Two or three sentences about why someone should teach about dream jobs in English lessons goes here... This set of activities has to do with the adventure of ...  You have experience now, so it is also fine to add opinions like, "Children are excited by ... enjoy ... unsure about..."

Introduction for “Acting out Jobs“ - Mehmed

The activity starts with a short introduction, where the teacher can ask if they have a dream job and if they feel comfortable, they were allowed to tell the group. After the introduction, the students chose a card which is faced down. Those cards contain different jobs. Once they knew what the job means by knowing beforehand or asking if they are not sure, they aresupposed to act out the job either as a mime or by using their surroundings. While they are acting it out it is important for the other students to observe what their classmate is doing and only are allowed to guess what they are doing once the teacher gives them the OK inform of a question: „What is he/she doing?“ or „What job is he/she acting out?“

Target group and Time

Target group: Grades 5 and 6; Vocabulary and instructions need to be adjusted according to the grade one is teaching.

Time: 3 minutes for the first introductory time and then leave as much time as needed for the main activity. This is necessary as the comfort of the students acting might be different between each student and/or group.

Learning objectives

General: The goal of this activity is to help the students understand what different jobs do and how they might be something they desire to do. If they are unsure of a vocabulary they also have the opportunity to learn what the job is in English.

Vocabulary: The cards are suppose to act as a catalyst for them to learn the different jobs. Since our modern age allows them to be confronted with the English language every day some might  learn more than other students.

Grammar: Most of the time the students are required to use the forms of the progressive which might achieve with varying realization.

Instructions to set up the activity

Prepare cards with job terms; distribute them randomly. Prepare more cards than students so you can have students exchange cards that they do not feel comfortable with or are unknown even in their mother tongue. Most students would still rather try the new word out instead of immediately asking for a new one if they were unsure what the job they got meant.

Encourage students to try it out - by talking about their dream job and reaching them at a personal level. However, it is necessary to offer the option of keeping their dream job to themselves.

Letting it run

always encourage students to ask for vocabulary

if the students decide to ask questions it is important to respect their decision and help them as much as possible even if they talk in German to me or their fellow students

do not interrupt the students even if they are rambling about different jobs – this is them showing interest in the topic

Introduction for “Circle of Dream Jobs“ - Hendrikje

The aim of this activity is to combine vocabulary and acting with each other. The students will learn new vocabulary or deepen their understanding.

Target group and Time

Classes 5 to 6 should have fun with this game. For this activity, 12-15 minutes should be enough for a small group. 

Learning objectives

Self-confidence in language use. Learning new vocabulary through movement.

Instructions to set up the activity

At first everyone stands in a circle. The question "What is a dream job?" will be answered through different ideas of students. The students then begin to brainstorm different jobs. After having talked about the various jobs and what they do, the students will find gestures for each job. After they have been practiced together, the game can start.

Person A says: My name is ... and my dream job is ... (he/she does the gestures practiced before)

Person B says: Is your dream job a ...?

Person A says: Yes/No.

Person A says: What is your name and what is your dream job?

Person B says: My name is ... and my dream job is ...  (Person B thereby becomes person A)

Letting it run

This game can be adapted in various ways for different stages of English learners. The vocabulary can become more advanced, topics can be changed, gestures can become more complex.

Introduction for 

This teaching activity starts with a short round of introductions, with each student asked to state whether they have a dream job. If they feel comfortable, they were welcome to say what their dream job is. After this first round, the teacher can let the students blindly pick cards with English terms for different jobs. They are then asked to think of a single pose or movement that encapsulated what this job, in their opinion, was about. After about a minute of consideration, everyone who feels confident in their pose or movement is asked to act it out in front of their classmates. In contrast to a regular game of mime, the teacher could ask the students to not shut out what their classmate are doing. Instead, the instructor could ask them to wait until after their classmate has finished, and then start the discussion with the question: „What was he/she doing?“ and not „What job did he/she act out?“. 

Depending on the time left, teachers could follow up this activity with another group activity, in which every group member is asked to act out the pose resembling the job they liked the most at the same time. This might help less outgoing students to also take part in a dramatic activity. 

Target group and Time

Target group: Grades 5 and 6; it is possible to varie the difficulty of the job terms between both grades (e.g. only used „chef“ for the 6th graders) and focus on more straight-forward instructions with the younger kids.

Time: 3 minutes for the first introductory time and then leave as much time as needed for the main activity. This might be necessary because the amount of students that feel comfortable could varie greatly between the different groups and the different grades.

Learning objectives

General: With this teaching activity, teachers aim at helping the students understand what tasks different jobs, including their dream jobs, require, and how to describe theses tasks. „Describing“ here referred to two ways of depicting an activity: Using their bodies to express their thoughts and verbally expressing what a job entails. 

Vocabulary: Every student is supposed to learn the vocabulary for 5-10 job descriptions by looking at the cards and their fellow students performances. Furthermore, they learned verbs related to the actions, e.g. „cooking“ or „performing“.

Grammar: Describing their classmates performances required the students to use forms of the progressive, which they did with varying success.

Instructions to set up the activity

Prepare cards with job terms; distribute them randomly. Prepare more cards than students so you are able to have students exchange cards that they do not feel comfortable with or go beyond their knowledge, even in German. This did not prevent students from sticking with new words, but getting a new card helped them to actually think of a pose when the former one felt too abstract.

Encourage students to open up - by talking about their dream job and/or by choosing to perform. However, make the option to not say their dream job or not act out explicit, so that no one feels pressured to put themselves into an uncomfortable situation. I felt like this helped students to not feel afraid, and in some circumstances, the students went on to discover their courage and performed after declining to do so at first.

Letting it run

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