Here’s a sample of an activity that I’ve done quite a few times with intermediate students, although the one I’ve prepared here is more on the serious note as I usually prepare this activity with funny or rather dumb things that politicians or celebrities have said.
The instructions for the flipping card activity are:
- Look at the pictures. Do you know who these people are? Discuss them with a partner or your group. After see the list to check if you were right.
- Above the pictures, you will find famous quotes from these people. They are jumbled, so you will have to guess who said each one of them. Discuss this and give your reasons.
- Check to see if you were right by flipping the cards (sometimes the cards are too small for the whole quote, but you’ll get the idea anyway.
- Choose two or three cards and turn the quotes into reported speech. Remember to make all the necessary changes. Possible changes are: the person, the tense, modal verbs and the time or place expressions. Sometimes more than one solution is possible, but you have the keys to check if the basic knowledge was there.
Who said…?
A. “I have had to learn to fight all my life. If you smile, things will work.”
B. “I like beautiful melodies, telling me terrible things.”
C. “I raise my voice not so I can shout, but so those without a voice can be heard.”
D. “Every moment we waste looking back, keeps us from moving forward.”
E. “One thing good about music, when it hits you, you feel no pain.”
F. “We are here, not because we are law-breakers, we are here in our efforts to become law-makers.”
G. “No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.”
H. “A winner is a dreamer who never gives up.“
I “I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious.”
KEYS
He said/she said (that) …
A. Serena Williams “I have had to learn to fight all my life. If you smile, things will work.”
She had had to learn to fight all her life. If she smiled, things would work.
B. Tom Waits “I like beautiful melodies, telling me terrible things.”
He liked beautiful melodies, telling him terrible things.
C.Malala Yousafzai“I raise my voice not so I can shout, but so those without a voice can be heard.”
She raised her voice not so she could shout, but so those without a voice could be heard.
D. Hillary Clinton“Every moment we waste looking back, keeps us from moving forward.”
Every moment they wasted looking back, kept them from moving forward.
E. Bob Marley “One thing good about music, when it hits you, you feel no pain.”
One thing good about music, when it hit him, he felt no pain.
F. Emmeline Pankhurst ” We are here, not because we are law-breakers, we are here in our efforts to become law-makers.”
They were there, not because they were law-breakers, they were there in their efforts to become law-makers.
G. Eleanor Roosevelt ” No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.”
No one could make you feel inferior without your consent.
H Nelson Mandela “ A winner is a dreamer who never gives up.“
A winner was a dreamer who never gave up.
I Albert Einstein. ” I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious.” I had no special talent. I was only passionately curious.