ENJOY YOUR ENGLISH - SAMPLER
The full range of activities for communication using English can be found at http://educationmatters-jpc.blogspot.com
ACTIVITIES & TECHNIQUES TO IMPROVE READING
1. You are listening to an individual pupil read. He reads the text quietly, you help out when he gets stuck on a word. Good technique? Afraid not. In fact, you are probably hindering his reading development because you are asking him to sub-vocalise every word. Sub-vocalisation reduces reading speed considerably. What should you do?
He reads silently, his finger following beneath the text as he reads it. He taps twice when he reaches a word that give him difficulty. You say it quietly, he repeats the word, then moves on as before. Check comprehension with a few questions here and there.
Ask him, if you want, to read a few paragraphs out loud after he has been through the text as described above. Now he will be practising read aloud.
2. Choral reading is a technique we abandon too readily when pupils reach secondary school. However, it remains valuable for the weaker readers. The class, including the teacher, read aloud the same text together. In this way, the rhythm and intonation of the text is dictated by the teacher. Here are some variations:
Teacher reads, class may chorus only the final word of each sentence.
Teacher reads, class may chorus only the final phrase of each sentence.
Teacher reads, class may chorus only the words with Capital letters.
Teacher reads, class may chorus everything after the word and.
3. Most learners enjoy guessing games. Do not let them see the text you are about to read. Read them five words from the first paragraph. Ask them to guess what the paragraph says, in gist. Go through each paragraph in this way. Neither affirm or deny their interpretations. When you have completed the text, allow them to read through it in silence for themselves. Then discuss, paragraph by paragraph, which guesses were most accurate, and which clues led to the correct interpretation.
4. Turn your pupils into 'nonsense' detectives. Read to them the text you are about to study; they should not have seen it before; and it is better if you have read it in advance. As you read it to them, substitute words - one at a time - for some of the words that appear in the text. Try to think of words which sound like the words you are replacing, or use obviously silly substitutes. The student can stop you at any time and say: “That’s a nonsense word. I think it should be…”
5. Pupils get so used to answering questions that they can lose the ability to ask them. In class, regularly reverse roles and invite pupils to question you about the text. Be especially daring and do it with your book closed and their books open. Revenge is sweet.
6. If you are studying a text which is followed by a series of printed questions, get your pupils to cover up the text and try to answer the questions (orally). It does not matter if they are wrong; they are focusing on the essentials of the text through their own intelligence and imagination.
An alternative is to make up the questions yourself. The questions should lead the pupil/pupils through the text. You can read then read the text together to see how accurate or inaccurate the students have been in their responses.
7. Pupils need to work in pairs. One person reads the first sentence, the second person reads the next sentence, then back to the first person, and so on. Pupils are compelled to follow the sentence they are listening to, in order to be ready to read their own sentences. Generally, pupils become supportive of each other.
8. Poor readers often approach text in fear. They have become conditioned to wading through a text, word for word, in what seems an interminable process. Teach skimming and scanning early. Inculcate the idea that not everything needs to be read word for word slowly and carefully. Getting the gist is often enough.
9. Books open. Tell pupil you will give him only a short time to read this chapter. But you only want the answer to a few questions you will ask him in advance. This encourages speed and skimming and scanning.
10. Skimming is an ideal introduction to different kinds of texts. For example, in Home Economics, the class is being introduced to a recipe they have not seen before. In pairs, they are given a copy of the recipe. Quick fire, closed questions are asked: how many eggs? oven gas mark? kind of flour?; weight of raisins? They will not only be looking for the information but building up an overall picture of what the recipe is likely to involve.
11. Pupil's book closed. Tell pupil four or five key words in each sentence. Ask pupil to reconstruct sentence. After each paragraph, pupil opens book and reads the paragraph.
12. Pupil's book closed. Read passage to pupil. But pupil must guess every fourth or fifth word (variable). If the guess is correct, confirm by repeating word; if not, continue with chapter and oral cloze procedure. At end of passage pupil opens book and reads passage to helper as before.
13. Remind or pre-teach these punctuation marks:
. full stop ? question mark ! exclamation mark
Pupil's book closed.
Read to pupil. Stop at the end of each sentence.
Pupil has to say what punctuation mark ends each sentence.
Open book. Pupil reads paragraph to helper.
14. Pupil's book closed. Read each sentence backwards twice.
Pupil must reconstruct original sentence.
After each paragraph, pupil opens book and reads paragraph to helper.
15. Books open. Pupil reads text silently to himself. BUT he must hum quietly but audibly as he reads. The aim is to prevent the pupil saying the words silently to himself as he reads. Sub-vocalisation reduces reading speed considerably. Regular practice in humming while reading reduces sub-vocalisation. Eventually the humming is not required. It is quicker to read by sight than by sound.
16. Books open. Pupil reads chapter to helper. BUT pupil must read each and every sentence three times. Insist on this. When this is done, invite pupil to read chapter to you as fast as he can. He should be pleasantly surprised by his own speed and fluency.
17. Book open. Pupil must cover all of the text except the part he/she is being asked to read to the helper. After pupil has read a section, invite him/her to describe how he would like the story to continue. Pupil then reveals the next section of the story and reads it to see if it actually does go on as he would like it to. Continue procedure until a reasonable amount of reading has been achieved.
18 An A to Z of Way to Explore a Text
a) Look at the apostrophes in ‘this’ sentence.
Write down any word that has an apostrophe. Explain why it is there.
b) Find the common nouns in this sentence.
c) Find the proper nouns in this sentence if there are any.
d) Find the adjectives in this sentence.
Name an alternative adjective for each adjective you find.
e) Find the adverbs in this sentence.
Name an alternative adverb for each adverb you find.
f) Find any words you do not know the meaning of. Find out what it means.
Use it in a sentence to show you can use it appropriately.
g) Name a synonym for these words.
h) Name an antonym for these words.
i) Explain any facts you can find in this paragraph.
j) Explain any opinions you can find in this paragraph.
k) What in your opinion are the three most powerful words in this paragraph?
l) What words are used to create the atmosphere of the story.
m) How does the story hook you from the beginning?
n) Name one or two of the characters in the story.
o) Which character in the story would you most like to be? Why?
p) Which character in the story would you least like to be? Why not?
q) Write a diary entry for one of the characters in the story.
r) What questions would you like to ask the character? Ask them!
s) Write a text message to one of the characters in the story.
t) Does this story remind you of any of your memories or experiences?
u) In your opinion, what are the key moments in the story?
v) Invent an alternative ending to the story.
w) Complete the sentence... One thing I really like about this story is......
x) Complete the sentence... It would be better in this story if......
y) Write a short letter to the author of this story explaining what you think
about the story and the way that he/she has told it.
z) Make up some questions you would ask to check if someone has read the story
carefully and understood the story.
ACTIVITIES & TECHNIQUES TO ENJOY WRITING
1. DIY (Do It Yourself) Story Telling.
Texts are often followed by a series of questions. Invite your students to answer these questions before they see the text, They can then compare their versions with the original. This can be used with almost any kind of text. If no questions are provided, write your own.
2. CHANGE THE FACTS and make any other necessary changes
Select a text that matches the abilities and interests of your students. Underline some of the information in the text. Read through the text and invite students to suggest alternatives to the underlined information. Students then rewrite the text with the freedom to make as many changes as they can while still making sense. You may also invite them to extend the information in the text.
3. BEHIND THE HEADLINES
Select a number of short articles from newspapers and magazines appropriate to the age and interests of the group. Cut the headlines from the articles and have them ready for the activity. Pass out headlines to pairs or small groups of students. They must write an article to accompany the headline. Set limits to the number of words they may use. When ready, compare the students’ articles with the original articles.
4. DEAR EVERYBODY
This is best used with a new group. After you have been with your group a couple of weeks, write them a letter beginning, Dear Everybody... Tell your students something about yourself, your interests, and your hopes for them. Invite students to write their own individual letters back to you. Tell them you will respond personally to each student who writes to you. This may take you a bit of time, but it is well worth doing for a number of reasons, including establishing positive relations and discovering the writing abilities of each member in your group.
5. BE MY SECRETARY
Essentially this activity involves pairing students in the group. Then each student will take it in turn to act as the other’s secretary, and not only write notes as they are dictated but then deliver them to other members of the group. Limit the notes to around 30-50 words. The activity usually becomes fast and furious, so 15-20 minutes is enough!
6. MY PHOTO ALBUM
Give each student a blank sheet of A4 paper and tell them to fold it in half. On each of the four pages they should draw a rectangle which will serve as the frames for their ‘photographs’ Students are then instructed to draw a picture in each of the rectangle of their ‘photo album’. The photos should be about almost anything, but they should be personal, e.g. my family, my house, my best friend, my best holiday place, my hobby, a place I’d like to visit.... When ready, students can show their albums and explain the pictures. They must then write 30-50 words about each photo in their album.
7. EVERY LITTLE BIT HELPS
If possible, seat whole group in a circle though this is not really necessary, You start off the ‘story’ by giving the first word. Everyone, including you, writes down the word. A student adds the next word, and everyone writes it down. If the student offers a ‘challenging’ word, you should spell it for them. The next student offers a word, and everyone writes it down to continue to the story. This continues until you feel the class has created a worthwhile story, Of course, this activity is not restricted to narrative texts. As a follow-up, you may invite the students to take the story and individually see if they can write the story and improve it in as many ways as they can.
8. WHO AND HOW OFTEN?
Display these frequency adverbs and phrases where students can easily see them: usually –sometimes – never – hardly ever – often – regularly – frequently - rarely – seldom – occasionally – from time to time – normally - now and then – once in a blue moon.
Invite students to write one sentence of each of these which they describe how often the named individual does whatever it is they do. There should be a different person for each sentence. The people named should be known to the student who uses their name... family, friends, teachers, etc. You may get some surprises, such as ‘Mr. Smith hardly ever marks our homework.’
9. CHANGE THE LYRICS
Find a song that is popular with your students. Write down the lyrics. Give the students in pairs or small groups the lyrics. Play the song several times. As you do, invite students to rewrite the lyrics and, of course, they must fit the original tune. Choose songs that are popular with the students, not necessarily with you. You can find almost anything on youtube. The Beatles, of course, wrote a great number of songs such as Yesterday that are particularly easy to rewrite, but Beethoven’s Ode To Joy can be great fun even when your students don’t understand a single word of German.
10. THE ONE-WEEK DIARY
Invite your students to keep a diary of one week. But this diary will be unusual because instead of writing about the past, the diary encourages them to write about topics that help create a happier future. Each entry should take from a few moments to a few minutes. The diary is for the individual student; it is not for the teacher. Announce one topic each day. The topics are: Monday: A Big Thank You - Tuesday: A Terrific Time - Wednesday: My Fabulous Future - Thursday: Dear... (to someone important in their lives) - Friday: The Weekly Review (students to review the past week and describe two or three things that went really well for them). Remember this is their personal diary which they can share if they choose to do so. AND while they are writing their entries, why don’t you write yours?!
ACTIVITIES & TECHNIQUES TO ENCOURAGE SPEAKING & LISTENING
Oracy is not a subject - it is a condition
of learning in all subjects.
In everyday life we are constantly using speaking and listening to acquire, explore, develop and express knowledge and understanding through discussion with others. The skills of active listening, negotiation, building on the ideas of others to solve problems and develop new initiatives are increasingly valued in the workplace - and therefore should be equally valued in any programme of language development. No true literacy can occur without true oracy.
1. TALKING POINTS
This activity is useful once you have gained the confidence of the group. It helps engage and energise students at the start of a learning session. Ask a student to select a letter from the alphabet. Write the letter large on the whiteboard. Students must now talk about any topic beginning with this letter for precisely 1 minute. Students can then be invited to report what their conversation was about. This can also be used to explore any topic. For example, in teaching Science, invite students to suggest topics. Write each topic one at a time on the whiteboard. Students now have precisely 1 minute to discuss the topic, then report back to the group.
2. BEHIND THE HEADLINES
Collect some short newspaper and magazine articles. Cut off and keep the headlines. Show the headlines, one at a time, to the class. In pairs or in small groups, students try to guess in as much detail as possible what the article contains. Give 3 minutes per headline. Then read the original article to the class. Award points for each detail guessed correctly. Extended this, by inviting students to suggest an article entirely different from the original that the headline would suit.
3. ME – MYSELF – I
This activity offers an original way to introduce yourself to the class but it can also be used later on, but not after they have got to know you very well. Some preparation is advance is needed but usually proves well worth the effort. Select about 10 interesting facts about yourself: where you were born, hometown, favourite subjects in school, family, sports and hobbies, where you’ve travelled, etc. For each of these, prepare a single word, a date, an illustration, a symbol, a flag; in fact, anything you associate with these items. Invite your students to explore what each one stands for and its significance for you. This encourages your students to do most of the ‘work’ in getting to know you.
4. DIY (Do It Yourself) to encourage discussion
Texts, particularly those used in school and other places of education, are often followed by a series of questions that systematically test the knowledge of students studying the topic. Now and again, let your students see and discuss the questions before they study the information in the text. You can do this with almost any text, e.g. Science, History, Geography, Law, EFL, and narrative texts. It is often more fun and productive if the students know very little about the information in the text, e.g. when you’re introducing a new topic in History. If your text has no prepared questions, write a series of questions that explore the text yourself.
5. BACK TO BACK LISTENING
This activity can be used in a variety of ways to encourage students to listen actively to each other. Students in pairs are given some pieces of blank A4 people. Students then sit back to back. Student A is then given the task of describing something. As Student A is giving a description, Student B must draw what is being described as accurately as he/she can. Tasks may include: my living room, my bedroom, my dog, my cat, my little sister, my bicycle – in fact, anything that can be reasonably described and drawn. Student A then checks the accuracy of the drawing. Roles are then reversed.
6. SOUND MAPS
Students work individually. Without speaking to each other, for a period of 3 or 4 minutes, students are encouraged to listen carefully to the sounds around them. These may include ticking clocks; birds or other animals; the wind and its effect on trees, doors or windows; traffic; people talking or moving outside the room.
As they hear each sound, students locate the direction of the sound and either write it or draw it onto their paper, placing it in the appropriate position to show where the sound came from.
At the end of the listening time, students are encouraged to talk as a group about the sounds they heard, what might have made those sounds and where they were.
7. WHAT IF…..?
This activity aims to encourage students to use their imagination and to express their ideas to others. It is essential the teacher provides topics in which students may have a genuine interest. If the activity is merely mechanical, the activity will fail. Learners work in small groups (threes or fours). The leader reminds the learners that they have a limited amount of time (2-3 minutes) for this activity. The leader provides learners with a prompt idea (see examples below) which learners are encouraged to develop - however extreme or bizarre their ideas may be.The learner conducts a brief plenary session (again, only a few minutes) during which each group explains their most extreme ideas. Suggested topics: What if… you could take over this school? What if you woke up as a boy/girl tomorrow morning? What if you became President/Prime Minister of your country? What if you could make one wish that would come true?
8. INVITE STUDENTS TO DISCUSS THEIR OWN LEARNING
Your students and you should regularly review the learning that is taking place in their learning. What do they find interesting? What do they find challenging? What do they think of the balance between reading, writing, speaking and listening in your teaching? In what ways could the learning process be improved? Of course there are dangers in opening up yourself to criticism, some of which may be negative. Your feelings as a teacher may be hurt but if you don’t open yourself up to fair, friendly evaluation, you will miss the opportunity to improve yourself as a teacher and to truly engage your students. Passive learners are poor learners.
9. THE COGNITIVE INTERVIEW
The Cognitive Interview is often used by the police to help witnesses reconstruct accurate memories of what they have witnessed. You can use the Cognitive Interview to help your students memorise and recall information. In the traditional interview we start at the beginning, work step by step to the middle and then on towards the end. This method often hinders recall because the interviewee is not only being asked to remember the information but to sequence it in the ‘correct’ order. In a cognitive interview get your students to start by outlining anything they remember that occurs around the middle of the information they have been studying. They should elaborate on any points of interest they recall. They should also be encouraged to move backwards and forwards from any point they reach; for example, “What happened before…?” and “What happened after….?” rather than what happened next.
