> g <7> d <8> h

Notes & Comments

• [TASK ] It may be a good idea to discuss/introduce some properties of spoken/informal English, such as ellipsis, the use of deictic expressions, lexical chunks, incompleteness etc.

• [TASK ] If your class is particularly unable/reluctant to produce a rich variety of sentences with joke, you can provide them with some real examples. The sentences below - copied from the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English - present some of common patterns.

• [TASK ] As a follow-up, you can ask your Ss to write a short dialogue, trying to use the word joke (and/or joke-related vocabulary) as often as possible. Thus, they will be able to use the patterns/collocations in a light-hearted task.

Task 2- some extra help

Do you want to hear a good joke?

Everyone laughed except Mr Broadbent, who didn't see the joke.

Have you heard any good jokes lately?

I can take a joke as well as anyone, but this isn't funny, it's embarrassing.

In some situations, a dirty joke can be considered sexual harassment.

Inside the parcel there was an empty bottle. "Is this some kind of joke?'' he asked.

It's a good idea to start a speech by telling a joke.

It wasn't that I didn't get the joke - I just didn't think it was funny.

Leno opened the show with a joke about the election.

The two girls were whispering in the corner and giggling over some private joke.

We didn't mean to frighten you. It was only a joke.

What a joke that meeting was.

Wilson spoke for about 15 minutes, peppering his mainly serious message with jokes.

Designed by Bartosz Michałowski for Pearson Longman 2

FESTIVAL WORKSHEETS

April Fool's Day Intermediate+ Teacher's Notes

Designed by Bartosz Michałowski for Pearson Longman 1

Designed by Bartosz Michałowski for Pearson Longman PHOTOCOPIABLE

Sentences from Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English on CD-ROM

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