CREATING YOUR OWN SUPERHERO – SPEAKING ACTIVITY

OBJECTIVE
This is all about the students inventing a new superhero and testing them out in various
scenarios to find out who has the most successful.
IN THE CLASSROOM
In class begin by introducing the ideas of heroes to your students. Then move on to superheroes.
You can illustrate this with pictures of Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman and so on and
encourage discussion on the subject. Get the students to talk about their strengths,
weaknesses, superpowers and suchlike.
The next step is to divide the class into small groups. Explain that each team will develop their
own superhero. They can look at the physical appearance, size, sex, the superpower they might
have, their special vulnerability (think of Kryptonite and Superman here), how they travel (fly,
supercar, etc) and so on.

During this phase, encourage your students to use their imagination and to come up with
as much detail as possible.
Once the groups have their character, get them in turns to explain to the rest of the
class who they have and what that person can do. Again, encourage discussion and
debate.

The final phrase is to put them to the test. Take the situation cards and draw one at
random. Explain the situation to the class and go round each group so they can tell
you why their superhero would (or would not) be successful in rescuing the
situation.

Finally you decide which team has put together the best superhero according to the
situation card. Give the winner the card (one point) and start again with the next card.