You could perhaps start by showing your students a short video (grab one from youtube). Then ask them to reconstruct what they saw and heard in as much detail as possible. Use the Cognitive Interview method. You should be amazed by how much discussion it generates.
10. THE SPEAKING & LISTENING MIND SET
This is not an activity; this is a mind set. Encourage your students to talk about practically anything and everything. Ignore mistakes students make when they are speaking. Such intervention breaks the communicative flow and discourages the student from speaking, and eventually, if students don’t speak, they will stop listening to you.
Saturday 23 July 2011
Sunday 10 July 2011
ENJOY YOUR ENGLISH PART 4
THE ‘RIGHT’ QUESTIONS GET THE ‘RIGHT KIND’ OF RESPONSES
Teachers should seek to promote a classroom where it is more important to “have a go” than it is to “get the right answer”. Hence, all responses should be welcomed – even if students are then informed that their answer lacks detail or needs clarification. When challenging, open questions are being used, there is no shame in not getting things right first time. (It is only closed questions that require a “right” answer.)
Use questions to encourage learners to using lower order thinking skills.
Use questions to encourage learners to using higher order thinking skills.
The best questions
• open up the topic (rather than close it down)
• do not have easy answers
• lead to further questions
• require a considered response
• are a challenge
Bloom's Taxonomy and Questioning
Knowledge Who…? What…? Where…? When…?
Comprehension What do we mean by…?
Application What other examples can you think of?
How could we use that…?
Analysis Why…?
What is the evidence for…?
How does that connect with…?
Synthesis What if…?
How could we improve…?
Can you think of a different way to…?
Evaluation What do you think about…?
How could we improve…?
Allow “thinking time” before expecting answers. Learners under pressure often raise their hands too quickly and say the first thing that comes into their head. In-depth questions require a more considered response. Use “thumbs up” – where students make a thumbs-up sign against their chest – to indicate that they have a response to my more open questions; although still use “hands up” for quick knowledge-based questions. Regularly do not allow thumbs or hands-up at all.
This encourages everyone, or most learners, to work out some kind of response.
FROM GOOD TO GREAT
What makes the difference between good teaching and great teaching?
1. Build Confidence - ‘Believe in yourself’
Build confidence in your students. Inspire confidence and optimism. Convince them they can achieve success. Celebrate success individually and as a group. They can learn to be good enough at anything. Your students have to be able to trust you. Respond seriously to children. Never be judgemental or mocking. Never get a laugh from the group at an individual’s expense. Confidence comes gradually; it takes time. Make building confidence a priority.
2. Don’t be afraid to make difficult decisions
Some decisions are difficult to make but if they are the right decisions, make them and stick to them – unless they turn out to be the wrong decisions. Along with your responsibility, you need to have the authority to make potentially difficult decisions in the classroom. You know what you want your group or individuals to achieve – make the decisions that will help them achieve their goals. When you know what’s right, go for it.
3. Help develop those around you – and yourself
Great teaching means leadership, and leadership involves leading. Help develop the people around you whether they are children or adults, and at the same time don’t neglect to develop yourself. Keep pushing their boundaries, and pushing your own. Get out of your comfort zone regularly. Give lots of constructive feedback. Everyone wants to do it better next time. Everyone has got strengths. Share yours, and learn from the strengths of those around you. Make the most of each other.
4. Communicate well
Being able to communicate well is the essence of great teaching. If it does not come to you naturally, work at it until it does – even if it means getting out of your comfort zone. Encourage those around you, especially your students, to enjoy communicating. Remember ‘you’ are the message, and so is the environment you create for your students. When students come into your learning zone, they should feel it is a warm, welcoming place where they can feel at home. And your learning zone should quickly become their learning zone. Make it easy for others to communicate with you. Start by listening. Help others clarify and express what it is they want to communicate.
5. The best teachers are non-conformists
Being a ‘non-conformist’ does not mean running around causing mischief for its own sake. But it does mean questioning the status quo, looking at how things can be improved, trying other ways of doing things, taking risks, and seeing teaching and learning as an adventure. Non-conformists are willing to look at changes; they enjoy trying out new ideas; they welcome innovation that works. Good teachers get bored easily; they are on the lookout for trying to do the same things differently, and this enthusiasm communicates itself to their pupils who also become more and willing to try doing the same things differently.
6. Enjoy the company of others
You are going to spend most of your life in front of young people, so if you don’t enjoy the company of young people, find another career. Teachers tend to be natural communicators, but if you’re not, it is something you can work of. We can all become who we want to be by behaving as if we were who we want to be until being who we want to be comes as naturally as being who we used to be. If you want to be a kind person, be kind to those around you until ‘being kind’ is ‘you’. Bounce ideas off those around you, colleagues and children. It’s a lot more fun than only bouncing ideas off the walls of your mind.
7. Keep an eye on the bigger picture
There’s a world beyond your classroom. There’s a world beyond your school. There’s a world beyond education. There’s a world. Look outside your world. Look and see what other teachers are doing, what other educators are doing, what you can bring in from the world to your classroom, to your pupils. You, as a teacher, are the most important link your pupils have with the big, wide world out there. You are there to help open their minds, to help them make sense of the world out there, and their place in it. You are not just there to teach ‘your’ subject; you are there to teach them the world, and you start by teaching them – you.
What makes a ‘great’ teacher?
The single most important factor determining the quality of education a child receives is the quality of his teacher/teachers. It is not the ‘school’, not the curriculum, not the resources and facilities, not the management, not the leadership – it is the quality of the teacher.
Great teachers
set high expectations for all their students. They don’t give up on any of their students.
are well-prepared and well-organised. They know what they want their students to achieve and they know how to help them achieve these goals.
engage and enthuse students, individually and as a group. The teacher’s enthusiasm is contagious. Teaching and learning are fun; work becomes play becomes success.
care about their students as people. They form strong, appropriate relationships with their students. They are warm, caring, and accessible while always remaining objective.
are masters of their subject, love their subject, and can communicate both knowledge and love of their subject. A great history teacher is a historian.
communicate frequently with parents. They are part of the network of support for every child in their care.
spend as much time learning as they do teaching.
TEACHING & LEARNING TECHNIQUES THAT WORK
1. HANDS DOWN – NOT UP
The most common, time-honoured practice in the classroom goes like this. The teacher asks a question. Those students who are confident they know the answer put their hands up. The teacher selects one of them. The student answers. The answer is correct. The teacher asks another question. More or less the same hands go up. The procedure is repeated until the question-answer session is over. Behaviour has been good. A few of the students are content because they have been acknowledged by the teacher. Most of the students have are content because they have been left alone to slumber or daydream until the end of the session. The teacher is content because he has put a lot into the session, and good order has been maintained. But most of the students have learned very little, or at least whether they learned anything or not hasn’t been assessed.
Run the same session again but this time do not allow hands up. The question is asked but this time a student cannot predict whether or not he will be asked to answer. He doesn’t know if the teacher’s finger will point at him. He has to stay alert in case it does. He has to prepare some kind of response even if it’s only “I don’t know,” but if he says he doesn’t know, this will give the opportunity for the teacher to teach the point again. A collective groan will go up. The student is now under peer pressure to respond with something related to the question. And the students himself no longer has the refuge of withdrawing from the class.
Of course the students who do know they answer (these are the students who usually do) are becoming frustrated and annoyed. Why aren’t they being selected to answer? The teacher knows they know the right answer, so why is she bothering with those students who rarely know the answer, who rarely given any kind of answer, who simply want to be left alone? And it’s not fair because now the teacher is deliberately not choosing them to answer.
Run the same session again. Do not allow hands up. Give them time to think out their response but make your choice of student random. How? Several ways are possible. Get a set of lollipop sticks. Write the first name of each student on a lollipop stick. Stick the stick in a jar. Ask the question. Give a little thinking time. Pull out a stick. It’s that student’s turn to answer. When the student has given an answer, pop the stick back in the jar. Next question. Next random selection.
You will still get complaints. Individual students will still feel under pressure. So... pull two lollipop sticks from the jar. Either student can answer. Or both students can support each other in answering the question. Take even more of the pressure from yourself by getting students to draw the sticks when you ask a question.
Prepare for resistance, reluctance and resentment. Few people like change, and that includes teachers as well as students. You’ve all been in a reasonably comfortable routine. Why change things? Because not enough learning has been going on. And you, as a teacher, want to maximise the learning, maximise the engagement of your students, and maximise your own enjoyment. Routine is the great deadener. Take chances. Go for something different. And in this case the hands-down approach will work as long as you stick to it for long enough.
2. INVOLVE EVERY STUDENT
In the ideal classroom we would like to engage every student, and there’s a simple low technology way we can do this. Get your students into the habit of using the mini whiteboard. Mini whiteboards are popular in junior schools but they can be used just as effectively with learners of any age.
Let’s take a straightforward example. You are revising French vocabulary. You call out an English word. Each student writes down the French word on their mini white board. At your signal they hold up their white boards. Students who have no idea leave the boards on the desk. You can make a quick assessment how well that item has been learned, whether it should be taught again, and which students need more revision. Of course, students can work as individuals, in pairs, or in small groups. The key is that every student in the class is being given the opportunity to respond.
Another example. You are teaching algebra. You want to check learning. You write a series of equations on the main whiteboard. After each equation, you give students time to work out their answers on their whiteboards. They then show their responses. You get a lot of relevant information about your students’ learning immediately, and you can plan appropriately.
Another example. You are revising important cases. You ask your students to note down on their mini whiteboards which case you are referring to as soon as they can identify it, and then turn their boards face down on the desk. You begin giving key facts about the case. As each student identifies the case, they note the name down, and turn over their boards. The competitive element adds to the fun.
Using mini whiteboards is a simple but highly effective technique. They should be available in every classroom for students of all ages and of all abilities. Involve and engage all of your students.
3. INSTANT FEEDBACK
Wouldn’t it be useful if we could have instant feedback about how well our students have understood a new idea or concept? There is a simple way we can get it.
Get coloured card: green, red and yellow. Cut them up and make sets of three cards, each of a different colour. Make sufficient sets for your largest class. Hand a set to each student.
When teaching a concept, pause regularly and ask your student to hold up the coloured card that shows how well they think they are understanding the concept. Green = fine. Yellow = not sure. Red = not very well.
Adapt your teaching to suit their learning needs. Think of other ways you can use this ‘traffic light’ system. Remember regular feedback from your students will make you a better teacher.
4. HIGHLIGHTING EFFECTIVELY
1. Highlight the key points in each paragraph. Highlight only the essential.
Discourage the tendency to highlight everything. Highlighting is an aid to
memory.
2. You, the teacher, may dictate what is to be highlighted, or students may
choose to highlight what they feel is essential. You can compare what you have
highlighted with what your students have chosen to highlight.
3. Discuss the highlighted items without reference to what is around them. In
other words, students are encouraged to express the central ideas in their own
words.
4. For revision/homework, issue copies of only the highlighted material on which
the work should be based. This can be as simple as wiring up the highlighted
information on the board and asking students to recreate the original in their
own words. Better still is to set the students a question based on topic which
ensures students must explore the meaning/significance of what they are
writing about.
5. Keep a set of highlighters in class for the students to use but also ask them
to keep highlighters of their own.
5. STUDENTS REVIEW THEIR OWN LEARNING
Regularly invite your students to review their own learning with you. This does not mean reviewing what they have learned but how effectively they have learned it. This will involve examining the process of learning and should provide you with useful guidance on the effectiveness of your teaching as well as their learning.
For example: “We have just finished studying the Mormons in the early U.S.A. How well do you think you have learned the topic? How could we learn it better? Can you suggest anything that would help you learn it more thoroughly? How can we confirm we’ve learned it?” Such reviews can be applied to any topic. For example, “We have been studying when to use the past tense and when to use the perfect tense in English. How confident are you in using the appropriate tense? What would help you become more confident in using these tenses appropriately?”
It is essential for teacher and students to establish a dialogue about how the students are learning just as much as what they are learning. Their learning must always take priority over our teaching. Teaching without learning is pointless.
6. ALLOW STUDENTS TO INTERVIEW THEIR TEACHER
Regularly allow your students to interview you about what they/you have been studying. Among other things, it helps you master the material and express it clearly for them. Encourage students to ask tangential questions related to the material. Effective teaching is not ‘jugs and mugs; effective learning is a two-way process.
7. SETTING TIME LIMITS
Regularly set time limits in which classwork should be done. Work to the formula ‘average student + n minutes’. Do not allow the slowest or the fastest in the class to dictate the rate at which work is to be done. Learning to work within time limits is a key skill.
Have extension assignments ready for those who are likely to finish fastest. These should already be up on the whiteboard. These questions should be intriguing. They must not be mere time-occupiers. The more able students welcome a challenge. Pose questions that invite analyzing, categorizing, sequencing, synthesizing, prioritizing, sequencing. Make your students think. It is thinking that keeps them interested. One of the most effective ‘thinking’ questions is that “What if….?” question. Or, when possible and appropriate, personalise the questions: “What would you do….?” and “What would you have done….?”
Encourage students to brainstorm under examination conditions. This means brainstorming plus some kind of organisation of the brainstormed material (numbering is simplest). Again set time limits for the brainstorming. You do not need to move from the brainstorming to a full piece of work every time. The brainstorming has its own value. Above all, it encourages students to think and organize their thinking.
8. THE COGNITIVE INTERVIEW
The Cognitive Interview is often used by the police to help witnesses reconstruct accurate memories of what they have witnessed. You can use the Cognitive Interview to help your students memorise and recall information. In the traditional interview we start at the beginning, work step by step to the middle and then on towards the end. This method often hinders recall because the interviewee is not only being asked to remember the information but to sequence it in the ‘correct’ order.
In a cognitive interview get your students to start by outlining anything they remember that occurs around the middle of the information they have been studying. They should elaborate on any points of interest they recall.
They should also be encouraged to move backwards and forwards from any point they reach; for example, “What happened before…?” and “What happened after….?” rather than what happened next.
Where possible, get students to recall the information from different perspectives, e.g. not the victim but the perpetrator; not Romeo but Tybalt; not the immune system but the antibodies. By doing this, you are not only reinforcing recall but you are freeing the imagination, increasing enjoyment, and strengthening holistic appreciation of what under review. Do not restrict the cognitive interview to obvious topics; it can be used equally effectively with any information that has to be memorised.
9. PLANNING QUESTION-ANSWER SESSION
Effective teaching and learning is largely based on the dialogue between teacher and learners. This in turn is based on questioning that leads learners to explore topics in depth and detail, and questioning that not only encourages learners to understand, appreciate and apply knowledge but to seek to extend that knowledge. Effective questioning is not only a skill but an art form since it often seeks emotional involvement from those involved. In other words, if teacher and learners are not enjoying the dialogue, debate, discussion, only superficial learning is likely to take place. Here are some guidelines but remember the importance of flexibility, be ready to change and pursue avenues of interest that open up during the session.
Plan key questions that provide structure and direction to the session. Spontaneous topics that emerge are fine but the overall direction of the discussion should be under your control, not the control of the learners.
Phrase your questions clearly and specifically. Avoid vague and ambiguous questions unless you deliberately wish some of the questions to be vague and ambiguous.
Offer a range of questions adapted to the range of abilities of the learners in your group. Provide a mixture of open and closed questions.
All your learners to respond to your questions with questions of their own but try to field these questions to other learners rather than immediately answer them yourself.
Ask questions logically and sequentially unless you are using the Cognitive Interview.
Give students time to think before inviting answers – Wait Time. Do not demand immediate answers; this only closes down thinking and reflection.
Sometimes allow learners to work out in pairs what answer they wish to give.
Do not always allow ‘hands up’. Let the learners know that you will often choose who is invited to answer any particular question.
