"To-morrow is Saint Valentine’s day” (W. Shakespeare, Hamlet, Act IV, Scene 5)

“Love is in the air / everywhere I look around

Love is in the air / every sight and every sound”

I’m pretty sure you all remember this 1978 song by John Paul Young which so well portrays this holiday’s spirit! At least, as far as I am concerned, wherever I go, I only see heart-shaped chocolates, photo frames, mirrors, candles… a never-ending list of items attractively displayed for us to purchase.

Even though I don’t really care about this festivity myself, the fact is that it has become so commercial that there’s no way of escaping this surrounding atmosphere – and that’s exactly where I, or rather, my teacher’s heart steps in.    

Valentine’s Day is a great teaching/ learning opportunity and definitely a good day to do something different, something special to cheer up everyone- after all, February is a short, gloomy month so let’s hope this will help make the chill of the month much brighter LOL. Anyway, why not use festivities for even more memorable learning experiences? Here's what I'm planning to do:

1^st step: I show sts a heart with vocabulary and explain any unknown words/phrases, clarify any doubts; write down what is new (page 1)

2nd step: I hand out a text with a simplified version of the history of St. Valentine's Day (page 2). The text is read by all as well as the first exercise (matching), but the questions, well, they are QR codes (page 3 for us / for later correction; 4+5+6 to enlarge and print for the sts to decode)! Depending on class size and on the number of available smartphones, sts can work in twos or threes. Their Qs/As can be written down in the back of the text or in a separate sheet of paper.

PROCEDURE – there are 14 questions, therefore 14 QR Codes spread in the common areas of the building / in that same room. The first group to find, decode and answer the questions correctly, wins a prize (why not? A small heart-shaped chocolate box, two/three graded readers? Whatever!)

NOTE: sts have to know beforehand that they will be using QR Codes in order to download a QR Code reader to their mobile phones; it’s obvious that they will also need access to the school’s wifi!)

If there’s time to correct everything, we will do it in class, otherwise I can share the original word document by email with all the info sts need. Of course I could also share a file via google drive and the first team to finish it, would win, but, for some sts (remember: I’m teaching adult groups), this would be too much and would take too long…precious time for those willing to win a prize)

3^rd step: personalization. How do YOU celebrate Valentine’s Day? What do YOU do? Do YOU celebrate it all?

At this point, I’ll elicit love quotes they may know and may wish to share (even if they are all in Portuguese); some can even be written down and then it’s my turn to introduce some famous quotes, but the point here is that not all are about love, there are some about showing goodwill to all mankind, about relationships between acquaintances / friends / mother / children. Now is a great opportunity to raise the sts’ awareness to celebrate all forms of sharing and caring in our everyday life.(examples, page 7)

They may wish to choose some and, once there are computers in the classroom, I'll challenge them to send an ecard here or here.

If not in favour of virtual stuff, why not a real book? Did you know that Valentine’s Day is also International Book Giving Day??? Check here.

I guess that this is (more than) enough for a 90-minute lesson,but I plan to go on to broaden their knowledge on this holiday...

4^th step: I hand out a worksheet (page 8) with incomplete info on Valentine’s Day and celebrations around the world and after their first reading, I’ll ask if they can fill in the gaps. In any case,  they will have to skim this to fill in the gaps. Sts can again work in groups.

(an alternative would be this video and that would be a great listening activity, but no time to prepare that now…)

5^th step: to wrap it up, an activity in a google doc for them to fill in that will also be an assessment and / or simply a wordsearch (page 9)!

     

Am I forgetting anything? Of course!

Happy Valentine's Day