Level – Elementary and Up
Objective – Depending on the level: Vocab. Building (Demographic Country Terms)
Describing a Country
Basic question formation
Procedure – Begin the class by drawing a big map of your country on the board. Put some cities in, roads, mountains, etc (This should take less than a minute). Ask the class what the country is called and what the thing you drew is (a map). Write Country Name and Map at the top right corner of your board. Now draw a really bad outline of your students’ country. They should laugh. Make a 2nd attempt. It can be better, but should still be very flawed. If a student hasn’t already taken the marker from you, give it to a student and have them draw the outline.
Now the lesson begins. You want to elicit the words Capital City, Population, Language, Religion, Geography, and Climate. Do this by giving examples. For example, in America we have Washingting D.C.; in Turkey it’s Ankara. What is this? İn America we speak English, in Turkey you speak Turkish. This is the…? It should take less than 5 minutes to elicit all the words. If you have a higher level class you can include things like Type of Government, Major Industries, etc.
Now tell the class that they are going to create their own country. Demo this on the board. I usually draw a big beer bottle and then label it Beeristan. My capital city is Barsville. My language is Beerish. The religion is Alcoholism. It’s a magical country where beer rains from the sky every weekend. You get the point.
Put the students in groups of two and have each make their own country. As an initial task give them 2 minutes to write a name and draw a map then stop. This allows you to check for certain that they understand. You wouldn’t believe how many students, especially at lower levels, even after the demo and CCQ’s will still start to draw their own country. You can ensure they are making a new country.
After about 8 minutes come back together as a class. With lower levels you will have to elicit the questions as a class and put the structures on the board. With higher levels you can dive right in. Have each group show their country and have the other groups ask questions about it. With lower levels this will be rather formulaic although you should encourage extra questions. With higher levels they will often run with it. If they don’t, ask a few questions as examples such as, Where do alcoholics go to pray? How do people get to work if everyone’s drunk all the time? Is there a lot of tourism to Beeristan? Etc.
If this somehow doesn’t last an hour you can make some groups tourists and they have to go from group to group to hear about each country’s virtues and then decide on which one to go to for vacation.
You can also follow this up with a lesson on modals of permission and obligation by having them create the laws for their country.
- stolen lesson from Steal This Lesson post. Read about it HERE.
This post was submitted by David Deubelbeiss.
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32 Responses to Create a Country
Clarissa at Talk to the Clouds
February 23rd, 2010 at 6:51 am
I love this whole site! This particular activity reminds me of one I did in elementary school–it was a lot of fun. (No alcohol involved, though, haha.) However, a bit of code seems to have escaped at the top of this particular post.
Rebecca Greenway
March 4th, 2010 at 3:15 am
This is a horrible lesson to teach to any student population. The teacher example is so inappropriate for any age group. The use of alcohol as an example is so offensive to me as a teacher. As far as I know the legal drinking age is 21. This lesson was found in middle school. Shame on you as a teacher. What example are you setting for your students?
Daniel
March 5th, 2010 at 11:51 am
Actually Rebecca Greenway, the legal drinking age in South Korea is 20, not 21. Furthermore, the majority of students in South Korea have had alcohol while in high school. Alcohol isn’t deemed as evil or terrible in South Korea. Remember, South Korea has a huge drinking culture. I’m not saying you should TELL them to drink, but as far as I’m concerned, the example above isn’t doing that. Korea has a very “Be accountable for your responsibilities and drink” type of culture. “Korea is dynamic.” “When in Rome.” Things here are different. Acclimate.
Daniel
March 5th, 2010 at 11:54 am
Oh! I forgot. You said it’s a terrible lesson, but why? It seems perfectly fine to me. Your only criticism has to do with the example of “Beeristan.” Is everything else in the lesson fine?
Thank you David for your hard work! I appreciate all your efforts and I have to say that this website has been invaluable.
Ellen
March 23rd, 2010 at 4:11 pm
I only scanned the lesson (it looked good, I just didn’t have a need for it at the moment) but the site this lesson came from is hilarious!! Thanks, David-
from The Easter Bunny Hates You!!
PS You have to use your judgment about what ages are appropriate for what lesson. No biggie : )
Beatriz Lupiano
March 27th, 2010 at 9:00 am
OK, maybe Beeristan is not the most appropriate example (although it would get a lot of laughs in an adults class!!) -but it’s just that: an example.
I love the idea and the steps are very clear (my timing’s not that good, so 8 minutes will probably turn into about 10, but then if we subtract the minutes it will take a student to get the marker from me even when I’m trying to draw our country well, then it might be compensated
Thanks for sharing this recipe
daye
April 14th, 2010 at 1:17 am
Do my homework teachers ????????????
Nick
July 16th, 2010 at 9:23 pm
Just a reply to Rebecca’s comment. If you are teaching YL you should of course modify the lesson. Maybe Hello Kitty Land or Ben 10’s Private Island.
This lesson has always gotten a super positive response every time I do it.
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