Follow up on learners’ responses. Elicit longer, more meaningful and more frequent responses by –
maintaining a deliberate but comfortable and welcoming silence. This gently pressurises learners to fill the silence by offering more information and comment.
declaring perplexity over the response – “I’m not quite sure I understand you.” – a little frown often does the trick.
making a declarative statement – “That’s a very accurate explanation,” or “You’re on the right track but the explanation needs a little more detail.”
encourage other learners to comment constructively on a response and to elaborate where appropriate.
allow learners to question you about what is being learned; allow them to consult the text, if there is one, in order to form their questions; their questioning will often be more challenging than yours.
Elaboration is a thousand times better than mere rehearsal/repetition. Elaborate what you are teaching – through your own experiences, their experiences, previous knowledge, wider context, where the information will take us next. All knowledge is dead unless we bring it alive for our students.
10. MEMORY TECHNIQUES THAT WORK
Many memory techniques are based on three fundamental principles: association, imagination and location.
1. Association is the method by which you link a thing to be remembered to a method of remembering it. Things can be associated by – being placed on top of each other, merging together, wrapping round each other, dancing together, being the same colour, smell, shape, or feeling, etc.
2. Imagination is used to create and links and associations. Imagination is the way in which you use your mind to create the links that have the most meaning for you. The more strongly you imagine and visualise a situation, the more effectively it will stick in your mind for later recall. Mnemonic imagination can be as violent, vivid, or sensual as you like, as long as it helps you to remember what needs to be remembered.
3. Location provides you with two things: a context into which information can be placed so that it hangs together, and a way of separating one mnemonic from another: e.g. by setting one mnemonic in your bedroom, you can separate it from a similar mnemonic located in your kitchen.
Using these three fundamentals of Association, Imagination and Location you can design images that strongly link things with the links between themselves and other things, in a context that allows you to recall those images in a way that does not conflict with other images and associations.
1. Scatter and Splatter your room with subject/topic specific words learners have difficulty assimilating and/or spelling. Information is absorbed unconsciously when we are repeatedly exposed to it. In addition, the physical context where we learn information helps in recalling the information at a later date.
2. The Method of Loci: (for up to twenty items)
Select any location that you have spent a lot of time in and have easily memorized. Imagine yourself walking through the location, selecting clearly defined places--the door, sofa, refrigerator, shelf, etc. Imagine yourself putting objects/labels that you need to remember into each of these places by walking through this location in a direct path. Again, you need a standard direct path and clearly defined locations for objects to facilitate the retrieval of these objects. When you want to recall the information, stroll through the location and visualize the required information.
3. The Image-Name Technique: (for remembering names)
Simply invent any relationship between the name and the physical characteristics of the person. For example, if you had to remember Herman Goering’s name, you might ingrain the name in memory by imagining Goering snoring in bed (for which he was well known.)
4. Devise large Stick Post-It Notes and pop them up all round your classroom. People find it difficult not to absorb what’s in front of them every day. Encourage your students to stick post their bedrooms during examinations. Your students can take down a post-it note when they’re completely sure they have absorbed the information.
5. Doodle for recall. Sometimes allow your learners to doodle while you are revising a topic. They may doodle whatever they wish but you can encourage them to doodle whatever comes into their minds as you revise the material. Make it clear that you will not look at any of their doodles – doodles are personal. Many of their graphic responses (doodles) will appear to have nothing to do with the topic. This doesn’t matter at all. What does matter is that your learners have created responses personal to them.
6. Listen to learn and to remember. Auditory learners relate most effectively to the spoken word. Auditory learners make up around 30% of the population. They tend to listen to a teacher, and then take notes afterwards, or rely on printed notes. Often information written down has little meaning until it has been heard. It helps auditory learners to read written information out loud. Identify the auditory learners in your class and give them appropriate advice.
7. Kinaesthetic learners learn effectively through touch and movement and space, and learn skills by imitation and practice. Kinaesthetic learners can appear slow, in that information is normally not presented in a style that suits their learning methods. Kinaesthetic learners make up around 5% of the population
8. Encourage students to whisper their responses to each other. This helps them encode the information in their acoustic memories. This worked for Einstein and it can work for your students – and for you.
9. Concept cards. Divide a sheet of A4 card into 8 cards. On each set of cards, write in large black print a key word or phrase from the topic area you have been studying. Keep each set secured with an elastic band. Frequently, take out a set of concept cards and hold them up one at a time to the class. “Tell me anything and everything you know about this…concept/idea.”
10. Take your students outside the classroom and teach them as you stroll around the grounds. When the weather is fine, all sit down for ten minutes and continues the lesson. Then get up, stroll, sit, and repeat until class time is over.
11. VARY WRITING TASKS
1. Hop-Step-Jump Vary the amount of written output you expect from you learners by varying the number of words you expect from them and the amount of time you give them to produce their responses. For example, you may pose the question “Did Romeo and Juliet both have to die?” and request 100 words in 15 minutes (a hop) or 250 words in 30 minutes (a step) or 400 words in 45 minutes (a jump). Learner will have to vary the speed of their thinking and the speed at which they get their thoughts on paper. In this way they increase their flexibility of response.
2. Scribble Scribble Give students plenty of practice in coping with time limits by scribbling out their responses as fast as they can within the time you set. Make it clear to them that you are not interested in presentation, spelling and handwriting – though the handwriting should be reasonably legible. This approach helps learners fix what they want to say because they are not distracted by the form in which they have to say it.
3. Essay Exchange Allow learners in pairs to review, proof read and correct each other’s work before it is handed in to you. Allow them to discuss with each other any amendments they have made. When they have had sufficient practice in this, encourage them to critically assess each other’s work, suggest improvements and make amendments to their own work before it is submitted to you. The teacher should not be the only ‘teacher’ in the group; everyone in the group can be a teacher as well as a learner.
4. You Do It Too While your students are writing their responses, you should sometimes write your response, too. Your response must be handwritten and at the level produced by ‘good’ students. Photocopy your effort, then passes copies to pairs of students, and invite them to assess your response constructively. Then open a discussion based on your response. Following this discussion, invite your students to assess and grade their own responses in comparison to the grade they have given you.
5. The Late Review During the last few minutes of the class period, ask students to answer on a half-sheet of paper: “What is the most important point you learned today?” and, “What point remains least clear to you?”. The purpose is to elicit data about students' comprehension of a particular class session. Review responses and note any useful comments. At the beginning of the next session discuss any relevant points and issues that have been raised by students’ reviews.
6. One Sentence Summary After a short period of teaching, invite students to sum up the main point of the topic in a single sentence. The aim is to enable students to select the defining feature of a topic. Take in the sentences. Mix them up. Read them out randomly and, one at a time, invite students to comment on how accurately each sentence sums up the topic. This works best when you, the teacher, have decided in advance what topic you will ask your students to sum up.
7. The Dummies’ Guide When a text or topic is particularly complex, divide your students into groups. Get each group to take a section of the text and rewrite it for ‘dummies’. In other words, they should simplify the text as far as they possibly can without destroying its essential meaning.
8. Divide a text you have been studying into sections. Students, in pairs, must devise and write questions for the sections they have been given. Their questions must test other students’ knowledge of the text in depth and detail.
9. Help your students get inside the mind of the examiner by giving out past papers from which the questions have been removed. The task of your students is to imagine what questions the examiner actually asked for the particular examination. Students, in pair or small groups, should then generate the written notes and/or plan they would base their responses on.
10. Flash Cards After studying a topic in some depth, prepare blank flash cards for your students. They should complete them with the information they can keep and use as genuine, personalized flash cards.
12. THE CASE STUDY
A case study allows your students to focus on a particular aspect in depth and detail. A case study can be held on practically anything – for example, ‘Was the execution of Mary Queen of Scots politically necessary?’ or ‘How effective are wind farms at producing energy?’ or ‘Is synchronised swimming really a sport?’
1. As teacher, your task is to formulate the question that enables students to focus on the case study. Your task is also to provide students with copies of the material they need to study the case, analyse its important aspects, and reach appropriate conclusions.
2. As teacher, your task is not to lead the discussion. Your task is to help keep the discussion focused and on track but you should intervene as little as possible.
3. A large group should be subdivided into smaller groups so that every student has the opportunity to participate. Each group should choose a chair person whose task is to keep notes and report back at the end of the sub-group sessions.
4. Discussion and analysis of the case follow with the entire group.
5. The whole process should not take longer than 20-25 minutes.
Be prepared for the first few case studies to be messy. Students are learning to work independently of the teacher. They are learning to see the inter-relations between factors in the case themselves rather than always being told what these are. They are learning to co-operate, collaborate, communicate, and see matters from others’ points of view as well as from their own. Limiting the time for the case study will encourage students to distinguish relevant material from the superficial and superfluous. Case studies will allow you, the teacher, observe your students teaching themselves.
13. POT POURRI OF IDEAS
1. PLAY IT AGAIN, Sam
Use music in the background when students are doing written work. Music sets the background noise level and often settles down noisier classes. Do not choose ‘pop’ music with lyrics known to the class. Classical music – Bach, Mozart – have proved most effect. Ignore individual complaints; often it’s best to turn on the music after the class has begun writing. Explain to the class that this is ‘brain music’ that helps them produce better work; it usually does.
2. VARY THE INPUT
Use a variety of texts and reference books in class. For example, if you are teaching an item in science, have two or three more books (for the teacher, not the student) which deal with the topic and read the topic to them. Be ready to explore and exploit any differences. Remember: we are teaching expression of the material as well as the material itself.
3. PREVIEW WORK TO BE DONE AT HOME and IN CLASS
Build an opportunity in class time for students to preview the work they are going to do at home, for example, outlining the key points. Students should not only note their homework in their planners, but also note the time when they intend to do it. For example: 5-5.30pm for a particular item. Of course, they will not always or even often stick to the plan, but it is a way to get them started thinking about their use of time.
Give students the assignment one week in advance. Let them know they will have to do the assignment under examination conditions after preparation week.
4. CLOZE TECHNIQUES
Cloze techniques went out of fashion because they became too mechanical. But a little creative thought can make their use effective and enjoyable. For example, after reading a new passage to students, get them to cloze you verbally, paragraph by paragraph. In trying to catch you out, they will need to focus on the more tricky items themselves.
5. RELEVANCY PRACTICE
Ask students to open their text books to a topic you have been covering in some detail. Write up a question on the board – the question should demand only some of the material. Invite students to work through the material and select, verbally or written, only the information relevant to your question. Then rub out of the original question, write up a new one, and repeat the process. Repeat again.
6. APPLICATION CARDS
After teaching about an important theory, principle, or procedure, ask students to write down at least one real-world application for what they have just learned to determine how well they can transfer their learning. Quickly read once through the applications and categorize them according to their quality. Pick out a broad range of examples and present them to the class.
7. CHAIN NOTES
After studying a topic, write a relevant question on a largish envelope and get students to pass it round the group. Each students must write their answer to the question in around 50-75 words, then pop their answer, unseen by other students, into the envelope. When everyone has submitted an answer, lay the envelope aside until fifteen minutes before the end of the class. Then take one answer out a time and discuss the quality and accuracy of each response.
8. MP3 RECORDINGS
Make MP3 recordings of some of your most important ‘lectures’ and make them available for your students to download and use on their own MP3 players, computers, mobile phones, etc. Your IT department will be willing to help. This means your students can revise anywhere, anytime.
9. TEACH IN LINE WITH THE SPECIFICATIONS
When preparing your students for public examinations, make sure that what you are teaching is in line with the specifications for these examinations. Make photo-copies of the specifications and get your students to paste them into the front of their workbooks. Refer regularly and often to the specifications. No matter how brilliant you are as a teacher, your students will not thank you if they go into an examination and find what they are being tested on is not that you have been teaching them.
10. PROVIDE MODELS OF ANSWERS
Provide your students with models of the answers they will be required to produce under examination conditions. This does not mean providing them with ‘model answers’ they can reproduce verbatim in the examination, but they do need to know what a ‘good’ response looks, sounds and feels like. Get them into the habit of writing their own ‘models of answers’. These should not simply be a reproduction of what’s in the text book, but responses that show genuine knowledge and understanding on their part.
14. COMMENTS NOT GRADES
Most teachers spend hours writing comments on students’ work. They add a grade or level and return the work to the students who immediately look at the grade, glance at the comments, and then forget or ignore the comments. Students are ‘hooked’ on grades, addicted, brain-washed into believing only the grades are really important. And like any drug, the over-use of grades distorts and undermines the learning process.
Consider not giving grades or levels when work is returned. Put the focus on constructive, helpful comments that guide students into appreciating the merits of their work and understanding how it can be improved. Avoid negative comments because your students will simply interpret them as meaning the work is worth only a poor grade and therefore has little merit.
Prepare yourself for disbelief, resentment and protest, particularly amongst students who usually get high grades. They are likely to be more addicted to grades and levels than students who usually get lower grades. The more able students are often the most seriously addicted; they have learned to work for the reward of the grade rather than the pleasure of doing good work for its own sake.
Make sure that you and your students ‘do something’ with the comments you have taken so much time to produce.
Invite your students to discuss why they received the comments you gave their work. Place your students in pairs or small groups to discuss the comments they received and why the comments were fair and reasonable. Several of your comments should invite/instruct your students to do something with the work, e.g. rewrite the second paragraph making it more descriptive; rewrite the first part of the story as a dialogue rather than a narrative; select 10 words and offer synonyms for these words; make 5 similar equations, solve them, then test me (the teacher) on them.
Comments are largely a waste of time unless they move the students farther on.
You do not have to abandon grades completely. You, as the teacher, should be keeping a record of the grades given. But decrease the frequency you give out grades. You can perhaps let your students know that a summative overall grade will be given at the end of each month. This will enable students to track their progress in a more meaningful way than a grade/level for every piece of work they hand in.
Be prepared for protests from other teachers as well as from many of your students. Many of them, particularly managers, are as addicted to ‘grade addiction’ as the students. But few things distort and undermine the learning process as grades and National Curriculum levels. The time is long overdue for us to wean our students and ourselves from them.
Teachers should seek to promote a classroom where it is more important to “have a go” than it is to “get the right answer”. Hence, all responses should be welcomed – even if students are then informed that their answer lacks detail or needs clarification. When challenging, open questions are being used, there is no shame in not getting things right first time. (It is only closed questions that require a “right” answer.)
Use questions to encourage learners to using lower order thinking skills.
Use questions to encourage learners to using higher order thinking skills.
The best questions
• open up the topic (rather than close it down)
• do not have easy answers
• lead to further questions
• require a considered response
• are a challenge
Bloom's Taxonomy and Questioning
Knowledge Who…? What…? Where…? When…?
Comprehension What do we mean by…?
Application What other examples can you think of?
How could we use that…?
Analysis Why…?
What is the evidence for…?
How does that connect with…?
Synthesis What if…?
How could we improve…?
Can you think of a different way to…?
Evaluation What do you think about…?
How could we improve…?
Allow “thinking time” before expecting answers. Learners under pressure often raise their hands too quickly and say the first thing that comes into their head. In-depth questions require a more considered response. Use “thumbs up” – where students make a thumbs-up sign against their chest – to indicate that they have a response to my more open questions; although still use “hands up” for quick knowledge-based questions. Regularly do not allow thumbs or hands-up at all.
This encourages everyone, or most learners, to work out some kind of response.
FROM GOOD TO GREAT
What makes the difference between good teaching and great teaching?
1. Build Confidence - ‘Believe in yourself’
Build confidence in your students. Inspire confidence and optimism. Convince them they can achieve success. Celebrate success individually and as a group. They can learn to be good enough at anything. Your students have to be able to trust you. Respond seriously to children. Never be judgemental or mocking. Never get a laugh from the group at an individual’s expense. Confidence comes gradually; it takes time. Make building confidence a priority.
2. Don’t be afraid to make difficult decisions
Some decisions are difficult to make but if they are the right decisions, make them and stick to them – unless they turn out to be the wrong decisions. Along with your responsibility, you need to have the authority to make potentially difficult decisions in the classroom. You know what you want your group or individuals to achieve – make the decisions that will help them achieve their goals. When you know what’s right, go for it.
