World Cup for ESL classes

[Robert Seltman]

Inspired by a friend's lottery of the World Cup playoffs, I have decided to copy the world teams and have each student pull a name of a finalist nation out of a hat. There are 8 groups of four nations providing a number close to a full class (in some classes, two students may have the same team). Students will have an opportunity to take interest in the games, learn some geography (I am using the initials of the country and flag in their lottery ticket), there is much on the internet for support material.