As it’s the start of a new school year, I thought it was time to try out a new ‘getting to know you’ first lesson activity. I came across the website 2 Kinds Of People which simply and beautifully portrays how easily the people can be separated into different groups. I thought it was a fun way to help the students learn something about each other, while giving them the chance to learn some very useful contemporary vocabulary and functional language.
Here’s the activity plan…
1. Before class, print out (and laminate, if you can) the pairs of pictures. Cut them up into individual pictures and shuffle them.
2. Give students in pairs / threes the shuffled pictures and ask them to find the matching picture.
3. The students will need some vocabulary at this point, so as you go through the correct answers to the matching activity, take the opportunity to check what they know and teach unknown vocabulary items.
4. Next the students are going to talk together in their groups about which kind of person they are by choosing one of the pictures. Before they begin, make sure they have the functional language necessary for the task, if you think it’s necessary:
“I prefer … because …”
“I’m the kind of person who…”
“Which one are you?”
“I’d definitely choose this one because…” etc
And some adjectives to describe how they are as a person:
Messy
(Dis)organised
Tidy
Obsessive
Old fashioned
Modern
(In)efficient
(Un)fashionable
Stylish
(Un)comfortable
Cautious
Careful
Carefree
Sleepy
5. During the discussion, listen for interesting language as used by the students as well as any problems they have. Make a note of it and give them feedback after the discussion has finished.
6. Get some feedback from the class. Ask the students to tell the rest of the group what they learnt about their partner.
7. For a follow up activity, ask the students to write a paragraph to describe themselves or their partner based on what they learnt during the activity.
The Teacher James 
What an excellent activity! Thanks for sharing this, James. Can’t wait to have a new class to try this out with.
Genny
Thanks Genny, I’d love to know how it goes. That is definitely the quickest comment I’ve ever received, the publish button is still warm 😉
Ha! 🙂 Can never resist a good ice breaker activity. Great images too.
Love the idea of this! Although you’d have to think about which images to choose depending on the group; some are very subtle, some rely on very specific cultural knowledge and some I just don’t get at all! Could be lots of fun with the right group though – will def file for future use 🙂
Julie
You’re right, Julie, you’d have to choose the right ones for your class, although part of the fun is in them trying to figure out the differences 🙂
Great idea! I’ve foregone getting-to-know-you activities over the past few years because I was so bored of them and because they get the traditional type in other classes (e.g. Listening & Speaking) they take during the week. This has some good potential (and modern)!
Cheers Tyson. Getting to know you definitely has a boredom factor if you don’t shake it up every now and again, it’s true. I like this one because it’s got some genuinely useful vocabulary in it, as well as being motivating.
I think I have just found the perfect idea for my B1 evening group, which reconvenes tonight for the first time after the summer break.
An either/or dichotomy often provokes interesting class discussions and I expect this will be no different.
Cheers Dave, how did it go? I’d love to know!
Cool idea and thanks for making me aware of the site!
Thanks Anthony, and you’re welcome!
I can’t catch why students need any vocab at the point of matching pictures ( are they supposed to describe the pictures while matching them or what?) and what is meant by as you go through correct answers?
By ‘correct answers’, I mean that you need to make sure that the students have the correct matching pictures. They need vocab for next stage when they discuss their preferences, and think while checking is a logical time to include this.