Desert Island Discs

A simple party game that works as a warm-up, cool-down or to give students some easy practice expressing preferences.

Objectives

• To promote fluency
• To practice talking about preferences

Materials

• None

A standard party game in the US and a popular radio show in the UK. It’s a great way to kill a few minutes at the beginning or end of class and it can be a good opener for the Survive lesson plan.

Tell students that they are trapped on a desert island and they can bring with them: one CD, one book, one companion, and one personal item. Model the activity by telling them what you would like to bring and why. Focus on the fact that it will be boring on the island so they should chose an interesting companion, or a book they won’t mind reading over and over again. If students seem cynical about the situation (Why can’t I bring food? I don’t want to go to a desert island. How will my CD player even work?), you can say it is a reality show and they will be paid one million dollars to spend a year on a desert island where there is a shelter and food. You can also decide whether or not the companion should be living, or if it can be anyone living or dead or even fictional–like Shrek or Buffy (the Vampire Slayer).

Variations

For beginner students, it will be enough to have them name their choices. For higher levels encourage them to give reasons or talk about their second place choices. You might have them interview each other.

Another variation is to have students first guess what other students would say. They can also guess what famous people might say. Be sure that they give reasons if you do use any variation where they answer for someone else.

As a follow-up, try Survive!, where students discuss the usefulness of different objects in surviving a plane crash.