Who Killed Jeremy Taylor?
I ran a little murder mystery with the Kazakhs yesterday. It was set up in the text book, but I doctored it a bit (I love my interactive white board) and we had some fun, revising past simple with listening and reading exercises. Basically, it was practicing English while playing Clue.
The set-up was simple. Jeremy Taylor is 60 years old and having a birthday party in a country mansion. The guests include his wife, his daughter, his business partner and his secretary. He goes to bed early and ends up dead. Who killed him?
Their imaginations ran wild. They came up with stories of mistresses (turned out to be true, "I know these things because I am woman," said the 25-year old Channel-laden bride), suicides, faked deaths ("this story will go on for more lessons"), and accidental poisonings by the cook (who wasn't even in the story).
The best part was how quickly they came back from their cigarette breaks, because I ended each part of the lesson on a cliff hanger.
I guess if it were a really captivating lesson, they wouldn't have wanted a cigarette break, but I'll take what I can get.