So this is the second and last of the “bits of the paper we ignore” series. This one is based on my personal favourite, Rush Hour Crush. If you don’t know what this is, I suggest you check it out. Each morning on the way to work lovely people hand me a copy of the free newspaper, The Metro. It’s mostly awful (but actually very useful for the classroom as the articles are not that difficult or long) but  I do love the Rush Hour Crush section.

The idea is that commuters see people they fancy on the tube or a train or bus and they write a text to that person and send it to The Metro who prints it in the paper. It’s sooooo creepy and weird and hilarious and absolutely choc full of lovely vocab and noun phrases. Great fun for the classroom. So, if you don’t live in London, I shall bring London to you in all of its creepy glory. Enjoy!

Level: Intermediate and above

Time: 1.5 – 3 hours (depending on activities)

Objectives:

• to encourage students to write more complex sentences, using noun phrases
• to encourage students to notice the English around them and to ask questions of it

Materials:

1. Rush hour crush
2. Rush hour crush PDF
3. rush hour crush text
4. Rush hour crush answer sheet

Procedure:

This is reasonably straightforward but I’ll take you through it step by step:

1. Gist reading: students skim the text for 30 seconds and discuss what it is and where it is from.
2. Independent research skills: If possible, students Google and search for the text online to check their ideas.
3. Engaging with the text: Students discuss the concept and share their initial impressions.
4. Second reading: Students match the texts to the descriptions (see answer sheet)
5. Vocab focus 1: students match the words/phrases from the text to the definitions given.
6. Vocab focus 2: using the context and the vocab from the previous exercise, students try to decide what the phrases mean.
7. Language focus:

• students read the definition of a noun phrase (feel free to change this definition for one of your own).
• students identify the noun phrases in the examples from the text (see answer sheet)
• students examine them further and find specific types of noun phrase.
• check as a group and discuss any issues
• Students (in pairs) compete to write the longest complex sentence using noun phrases.

Follow-up

1. What I would do (especially if you’re living in this country) is get students to write their own Rush Hour Crush texts and send them in. Even if you can’t send them in, get students to write them and make a poster. This is a lovely way to finish things off as it practises all of the target language and will lead to tonnes of new vocab and some lovely error correction before the texts are ready to be sent or put on a poster.