3. Help develop those around you – and yourself
Great teaching means leadership, and leadership involves leading. Help develop the people around you whether they are children or adults, and at the same time don’t neglect to develop yourself. Keep pushing their boundaries, and pushing your own. Get out of your comfort zone regularly. Give lots of constructive feedback. Everyone wants to do it better next time. Everyone has got strengths. Share yours, and learn from the strengths of those around you. Make the most of each other.
4. Communicate well
Being able to communicate well is the essence of great teaching. If it does not come to you naturally, work at it until it does – even if it means getting out of your comfort zone. Encourage those around you, especially your students, to enjoy communicating. Remember ‘you’ are the message, and so is the environment you create for your students. When students come into your learning zone, they should feel it is a warm, welcoming place where they can feel at home. And your learning zone should quickly become their learning zone. Make it easy for others to communicate with you. Start by listening. Help others clarify and express what it is they want to communicate.
5. The best teachers are non-conformists
Being a ‘non-conformist’ does not mean running around causing mischief for its own sake. But it does mean questioning the status quo, looking at how things can be improved, trying other ways of doing things, taking risks, and seeing teaching and learning as an adventure. Non-conformists are willing to look at changes; they enjoy trying out new ideas; they welcome innovation that works. Good teachers get bored easily; they are on the lookout for trying to do the same things differently, and this enthusiasm communicates itself to their pupils who also become more and willing to try doing the same things differently.
6. Enjoy the company of others
You are going to spend most of your life in front of young people, so if you don’t enjoy the company of young people, find another career. Teachers tend to be natural communicators, but if you’re not, it is something you can work of. We can all become who we want to be by behaving as if we were who we want to be until being who we want to be comes as naturally as being who we used to be. If you want to be a kind person, be kind to those around you until ‘being kind’ is ‘you’. Bounce ideas off those around you, colleagues and children. It’s a lot more fun than only bouncing ideas off the walls of your mind.
7. Keep an eye on the bigger picture
There’s a world beyond your classroom. There’s a world beyond your school. There’s a world beyond education. There’s a world. Look outside your world. Look and see what other teachers are doing, what other educators are doing, what you can bring in from the world to your classroom, to your pupils. You, as a teacher, are the most important link your pupils have with the big, wide world out there. You are there to help open their minds, to help them make sense of the world out there, and their place in it. You are not just there to teach ‘your’ subject; you are there to teach them the world, and you start by teaching them – you.
What makes a ‘great’ teacher?
The single most important factor determining the quality of education a child receives is the quality of his teacher/teachers. It is not the ‘school’, not the curriculum, not the resources and facilities, not the management, not the leadership – it is the quality of the teacher.
Great teachers
set high expectations for all their students. They don’t give up on any of their students.
are well-prepared and well-organised. They know what they want their students to achieve and they know how to help them achieve these goals.
engage and enthuse students, individually and as a group. The teacher’s enthusiasm is contagious. Teaching and learning are fun; work becomes play becomes success.
care about their students as people. They form strong, appropriate relationships with their students. They are warm, caring, and accessible while always remaining objective.
are masters of their subject, love their subject, and can communicate both knowledge and love of their subject. A great history teacher is a historian.
communicate frequently with parents. They are part of the network of support for every child in their care.
spend as much time learning as they do teaching.
TEACHING & LEARNING TECHNIQUES THAT WORK
1. HANDS DOWN – NOT UP
The most common, time-honoured practice in the classroom goes like this. The teacher asks a question. Those students who are confident they know the answer put their hands up. The teacher selects one of them. The student answers. The answer is correct. The teacher asks another question. More or less the same hands go up. The procedure is repeated until the question-answer session is over. Behaviour has been good. A few of the students are content because they have been acknowledged by the teacher. Most of the students have are content because they have been left alone to slumber or daydream until the end of the session. The teacher is content because he has put a lot into the session, and good order has been maintained. But most of the students have learned very little, or at least whether they learned anything or not hasn’t been assessed.
Run the same session again but this time do not allow hands up. The question is asked but this time a student cannot predict whether or not he will be asked to answer. He doesn’t know if the teacher’s finger will point at him. He has to stay alert in case it does. He has to prepare some kind of response even if it’s only “I don’t know,” but if he says he doesn’t know, this will give the opportunity for the teacher to teach the point again. A collective groan will go up. The student is now under peer pressure to respond with something related to the question. And the students himself no longer has the refuge of withdrawing from the class.
Of course the students who do know they answer (these are the students who usually do) are becoming frustrated and annoyed. Why aren’t they being selected to answer? The teacher knows they know the right answer, so why is she bothering with those students who rarely know the answer, who rarely given any kind of answer, who simply want to be left alone? And it’s not fair because now the teacher is deliberately not choosing them to answer.
Run the same session again. Do not allow hands up. Give them time to think out their response but make your choice of student random. How? Several ways are possible. Get a set of lollipop sticks. Write the first name of each student on a lollipop stick. Stick the stick in a jar. Ask the question. Give a little thinking time. Pull out a stick. It’s that student’s turn to answer. When the student has given an answer, pop the stick back in the jar. Next question. Next random selection.
You will still get complaints. Individual students will still feel under pressure. So... pull two lollipop sticks from the jar. Either student can answer. Or both students can support each other in answering the question. Take even more of the pressure from yourself by getting students to draw the sticks when you ask a question.
Prepare for resistance, reluctance and resentment. Few people like change, and that includes teachers as well as students. You’ve all been in a reasonably comfortable routine. Why change things? Because not enough learning has been going on. And you, as a teacher, want to maximise the learning, maximise the engagement of your students, and maximise your own enjoyment. Routine is the great deadener. Take chances. Go for something different. And in this case the hands-down approach will work as long as you stick to it for long enough.
2. INVOLVE EVERY STUDENT
In the ideal classroom we would like to engage every student, and there’s a simple low technology way we can do this. Get your students into the habit of using the mini whiteboard. Mini whiteboards are popular in junior schools but they can be used just as effectively with learners of any age.
Let’s take a straightforward example. You are revising French vocabulary. You call out an English word. Each student writes down the French word on their mini white board. At your signal they hold up their white boards. Students who have no idea leave the boards on the desk. You can make a quick assessment how well that item has been learned, whether it should be taught again, and which students need more revision. Of course, students can work as individuals, in pairs, or in small groups. The key is that every student in the class is being given the opportunity to respond.
Another example. You are teaching algebra. You want to check learning. You write a series of equations on the main whiteboard. After each equation, you give students time to work out their answers on their whiteboards. They then show their responses. You get a lot of relevant information about your students’ learning immediately, and you can plan appropriately.
Another example. You are revising important cases. You ask your students to note down on their mini whiteboards which case you are referring to as soon as they can identify it, and then turn their boards face down on the desk. You begin giving key facts about the case. As each student identifies the case, they note the name down, and turn over their boards. The competitive element adds to the fun.
Using mini whiteboards is a simple but highly effective technique. They should be available in every classroom for students of all ages and of all abilities. Involve and engage all of your students.
3. INSTANT FEEDBACK
Wouldn’t it be useful if we could have instant feedback about how well our students have understood a new idea or concept? There is a simple way we can get it.
Get coloured card: green, red and yellow. Cut them up and make sets of three cards, each of a different colour. Make sufficient sets for your largest class. Hand a set to each student.
When teaching a concept, pause regularly and ask your student to hold up the coloured card that shows how well they think they are understanding the concept. Green = fine. Yellow = not sure. Red = not very well.
Adapt your teaching to suit their learning needs. Think of other ways you can use this ‘traffic light’ system. Remember regular feedback from your students will make you a better teacher.
4. HIGHLIGHTING EFFECTIVELY
1. Highlight the key points in each paragraph. Highlight only the essential.
Discourage the tendency to highlight everything. Highlighting is an aid to
memory.
2. You, the teacher, may dictate what is to be highlighted, or students may
choose to highlight what they feel is essential. You can compare what you have
highlighted with what your students have chosen to highlight.
3. Discuss the highlighted items without reference to what is around them. In
other words, students are encouraged to express the central ideas in their own
words.
4. For revision/homework, issue copies of only the highlighted material on which
the work should be based. This can be as simple as wiring up the highlighted
information on the board and asking students to recreate the original in their
own words. Better still is to set the students a question based on topic which
ensures students must explore the meaning/significance of what they are
writing about.
5. Keep a set of highlighters in class for the students to use but also ask them
to keep highlighters of their own.
5. STUDENTS REVIEW THEIR OWN LEARNING
Regularly invite your students to review their own learning with you. This does not mean reviewing what they have learned but how effectively they have learned it. This will involve examining the process of learning and should provide you with useful guidance on the effectiveness of your teaching as well as their learning.
For example: “We have just finished studying the Mormons in the early U.S.A. How well do you think you have learned the topic? How could we learn it better? Can you suggest anything that would help you learn it more thoroughly? How can we confirm we’ve learned it?” Such reviews can be applied to any topic. For example, “We have been studying when to use the past tense and when to use the perfect tense in English. How confident are you in using the appropriate tense? What would help you become more confident in using these tenses appropriately?”
It is essential for teacher and students to establish a dialogue about how the students are learning just as much as what they are learning. Their learning must always take priority over our teaching. Teaching without learning is pointless.
6. ALLOW STUDENTS TO INTERVIEW THEIR TEACHER
Regularly allow your students to interview you about what they/you have been studying. Among other things, it helps you master the material and express it clearly for them. Encourage students to ask tangential questions related to the material. Effective teaching is not ‘jugs and mugs; effective learning is a two-way process.
7. SETTING TIME LIMITS
Regularly set time limits in which classwork should be done. Work to the formula ‘average student + n minutes’. Do not allow the slowest or the fastest in the class to dictate the rate at which work is to be done. Learning to work within time limits is a key skill.
Have extension assignments ready for those who are likely to finish fastest. These should already be up on the whiteboard. These questions should be intriguing. They must not be mere time-occupiers. The more able students welcome a challenge. Pose questions that invite analyzing, categorizing, sequencing, synthesizing, prioritizing, sequencing. Make your students think. It is thinking that keeps them interested. One of the most effective ‘thinking’ questions is that “What if….?” question. Or, when possible and appropriate, personalise the questions: “What would you do….?” and “What would you have done….?”
Encourage students to brainstorm under examination conditions. This means brainstorming plus some kind of organisation of the brainstormed material (numbering is simplest). Again set time limits for the brainstorming. You do not need to move from the brainstorming to a full piece of work every time. The brainstorming has its own value. Above all, it encourages students to think and organize their thinking.
8. THE COGNITIVE INTERVIEW
The Cognitive Interview is often used by the police to help witnesses reconstruct accurate memories of what they have witnessed. You can use the Cognitive Interview to help your students memorise and recall information. In the traditional interview we start at the beginning, work step by step to the middle and then on towards the end. This method often hinders recall because the interviewee is not only being asked to remember the information but to sequence it in the ‘correct’ order.
In a cognitive interview get your students to start by outlining anything they remember that occurs around the middle of the information they have been studying. They should elaborate on any points of interest they recall.
They should also be encouraged to move backwards and forwards from any point they reach; for example, “What happened before…?” and “What happened after….?” rather than what happened next.
Where possible, get students to recall the information from different perspectives, e.g. not the victim but the perpetrator; not Romeo but Tybalt; not the immune system but the antibodies. By doing this, you are not only reinforcing recall but you are freeing the imagination, increasing enjoyment, and strengthening holistic appreciation of what under review. Do not restrict the cognitive interview to obvious topics; it can be used equally effectively with any information that has to be memorised.
9. PLANNING QUESTION-ANSWER SESSION
Effective teaching and learning is largely based on the dialogue between teacher and learners. This in turn is based on questioning that leads learners to explore topics in depth and detail, and questioning that not only encourages learners to understand, appreciate and apply knowledge but to seek to extend that knowledge. Effective questioning is not only a skill but an art form since it often seeks emotional involvement from those involved. In other words, if teacher and learners are not enjoying the dialogue, debate, discussion, only superficial learning is likely to take place. Here are some guidelines but remember the importance of flexibility, be ready to change and pursue avenues of interest that open up during the session.
Plan key questions that provide structure and direction to the session. Spontaneous topics that emerge are fine but the overall direction of the discussion should be under your control, not the control of the learners.
Phrase your questions clearly and specifically. Avoid vague and ambiguous questions unless you deliberately wish some of the questions to be vague and ambiguous.
Offer a range of questions adapted to the range of abilities of the learners in your group. Provide a mixture of open and closed questions.
All your learners to respond to your questions with questions of their own but try to field these questions to other learners rather than immediately answer them yourself.
Ask questions logically and sequentially unless you are using the Cognitive Interview.
Give students time to think before inviting answers – Wait Time. Do not demand immediate answers; this only closes down thinking and reflection.
Sometimes allow learners to work out in pairs what answer they wish to give.
Do not always allow ‘hands up’. Let the learners know that you will often choose who is invited to answer any particular question.
Follow up on learners’ responses. Elicit longer, more meaningful and more frequent responses by –
maintaining a deliberate but comfortable and welcoming silence. This gently pressurises learners to fill the silence by offering more information and comment.
declaring perplexity over the response – “I’m not quite sure I understand you.” – a little frown often does the trick.
making a declarative statement – “That’s a very accurate explanation,” or “You’re on the right track but the explanation needs a little more detail.”
encourage other learners to comment constructively on a response and to elaborate where appropriate.
allow learners to question you about what is being learned; allow them to consult the text, if there is one, in order to form their questions; their questioning will often be more challenging than yours.
Elaboration is a thousand times better than mere rehearsal/repetition. Elaborate what you are teaching – through your own experiences, their experiences, previous knowledge, wider context, where the information will take us next. All knowledge is dead unless we bring it alive for our students.
10. MEMORY TECHNIQUES THAT WORK
Many memory techniques are based on three fundamental principles: association, imagination and location.
1. Association is the method by which you link a thing to be remembered to a method of remembering it. Things can be associated by – being placed on top of each other, merging together, wrapping round each other, dancing together, being the same colour, smell, shape, or feeling, etc.
2. Imagination is used to create and links and associations. Imagination is the way in which you use your mind to create the links that have the most meaning for you. The more strongly you imagine and visualise a situation, the more effectively it will stick in your mind for later recall. Mnemonic imagination can be as violent, vivid, or sensual as you like, as long as it helps you to remember what needs to be remembered.
3. Location provides you with two things: a context into which information can be placed so that it hangs together, and a way of separating one mnemonic from another: e.g. by setting one mnemonic in your bedroom, you can separate it from a similar mnemonic located in your kitchen.
Using these three fundamentals of Association, Imagination and Location you can design images that strongly link things with the links between themselves and other things, in a context that allows you to recall those images in a way that does not conflict with other images and associations.
1. Scatter and Splatter your room with subject/topic specific words learners have difficulty assimilating and/or spelling. Information is absorbed unconsciously when we are repeatedly exposed to it. In addition, the physical context where we learn information helps in recalling the information at a later date.
2. The Method of Loci: (for up to twenty items)
Select any location that you have spent a lot of time in and have easily memorized. Imagine yourself walking through the location, selecting clearly defined places--the door, sofa, refrigerator, shelf, etc. Imagine yourself putting objects/labels that you need to remember into each of these places by walking through this location in a direct path. Again, you need a standard direct path and clearly defined locations for objects to facilitate the retrieval of these objects. When you want to recall the information, stroll through the location and visualize the required information.
3. The Image-Name Technique: (for remembering names)
Simply invent any relationship between the name and the physical characteristics of the person. For example, if you had to remember Herman Goering’s name, you might ingrain the name in memory by imagining Goering snoring in bed (for which he was well known.)
4. Devise large Stick Post-It Notes and pop them up all round your classroom. People find it difficult not to absorb what’s in front of them every day. Encourage your students to stick post their bedrooms during examinations. Your students can take down a post-it note when they’re completely sure they have absorbed the information.
5. Doodle for recall. Sometimes allow your learners to doodle while you are revising a topic. They may doodle whatever they wish but you can encourage them to doodle whatever comes into their minds as you revise the material. Make it clear that you will not look at any of their doodles – doodles are personal. Many of their graphic responses (doodles) will appear to have nothing to do with the topic. This doesn’t matter at all. What does matter is that your learners have created responses personal to them.
