The teacher can choose any two pairs for the matrix, for example, cats and dogs, summer and winter. Any category that is appropriate for the age and grade level and which is likely to split the students. Students should place themselves in the matrix by their preferences, and each matrix will be assigned to a different corner of the classroom.
Within their groups, the students can discuss several topics. If the groups are too big, students can decide how to split themselves into smaller groups based on more specific preferences (for example, what kind of coffee or tea). If the students are beginners, they can simply have a conversation about other preferences they have in common. A third idea is to have the students practice the recognition of categories by having them in groups make a list of things that everyone in the group likes. The group members should then arrange them in categories.
From Ágota Scharle and Anita Szabó. Learner Autonomy. Cambridge 2000. 69-70
Making ends meet
combining sentence halves
Level: elementary/intermediate
Learner outcomes: cooperation, creativity, sentence structure, conditionals
“This activity requires students to rethink their ideas and try to reshape them so that they match their partners’. It may also provide useful practice in conditionals.
Procedure: Divide the class into two equal groups. Write a conditional sentence on the blackboard, marking the ‘if clause’ and the ‘result clause’. Then, ask students to work on their own and write three to five half sentences, students in one group writing if clauses, those in the other group writing result clauses. When they have finished, ask them to find a partner from the other group, look at the sentence halves they have, and try to put together meaningful sentences. They can make any necessary changes and create some amusing or unusual combinations, as long as they can explain the situation they had in mind (see the examples below). You may follow with a whole class discussion on the criteria (of grammar and meaning) of matching sentence halves.
If I have time… …I’ll buy a new car.
If you read this letter… …he will go to work.
If you wash my car… …he watches TV.
Variation:
You may apply this activity to any other grammatical pattern that includes two distinct parts of a sentence, such as the simple past-past continuous contrast or sentences with temporal clauses.”
From Ágota Scharle and Anita Szabó. Learner Autonomy. Cambridge 2000. pg. 66-67
Making Rain
inventing a group ritual
Level: intermediate/advanced
Learner Outcomes: group cohesion, creativity, oral fluency practice
This activity invites students to think about the role of rituals in their communities. Students will think of examples of rituals that they experience in their daily lives and rituals they know about in other societies. Students will then form groups and choose a function which is relevant to everyone in the group, for example, greeting, celebrating, or passing an exam. The group will then invent a new ritual for the group to practice and make a presentation about it for the rest of the class.
From Ágota Scharle and Anita Szabó. Learner Autonomy. Cambridge 2000. pg.73
Co-authors
writing a 50 word story in pairs
Level: elementary/intermediate/advanced
Learner outcomes: cooperation, personalizing input, vocabulary review, written fluency practice, patterns of reduction
Procedure: This activity is an opportunity for students to work together with a very strict structure. The teacher will read an example 50 word story to the students at the beginning of the class. Students should each pick four to six useful words from the most recent vocabulary test or text that they read. Then they should form pairs, and each pair of students will combine their list of words. Together, they will write a 50 word story using all of the words. An optional final step is for students to discuss in pairs or as a class how they divided tasks, made decisions, and chose a pair leader (if they had one).
From Ágota Scharle and Anita Szabó. Learner Autonomy, Cambridge 2000, pg. 67-68
What’s important in a teacher?
Learning outcomes: Applying new vocabulary (adjectives), reflection on one’s own experience, focus on personal learning goals
Procedure: Instructor writes the word “teacher” on the board and asks the learners to think of words or phrases that come to mind. The teacher then divides the board into two columns, one labeled “good” and one labeled “bad.” The learners are now asked to think of specific words or phrases that fall into either category and they are jotted down under either column. After the students have had time to share, they are given a list of positive adjectives that could be used to describe a teacher they like/have liked. The students work individually or in small groups to circle the qualities they like in a teacher and have room to add more. They are split into pairs and tell each other what qualities they like in a teacher and tell their partner about a teacher they have liked in the past. At the end, the students are asked to finish off the lesson by completing the statement, “I think a good teacher has to be…” using their circled qualities. In addition, time permitting, a list of negative adjectives can be used and the activity can be done looking at the bad qualities of a teacher.
