Castaway

Today, we talked about which items would be useful if we were stranded on a desert island.

The items that were on the list were:

bug spray, soap, toothpaste, an axe, a notebook, a pen, a raincoat, a knife, a magnifying glass, a box of matches, a spoon, money, a water purifier, a piano, a bottle of soju, a pack of cigarettes, a parachute, a mirror, GPS, a raincoat an umbrella, a camera, a bottle of water, sunscreen, rope, and a stapler.

Students then used these items to make a list of what they thought were the top 10 most important items. There were lots of different answers about this. Next, students talked with the members of their “trip” group and decided which items were most necessary. I thought this was quite interesting because there were many differences of opinion between the group members. Finally, at the end of class we tried to make an agreement about the most important items for everyone. This was more difficult than I expected, but it was an interesting conversation.

The final top 10 for the class was:

1. a water purifier (if it doesn’t use electricity)
2. a bottle of soju
3. a box of matches
4. an axe
5. rope
6. bug spray
7. a parachute
8. a mirror (for reflecting the sun’s light to get help)
9. GPS (to use a satellite to find out the exact location)
10. money or a pen

The conversations were very good, with lots or explanation and disagreement. Students really did well to communicate their ideas about why certain items were valuable or not. Of course, there were some small errors. Here they are:

We haven’t water.
This is one that I hear very often. In American English we would much, much, much more commonly say We don’t have water.

I want to soap.
If we say I want to ____, the ____ should be a verb.
I want to play soccer.
I want to eat lunch.
I want to have soap.
I want to use soap.
Or, we could erase the to, and just say I want soap, which is also OK.

Similarly, the sentence, We need to fire is incorrect.
Better sentences would be: We need to have fire/We need to make a fire/We need fire.

Good job and good luck.

PS-Here are some hints for surviving on a desert island.