6. Listen to learn and to remember. Auditory learners relate most effectively to the spoken word. Auditory learners make up around 30% of the population. They tend to listen to a teacher, and then take notes afterwards, or rely on printed notes. Often information written down has little meaning until it has been heard. It helps auditory learners to read written information out loud. Identify the auditory learners in your class and give them appropriate advice.
7. Kinaesthetic learners learn effectively through touch and movement and space, and learn skills by imitation and practice. Kinaesthetic learners can appear slow, in that information is normally not presented in a style that suits their learning methods. Kinaesthetic learners make up around 5% of the population
8. Encourage students to whisper their responses to each other. This helps them encode the information in their acoustic memories. This worked for Einstein and it can work for your students – and for you.
9. Concept cards. Divide a sheet of A4 card into 8 cards. On each set of cards, write in large black print a key word or phrase from the topic area you have been studying. Keep each set secured with an elastic band. Frequently, take out a set of concept cards and hold them up one at a time to the class. “Tell me anything and everything you know about this…concept/idea.”
10. Take your students outside the classroom and teach them as you stroll around the grounds. When the weather is fine, all sit down for ten minutes and continues the lesson. Then get up, stroll, sit, and repeat until class time is over.
11. VARY WRITING TASKS
1. Hop-Step-Jump Vary the amount of written output you expect from you learners by varying the number of words you expect from them and the amount of time you give them to produce their responses. For example, you may pose the question “Did Romeo and Juliet both have to die?” and request 100 words in 15 minutes (a hop) or 250 words in 30 minutes (a step) or 400 words in 45 minutes (a jump). Learner will have to vary the speed of their thinking and the speed at which they get their thoughts on paper. In this way they increase their flexibility of response.
2. Scribble Scribble Give students plenty of practice in coping with time limits by scribbling out their responses as fast as they can within the time you set. Make it clear to them that you are not interested in presentation, spelling and handwriting – though the handwriting should be reasonably legible. This approach helps learners fix what they want to say because they are not distracted by the form in which they have to say it.
3. Essay Exchange Allow learners in pairs to review, proof read and correct each other’s work before it is handed in to you. Allow them to discuss with each other any amendments they have made. When they have had sufficient practice in this, encourage them to critically assess each other’s work, suggest improvements and make amendments to their own work before it is submitted to you. The teacher should not be the only ‘teacher’ in the group; everyone in the group can be a teacher as well as a learner.
4. You Do It Too While your students are writing their responses, you should sometimes write your response, too. Your response must be handwritten and at the level produced by ‘good’ students. Photocopy your effort, then passes copies to pairs of students, and invite them to assess your response constructively. Then open a discussion based on your response. Following this discussion, invite your students to assess and grade their own responses in comparison to the grade they have given you.
5. The Late Review During the last few minutes of the class period, ask students to answer on a half-sheet of paper: “What is the most important point you learned today?” and, “What point remains least clear to you?”. The purpose is to elicit data about students' comprehension of a particular class session. Review responses and note any useful comments. At the beginning of the next session discuss any relevant points and issues that have been raised by students’ reviews.
6. One Sentence Summary After a short period of teaching, invite students to sum up the main point of the topic in a single sentence. The aim is to enable students to select the defining feature of a topic. Take in the sentences. Mix them up. Read them out randomly and, one at a time, invite students to comment on how accurately each sentence sums up the topic. This works best when you, the teacher, have decided in advance what topic you will ask your students to sum up.
7. The Dummies’ Guide When a text or topic is particularly complex, divide your students into groups. Get each group to take a section of the text and rewrite it for ‘dummies’. In other words, they should simplify the text as far as they possibly can without destroying its essential meaning.
8. Divide a text you have been studying into sections. Students, in pairs, must devise and write questions for the sections they have been given. Their questions must test other students’ knowledge of the text in depth and detail.
9. Help your students get inside the mind of the examiner by giving out past papers from which the questions have been removed. The task of your students is to imagine what questions the examiner actually asked for the particular examination. Students, in pair or small groups, should then generate the written notes and/or plan they would base their responses on.
10. Flash Cards After studying a topic in some depth, prepare blank flash cards for your students. They should complete them with the information they can keep and use as genuine, personalized flash cards.
12. THE CASE STUDY
A case study allows your students to focus on a particular aspect in depth and detail. A case study can be held on practically anything – for example, ‘Was the execution of Mary Queen of Scots politically necessary?’ or ‘How effective are wind farms at producing energy?’ or ‘Is synchronised swimming really a sport?’
1. As teacher, your task is to formulate the question that enables students to focus on the case study. Your task is also to provide students with copies of the material they need to study the case, analyse its important aspects, and reach appropriate conclusions.
2. As teacher, your task is not to lead the discussion. Your task is to help keep the discussion focused and on track but you should intervene as little as possible.
3. A large group should be subdivided into smaller groups so that every student has the opportunity to participate. Each group should choose a chair person whose task is to keep notes and report back at the end of the sub-group sessions.
4. Discussion and analysis of the case follow with the entire group.
5. The whole process should not take longer than 20-25 minutes.
Be prepared for the first few case studies to be messy. Students are learning to work independently of the teacher. They are learning to see the inter-relations between factors in the case themselves rather than always being told what these are. They are learning to co-operate, collaborate, communicate, and see matters from others’ points of view as well as from their own. Limiting the time for the case study will encourage students to distinguish relevant material from the superficial and superfluous. Case studies will allow you, the teacher, observe your students teaching themselves.
13. POT POURRI OF IDEAS
1. PLAY IT AGAIN, Sam
Use music in the background when students are doing written work. Music sets the background noise level and often settles down noisier classes. Do not choose ‘pop’ music with lyrics known to the class. Classical music – Bach, Mozart – have proved most effect. Ignore individual complaints; often it’s best to turn on the music after the class has begun writing. Explain to the class that this is ‘brain music’ that helps them produce better work; it usually does.
2. VARY THE INPUT
Use a variety of texts and reference books in class. For example, if you are teaching an item in science, have two or three more books (for the teacher, not the student) which deal with the topic and read the topic to them. Be ready to explore and exploit any differences. Remember: we are teaching expression of the material as well as the material itself.
3. PREVIEW WORK TO BE DONE AT HOME and IN CLASS
Build an opportunity in class time for students to preview the work they are going to do at home, for example, outlining the key points. Students should not only note their homework in their planners, but also note the time when they intend to do it. For example: 5-5.30pm for a particular item. Of course, they will not always or even often stick to the plan, but it is a way to get them started thinking about their use of time.
Give students the assignment one week in advance. Let them know they will have to do the assignment under examination conditions after preparation week.
4. CLOZE TECHNIQUES
Cloze techniques went out of fashion because they became too mechanical. But a little creative thought can make their use effective and enjoyable. For example, after reading a new passage to students, get them to cloze you verbally, paragraph by paragraph. In trying to catch you out, they will need to focus on the more tricky items themselves.
5. RELEVANCY PRACTICE
Ask students to open their text books to a topic you have been covering in some detail. Write up a question on the board – the question should demand only some of the material. Invite students to work through the material and select, verbally or written, only the information relevant to your question. Then rub out of the original question, write up a new one, and repeat the process. Repeat again.
6. APPLICATION CARDS
After teaching about an important theory, principle, or procedure, ask students to write down at least one real-world application for what they have just learned to determine how well they can transfer their learning. Quickly read once through the applications and categorize them according to their quality. Pick out a broad range of examples and present them to the class.
7. CHAIN NOTES
After studying a topic, write a relevant question on a largish envelope and get students to pass it round the group. Each students must write their answer to the question in around 50-75 words, then pop their answer, unseen by other students, into the envelope. When everyone has submitted an answer, lay the envelope aside until fifteen minutes before the end of the class. Then take one answer out a time and discuss the quality and accuracy of each response.
8. MP3 RECORDINGS
Make MP3 recordings of some of your most important ‘lectures’ and make them available for your students to download and use on their own MP3 players, computers, mobile phones, etc. Your IT department will be willing to help. This means your students can revise anywhere, anytime.
9. TEACH IN LINE WITH THE SPECIFICATIONS
When preparing your students for public examinations, make sure that what you are teaching is in line with the specifications for these examinations. Make photo-copies of the specifications and get your students to paste them into the front of their workbooks. Refer regularly and often to the specifications. No matter how brilliant you are as a teacher, your students will not thank you if they go into an examination and find what they are being tested on is not that you have been teaching them.
10. PROVIDE MODELS OF ANSWERS
Provide your students with models of the answers they will be required to produce under examination conditions. This does not mean providing them with ‘model answers’ they can reproduce verbatim in the examination, but they do need to know what a ‘good’ response looks, sounds and feels like. Get them into the habit of writing their own ‘models of answers’. These should not simply be a reproduction of what’s in the text book, but responses that show genuine knowledge and understanding on their part.
14. COMMENTS NOT GRADES
Most teachers spend hours writing comments on students’ work. They add a grade or level and return the work to the students who immediately look at the grade, glance at the comments, and then forget or ignore the comments. Students are ‘hooked’ on grades, addicted, brain-washed into believing only the grades are really important. And like any drug, the over-use of grades distorts and undermines the learning process.
Consider not giving grades or levels when work is returned. Put the focus on constructive, helpful comments that guide students into appreciating the merits of their work and understanding how it can be improved. Avoid negative comments because your students will simply interpret them as meaning the work is worth only a poor grade and therefore has little merit.
Prepare yourself for disbelief, resentment and protest, particularly amongst students who usually get high grades. They are likely to be more addicted to grades and levels than students who usually get lower grades. The more able students are often the most seriously addicted; they have learned to work for the reward of the grade rather than the pleasure of doing good work for its own sake.
Make sure that you and your students ‘do something’ with the comments you have taken so much time to produce.
Invite your students to discuss why they received the comments you gave their work. Place your students in pairs or small groups to discuss the comments they received and why the comments were fair and reasonable. Several of your comments should invite/instruct your students to do something with the work, e.g. rewrite the second paragraph making it more descriptive; rewrite the first part of the story as a dialogue rather than a narrative; select 10 words and offer synonyms for these words; make 5 similar equations, solve them, then test me (the teacher) on them.
Comments are largely a waste of time unless they move the students farther on.
You do not have to abandon grades completely. You, as the teacher, should be keeping a record of the grades given. But decrease the frequency you give out grades. You can perhaps let your students know that a summative overall grade will be given at the end of each month. This will enable students to track their progress in a more meaningful way than a grade/level for every piece of work they hand in.
Be prepared for protests from other teachers as well as from many of your students. Many of them, particularly managers, are as addicted to ‘grade addiction’ as the students. But few things distort and undermine the learning process as grades and National Curriculum levels. The time is long overdue for us to wean our students and ourselves from them.
ENJOY YOUR ENGLISH PART 3
13 LEARNING TO LISTEN
i. BACK TO BACK
1. Learners work in pairs. Each partner must not have seen the other’s home
before.
2. Partners sit back to back.
3. Partner A describes his/her living room in as much detail as possible.
Partner B draws a floor plan of Partner A’s living room trying to capture
the room as accurately as possible from the description.
4. After 5 minutes, leader calls time.
Partner A is not yet allowed to see the drawing.
Roles are reversed and the 5 minutes given for the second drawing.
5. On the call of time, partners may see the completed drawing and give each
other a score out of 10 for accuracy. Scores are reported to the leader.
A variation or addition is for the learners in the group to try and draw
the leader’s living room from the description. In this case, leader sits at
a distance from the group, not back to back, so leader cannot see the
drawings till they are complete.
ii. THE EMPTY CHAIR
It is important the leader is the first to answer questions asked of
the ‘empty’ chair. Firstly to model the procedure. Secondly to establish
the level of trust required.
1. The group sits in a circle. Next to the leader is an empty chair.
2. The leader explains that someone he/she knows well is sitting in the
empty chair. This can be his/her father, mother, son, daughter, cousin,
friend, etc. Do not populate the chair with anyone present.
3. The learners can ask the person in the empty chair ‘any’ questions they
want. They must ask the question in the 2nd person – Do you…? Have
you…? When did you…? Would you like to…? Do you think…?
4. The questions are answered by the leader as if they were being answered by
the person in the empty chair.
5. Volunteers from the learners are now invited to sit next to the empty chair
and answer on behalf of the occupant of the empty chair, having explained
who is now sitting there.
iii. SOUND MAPS
Students work individually. Without speaking to each other, for a
period of 3 or4 minutes, students are encouraged to listen carefully to the
sounds around them. These may include ticking clocks; birds or other
animals; the wind and its effect on trees, doors or windows; traffic;
people talking or moving outside the room.
As they hear each sound, students locate the direction of the sound and
either write it or draw it onto their paper, placing it in the appropriate
position to show where the sound came from.
At the end of the listening time, students are encouraged to talk as a
group about the sounds they heard, what might have made those sounds and
where they were.
14 HOW WELL CAN YOU RECALL?
Materials: Find half a dozen newspaper articles that have ‘packed’
opening sentences. Examples, that can be used, follow. Cut out and keep
these opening sentences. Enough lined paper for numbers of teams of 2 or
3 players. Time for game: not more than 5-7 minutes per game.
1. Teams of 2 or 3 form. Make sure each team has at least one player who can
write quickly.
2. Inform the team that you are going to read the opening sentence from a
newspaper article twice and only twice. After you’re second reading, they
must write down as many questions as they can to test the other teams’
knowledge of what’s in each article. (one article per game.)
3. You read the opening sentence twice.
4. Teams have 5 minutes to write down as many questions as possible.
The answer to each question must have only 1 or 2 words.
5. Leader collects in the questions, then asks the questions.
Teams must write down the answers immediately.
6. When all questions have been asked, the team who has the most correct
answers is the winner.
Story Examples
A 3-month-old kitten, named Lucky, had a narrow escape when she jumped
50 feet from a second floor balcony in her home in Nelson Street, got
tangled in a rose bush, picked herself up, shook herself down, then walked
away without a single scratch or even a bruise on her little white nose.
Thirteen-year-old Tommy Buckett of Nelson Road, Whitstable, got the shock
of his life this morning when he discovered a three-inch tarantula that
probably got into his house in the middle of a bunch of bananas his mum
bought for £1 at Sainsbury’s hiding under his bunk bed.
15 WHO AND HOW OFTEN?
Materials: A4 or A5 lined paper; pencils/pens.
Preparation: none
Time: usually not less than 10 minutes, often longer
This activity needs to be carried out with sensitivity.
1. On the left hand side of the white/blackboard write up the frequency
adverbs listed below in large letters.
2. On the right hand side of the white/blackboard scatter the names of the
persons in the group. Leader should include his/her name.
3. Invite group members to create one sentence for each of the frequency
adverbs using a different group member’s name each time.
4. Explain to group that only positive comments are allowed.
5. Allow around 5 – 7 minutes for the task.
6. Circle a group member’s name on the board and invite group member’s to
read out their comments. When the comments have been heard erase the group
member’s name from the board.
7. Comments about the leader should be left to last.
Frequency adverbs
usually – sometimes – never – hardly ever – often – regularly –
frequently - rarely – seldom – occasionally – from time to time – normally
- now and then – once in a blue moon
16 THAT’S MINE!
1. The Leader asks members of the group to find an object from their pockets
or from their bags.
2. Each member must drop the object into the Leader’s box or bag without
anybody seeing what the object is. The Leader must add his/her own object.
3. Everyone sits round a table.
4. The Leader takes one object out of the bag at a time and shows the object
to the group. This includes the Leader.
5. As each object is revealed, each Player must note down the name of the
person to whom the object belongs.
6. When all objects have been revealed, the Leader holds each object up, one
at a time, and asks the owner to reveal him/herself.
7. Players get 1 point every time they have correctly identified the owner on
an object.
8. Objects are returned to their rightful owners.
17 CHANGE THE LYRICS
Materials 1. Recording of a popular song that is well-known to the learners.