Deflecting questions
Learning outcomes: becoming aware of avoidance techniques, becoming aware of politeness, cultural awareness
Procedure: Give the students a list of questions containing some that are more impersonal (Ex. Where do you go to school?) and others that are more personal (Ex. How old are you?) Have them talk in a small group and identify which questions are appropriate to ask and which ones would be appropriate to ask, applying this to what they know about American culture and also applying their own culture. After each student has identified at least two questions that they would not like to be asked when first meeting someone, they class will reconvene. The teacher can start with a sample sentence such as “How old are you?” and write it on the board. The students will be asked what they think are some ways to avoid answering, given four categories: partial answers (ex. I’m in my 30s), jocular answers (ex. Old enough to drink), firm but friendly refusal to answer (ex. Old enough to know you shouldn’t ask me that), and confrontational answers (ex. That’s none of your business). The students are then split into groups and think of ways to answer the two personal questions they chose in each category. Once they have had a chance to do so, they walk around the class and ask these personal questions to each other, practicing their deflection strategies.
Making people laugh
Learning outcomes: becoming more comfortable in class environment, culture awareness
Procedure: The learners are divided into two groups, A and B. Group A have to remain serious throughout the first part of the activity and group B have a task of changing that. Both groups face each other and B has to try to make group A laugh using verbal means but it can also include gestures, body language, etc. After a few minutes, the teacher asks how many times group B could make group A laugh and what specifically made them laugh. They exchange roles and after a few minutes the teacher asks the same questions again. If the students have specific examples of what made their partner from the other group laugh, they can share that with the class.
Questions and answers about a famous person
Learning outcomes: using authentic materials/texts, formatting questions, using simple past
Procedure: The students are asked about famous people who they are interested in learning more about, such a musician, actor, author, athlete, etc. After getting suggestions from the students, the teacher writes all the names up on the board and have the class agree on one or two people from the list that they find interesting. For homework the students will gather questions about the famous person and some facts (new ones or some that they may already know about them). Next lesson the students share their notes (questions and facts) with a partner and see if they have similar questions or if their partner has the answer to any of those questions. Lastly, the class reconvenes and asks their remaining questions and let the students guide to the answers. When there are questions left over, either have the teacher look up the remaining questions or have students who are particularly interested in the famous person do the rest of the research for the next class. This activity can also be used as a segue to a lesson about a specific person, so the students might not necessarily have a choice in picking the target.
4 square organization task:
Learning outcomes: ability to notice similarities and differences, recall of vocabulary or key concepts, review.
Procedure: The 4 square tool is a graphic organizer that works similarly to a mind map. It is a box that is divided into four squares with a small box in the middle (at the intersection) for the topic or theme of the activity. The four boxes are used to group similar concepts and segregate less similar concepts that fall under the umbrella of the main theme of the activity. An example for this for our class could be: Theme (types of learning strategies); with box 1 about perceptual learning strategies; box 2 about cognitive strategies; box 3 about metacognitive strategies; and box 4 about affective learning strategies. For each box students could work individually or together to brainstorm key terms and concepts for each of the 4 strategies.
Stations- practicing language skills:
Learning outcomes: review vocabulary/sentences patterns, practice using different language skills, interpersonal and problems solving skills development.
Procedures: Stations can be a very effective use of time, especially in a class with a lot of learners. The idea is that each station has a designated area in the classroom with clear directions and an activity that learners can do relatively autonomously. It is imperative that each station have clear directions and that students’ have a general idea of what they must do at each station. The activities should take an equal amount of time. Using a timer that is projected onto the board to count down the amount of time for each station can be very helpful. With language learners it can be particularly helpful to have a stations that focus on these four skills (although there are certainly others available): a reading station, a listening station, a writing station, and a speaking station.
Treasure hunt-find your way in English:
Learning outcomes: review of sentence structures and vocabulary, practical application practice with prepositions, reading/listening/writing skills, problem solving skills.
Procedure: Treasure hunts can be very useful and fun, especially with younger learners. They are particularly helpful for review directions, object names (desk, table, chair, window etc.), and prepositions. A nice way to make a treasure hunt interactive for the whole class is to have each student find one clue. Once they’ve found the clue they must give it to the next student who uses this to find the clue after. To make sure students are engaged even when it is not there turn teachers can ask students to write down the clues in order by listening to their peers read the clues aloud. It is good to have some kind of reward in the final placement as motivation for the students to continue the hunt.
Do you agree?
Learning outcomes: students practice listening skills, students practice expressing (dis)agreement, review of past vocabulary and sentence patterns.
