High School - Zombies!

[davidb]

hey here is a link to a 'zombies in plain english' film with korean subtitles, I am planning to show with the zombie survival lesson today.

http://dotsub.com/view/089f3ff7-eab8-490c-a721-bced67db9d14

[Daejeon]

I have a zombies game over in my game pack that will work well along side this material.

[graziella]

Loving the zombie theme - these are immense! Am now counting down til Halloween so I can tie them in to a cultural lesson.

[Sharon_SA]

This is a seriously phenomenal lesson plan! I am so excited to use it - I teach at an all-boys middle school, so this is going to go down like a house on fire. Thanks! 

[shhowse]

I spruced up the Zombie Attack + Speed Read lesson for my class to enjoy this Halloween season. Basically I just entered a few additional slides to bring the ppt up to my typical format, as well as some fun .gif images of zombies. I made a worksheet to accompany the lesson with a place for the bingo card and some comprehension type activities based off the slides. I also included a slightly longer version of the speed read story, with one sentences for each student (=36). This is easily altered to fit your own class size and student names.

I really recommend, after trying it out with my own class, to stress that this is a fun lesson, not to be taken to seriously. At first a head a few kind of disgusted reactions, or maybe even horrified from the content. After ensuring them this was just for laughs only, my girls settled down and enjoyed it better.

The ppt has additional explanation under some of the slides, to say how I ran the class to give you ideas.

[CellarDoor]

I have a question about audience for this lesson.  Did all of you people using it teach at an all-boys school?  I teach 1st grade HS, boys and girls, and I'm just not sure all the girls would like this lesson.  I'd also like to do a Hallowe'en lesson next week, but I've already done slightly boy-interest topics like comics, superheroes, and unusual food (though I try to change up the slides so boys and girls alike can appreciate the PPTs).  Just not sure how well this would be received, even though *I* think zombies and stuff are pretty cool.

Maybe I just need to download the materials and see for myself.

Edit:  I just saw the end of your post, shhowse.  That's the reaction I would be concerned about, especially in the low level girls' classes or with the co-teacher who has a *really* weak stomach (she had to leave the classroom during the unusual foods lessons...)

[shhowse]

I have a question about audience for this lesson.  Did all of you people using it teach at an all-boys school?  I teach 1st grade HS, boys and girls, and I'm just not sure all the girls would like this lesson.  I'd also like to do a Hallowe'en lesson next week, but I've already done slightly boy-interest topics like comics, superheroes, and unusual food (though I try to change up the slides so boys and girls alike can appreciate the PPTs).  Just not sure how well this would be received, even though *I* think zombies and stuff are pretty cool.

Maybe I just need to download the materials and see for myself.

Edit:  I just saw the end of your post, shhowse.  That's the reaction I would be concerned about, especially in the low level girls' classes or with the co-teacher who has a *really* weak stomach (she had to leave the classroom during the unusual foods lessons...)

Hey CellarDoor,

The reaction I described was actually in one class only, the first one I taught it to, and mostly pertaining to one or two pictures. Since that initial class, I have taken care to explain that it's just a funny topic and no one else has complained. In fact, my classes have really been enjoying it and laughing along to all the possible ways to kill a zombie. My classes are all girls, and I would say they are loving the lesson for something light and humorous, and because there is the bingo game at the end with a chance to win a chocolate. I say go for it in your class! And absolutely you need to check materials before you can decide if they are appropriate for you class or not. You can never know by topic title alone if the lesson will resonate well or not.

[CellarDoor]

Thanks for the response!  Yeah, after hearing horror stories from other teachers on Waygook and other places, I learned very early on this year to preview materials in plenty of time to change them before class, heh...  I liked the zombie lesson over in the Day of the Dead topic http://waygook.org/index.php?topic=2450.20 too.  Thought I'd point people in that direction in case they're interested.

It's good to know that the students are enjoying something light and fun.  I'm going to download the materials after finishing this post.  All year (I've been here 8 months) I've been wanting to find a reason to use a bingo game.  I only give stickers as prizes, but I really like your idea of using candy for this one lesson only (since it's Hallowe'en next week and all).  It should make students really competitive!  Thanks for posting your updated materials.

My co-teacher might still be slightly grossed out, but that can't necessarily be helped. 

[shhowse]

My co-teacher might still be slightly grossed out, but that can't necessarily be helped. 

My coteachers actually laughed along quite a bit throughout the lesson. And you can always tone down the images. There is only one really "gross" zombie picture in mine, and then there is an animation on the very last slide, but I never showed that to the class. Good luck with it!

[CellarDoor]

Well, I guess I played up the weapons and verbs too much.  The lesson was well-received (I thought) by students and co-teachers alike, and it went (seemingly) wonderfully until after my first class today.  After class, some co-teachers came to tell me that they thought the content of this week's lesson was too violent for school, and words like stab and strangle were very inappropriate to teach.

I changed the lesson quickly to one much more traditional (about pumpkin carving, etc.), though I kept the same PPT worksheet and I'll just put different vocab words in for the bingo.  I think they wanted to object to the speed read story too, but they could tell I needed to hang on to that part of the lesson (since students are competing for chocolate over it), so at least they're letting me keep that.  We'll see how the modified lesson goes.  Maybe I can show "Thriller" to them.

No worries, I can adapt and I don't think there's any permanent harm done, but just... a cautionary word to others out there thinking about the lesson.   

[aldalpre]

Here's my zombie lesson. I used the same lesson format as the person who did the listening activity for the Survival Situations lesson here (the first post): http://waygook.org/index.php/topic,861.0.html

I laminated the flash cards and put them up on the board. I put them into six groups of five. Then, I had them pick two items that they thought they could use to survive and defend themselves against zombies (two rounds of picking, so the last group to pick in round 1 is the first to pick in round 2).

For the listening activity, I read it out twice. It's a bit difficult, so other students might need it read three times, or you can just change it to easier English. The worksheet is adapted from the Zombies in Plain English video.

After that, we went over the answers. When a group gave an answer, I'd write the answer under their group's column on the chalkboard (under the flash cards they'd picked).

Next, if there was time, we'd do the bonus questions (worth twice as much as the listening test questions).

After tallying up their points, I'd open up the Items PPT and tell them it's time to find out what happens with the items they picked. They really enjoyed the arbitrary nature of this (one group is able to kill a zombie with chopsticks, another group is killed by a mob of flaming zombies after using the flamethrower).

[brittanymai]

did this for halloween!! my kids really enjoyed it! thank you!

[kamikazely]

Great idea! Always great to talk about zombies whenever I can lol

[Filarete]

This is hilarious, I am definitely going to use this lesson