Keeping with my wish for my blog to be a place where classroom experiences and ideas are shared, I wanted to share some ‘authentic’ motivations for writing with students which I’ve come across this last week. Today it’s the Million Disney Memories campaign. Raise money for a good cause and get people writing – bonus! I’ll be uploading some worksheets over the next few days but please feel free to share how you might use with your students.
The Million Disney Memories is a campaign being run by Disney and Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH). The idea is to collect, via the Disney Junior Facebook page, one million memories from the public about their first ever Disney experience. For every memory collected, Disney will donate £1 to GOSH. Even the Disney-cynical humbugs out there can see it’s for a good cause – there’s nothing on the terms and conditions which stipulates your memory has to be sickly and positive, although I’m not sure a diatribe on the spooky undertones of “It’s a Small World” wouldn’t really be entering into the spirit of the project.
In my mind this could work in so many ways as a real writing activity with English learners. I’ve linked below to a number of sources such as celebrities sharing their own Disney memories in short video clips, newspaper articles publicising the project and of course the Facebook page itself where the memories are being collected.
Great Ormond Street website gives more information about the hospital as well as the basics of the partnership with Disney and the Million Disney Memories campaign. There are also some heartwarming reports on special Disney in-hospital screenings of new films so the little patients do not miss out. For children unable to make it to the screening room, films are shown at the bedsides too – just awesome.
The Disney Junior (UK) Facebook page where the memories are actually being recorded. Looking at other people’s memories could form the basis of a reading activity in itself. Many students will quickly notice some patterns in language and register which they can emulate when writing their own memories.
London Evening Standard newspaper’s short write-up on the campaign. Contains some nice set expressions and collocations to do with fundraising and emotions.
Daily Mail piece containing a number of video clips of celebrities sharing their Disney memories, as well as quotes of many more famous people talking about their childhood experiences of beloved characters and films.
Topics could include Childhood Memories, Films, Charity – I’m sure there are many more. Language areas are huge: recounting memories (and the set patterns of language that we use to do so e.g. “I remember + …ing”), telling anecdotes, positive/negative emotions, dealing with the often ambiguous nature of memory (I think I was about six; I guess I must have been…etc.).
Be sure to familiarise yourself with the terms and conditions regarding privacy and any age limitations. If students don’t have a Facebook account for example, they could write up their memories and email it to a friend or teacher for them to upload. I believe however it’s only one memory per person.
I’m really looking forward to hearing more suggestions on how you might bring this to life. Go-on. Comment. It’s easy 
