Tiny Hamsters Eating Tiny Burritos

Hamster by Turquoise Field is licensed under CCBY2.0

MAIN ACTIVITIES  Speculation, Comparison, Speaking about viral videos

SUITABLE FOR Teens and adults, Upper-Intermediate (B2.1) and above.

TEACHER’S NOTES   (Click here for a pdf of the Teacher’s Notes.)

STEP 1

Display this photo of a monkey.  Tell students to describe what they can see and say what they think is going to happen next. Get some feedback. Then display this photo and get students to speculate. What do they think it could be?

STEP 2

Tell students that they are going to watch a video. Put them in A/B pairs sitting back to back, with Student A facing the screen. Turn the sound off. Tell students that you’re going to play a video and Student A is going to describe to Student B what they see on the screen while it’s happening.

STEP 3

Play the clip from 00:03 to 00:44. Student B listens and can take notes.

STEP 4

Now tell students to change places. Play this video (no sound) from 00:06 to 01:12. Student B describes to Student A, who takes notes.

STEP 5

Still in the same pairs, students write down as many similarities and differences between the two videos as they can. Encourage them to use linking words of contrast of comparison.

STEP 6

Now regroup the students so that each one is working with a new partner (i.e. AA / BB pairs). They take it in turns to read out a sentence until they have none left. How many different words and phrases did they use to compare the videos? (e.g. Both videos show …. / One video was shot indoors while the other was filmed outside etc.)

STEP 7

Now it’s time to watch both videos. Play the first one again, with sound. Then play the second one. Any reactions to the videos? Why do students think they were made? (The monkey video advertises Go Pro Cameras while the hamster video was created by a social media agency called Denizen.) Would students share the videos on social media? Why (not)? Tell them that one of these videos went viral: Which one? (The hamster clip)

STEP 8

Get students to think of a video that they have shared on social media or one which has been shared with them. When they’ve had time to think, they tell a partner about the video and why they shared / watched it.

STEP 9

Send them the link to this TED talk to watch at home. In the next class, ask:

• Would you like to do the speaker’s job?
• Which of the clips had you seen before?
• According to the speaker, what are the three reasons why a video goes viral?