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Odd Jobs

Materials

• Odd Job cards

Students discuss unusual jobs and then play a guessing game.

Warm Up

Write the term Odd Jobs on the board and ask students what it means. After a few students have answered, explain that it has two meanings: Odd means 'unusual' or 'strange' so the term could mean 'unusual job'. However we use it idiomatically to mean light work that needs to be done around the house, like fixing a loose door handle or unplugging the toilet or gardening. An odd jobs man is like a fix-it man who can do such work but often people do this work themselves.

Tell students that today you will be talking about the first meaning. Write Human Signboard on the board, or some other unusual job if you prefer. Just make sure it's not one covered on the Odd Job cards). Explain that a Human Signboard is someone who wears a sign over their body usually advertising a store or restaurant.
Now write 5 questions on the board:

1. How do you get this job?
2. What kinds of people do it?
3. What qualifications do you need?
4. What are the benefits?
5. What are the downsides?

Note: for beginner or elementary students, you might want to put up easier questions in addition, such as 'Where does this person work?', 'What do they wear?', 'Do they have to be strong?, 'Do they get paid well?', 'Do they have to have a good education?', 'Do they work with other people?', 'Do they work in a company or is it individual work?'.

Now ask students to produce some odd jobs and go over the same questions for each job. After a five or six jobs, you are ready to move on to the guessing game.

Guessing Game

Take one of the Odd Job cards, without showing it to students, and tell students you have an odd job. They have to guess your job by asking you questions. Hopefully they will use some of the questions on the board. If they ask a direct question like, 'What do you do?' and this would give away the answer, be vague or pick the most unusual aspect of your job. For example, if they asked what a human signboard does, you could answer: 'I stand on the street.' Encourage them to ask questions instead of just guessing jobs at random. To help with beginner students you can put the questions and answers on the board or have one student act as secretary. Then if they guess a job that doesn't fit, remind them of the previous question. For example, A student asks, "Where do you work?" and you answer, "In the circus." If another student makes a guess, "Factory Worker" remind them that you said you work in the circus. This helps them to keep focus and to use logic.

Once students guess, put them in pairs or small groups and hand one person in each group, a card. Make sure they don't show anyone else the job. The other students now must guess the job by asking questions. If a student doesn't understand the job, make sure he or she comes to ask you at your desk far away from the other students in the group. Once the job is guessed, give another student a different card. This is a really popular game and students often ask to play again and again.

Check out a related lesson plan, Find the Perfect Job where students fill out a fun personality test and then find out their perfect job!


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