Garbage - Interview Game

Summary: Students will appreciate how much garbage is thrown away on a daily basis on both a personal and national level. First students identify different types of garbage and then conduct group interviews to find out how much garbage each student in the class throws away.

Level: *

Grammar: How many…(easily changed to the passive voice:, "are used, "are bought" etc.)

Materials: One copy of the worksheet for each student.

Procedure:

1. Give each student a worksheet. Ask students to circle the garbage. Check the answers.
2. Model the interview questions and practice the structure together with the class.
3. Tell students that we want to find out "HOW MANY…" the whole class is throwing away. Put the students into groups of five or six. Groups tally their totals in order to find a total for the entire class. One student starts by asking the person beside him/her one question and the discussion moves around the group in this manner (i.e. do a round of Q.1, then a round of Q.2…). This may take a while because students will have to add up a lot of figures. (Variation: have each student write his or her name and totals on the board.)
4. Each group reports its totals to the class. Make a class total on the board.
5. Now that you have the class total on the board, the next step is for students to guess the totals for one day in the whole of JAPAN!!
6. Ask groups to decide on the answers. Which group has the closest answer?

What can we do to make less garbage??? Can your students think of any ideas?

NOTE:

If you can keep the results of the class interview, they would be useful later in the year when you are teaching comparative adjectives. (MORE…MOST etc.)

Source: Yokohama Activity Bank, April 1997.

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