2. Photo-copies of the original lyrics, or project them on the OHP,
Or write them up on the whiteboard.
1. Make sure the learners can see and follow the lyrics while listening to a
recording of the song. A tape recording is best because it is easy to move
forwards and backwards amongst the lyrics.
2. Invite the learners to help you rewrite the lyrics so that they are amusing
but not offensive. This may take a few sessions because the lyrics must fit
the tune exactly.
3. Once the group is satisfied with the new lyrics, don’t waste them.
Sing them!
Suggestions: Imagine - Yesterday - - Bohemian Rhapsody
(Lyrics easily obtainable via Google)
18 BEHIND THE SONG
Materials: The lyrics of a song that lends itself to the activity.
A recording of the song to play to the group.
1. Divide the class into groups with around 4 learners each.
2. Play the class a song, preferably one they know and like.
(Bohemian Rhapsody is ideal; the head bangers love it!)
3. Do not allow the class to sing along.
4. Explain they will be able to sing along AFTER they devise
a short story explaining the ‘story’ of the song.
Only if they produce entertaining stories will they be allowed to sing
along with the recording.
5. Set 150 to 200 words as the length of each story.
Make sure each group has an efficient scribe.
6. Collect in the stories. Read them out. Enjoy them.
7. Then sing your heads off!
19 REINCARNATED
Materials: A5 lined paper; pens/pencils
Preparation: none
Most people are fascinated by the idea of reincarnation.
This fascination is used here to provoke the imagination.
This is a powerful activity; conduct with sensitivity.
1. Leader briefly explains the idea of reincarnation.
2. Leader explains that everyone in the group, including him/herself, has been
reincarnated into a new life. Their new life can take any form – animal,
plant, object.
3. Everyone is given 5 minutes to think about their new life and scribble down
notes on what it is like. Be insistent the full 5 minutes is taken in
silence, or with background muzak.
4. Leader then invites group members to describe their new lives; or leader
may choose to let group members explain to other group members what their
new lives are like.
5. Activity concludes with Leader describing his/her new life.
20 MY FAVOURITE ROOM
Materials: A4 blank paper; one sheet for each group member
A pile of coloured pencils
1. Group members, including Leader, are given a sheet of blank paper.
2. Members are instructed to draw their favourite room – not their real
favourite room, though they can base the new room on this – but the one
they would like to have; no expense spared. Members may label the room, if
they wish.
3. Members have access to the coloured pencils.
4. Allow around 10 minutes for the drawing.
5. Leader then takes in the drawings, shuffles them, and lays them face down
on the table.
6. Each member, one at a time, picks up a drawing, shows it to the group, and
then describes the room in as much detail as possible.
7. Members may then guess to whom the room belongs.
8. The room’s owner then declares himself.
9. Activity continues until all the drawings have been described.
10. Leader should then collect and keep the drawings. It is not permissible
to destroy or throw away the drawings in front of their owners.
21 WHAT IF.....?
Learners work in small groups (threes or fours).
The leader reminds the learners that they have a limited amount
of time (2-3 minutes) for this activity.
The leader provides learners with a prompt idea (see examples below)
which learners are encouraged to develop - however extreme or bizarre their
ideas may be.
The learner conducts a brief plenary session (again, only a few minutes)
during which each group explains their most extreme ideas.
WHAT IF...
we decided to drive on the right instead of the left
the moon was made of cheese
water was poisonous
all the grass disappeared overnight
all our roads turned to rivers
students had to pay to come to school
parents could choose the sex, height, eye-colour, etc. of their children.
people from Earth colonised Mars
you were able to take over this school
you woke up a boy/girl tomorrow morning
22 QUICK READING ACTIVITIES
Select a storybook your group are likely to be interested in.
If possible, select a book the group are not familiar with. These
activities are designed to explore the text at several levels. They should
be carried out quickly and only continued while the interest level of the
group is high. Then move on to another activity but it’s best not to do
more than three of these activities in any one session with your group.
1. Read out a sentence pausing to invite the group to predict the next word.
Continue the sentence, then pause again to invite the group to predict the
next word, and so on.
2. Read out half the sentence and invite the group to complete the sentence.
The group should try to predict the remainder of the sentence as accurately
as possible.
3. Read out a sentence two or three times. Then select a word at a time and
invite group to suggest an alternative word that fits the sentence. For
example: The girl ran quickly down the road. First invite alternatives for
quickly, and then for street.
4. Read out a short sentence backwards and invite the group to work out the
correct order of the sentence.
5. Read out a short sentence but jumble up the words. Invite the group to work
out the correct order of the sentence.
6. Read out two sentences but run the first sentence into the second sentence.
Invite the group to suggest where the full stop should be.
7. Discuss with the group the meaning of the word paragraph, and why writing
needs paragraphs. Then read short paragraphs from the story. After each
paragraph, invite the group to suggest what the key sentence/idea of the
paragraph is.
8. Discuss with the group the meaning of the words noun, verb and adjective.
Read a sentence at a time and invite the group to recognise and name the
nouns, verbs and adjectives. You can also read the sentence fairly slowly,
stopping at words and inviting the group to decide whether each word is a
noun, adjective or paragraph.
9. Ask the group to choose a number: 3, 4, or 5. Then read a sentence stopping
at every 3rd, 4th, 5th word according to the group’s choice of number.
Challenge the group to spell each word correctly and give 2 points for
every correct spelling. Continue with about six or seven sentence in this
way.
10. Finger vowels Learners say ‘A’ and thrust their thumb into the air. Then
the index finger for ‘E’. The middle finger for ‘I. Fourth finger for ‘O’.
Little finger or ‘pinkie’ for ‘U’. Play vowel games with words in a
sentence so that learners learn to identify vowels very quickly by signing
them with the appropriate finger/fingers. Try eagle!
23 BRAIN-STORMING - THOUGHT-SHOWERING
This activity gives learners practice in ‘brain-storming’ which is often
called ‘thought-showering’ nowadays. It can be used to generate lots of
ideas in a short time with no pressure to organise or evaluate the ideas.
The leader should remind the group that there are no ‘right’ answers. All
contributions will be received positively. The leader should scribble down
the ideas put forward since the group may wish to evaluate, organise and
discuss them after the brain-storming session.
Set a time limit for each topic. Set a target for the number of topics to
be suggested. Brain-storming can be used in a variety of settings, and for
a variety of purposes. Here are a number of suggestions to get you going:
SUGGEST
1. TEN GOOD THINGS ABOUT: (a) keeping a pet; (b) learning to read; (c)
learning to speak a foreign language; (d) being a girl; (e) being a boy;
(f) being a teacher.
2. TEN WAYS TO USE A: (a) brick; (b) paper-clip; (c) mirror; (d) toilet
roll; (e) penny; (f) computer; (g) a woolly jumper.
3. TEN WORDS THAT RHYME WITH: (a) mud; (b) sheep; (c) jump; (d) fish; (e)
orange.
4. TEN SONGS THAT CONTAIN THE WORD: (a) baby; (b) boy; (c) girl; (d) love.
5. TEN THING TO DO ON A: (a) warm, sunny afternoon; (b) wet, cold, windy
afternoon.
6. TEN DIFFERENT: (a) fruits; (b) TV soaps; (c) players for
Arsenal/Manchester United/ Chelsea.
7. TEN DIFFERENT BIRTHDAY PRESENTS FOR: (a) mums; (b) dads; (c) sisters; (d)
brothers; (e) boyfriends; (f) girlfriends.
8. TEN THINGS YOU FIND IN THE: (a) kitchen; (b) living room: (c) bedroom;
(d) bathroom.
9. TEN WAYS THAT secondary school is different from junior school.
10. TEN REASONS WHY a good education is very important for everyone.
The next stage (which is sometimes appropriate) is to evaluate the ideas
generated by a brainstorming. This is done without identifying who
suggested the ideas being rejected. One possible method of evaluation is
to use “traffic lights” (RED for “no”, ORANGE for “maybe”, GREEN for
“yes”). Another method is to pick a “top three” from the suggestions
stormed, then to consider “reasons why”, “reasons why not”, “who”, “when”,
“what will it cost” .... or whatever.
24 WORD BUILDER
This is a variation on a game that has appeared in a number of newspapers
(in various guises) and has been used to fill many a “wet playtime”.
The leader writes a word on the board (or simply tells the learners).
A word of about 8 or 9 letters is adequate. (Choose longer words to make
the task easier.)
Learners use the letters contained in the word to form as many new words as
they can. Learners may not use a letter twice unless it occurs twice in the
original word. (Optional rule = words must contain at least 3 letters.)
Some learners may find it helpful to write the letters on bits of paper
and physically re-arrange these.
Learners should be encouraged to use a dictionary to check spellings of
which they are uncertain. Or the leader can be used as a dictionary
and/or reference book.
The game continues for a set amount of time. (Anything from 2 or 3
minutes up to 10 minutes)
Learners could be challenged to write a sentence (or a whole story)
using only the words from their list.
25 WORD BUILDER – SPECIAL
WHAT MAKES THIS DIFFERENT FROM “WORDBUILDER”?
One or more of the following rules also applies.
• All words must BEGIN with a particular letter (specified by the teacher)
• All words must CONTAIN a particular letter (specified by the teacher)
• All words must END with a particular letter (specified by the teacher)
• All words must be listed in ALPHABETICAL ORDER
• All words must BEGIN with a VOWEL
• All words must END with a VOWEL
• All words must have a connection to a particular THEME (for example:
animals, holidays, sport)
26 WHO? – WHEN? – WHERE? – WHY? – WHAT? – HOW?
Take 6 playing cards, the larger the better. Cover the value on each card
with a sticky white label. On each card print one of these: Who? When?
Where? Why? What? How?
1. Read the text you wish to explore to your group. Then shuffle the cards.
Draw one card at a time and turn it face up. Invite the group, or pairs, or
individuals to answer the question about the text that is prompted by the
question word on the card. This method can, of course, be used to explore
any kind of text: fact, fiction, narrative, scientific, newspaper article.
2. Using the question cards is especially effective to help students explore
poetry. Even ‘difficult’ poems become accessible when analysed using the
question words.
3. Reverse the process above by inviting your students to respond to each
question word either by a sentence, a given number of sentences, or a short
paragraph. You can also set the kind of text you require, e.g. each of the
responses is to be a line in the poem.
4. Shuffle the cards but after students have responded to each question word,
put the card back in the ‘pack’, reshuffle and draw again. The responses
will quickly become complex and challenging.
5. You might also get your students to make their personal set of 6 cards, or
ask them to create a small cardboard cube and write a question word on each
face of what is now a die they can use to analyse or generate ideas.
i. BACK TO BACK
1. Learners work in pairs. Each partner must not have seen the other’s home
before.
2. Partners sit back to back.
3. Partner A describes his/her living room in as much detail as possible.
Partner B draws a floor plan of Partner A’s living room trying to capture
the room as accurately as possible from the description.
4. After 5 minutes, leader calls time.
Partner A is not yet allowed to see the drawing.
Roles are reversed and the 5 minutes given for the second drawing.
5. On the call of time, partners may see the completed drawing and give each
other a score out of 10 for accuracy. Scores are reported to the leader.
A variation or addition is for the learners in the group to try and draw
the leader’s living room from the description. In this case, leader sits at
a distance from the group, not back to back, so leader cannot see the
drawings till they are complete.
ii. THE EMPTY CHAIR
It is important the leader is the first to answer questions asked of
the ‘empty’ chair. Firstly to model the procedure. Secondly to establish
the level of trust required.
1. The group sits in a circle. Next to the leader is an empty chair.
2. The leader explains that someone he/she knows well is sitting in the
empty chair. This can be his/her father, mother, son, daughter, cousin,
friend, etc. Do not populate the chair with anyone present.
3. The learners can ask the person in the empty chair ‘any’ questions they
want. They must ask the question in the 2nd person – Do you…? Have
you…? When did you…? Would you like to…? Do you think…?
4. The questions are answered by the leader as if they were being answered by
the person in the empty chair.
5. Volunteers from the learners are now invited to sit next to the empty chair
and answer on behalf of the occupant of the empty chair, having explained
who is now sitting there.
iii. SOUND MAPS
Students work individually. Without speaking to each other, for a
period of 3 or4 minutes, students are encouraged to listen carefully to the
sounds around them. These may include ticking clocks; birds or other
animals; the wind and its effect on trees, doors or windows; traffic;
people talking or moving outside the room.
As they hear each sound, students locate the direction of the sound and
either write it or draw it onto their paper, placing it in the appropriate
position to show where the sound came from.
At the end of the listening time, students are encouraged to talk as a
group about the sounds they heard, what might have made those sounds and
where they were.
14 HOW WELL CAN YOU RECALL?
Materials: Find half a dozen newspaper articles that have ‘packed’
opening sentences. Examples, that can be used, follow. Cut out and keep
these opening sentences. Enough lined paper for numbers of teams of 2 or
3 players. Time for game: not more than 5-7 minutes per game.
1. Teams of 2 or 3 form. Make sure each team has at least one player who can
write quickly.
2. Inform the team that you are going to read the opening sentence from a
newspaper article twice and only twice. After you’re second reading, they
must write down as many questions as they can to test the other teams’
knowledge of what’s in each article. (one article per game.)
3. You read the opening sentence twice.
4. Teams have 5 minutes to write down as many questions as possible.
The answer to each question must have only 1 or 2 words.
5. Leader collects in the questions, then asks the questions.
Teams must write down the answers immediately.
6. When all questions have been asked, the team who has the most correct
answers is the winner.
Story Examples
A 3-month-old kitten, named Lucky, had a narrow escape when she jumped
50 feet from a second floor balcony in her home in Nelson Street, got
tangled in a rose bush, picked herself up, shook herself down, then walked
away without a single scratch or even a bruise on her little white nose.
Thirteen-year-old Tommy Buckett of Nelson Road, Whitstable, got the shock
of his life this morning when he discovered a three-inch tarantula that
probably got into his house in the middle of a bunch of bananas his mum
bought for £1 at Sainsbury’s hiding under his bunk bed.
15 WHO AND HOW OFTEN?
Materials: A4 or A5 lined paper; pencils/pens.
Preparation: none
Time: usually not less than 10 minutes, often longer
This activity needs to be carried out with sensitivity.
1. On the left hand side of the white/blackboard write up the frequency
adverbs listed below in large letters.
2. On the right hand side of the white/blackboard scatter the names of the
persons in the group. Leader should include his/her name.
3. Invite group members to create one sentence for each of the frequency
adverbs using a different group member’s name each time.
4. Explain to group that only positive comments are allowed.
5. Allow around 5 – 7 minutes for the task.
6. Circle a group member’s name on the board and invite group member’s to
read out their comments. When the comments have been heard erase the group
member’s name from the board.
7. Comments about the leader should be left to last.
Frequency adverbs
usually – sometimes – never – hardly ever – often – regularly –
frequently - rarely – seldom – occasionally – from time to time – normally
- now and then – once in a blue moon
16 THAT’S MINE!
1. The Leader asks members of the group to find an object from their pockets
or from their bags.
2. Each member must drop the object into the Leader’s box or bag without
anybody seeing what the object is. The Leader must add his/her own object.
3. Everyone sits round a table.
4. The Leader takes one object out of the bag at a time and shows the object
to the group. This includes the Leader.
5. As each object is revealed, each Player must note down the name of the
person to whom the object belongs.
6. When all objects have been revealed, the Leader holds each object up, one
at a time, and asks the owner to reveal him/herself.
7. Players get 1 point every time they have correctly identified the owner on
an object.
8. Objects are returned to their rightful owners.
17 CHANGE THE LYRICS
Materials 1. Recording of a popular song that is well-known to the learners.
2. Photo-copies of the original lyrics, or project them on the OHP,
Or write them up on the whiteboard.
1. Make sure the learners can see and follow the lyrics while listening to a
recording of the song. A tape recording is best because it is easy to move
forwards and backwards amongst the lyrics.
2. Invite the learners to help you rewrite the lyrics so that they are amusing
but not offensive. This may take a few sessions because the lyrics must fit
the tune exactly.
