DESCRIBING PERSONALITY: MANY 'ME'S AND ALL THAT JAZZ

What’s in this post: materials writing, describing oneself with a twist, Poetry Comics, the Many 'Me's song, clines, Jazzy Bingo, and other activities for practising personality adjectives

Materials writing gets a whole new twist (or an evolution?) with new AI tools. Suddenly, things that once seemed impossible, or at best barely possible, for a one-man-band materials writer can actually become reality. Marching to the beat of your own drum. Sometimes with effort. Sometimes with a learning curve. And sometimes with a sudden spark of inspiration.

Inspiration

The other day, Grant Snider shared a comic from his book POETRY COMICS, a brilliant reminder that being human means juggling many different ‘me’s.

I thought this many ‘me’s could be a brilliant topic to move beyond the usual self-descriptions, like ‘I’m ambitious, creative, and other 33 adjectives I found on a worksheet’. It feels closer to real life, and gives a great opportunity to work with personality adjectives using clines.

A Learning Curve

I wanted something light-hearted to introduce the topic and key adjectives for my clines, with all that jazz. A song. And that was a challenge. Good song-based activities usually come from finding a great song first and then figuring out how to use it in the classroom. Going the other way, starting with a topic and language focus, and then looking for the perfect song, is MUCH harder (well, miracles do happen, check my Is It Teachable? to practise adjectives and giving compliments). YouTube search didn’t bring up anything usable, so I decided to try a new platform, Tunee, to make a song of my own. Unlike other platforms that generate songs in one go, this one lets you edit along the way.

Effort

I’m not a musician, but I did spend two years in music school and sang in a choir. Though it feels so long ago, I doubt it counts. I wrote simple lyrics with the clines I wanted, hummed a basic ‘la-la-la’ tune, and described the style I needed. I ended up with 36 versions (more trumpets, fewer trumpets, trumpets on holiday) and chose version No. 6.

The Many ‘Me’s

https://youtu.be/UlYEU5V97cs

How to Use in the Classroom

Step 1

Before playing the song, have students make clines with the following personality adjectives (write them on the board leaving enough space between the adjectives, you’ll need it later):

QUIET ―――――――――――――――――― CHATTY
CAUTIOUS ―――――――――――――――――― BOLD
GENTLE ―――――――――――――――――― STUBBORN
DREAMY ―――――――――――――――――― FOCUSED
RESTLESS ―――――――――――――――――― PEACEFUL
WORRIED ―――――――――――――――――― HOPEFUL

Ask students to place themselves on the clines, marking where they usually are.

Step 2

Listen to the song. First listening: Ask students to circle the personality adjectives they hear. (Answer key: all adjectives in the clines will be circled). Second listening: Ask students to note down specific times or situations (e.g., ‘when the room feels strange’, ‘when I hear this song’, etc.) that show different times.

Ask students to add times or situations to the clines describing themselves.

Step 3

Add or expand the personality adjectives on the clines based on your students’ level and the vocabulary you want them to use more actively in their speaking.

QUIET → reserved → shy → calm → moderate → talkative → outgoing → CHATTY

(for IELTS students, I’d also include reticent, reserved, introverted, sociable, and gregarious)

Here are the clines (word spectra) from the song. Once students get the hang of it, ask them to think of their examples.

Now, it’s time to jazz things up.

Step 3 – Jazzy Bingo

Hand out a sheet of A4 paper to each student and get them to make a 3×3 grid (draw or fold it into the rule of thirds).

Now, ask students to think of a time and situations when they move along a cline (e.g., I’m chatty when I’m excited; I can be fidgety when I’m bored, etc.) and write it down in any square. Have students rotate their grids and write a sentence on the new one. Then rotate again, and repeat until all the grids are filled with sentences. (This is the same routine I used in Human Bingo)

Students mingle, asking questions like ‘Are you chatty when you’re excited?’ or ‘What are you like when you’re bored?’ When someone matches, they cross out that square. When three squares in a row are crossed, they shout ‘JAZZ!’ If you want less jazz in the classroom, students can shout ‘JAZZ’ only when the whole card is completed.

So, where are you on the ‘uninspired–inspired’ cline now?

Happy teaching!