TABLOID MAGAZINE REBRANDING - ACTIVITY LESSON

This is a reasonably simple lesson to run, which my students seem to enjoy. Students work
for a tabloid magazine, which is suffering from poor sales, because it is very boring. They
must come up with a new name, and some new, interesting stories.

I prepare in advance, by telling them to bring in photos of their favourite celebrities. Make it
clear that these should not be on their phones, they should be printed photos. It works either
way, but it works better with printed photos.

The format of the lesson is to arrange the students in groups of about four, and show them a
picture of their "boss" for today (see the end of this document). Introduce the scenario,
discuss tabloid magazines (maybe show them some examples if you have any) and tell them
they will be creating their own one today.

Creating the magazine really just means giving it a name, and giving the outline for a couple
of stories. To create the stories, students just choose two or more photos, and decide on a
gossipy, salacious story that relates to the photos. Throw in some photos of your own for
them to choose from, to add variety.

When they are ready, students can share their stories any way they want. They can either
vote on the best stories, or just have fun sharing them, going between the different groups.

After the lesson, collect any photos the students don't need. You will find you have
crowdsourced your picture collection - it's a good way to make it grow, especially in a foreign
country where you won't have room in your suitcases to carry your magazines etc.

I use this as a speaking lesson. The students just discuss the stories in groups, and do not
write anything more than bullet points. You can also use it as a writing lesson. If you do it as a
speaking lesson, you will need make sure the students are using English, and keeping it
simple. At the start, I get each person in a group to speak in turn, and each person just says a
single sentence about an idea, for example, "I like this picture because ..." Then after they
have all used this sentence at least once, they do the same for a story, as in "This story is
interesting because ..." This gets them warmed up, then they can proceed to free discussion.
If they go off course, and talk in L1, I bring them back to turn-taking. This approach has made
all the difference for me.
 Illustration 1: More stuff about royals
(Princesses Kate, Beatrice, and Eugenie) plus
Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman; and Adele
Illustration 2: Princesses Eugenie, Beatrice and Kate (singer)

Illustration 3: Royals: Prince Harry, Princess Kate, Prince William, Princess

Eugenie (?) and Princess Beatrice (?).
Illustration 4: LeBron James (basketball) and Michelle Obama (US First Lady)

Illustration 5: David Beckham (footballer) and his wife Victoria

 Il
lustration 6: Powerful media tycoon Richard
Wallenstein (He is your boss for today)

Media tycoon Richard Wallenstein (your boss) is not happy. His magazine, Celebrity
Gossip Bonanza is getting worse and worse.

It is so bad that Mr Wallenstein has called for a total rebranding. He has hired you, the cool
kids, to fix it. And he doesn't care about the truth. If you have a good enough story, just go
with it.

Here is his winning formula, for creating a better magazine:

Take one or two photos of celebrities, and come up with something exciting and probably
untrue about them. Good topics include celebrity marriages, cult religions, and (occasionally)
aliens.
Also, you must come up with a new and better name.

Starter sentences:

How about ...?

This story might be good because ...
This story might be bad because ...
This photo could go with this photo. We could make it a story about ...

(Suggested) Rules:
Your stories should be possible. They can be totally crazy, but they should be possible.
Examples:
IMPOSSIBLE: Barack Obama taken by aliens; currently he is their prisoner. (not possible, if
we saw him on the news last night)
POSSIBLE: Barack Obama taken by aliens, later set free. (Possible: maybe no one saw the
aliens take him. He won't say anything, because he knows most people won't believe him).