Leaders Speak 2 – Teacher\’s Book

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Lesson 15 – Leisure centre

Warm up

  1. Ask students what are the most important places in the town for leisure activities. Ask what they do there, to revise the present simple
  2. Revise the second conditional by giving a couple of examples of other facilities you would like, and what you would do if you had them. Ask the students to think about what they would like and what they would do there. Ask if others agree or not and why.

Main Activity

Tell students they are on a committee to decide how to improve a leisure centre.

  • There is a small community centre with some land around it.
  • They have a grant to spend on improving the community centre.
  • The committee can afford the money for only one improvement.
  1. Put students in groups of five, if possible, or put extra students together in pairs sharing a single role card; the activity works best if all five cards are used. You will be the one who decides on the role cards and students must not reveal their role to anyone.
  2. Explain that the cards:
    – describe their suggestion
    – show the secret reason they want their idea accepted
  3.  Tell the students to explain their ideas, and persuade others why their idea is best. They should not tell anyone their secret reason.
  4. After a while, ask them to vote to exclude one or two ideas they like least. The people whose ideas are excluded must now choose to support other people\’s suggestions.
  5. After a while, ask them to vote out another one or two suggestions.
  6. Continue in this way until only one suggestion remains. Compare the winning suggestions of the different groups and see if there is an overall favourite in the class.
  7.  Ask them if they can guess the secret reasons for the other students. Give each other clues to help the guessing.

Follow up

  • Put up students that have the same role card together into groups of up to four.
  • They prepare a publicity campaign poster with a slogan and bullet points giving reasons why the townspeople should support their idea. The poster should be styled as an eye-catching advert and can use images if students wish.
  • In addition, the groups can prepare a short talk of about a minute outlining their case in the style of a political ad for TV.
A
You want a swimming pool because the town has not got one.
A swimming pool would be expensive and it would need a new building added to the centre, but all the schools in the town could use it.
(You are an education officer in the local Education Department. You think you might be promoted to Head of Department if  you can do something useful for the schools in the area.)
B
You believe everyone is bored because the town is dull and there is nothing to do here. You think having a good time is what everyone really needs.
You do not want to spend a lot of money on buildings or equipment because you would prefer to spend the money on social events, especially trips to other places
(Your family has the only bus company in town and you hope to organise these holiday trips)
C
You want a large hall added to the building with a good quality floor for dancing it would also need an expensive, high-quality music system.
You think dancing is wonderful it is good for people physically, mentally and socially.
(You also own a dancing school and think that a new dance hall would be very good for your business.)
D
You think a local football team would be good for the community. You also want to start a Young Players League in the town to give young people something to do. All the local schools could join in the competition
You want to keep the land free for a football pitch. The present buildings are big enough to use as changing rooms. You want to spend the money on equipment and hiring a good trainer. You love football, but you also own the local sports shop which would sell all the clothes and equipment.)
E

You are a keen fitness enthusiast but there is no gym in the town.
One idea you have is for a big new gym and fitness centre
(Your brother has got a building company and you want to get him a building contract, so you want a project that needs a lot of extra building work.