Good Guys / Bad Guys: Explanation

Good Guys / Bad Guys

• Details

Name of Item	Good Guys or Bad Guys?
Activity Type	Warmer / Discussion
Student Level	Lower Intermediate - Advanced
Time Allowance	5 - 15 minutes
Preparation Required	Cutting worksheets in half - 2 minutes
Other Items Needed	(scissors)
Vocabulary	cosider / essentially (on the students' instructions)
Grammar	nothing special

• Instructions

First of an apology: Yes, I know, they are all male. I racked my brains for at least twenty minutes trying to find even one woman to add a little balance to this exclusively male group. The problem is that all the people listed should have two main qualities. They should be both internationally renowned and have a reputation that has been (at least in some way) tarnished. While I could think of plenty of world famous women, none of the current ones I know are perceived as being anything other than good. But if you can think of female alternatives to my male protagonists, please write and tell me, and I will add them right away.

The activity itself involves students studying the list individually and marking them as either G (good guys) or B (bad guys). Once they have made their own minds up, they can discuss their ideas with other class members. I find this technique of getting students to commit themselves to opinions in writing, before they discuss them, is a good way of encouraging contention, especially where some class members have a tendency to always agree with what the last speaker said.

The list I have included here is really only meant as an example. There are probably other more notable people in the country where you are teaching who should definitely be on the list and some of the ones I've listed may never have been heard of and should certainly be "bumped from the list".