Celebrity Dinner Party

Students research celebrities online and plan a dinner party seating arrangement, justifying their choices through discussion.

Procedure

1. Introduce the activity by showing your own celebrity dinner table as a model — explain who your four guests are (living or dead), why you invited them, why they are seated where they are, and what you would ask them.
2. Divide the class into pairs. Each pair must agree on four people they would like to invite to their dinner party. Alternatively, provide a list of famous people for them to choose from — the less well-known, the more research required.
3. Give pairs 15 minutes to research their chosen guests online. Remind them they will need to give reasons for inviting each person, explain the seating plan, and prepare questions for each guest.
4. Put pairs together into groups of four. Each pair explains:
   • Who they have invited and why
   • Why certain people are sitting next to each other
   • Where they themselves would sit
   • What they would like to ask their guests

Tips

• Prepare your own celebrity dinner party on a slide as a model — choose four people with photos arranged on a table seating plan.
• Add constraints to increase challenge: guests must be from a specific field (entertainment, politics), must include two men and two women, or must be historical figures.
• Extend by having students plan the menu (are any guests vegetarian?), write up an interview with their favourite guest, or record/film it.
• Works well for Business English by using figures from finance, industry, etc.