About this activity
Eight expressions from classrooms, group chats and locker rooms: He totally threw me under the bus. That test was a piece of cake. She's on thin ice with the coach. I'm swamped this week. Let's play it by ear. He dropped the ball on his part of the project. That's a stretch. I'm going to crash — I'm exhausted. Chosen because teenagers hear them, rather than because they appear in a workbook.
How to use it in a session
Ask for the situation rather than the definition. Threw me under the bus is not just blamed me — it is blamed me to protect himself, and that extra clause is what a student needs to use it correctly. Ask when the student last heard one of these, which usually produces a real example and tells you whether they understood it at the time. Fifteen minutes covers the eight with discussion.
What to listen for
Listen for the social content. Most of these are about blame, trouble or workload — the vocabulary of adolescent social life — and a student who misses them is missing information about their own standing. On thin ice with the coach is a warning, and a student who reads it literally has missed a warning.
Carrying it home
These expressions are in ordinary conversation and on every television programme. Asking what someone meant, when one goes past, is a normal question rather than a lesson.
Questions
- What grades is this for?
- Sixth through twelfth, using current expressions rather than dated ones.
- Is it free?
- Yes, all eight cards play with no login.
- Why do current idioms matter more than classic ones?
- Because students meet them daily and act on them. An idiom from a workbook is vocabulary; one a coach uses about the student is information they need.