The List is such a simple magic trick… I asked a student to do the trick for me!
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- Make a prediction.
- Except for maybe brainstorming the words to be practiced beforehand, this trick offers few opportunities to practice language until after the trick is done.
- Good for doing a “listen and repeat”
- Skills: Listening, reading & speaking (pronunciation)
- For practicing: Vocabulary.
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Demonstration & Explanation
Student Demonstration
Another advantage of using magic in the classroom is that sooner or later your students are going to ask you how certain tricks are done. One thing that I like to do is, when that happens, I agree to share the secret with them as long as they do the trick in the classroom themselves the following week. As I mention in one of the introduction videos, according to the British Association for the Advancement of Science, “showing and teaching the children magic tricks encourages skills such as self-discipline, because unless you practice magic skills you will fail, and critical thinking. It also helps children to think from another person’s perspective, and consider how they are feeling”.
So as promised, here is one of my students performing “The List”.
Think-a-bit tip: 
From time to time I will suggest ways of adapting a trick to other subjects, as a way of inspiring you to do the same, and I will suggest ways of changing a trick to try to improve it from a didactic point of view. In the case of “the list”, instead of predicting the word (for example; “gondola”), you can predict the word’s definition (“a boat typical of Venice”). In this way for example, you can, show your students your prediction and then ask them to give you the word before you show them the list. You could then ask students to give definitions of the other forms of transport on the list.
Next part, “Creating your own tricks, part I: magic based on existing card tricks” >>