Lesson Idea for a Horribly Slow Class (15+)

I enjoy teaching during summer as nobody takes those classes too seriously and you’re free to include some unconventional materials. The only drawback is that sometimes the level of motivation is not quite satisfactory. To avoid this, I usually suggest a “lesson off” – during summer courses I like to offer “free Fridays”, classes spent on projects, games, role-plays, class trips and other creative ways mainly boosting communication.

If you experience similar sentiments, you might find my lesson idea quite useful – not only for the summer courses. After all, every teacher sometimes has a lesson that seems to last forever. And the best way to introduce something energetic is to share something… really long? Mind, the ideas I’m sharing with you are not overly serious!

The Horribly Slow Murderer with the Extremely Inefficient Weapon is a 10-minute short film that was released in 2008 by Richard Gale (you may visit his page here). The movie is presented as a trailer to a 9-hour long film and portrays the story of a forensic pathologist called Jack Cucchiaio (played by Paul Clemens; “cucchiaio” means spoon in Italian), who finds himself being haunted by a deranged looking man (Brian Rohan), who is, without any clear reason, hitting him with a spoon. Doesn’t sound interesting? Well, watch it first:

Now, there are some ideas for activities after watching the video. Please notice that none of these activities requires earlier preparation. This is really an emergency scenario:

Background of the story: storytelling (speaking/ writing)

Let’s assume the trailer is just the tip of the iceberg. Ask your students to elaborate on the story and answer the following questions:

• Who (or what) is this mysterious attacker?
• Where does he come from?
• Why is he targeting Jack?
• Why does he use a spoon?
• Is there a way to stop him?

Best idea is to organise a little brainstorm party in groups and then ask your students to tell a chilling story in a manner of Are you afraid of the dark. If your students prefer written compositions, you may ask them to write a story – or maybe even make a little competition for the best thriller?

The hard life of a murderer: role play (speaking)

Who is Ginosaji? What does he do apart from haunting and hunting Jack? Is he a human being? Does he have any family? What about his favourite food? Hobby? Where does he sleep? Encourage your students to prepare short speeches introducing themselves as Ginosaji. Who’s the scariest, and who’s the funniest? Also, this is great activity for people on lower levels of English as they may use quite simple lexis and grammar.

Let’s make a film (writing, speaking)

The natural follow-up of the video would be making own film! It’s a great idea for a group project – each group needs to create a scenario, plan storyboards, choose actors and record the film itself. If you haven’t got your favourite video app, you may choose one suggested by TeachHub (click here to read). Then you may watch the films together choosing the best one.

As you can see, even a slow lesson and a terribly slow murder may change into an exciting class – I hope you and your students will like this slightly silly, yet amusing, lesson.

There are sequels to this video, Spoon Vs. Spoon, Save Jack (it’s a game in which the player has to choose what Jack Cucchiaio should do), Spoon Wars and Ginosaji Vs. Ginosaji. Watching them in-class is optional, as you can easily get your students to catch the main idea after watching the first video, however, you may use them as homework or follow-up activities – Richard Gale has his own YouTube channel, where you can take many inspirations from.

Enjoy!