3. Once the group is satisfied with the new lyrics, don’t waste them.
Sing them!
Suggestions: Imagine - Yesterday - - Bohemian Rhapsody
(Lyrics easily obtainable via Google)
18 BEHIND THE SONG
Materials: The lyrics of a song that lends itself to the activity.
A recording of the song to play to the group.
1. Divide the class into groups with around 4 learners each.
2. Play the class a song, preferably one they know and like.
(Bohemian Rhapsody is ideal; the head bangers love it!)
3. Do not allow the class to sing along.
4. Explain they will be able to sing along AFTER they devise
a short story explaining the ‘story’ of the song.
Only if they produce entertaining stories will they be allowed to sing
along with the recording.
5. Set 150 to 200 words as the length of each story.
Make sure each group has an efficient scribe.
6. Collect in the stories. Read them out. Enjoy them.
7. Then sing your heads off!
19 REINCARNATED
Materials: A5 lined paper; pens/pencils
Preparation: none
Most people are fascinated by the idea of reincarnation.
This fascination is used here to provoke the imagination.
This is a powerful activity; conduct with sensitivity.
1. Leader briefly explains the idea of reincarnation.
2. Leader explains that everyone in the group, including him/herself, has been
reincarnated into a new life. Their new life can take any form – animal,
plant, object.
3. Everyone is given 5 minutes to think about their new life and scribble down
notes on what it is like. Be insistent the full 5 minutes is taken in
silence, or with background muzak.
4. Leader then invites group members to describe their new lives; or leader
may choose to let group members explain to other group members what their
new lives are like.
5. Activity concludes with Leader describing his/her new life.
20 MY FAVOURITE ROOM
Materials: A4 blank paper; one sheet for each group member
A pile of coloured pencils
1. Group members, including Leader, are given a sheet of blank paper.
2. Members are instructed to draw their favourite room – not their real
favourite room, though they can base the new room on this – but the one
they would like to have; no expense spared. Members may label the room, if
they wish.
3. Members have access to the coloured pencils.
4. Allow around 10 minutes for the drawing.
5. Leader then takes in the drawings, shuffles them, and lays them face down
on the table.
6. Each member, one at a time, picks up a drawing, shows it to the group, and
then describes the room in as much detail as possible.
7. Members may then guess to whom the room belongs.
8. The room’s owner then declares himself.
9. Activity continues until all the drawings have been described.
10. Leader should then collect and keep the drawings. It is not permissible
to destroy or throw away the drawings in front of their owners.
21 WHAT IF.....?
Learners work in small groups (threes or fours).
The leader reminds the learners that they have a limited amount
of time (2-3 minutes) for this activity.
The leader provides learners with a prompt idea (see examples below)
which learners are encouraged to develop - however extreme or bizarre their
ideas may be.
The learner conducts a brief plenary session (again, only a few minutes)
during which each group explains their most extreme ideas.
WHAT IF...
we decided to drive on the right instead of the left
the moon was made of cheese
water was poisonous
all the grass disappeared overnight
all our roads turned to rivers
students had to pay to come to school
parents could choose the sex, height, eye-colour, etc. of their children.
people from Earth colonised Mars
you were able to take over this school
you woke up a boy/girl tomorrow morning
22 QUICK READING ACTIVITIES
Select a storybook your group are likely to be interested in.
If possible, select a book the group are not familiar with. These
activities are designed to explore the text at several levels. They should
be carried out quickly and only continued while the interest level of the
group is high. Then move on to another activity but it’s best not to do
more than three of these activities in any one session with your group.
1. Read out a sentence pausing to invite the group to predict the next word.
Continue the sentence, then pause again to invite the group to predict the
next word, and so on.
2. Read out half the sentence and invite the group to complete the sentence.
The group should try to predict the remainder of the sentence as accurately
as possible.
3. Read out a sentence two or three times. Then select a word at a time and
invite group to suggest an alternative word that fits the sentence. For
example: The girl ran quickly down the road. First invite alternatives for
quickly, and then for street.
4. Read out a short sentence backwards and invite the group to work out the
correct order of the sentence.
5. Read out a short sentence but jumble up the words. Invite the group to work
out the correct order of the sentence.
6. Read out two sentences but run the first sentence into the second sentence.
Invite the group to suggest where the full stop should be.
7. Discuss with the group the meaning of the word paragraph, and why writing
needs paragraphs. Then read short paragraphs from the story. After each
paragraph, invite the group to suggest what the key sentence/idea of the
paragraph is.
8. Discuss with the group the meaning of the words noun, verb and adjective.
Read a sentence at a time and invite the group to recognise and name the
nouns, verbs and adjectives. You can also read the sentence fairly slowly,
stopping at words and inviting the group to decide whether each word is a
noun, adjective or paragraph.
9. Ask the group to choose a number: 3, 4, or 5. Then read a sentence stopping
at every 3rd, 4th, 5th word according to the group’s choice of number.
Challenge the group to spell each word correctly and give 2 points for
every correct spelling. Continue with about six or seven sentence in this
way.
10. Finger vowels Learners say ‘A’ and thrust their thumb into the air. Then
the index finger for ‘E’. The middle finger for ‘I. Fourth finger for ‘O’.
Little finger or ‘pinkie’ for ‘U’. Play vowel games with words in a
sentence so that learners learn to identify vowels very quickly by signing
them with the appropriate finger/fingers. Try eagle!
23 BRAIN-STORMING - THOUGHT-SHOWERING
This activity gives learners practice in ‘brain-storming’ which is often
called ‘thought-showering’ nowadays. It can be used to generate lots of
ideas in a short time with no pressure to organise or evaluate the ideas.
The leader should remind the group that there are no ‘right’ answers. All
contributions will be received positively. The leader should scribble down
the ideas put forward since the group may wish to evaluate, organise and
discuss them after the brain-storming session.
Set a time limit for each topic. Set a target for the number of topics to
be suggested. Brain-storming can be used in a variety of settings, and for
a variety of purposes. Here are a number of suggestions to get you going:
SUGGEST
1. TEN GOOD THINGS ABOUT: (a) keeping a pet; (b) learning to read; (c)
learning to speak a foreign language; (d) being a girl; (e) being a boy;
(f) being a teacher.
2. TEN WAYS TO USE A: (a) brick; (b) paper-clip; (c) mirror; (d) toilet
roll; (e) penny; (f) computer; (g) a woolly jumper.
3. TEN WORDS THAT RHYME WITH: (a) mud; (b) sheep; (c) jump; (d) fish; (e)
orange.
4. TEN SONGS THAT CONTAIN THE WORD: (a) baby; (b) boy; (c) girl; (d) love.
5. TEN THING TO DO ON A: (a) warm, sunny afternoon; (b) wet, cold, windy
afternoon.
6. TEN DIFFERENT: (a) fruits; (b) TV soaps; (c) players for
Arsenal/Manchester United/ Chelsea.
7. TEN DIFFERENT BIRTHDAY PRESENTS FOR: (a) mums; (b) dads; (c) sisters; (d)
brothers; (e) boyfriends; (f) girlfriends.
8. TEN THINGS YOU FIND IN THE: (a) kitchen; (b) living room: (c) bedroom;
(d) bathroom.
9. TEN WAYS THAT secondary school is different from junior school.
10. TEN REASONS WHY a good education is very important for everyone.
The next stage (which is sometimes appropriate) is to evaluate the ideas
generated by a brainstorming. This is done without identifying who
suggested the ideas being rejected. One possible method of evaluation is
to use “traffic lights” (RED for “no”, ORANGE for “maybe”, GREEN for
“yes”). Another method is to pick a “top three” from the suggestions
stormed, then to consider “reasons why”, “reasons why not”, “who”, “when”,
“what will it cost” .... or whatever.
24 WORD BUILDER
This is a variation on a game that has appeared in a number of newspapers
(in various guises) and has been used to fill many a “wet playtime”.
The leader writes a word on the board (or simply tells the learners).
A word of about 8 or 9 letters is adequate. (Choose longer words to make
the task easier.)
Learners use the letters contained in the word to form as many new words as
they can. Learners may not use a letter twice unless it occurs twice in the
original word. (Optional rule = words must contain at least 3 letters.)
Some learners may find it helpful to write the letters on bits of paper
and physically re-arrange these.
Learners should be encouraged to use a dictionary to check spellings of
which they are uncertain. Or the leader can be used as a dictionary
and/or reference book.
The game continues for a set amount of time. (Anything from 2 or 3
minutes up to 10 minutes)
Learners could be challenged to write a sentence (or a whole story)
using only the words from their list.
25 WORD BUILDER – SPECIAL
WHAT MAKES THIS DIFFERENT FROM “WORDBUILDER”?
One or more of the following rules also applies.
• All words must BEGIN with a particular letter (specified by the teacher)
• All words must CONTAIN a particular letter (specified by the teacher)
• All words must END with a particular letter (specified by the teacher)
• All words must be listed in ALPHABETICAL ORDER
• All words must BEGIN with a VOWEL
• All words must END with a VOWEL
• All words must have a connection to a particular THEME (for example:
animals, holidays, sport)
26 WHO? – WHEN? – WHERE? – WHY? – WHAT? – HOW?
Take 6 playing cards, the larger the better. Cover the value on each card
with a sticky white label. On each card print one of these: Who? When?
Where? Why? What? How?
1. Read the text you wish to explore to your group. Then shuffle the cards.
Draw one card at a time and turn it face up. Invite the group, or pairs, or
individuals to answer the question about the text that is prompted by the
question word on the card. This method can, of course, be used to explore
any kind of text: fact, fiction, narrative, scientific, newspaper article.
2. Using the question cards is especially effective to help students explore
poetry. Even ‘difficult’ poems become accessible when analysed using the
question words.
3. Reverse the process above by inviting your students to respond to each
question word either by a sentence, a given number of sentences, or a short
paragraph. You can also set the kind of text you require, e.g. each of the
responses is to be a line in the poem.
4. Shuffle the cards but after students have responded to each question word,
put the card back in the ‘pack’, reshuffle and draw again. The responses
will quickly become complex and challenging.
5. You might also get your students to make their personal set of 6 cards, or
ask them to create a small cardboard cube and write a question word on each
face of what is now a die they can use to analyse or generate ideas.
ENJOY YOUR ENGLISH PART 2
10 THE MAGIC OF PLAYING CARDS
Sometimes in these days of computers, MP3s, Youtube, mobile phones, MSN, and similar technology we can forget that a simple pack of cards (or two) can provide hours of fun. And there is no better way to learn than by having fun.
Cards are inexpensive, easily portable and endlessly adaptable. Friends can enjoy a game together, players can play in pairs, groups or on their own. The solitary player can spend the hours playing “solitaire” games while learning, practising and revising at the same time.
Suggested way of preparing the cards
1. Get a set of playing cards. Oversize cards, often made in China, seem fairly
easy to obtain. They are hard-wearing, long-lasting and easier for groups of
players to see.
2. Get a roll of sticky white labels. The labels should be rather smaller in size
than the cards.
3. Stick a label on the face side of each card. This will provide you with 52
playing cards, minus the Jokers, that can then be used to carry the information
you want the players to learn.
4. As you know, there are 13 sets of 4 cards in a pack of cards. These can be used
to group the information in categories of 4. Of course it is not necessary to
use the full pack for every card game but it is essential to have them in
groups of 4 for many of the games.
5. Decide on the information/vocabulary you want your players to focus on, and
write this information – one item per card – in large, clear, black print on
each label.
6. It’s a good idea to start by asking your group of players to ‘sort out’ the
cards. You don’t have to give them any more information than this. They will
quickly realise the cards are in categories of 4 and they will attempt to sort
them out in this way.
7. Offer no advice during the sorting out process other than to explain any items
they are not familiar with.
8. After the sorting our process is complete, sort them out yourself in front of
the players explaining why some cards belong to one category rather than
another.
9. Let us say that you are teaching a group who are fairly near the beginning of
learning English, you might decide on categories such as these: 4 colours, 4
animals, 4 things found in the living room, 4 things found in the kitchen, 4
things to wear, 4 boys’ names, 4 girls’ names, and so on. A more advanced
group will, of course, practise learning and using more advanced vocabulary
but the card games will be similar.
10. The information on each playing card does not have to be limited to single
items. In fact, the labels can be used to carry any sort of information being
studied. For example, a student of Law might put the names of cases and the
legal principle associated with each case on the label. The student then has a
portable compendium to be used anywhere at any time – perhaps on a train, car
journey or during a flight. The only real limit to using cards is your imagination.
SUGGESTED ACTIVITIES – remember to add your own activities
1. CONCENTRATION, also known as Memory, Pelmanism, or simply Pairs
1. The cards are laid down on a flat surface and two cards are flipped face up at
each player’s turn. If the cards match (belong in the same category), the
player keeps the cards and has another turn. If the cards do not match, they
are turned over face down. The aim for each player is to collect as many pairs
(or four cards) until all the cards have been picked up.
2. Players can play as a pair or even as a small group. This often leads to
lively discussion about where the matching cards actually are. The conductor
of the game may insist that all such discussion is in English!
3. In a variation called Zebra, players try to find and choose pairs that do not
belong in the same category.
4. In the variation called Spaghetti, the cards are scattered randomly on the
flat surface. It is fun if they are scattered on the carpet so the players can
sit on the floor, or on a large table so that the players can walk round the
table until the leader gives the signal to choose two cards.
5. The leader can lay out the cards in straight rows which helps memorization.
Alternatively, the leader may scatter the cards between each turn to make
memorization more difficult.
2. BUILDING A STORY FROM THE CARDS
1. Players in pair select two cards at random and connect the cards in a sentence
which begins their story.
2. When it is their turn again, each player can pick up another card. They must
then use the word on the card to continue the story they began with their
first two cards.
3. At each turn, players in pairs pick up another card and continue to extend
their stories until all the cards have been used up.
4. The conductor may set some rules about the stories. For example – your story
happened in the past – your story happens in the future – your story must
include the players themselves so that they use the first person We/I…..
5. When each pair has told their story, they can be asked to join another pair
of players and combine all the cards to tell a single story. This process can
be continued – the 4’s become 8’s and so on – until the group/class has
created one very long story using all 52 words!
3. BEGGAR MY NEIGHBOUR
This is a variation one of the all-time favourite children's card games.
1. This game is best played in groups of four players with the rest of the
group/class gathered round as spectators until it is their turn to play.
2. Players are each dealt 13 cards face down. They pick their cards up but they
must not look at the faces of the cards. One player begins and lays down 1
card face up.
3. The next player, on the left, turn up his card. If this card belongs in the
same category, he picks up both cards, keeps them and lays them aside.
4. If the cards do not belong in the same category, the player to the left turns
up a card. If this card matches the previous card, he keeps all the face-up
cards and lays them aside. He then turns up his next card and lays it down
face up.
5. The game continues until all cards have been won. The winner is the player who
has collected most cards. It is now the turn of the next group to play Beggar
My Neighbour. The overall winner is the player who has collected most cards.
4. EXPLANATIONS AND DEFINITIONS
The level of challenge in this activity depends on the sophistication of the
lexical items on the cards. It is much easier to explain what a dog is than
the meaning of to stroll or amble.
1. The leader shuffles the card and then turns over a card to show the word.
He/she then invites the group to explain in English what the word means. For
example, the group may have to explain what a dog is, which is not as easy as
it sounds!
2. The leader awards points, maximum 10, depending on how good the explanation
is. Remember the whole group can contribute to the explanation.
3. To win extra points, the group must name the three other items that belong in
the category.
4. The group can win more extra points if they can answer a question put by the
leader who, of course, has control over the complexity of the question. For
example, from What is the dog’s name? to What would you have done if the dog
had chased you down the street?
5. The leader may read definitions from a dictionary and ask the group to
identify what word in the playing cards is being defined. Use a dictionary
that matches the ages and ability of the players. Do not ask seven-year-olds
to identify: A domesticated carnivorous mammal (Canis familiaris) related to
foxes and wolves and raised in a wide variety of breeds.
