If socks could talk...

1) Show two inanimate objects through your webcam. They could be anything really that you can find around you, such as two household objects, either from the same context (eg. a knife and a spoon) or different ones (eg, a pen and a toilet brush). Nick used an external webcam through Zoom to show his two odd socks (see below)

2) Elicit some suggestions from the students as to what the two objects could be saying to each other if they could talk.

3) Put the students into pairs and ask them to write a short dialogue between the objects.

4) With their webcams turned off, invite some of the pairs to perform their dialogues as a voice over for the conversation. Where possible, move the objects in an appropriate way so that it fits with what is being said.

The following unedited ‘odd sock dialogue’ was written by Antonio Labate, Sara Caridi, and Valeria Amedeo, three young adult learners of English at IH British School Reggio Calabria, Italy. Thanks to their teacher Lucie Cotterill for supplying this.

(phone rings)

BS (Black socks): Hey Sokka! How are you doing?

Sokka (white socks): oh hi BS, I’m good. Why you called?

BS: Nothing, I just wanted to ask if you’d go out with me since I don’t work tonight.

Sokka (rolls eyes): Ew just me and you?

BS: You don’t have to be so mean.

Sokka: I don’t think that’s a good idea

BS: What’s the problem? It’s because I’m black?

Sokka: Well….. at least you are fun (?)

BS: Just a yes could have been enough

Sokka: Sorry last time you delivered pizza at my house you smelled terrible!

BS: Wow, sorry if I run to deliver your pizza as fast as possible.

Sokka: ….

BS: Bye Sokka, I thought there was something between us.

Sokka: Just stay a foot apart from me. Bye.

(Sokka ends call)

Variations

1)Invite students to show their own pair of objects to the webcam for the others to create dialogues for.

2) Instead of asking students to write a dialogue, they could be asked to spontaneously add a voiceover whilst the objects mime. This is obviously more challenging but, as we have seen before on this blog, improvised conversations can sometimes be more engaging for the actors and the audience, and more fun to watch.