.
Lesson plan: 
halloween-horror-story.pdf
This activity for intermediate/advanced levels involves giving a transcription of the video to your students and asking them to work out what is going on. Some of the language is a bit obscure and for this reason, we may want to make changes. But then we have a problem: If students read one thing (an altered transcript of the pumpkin’s words) and then they hear another thing (the actual pumpkin’s words), won’t they get confused?
In fact, making changes to transcripts is not a problem as long as you warn your students tell them why you have made changes.
Anyway, in the lesson plan (see pdf above), I have made a number of changes to the transcription of the pumpkin’s story. I am sure that you will agree with some and disagree with others. I have included the original transcript on Word document at the end of the posting in case you want to make your own changes.
Here is a discussion of the changes I made.
First of all, the actual transcription:
I’m a pumpkin. Hello.
In the beginning, my life was idyllic: Days spent with my family in the patch; The sunlight warming my skin. Idyllic.
Until they came without warning - cruel hands dragging me roughly from my dreams into a wheeled box.
I was carried past my brothers and sisters and friends. My family. I cried out for rescue but my kin remained silent and unmoving, perhaps fearing similar fate.
My home began to fade in the distance. And suddenly, everything went dark. When I cam to my senses, I saw that my abductors had placed me on hard grey earth. I was afraid I had just been left to die. Now I know if I had, I would have been lucky.
The pain was incredible. I became dizzy - nauseated. They had cut a giant hole in my skull and were now tearing my innards from my body and strewing them before me, like ribbons from a gift.
Moments later, the knives returned, impaling me over and over again.
What made those people do what they did that day? I do not know. I began to think they were playing some sort of mad game especially when they put a really big knife inside me and just sort of waved it around.
When the cutting was done I sat in shock, not daring to think that the torture might be at an end. But of course it was not.
They lowered a stick of hot fire into my belly. Burning, burning flame.
My captors had carved a gruesome visage into me, as if this was all some kind of demented joke. Who were these sick people and why had they done this to me? Why? Why? Why?
A while later, I returned to consciousness and heard someone approaching. A glimmer of hope sprang up inside me. Could these be my liberators, come to save me from this hell? No - it was a parade of tiny demons who stared at my ruined body. I knew then that the reason I had been hacked and disfigured was merely for the entertainment of these demons. They were even receiving some sort of payment from my captors for coming to see me. They tormented me and mocked me. My humiliation was complete.
And now, now I sit mangled, deformed, waiting for the sweet peace of death to arrive.
Freedom!
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
And now, the altered transcript:
In the beginning, my life was peaceful: Days spent with my family in the garden; The sunlight warming my skin. Peaceful.
Until they came without warning - cruel hands dragging me roughly from my dreams into a wheeled box.
I was carried past my brothers and sisters and friends. My family. I cried out for rescue but my kin remained silent and unmoving, perhaps fearing similar fate.
My home began to fade in the distance. And suddenly, everything went dark.
When I came to my senses, I saw that my abductors had placed me on hard grey earth. I was afraid I had just been left to die. Now I know if I had, I would have been lucky.
The pain was incredible. I became dizzy - I felt sick. They had cut a giant hole in my skull and were now tearing my innards from my body and throwing them in front of me, like ribbons from a gift.
Moments later, the knives returned, stabbing me over and over again.
What made those people do what they did that day? I do not know. I began to think they were playing some sort of mad game especially when they put a really big knife inside me and just sort of waved it around.
When the cutting was done I sat in shock, not daring to think that the torture might be at an end. But of course it was not.
They lowered a stick of hot fire into my belly. Burning, burning flame
My captors had carved a gruesome visage into me, as if this was all some kind of sick joke. Who were these sick people and why had they done this to me? Why? Why? Why?
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Changes made/considered:
1. I got rid of the first words (I am a pumpkin. Hello.) This would spoil the task which involves students guessing who is speaking. I also changed patch for garden as I thought it works better for the guessing task.
2. I decided not to use the second part of the transcription in which the language is a bit more challenging. The story still seems quite complete without it. Also, I prefer texts of about 250 words for intensive reading activities.
3. There are a few situations when I have substituted words with higher-frequency synonyms. It makes sense for a learner to meet peaceful before idyllic. The same applies to the word impaling which was changed to stabbing, and nauseated which was changed to I felt sick. Similarly, the collocation demented joke was changed to the more common sick joke.
4. Sometimes, we may want t0 substitute or remove language which has an archaic or old fashioned sense. In this case strewing them before me becomes throwing them in front of me.
5. We may also want to change or remove any language which is maverick or obscure - anything that will require lengthy teacher explanations and/or draw attention away from meaning of the text.
6. Sometimes it might be nice to change words or phrases for others that your students have recently met (giving them a chance to revise them). For example, if your students recently met the expression “to come around” (i.e. “to regain consciousness”) let them see it again here - include it in the text instead of When I came to my senses.
7. You might also want to remove or change some of the grotesque language such as; They had cut a giant hole in my skull and were now tearing my innards from my body. I decided not to.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
You may want to change the text in you own way. For this reason, here it is on a Word document:
Finally, similar activities could be done with the clips below. Why not show the video to your students and ask them to write a description or dialogue (’What are the eggs saying to each other?’, for example).
Excellent lesson! Thank you so much!
My students were convinced their teacher had gone mad and was about to show them a truly gruesome clip. Apart from the obvious groans (mostly relief -although they would never admit it) as soon as they realised it wasn’t all blood and guts, they loved it and so did I :0)
Highly recommended - especially with 31st Oct just around the corner
Left by Eleny Roumba on October 20th, 2009