I re-designed an older activity, which I owe to Diana Eastment, and tried it in one of my lab classes. I’ve had this one for a while but haven’t actually tried it with any students. It works fairly well. Especially since most of the kids haven’t heard of Culture Club or Wham. Gave me a reason to play Last Christmas.
Unknown famous people
How many of the names can you match with the real names of the people?
- John Wayne Bernard Schwartz
- Tina Turner Reginald Dwight
- Judy Garland Georgios Panayiotou
- Whoopie Goldberg Allen Konigsberg
- Bob Dylan Paul Hewson
- George Michael Eleanora Fag Marion
- Kirk Douglas Ehrich Weiss
- Billie Holliday George Alan O’Dowd
- Harry Houdini Marion Michael Morrison
- Bono Issur Danielovitch Demsky
- David Bowie David Robert Jones
- Boy George Caryn Johnson
- Elton John Frances Gumm
- Tony Curtis Annie Mae Bullock
- Woody Allen Robert Zimmerman
Activities:
a: Use an appropriate search engine on the web to find the real names of the people you could not find (Try bing.com for a google alternative)
b: Choose one personality, which interests you to find out more about them. Prepare a 30 second talk about this personality. In your talk you should not mention the name of the person so that the others can guess it. Write notes on the back of the paper. Source: Diana Eastment