Procedure: This activity is useful for helping students practice their listening and speaking. It is also a nice way to break up the class with some kinesthetic learning. For the activity the classroom will need to be cleared so there is some space for running. There can be a yes poster and a no poster that are taped to opposite walls or the classroom can be divided down the middle with tape. The teacher (or one student at a time) make a statement for the whole class to hear. The other students run to the yes or no sides of the classroom to express their (dis)agreement with the statement. In their groups students talk together about why they agree or disagree.
Information Gap Activity: Maps (listening)
Learner outcomes: review of vocabulary and sentence structures, practice speaking, listening and writing.
Procedure: Give students identical maps, but with some road and building names removed. Map A should have the information that is not on Map B and vice versa. This could be done after a lesson teaching prepositions of place (on, at, across from, next to, etc). Collaboratively, but without showing each other their maps, the students must find out the missing names using questions like these:
What’s the name of the road across from the post office?
What building is on the left of the post office?
Once the maps are completed, students agree on a starting point. Student A then directs Student B to a destination unknown to Student B. When the instructions are complete, the student who has been following the instructions should end up in the right place. Some instruction about giving directions should introduce this activity (go along, turn left, turn right, on the corner, go past…)
Adapted from Gibbons Ch. 6 on Scaffolding Listening
The Picture Jigsaw
Learner outcomes: fluency practice, vocabulary reinforcement, listening, writing
Level: intermediate-advanced
Time: 20-30 minutes
Preparation: Have as many interesting pictures as you will have small groups in your class. They may be the kind of pictures that make a story or any kind of pictures. Try to include some pictures of people.
Procedure:
Divide your class into small groups
- Each group gets a picture
- The group studies the picture and students decide how to best describe it.
- Students put down the picture and describe it without looking at it.
- Students look at the picture again to see if they have forgotten anything.
- Collect the pictures.
- Students meet in new small groups. In each small group there should be a representative of each picture.
- Students tell one another about their pictures.
- While all students in the groups contribute, a secretary writes the story they create around the pictures.
- Place all the pictures in a visible place.
- A representative from each group reads the group’s story, while you re-arrange the pictures as they appear in the story if they make one.
From Natalie Hess Ch. 5 on Working Well in Groups
If I Won the Lottery
Learner outcomes: to teach present unreal conditional sentences and to give the learners a break in the lesson as they imagine something they might like to do. (The present unreal condition refers to a situation that is contrary to fact or not the case. The speaker is imagining what would happen if the situation were different from what it actually is.) Reading comprehension and speaking.
Time: 20-30 Minutes
Procedure:
- Bring in an ad or newspaper article about the lottery to facilitate a group introductory discussion – how often do drawings occur, what amounts of money can be won etc.
- Read or tell a story about someone who actually won a lottery (news article).
- Have the students imagine that they have won the lottery and ask them to also imagine what they would do if they won the lottery.
- Share your own thoughts, using the conditional clause “If I won the lottery, I would…” This will demonstrate the appropriate sentence structure for the students to use. Write it on the board so students can reference it.
- Invite the students to share with a partner what they would do and then share with the whole group.
- As follow up questions to the student responses to extend the discussion (ex: if a student says, “If I won the lottery, I would travel around the world.”, you could ask “How long would your trip last?” “What countries would you visit?”… you could also involve other learners by asking “Who else would like to go on this trip?”)
- Provide the learners with other conditional examples using if/would:
- If Bill asked Helen to marry him, she would say yes.
- If my brother visited us at Christmas, I would be very happy.
Pronoun Search
Learner outcomes: grammar review, scanning a text
Level: beginners-intermediate
Preparation: Choose a text that has a variety of pronouns in it, preferable a text that you have already studied with your students.
Procedure
- Explain that a pronoun is a word that takes the place of a noun. Examples: I, you, he, she, it, we, you, they, who, whom.
- In small groups, students find as many pronouns and antecedents (the word that the pronoun refers to) as they can in the text.
- The first group reads out the pronouns and antecedents they found in the first sentence of the text. As soon as a pronoun is mentioned, it is crossed off everyone’s list.
- The second group does the same with the next sentence. Continue until the text has been covered. The group that has a pronoun that one has found is the winner.
Variation: You can do the same activity with a variety of grammatical categories like verbs, adjectives, or nouns.
From Natalie Hess Ch. 5 on Working Well in Groups
Thanks so much and happy teaching everyone!
Sara, Catherine, Sally & Annabelle
