Using Stories and TED In Class

In today's class, we had a discussion about a story in Sir Ken Robinson's book "The Element." It's a story about the well-known choreographer Gillian Lynne. First, I had the students do a story relay. Then I read some students' summary of the story. At the beginning of the next period, I presented part of Sir Ken Robinson's speech "Schools Kill Creativity," which I found at TED.

http://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity.html

The part I played (15:10-17:38) covers the story of Gillian Lynne. Though Sir Ken Robinson spoke quite fast with British accent, with the English subtitles and some background knowledge, the students didn't find it too hard.

Then I showed them the subtitles in other languages, including Japanese, Korean, and Arabic, which fascinated the students.

This is only a beginning. Hopefully, it can spark the students' enthusiasm for learning English outside the classroom.

The following is a clip of the part about Gillian Lynne downloaded from YouTube.