Mystery numbers

In my teaching heaven, the whole class would file into the room together, chatting nicely in English and handing me their homework. Then they would get their pens and vocabulary cards out and would all be ready to start the lesson at the same time as me.

But the real world is populated by the slightly spooky early ones who don't speak, the latecomers who arrive just as you have used higher mathematics to get everyone into pairs/threes, and the rest, who get there more or less on time.

Of course, there are plenty of perfectly good ways of passing the time until it makes sense to start the lesson. One of them is to display something intriguing that will prompt someone to ask a question (if you're lucky) or at least keep their brains ticking over. Numbers and figures are ideal for this.

Who it's for:
All levels

What it's for:
Keeping students occupied before the lesson, between activities or while you're cueing the CD.

What you need:
Any piece of trivia involving a number, and somewhere to display it.

What you do:
In any issue of Spotlight, find an interesting fact involving a number, a survey result or date. It can be relevant to your lesson or otherwise amusing, enlightening or shocking.

Write it on the board, leaving one part to be guessed. From As I See It 4/2009, for example, students could try to predict the missing words in the following: "Two hundred million women who want __________ are unable to find it." (Modern contraception.) As the lead-in to a lesson about George Washington, you could pick out the date 30 April 1789 (the day he took office).

Leave the teaser on the board for some minutes while you do other things, then draw your students' attention to it. Use the opportunity to make sure they can pronounce it correctly, and get them to speculate as to its context, before revealing the answer and carrying on the lesson.