ESL Plays from June

The week of June 13 my English students and I watched the end of the Old Testament part of the movie called The Hope.  This is a movie that has been adapted for ESL classes.  We will continue on with the New Testament part of the Movie starting next month.  I just wanted to share with you a bit about this class.

At the end of each class week (once a month), I usually give an assignment for the students to use their english skills.  Lately, I have had them tell the story of the movie to english speakers in town using pictures from the movie.  This month I decided to let them be creative and tell any story from the Old Testament part of the movie as a play.  I had 9 students in class this week so I divided them up into two groups and gave them an afternoon to work on it.  On Friday, they presented their work.

This was the first group.  They chose to tell the story of Abraham being called from Ur to Canaan and then being asked to sacrifice Isaac.  Abraham is the one in the towel head gear, the other one is Hagar or Sarah - he played both parts :).  They did pretty good with the story.  They even had one of the group play the ram caught in the thicket.

The next group had a different take on the word "play."  They decided to tell the story of Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden.  I brought several things from my house - including towels, a big knife sharpener (used as the knife for the sacrifice in the previous play), kikoi wraps, and the contents of my small toy basket.  There aren't many toys in it, but a few bits and pieces of several things.  I even brought a few fake flowers, a small stuffed bear and a fluffy chick I use for decoration at Easter time.

This group decided to tell the story using the toy bits and pieces.  They made a circle to represent the garden.  The one man in the robe and towel head covering was just trying to get into character I guess.  He played Eve.  As they told the story, they got down and played like little boys :).  They moved the characters around and spoke for them.  The snake was part of the head and trunk of an elephant puzzle.  When he was cursed to go on his belly they pushed it over on its side.

Here you can see the snake (green elephant head) talking to Eve (the chick).  The tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil is the baby toy with fake flowers sticking out of it in the center.  Adam is the stuffed bear.  The other toy pieces make the boundary of the garden.  One of the students played the voice of God from just outside the room.  I thought it was a great way to tell the story.

So, all in all, the June English class was fun.  The students learned several new words, they got to tell their own versions of the story and we got to have a lively discussion about the eclipse (see previous post).  Next month we will talk about the birth of Jesus, his early years and his baptism.

I hope all is well with you!  Blessings!!