5. MY SHIP SAILS
This is an easy card game for all ages which is most exciting when played
at high speed. The leader of the group should play as well so that he can
dictate the speed of the game.
1. The game leader must select the number of categories to match the number of
players, including himself. For example, if there are 7 players, including the
leader, he will select 28 cards in categories of four, e.g. the 4 colours,
animals, things in the kitchen, etc.
2. Players should be seated in such a way that they can pass one card at a time
to the player on their left.
3. The leader deals 4 cards to each player. Players pick up and look at their
cards without letting other players see what they have.
4. The aim of the game is to try and collect 4 cards from the category. Players
decide which category to collect (although they may change their mind as play
progresses).
5. Each player puts an unwanted card face down on the table and slides it to the
player on the left who takes it up. Try to do this in a rhythm so that all
players are passing and picking up at the same time. When he player has
collected 4 cards of the same category, he slaps them down on the table
calling out: My ship sails! The game continues until all the cards have been
slapped down on the table.
6. ROLLING STONE
This is an easy card game for all ages. Be warned. It can be very
frustrating: just when you think you are about to win….
1. Players are seated round a desk/table so that cards can be passed easily to
the player on the left. The cards are shuffled and dealt out to the players.
Each player picks up his cards, looks at them but keeps the faces concealed
from other players.
2. A player begins the game by laying down 1 card face up.
3. The player on his left must play a card that belongs to the same category. If
he can lay down a card from the same category, he places it down on the pile.
4. When a player cannot lay down a card belonging to the same category, he must
pick up all of the cards from the table. The next player on the left restarts
the game by laying down a card face up.
5. The game continues until the last player is left holding the remaining cards.
7. SNAP!
This is probably the most popular of all simple card games. It can be
played one against one, or one group against another, or the whole group
against the leader.
1. The pack of cards is shuffled and dealt randomly to each player so that each
player has 26 cards. Players must not look at the faces of their cards.
2. One player begins the game by laying down a card face up. On top of this, his
opponent lays down another card face up.
3. If the two top cards belong to the same category, each player tries to slap
his hand over the pile and claim all the cards.
4. The winner is the player who ends up with all the cards in his hand.
8. OLD MAID
‘Old Maid’ is part of a family of card games known as “scapegoat” games.
In scapegoat games, the goal is to avoid having a particular card or cards.
The game is suitable for 2-8 players and it uses the whole pack of 52 cards.
1. The dealer/leader removes three cards from one of the categories, e.g. one of
the four animals. The remaining animal is the Old Maid. The aim of the game
is to avoid being left with the Old Maid (an elderly unmarried lady).
2. The dealer deals the cards as evenly as possible among the group. It's
acceptable for some players to have more cards than other players.
3. Players sort their cards and discard any pairs belonging to the same
category. (If a player has three of the same category, he discards two of
the cards and keeps the third).
4. The dealer then offers his hand, face down, to the player on his left. That
player randomly takes one card from the dealer. If the card matches one he
already has in his hand, he puts the pair down. If not, he keeps it.
5. Play proceeds clockwise, so the player to the left of the dealer then offers
his hand, face down, to the player on his left. This cycle repeats until
there are no more pairs and the only remaining card is the Old Maid. The
game ends when the Old Maid is the only card in play. The person holding the
Old Maid loses that game.
9. I DOUBT IT
In this game players try to get rid of all their cards by deliberately
tricking other players. It is up to the other players to decide whether or
not to call another player’s bluff.
1. The dealer shuffles the pack and deals out the cards to each player in the
game. Three to five players is ideal where there is one pack of cards. It’s
fine if some players have one more card than others.
2. The first player plays one or more cards from his hand, face down, starting a
discard pile in the middle of the table. He says, “One animal,” or whichever
category he is laying down. He may say “Two Animals” – “Three Animals” or
even “Four Animals”. It is interesting that the player must call out the
category, not the individual item on the card.
3. Each player who discards cards can be challenged by any of the other players
who do not believe he has laid down the cards he says he has laid down. In
other words, a player may call another player’s bluff.
4. If the player is challenged successfully, if he is caught out bluffing, he
must pick up all the discarded cards in the pile on the table and add them to
his pile. If he has not been bluffing, the challenger must pick up all the
discarded cards and add them to his pile.
5. The first player to get rid of all his cards wins. The last play is always
made face up, because other players will inevitably doubt it.
10. INVITE SUGGESTIONS
Invite the players to suggest any card games they know that can be played
using word cards. Even better, ask them to invent card games that can be
played using the word cards. Invite players to suggest sets of four words
that can fit into the same category.
11 GAMES USING ORDINARY NUMBERED PLAYING CARDS
PREDICT HIGHER OR LOWER
1. The group get into pairs; include a threesome if numbers are odd.
2. Leader shuffles the pack. Then turns the first card face up.
3. First pair guess if the next card will be higher or lower in value.
4. Leader turns up next card.
5. If pair guess correctly, they win and keep the card, and have another go.
If they guess incorrectly, turn passes to next pair, and so on.
6. Winners are the pair who win most cards when the pack is exhausted.
PREDICT RED OR BLACK
As above, except that pairs win and keep the card when they predict
the colour, red or black, of the next card.
PREDICT THE SUIT
As above, except the pairs win and keep the card when they predict the suit
– hearts, clubs, spades, diamonds – of the next card.
MATCHING PAIRS – in PAIRS
1. The group get into pairs; include a threesome if numbers are odd.
2. Leader shuffles the pack and spreads all of them face down on a table.
3. Leader turns over first card, shows card, then lays it back where it came
from face down.
4. First pair pick up another card.
5. If they can then pick up another card that matches, they keep both cards,
and have another turn. If not, they must lay both cards face down where
they came from.
6. It is the turn of the next pair, and so on.
7. Winners are the pair who have collected the greatest number of pairs when
all the cards have been taken.
MATCHING SEQUENCES – in PAIRS
As above, except teams pairs are attempting to pick up three cards in
sequence; for example, 3-4-5, Jack-Queen-King, Ace-2-3, Ace-King-Queen.
COLLECTING CARDS IN SEQUENCE – in PAIRS
The aim of this game is to collect five cards in sequence,
regardless of suit.
1. Each team (pair) is dealt five cards by the leader.
2. The remaining cards are piled face down on the table.
3. Each team takes it in turn to take two cards from the top of the pile, and
discard two cards that go to the bottom of the pile.
4. The winners are the first team to collect a sequence of five cards.
5. If the playing deck is used up and there is no winner, the discard pile is
then shuffled and used to continue with the game.
12 JUST FOR FUN
JUNGLE SAFARI
1 Everyone sits in a circle.
2 The circle appoints a leader.
3 Each player adopts the name of an animal they might see on a Jungle Safari.
4 Leader notes down the name of each animal.
5 Players have a few moments to practice making the sounds their animal
makes.
6 Leader invents and tells a jungle story which includes the names of the
safari animals
7 Every time a player’s animal is mentioned, he/she must respond with the
sound of his/her animal
8 When the leader mentions the words ‘Jungle’ or ‘Safari’, all players
must respond with the sound of their animals
9 At the end of the story, appoint a new leader and have another go.
10 As a follow-up, players can make masks of their animals and wear them
when they play.
It’s easy to see how this can develop into a full scale drama activity.
SAUSAGES
1 Spin the bottle, or whatever, to decide who the first ‘Sausage’ will be
2 The ‘Sausage’ must sit facing everyone else; they sit in a semi-circle
3 When everyone is ready, players in the circle fire questions at the Sausage
4 No matter the question, the Sausage must reply loudly Sausages!
5 Players are attempting to make the Sausage smile or laugh
6 About 2 minutes, timed, for each Sausage.
HEAD AND SHOULDERS - KNEES AND TOES
This is an old favourite with a twist. It’s especially useful for those
cold winter days when the boiler system breaks down! But can be used as a
happy energiser at any time.
1. Everyone knows the old favourite ‘Head and Shoulders, Knees and Toes.’
Tell the learners you are all going to stand a go at it.
2. When some of them protest, say that you are going to introduce a challenge,
a competition (that usually gets them going).
3. Run through the whole thing quite speedily:
HEAD AND SHOULDERS, KNEES AND TOES,
KNEES AND TOES
HEAD AND SHOULDERS, KNEES AND TOES,
KNEES AND TOES
AND EYES AND EARS AND MOUTH AND NOSE
HEAD AND SHOULDERS, KNEES AND TOES,
KNEES AND TOES
4. Now ask learners to face each others in pairs or three.
(Here’s the twist).
Tell the learners they must run through the whole thing again,
BUT
They must call out the wrong body parts!
For example, when they are touching their knees,
They can touch any of the other named body parts EXCEPT their knees.
5. The ‘winning’ pair or threesome, is the one who can go through the whole
thing most accurately (i.e. getting the body parts wrong). The leader (you)
observes and decides on the winners.
THE NEVER-ENDING SENTENCE
1 Everyone sits in a circle
2 Leader begins with a name, for example ‘Fred’
3 Moving clockwise, each player in turn must continue the sentence by adding
one word e.g. FRED bought some old shoes….. etc. The word ‘and’ may only be
used 4 times in any sentence. Players must try to avoid completing the
sentence but it must make sense at all times.
4 A player may challenge at any time if they believe the sentence no longer
makes sense. If this is a wrong challenge, the challenging player must start
a new sentence
5 Each player is free to end a sentence if he/she believes it is grammatically
correct to do so, by simply calling out ‘FULL STOP!’
6 The leader will disqualify any player, including him/herself, who takes more
than 5 seconds to add the next word.
SPEEDWORDS
After explaining the activity, the teacher gives notice of a topic or
theme (e.g.: numbers, animals, names, something you eat, words beginning
with a specific letter, etc.)
1. All students stand.
2. One by one, the teacher points to each student.
3. Each student has to say a word that fits with the theme - without repeating
any previous suggestions.
4. If the suggestion is a valid suggestion, all other students clap twice and
the student making the suggestion sits down.
5. If the suggestion does not fit with the theme or has already been suggested
by a previous student, all other students silently wave their hands in the
air, the student remains standing and makes another suggestion. (The teacher
may point to another student and returning to this student soon afterwards).
6. The activity continues until all students are seated.
Sometimes in these days of computers, MP3s, Youtube, mobile phones, MSN, and similar technology we can forget that a simple pack of cards (or two) can provide hours of fun. And there is no better way to learn than by having fun.
Cards are inexpensive, easily portable and endlessly adaptable. Friends can enjoy a game together, players can play in pairs, groups or on their own. The solitary player can spend the hours playing “solitaire” games while learning, practising and revising at the same time.
Suggested way of preparing the cards
1. Get a set of playing cards. Oversize cards, often made in China, seem fairly
easy to obtain. They are hard-wearing, long-lasting and easier for groups of
players to see.
2. Get a roll of sticky white labels. The labels should be rather smaller in size
than the cards.
3. Stick a label on the face side of each card. This will provide you with 52
playing cards, minus the Jokers, that can then be used to carry the information
you want the players to learn.
4. As you know, there are 13 sets of 4 cards in a pack of cards. These can be used
to group the information in categories of 4. Of course it is not necessary to
use the full pack for every card game but it is essential to have them in
groups of 4 for many of the games.
5. Decide on the information/vocabulary you want your players to focus on, and
write this information – one item per card – in large, clear, black print on
each label.
6. It’s a good idea to start by asking your group of players to ‘sort out’ the
cards. You don’t have to give them any more information than this. They will
quickly realise the cards are in categories of 4 and they will attempt to sort
them out in this way.
7. Offer no advice during the sorting out process other than to explain any items
they are not familiar with.
8. After the sorting our process is complete, sort them out yourself in front of
the players explaining why some cards belong to one category rather than
another.
9. Let us say that you are teaching a group who are fairly near the beginning of
learning English, you might decide on categories such as these: 4 colours, 4
animals, 4 things found in the living room, 4 things found in the kitchen, 4
things to wear, 4 boys’ names, 4 girls’ names, and so on. A more advanced
group will, of course, practise learning and using more advanced vocabulary
but the card games will be similar.
10. The information on each playing card does not have to be limited to single
items. In fact, the labels can be used to carry any sort of information being
studied. For example, a student of Law might put the names of cases and the
legal principle associated with each case on the label. The student then has a
portable compendium to be used anywhere at any time – perhaps on a train, car
journey or during a flight. The only real limit to using cards is your imagination.
SUGGESTED ACTIVITIES – remember to add your own activities
1. CONCENTRATION, also known as Memory, Pelmanism, or simply Pairs
1. The cards are laid down on a flat surface and two cards are flipped face up at
each player’s turn. If the cards match (belong in the same category), the
player keeps the cards and has another turn. If the cards do not match, they
are turned over face down. The aim for each player is to collect as many pairs
(or four cards) until all the cards have been picked up.
2. Players can play as a pair or even as a small group. This often leads to
lively discussion about where the matching cards actually are. The conductor
of the game may insist that all such discussion is in English!
3. In a variation called Zebra, players try to find and choose pairs that do not
belong in the same category.
4. In the variation called Spaghetti, the cards are scattered randomly on the
flat surface. It is fun if they are scattered on the carpet so the players can
sit on the floor, or on a large table so that the players can walk round the
table until the leader gives the signal to choose two cards.
5. The leader can lay out the cards in straight rows which helps memorization.
Alternatively, the leader may scatter the cards between each turn to make
memorization more difficult.
2. BUILDING A STORY FROM THE CARDS
1. Players in pair select two cards at random and connect the cards in a sentence
which begins their story.
2. When it is their turn again, each player can pick up another card. They must
then use the word on the card to continue the story they began with their
first two cards.
3. At each turn, players in pairs pick up another card and continue to extend
their stories until all the cards have been used up.
4. The conductor may set some rules about the stories. For example – your story
happened in the past – your story happens in the future – your story must
include the players themselves so that they use the first person We/I…..
5. When each pair has told their story, they can be asked to join another pair
of players and combine all the cards to tell a single story. This process can
be continued – the 4’s become 8’s and so on – until the group/class has
created one very long story using all 52 words!
3. BEGGAR MY NEIGHBOUR
This is a variation one of the all-time favourite children's card games.
1. This game is best played in groups of four players with the rest of the
group/class gathered round as spectators until it is their turn to play.
2. Players are each dealt 13 cards face down. They pick their cards up but they
must not look at the faces of the cards. One player begins and lays down 1
card face up.
3. The next player, on the left, turn up his card. If this card belongs in the
same category, he picks up both cards, keeps them and lays them aside.
4. If the cards do not belong in the same category, the player to the left turns
up a card. If this card matches the previous card, he keeps all the face-up
cards and lays them aside. He then turns up his next card and lays it down
face up.
5. The game continues until all cards have been won. The winner is the player who
has collected most cards. It is now the turn of the next group to play Beggar
My Neighbour. The overall winner is the player who has collected most cards.
4. EXPLANATIONS AND DEFINITIONS
The level of challenge in this activity depends on the sophistication of the
lexical items on the cards. It is much easier to explain what a dog is than
the meaning of to stroll or amble.
1. The leader shuffles the card and then turns over a card to show the word.
He/she then invites the group to explain in English what the word means. For
example, the group may have to explain what a dog is, which is not as easy as
it sounds!
2. The leader awards points, maximum 10, depending on how good the explanation
is. Remember the whole group can contribute to the explanation.
3. To win extra points, the group must name the three other items that belong in
the category.
4. The group can win more extra points if they can answer a question put by the
leader who, of course, has control over the complexity of the question. For
example, from What is the dog’s name? to What would you have done if the dog
had chased you down the street?
5. The leader may read definitions from a dictionary and ask the group to
identify what word in the playing cards is being defined. Use a dictionary
that matches the ages and ability of the players. Do not ask seven-year-olds
to identify: A domesticated carnivorous mammal (Canis familiaris) related to
foxes and wolves and raised in a wide variety of breeds.
5. MY SHIP SAILS
This is an easy card game for all ages which is most exciting when played
at high speed. The leader of the group should play as well so that he can
dictate the speed of the game.
1. The game leader must select the number of categories to match the number of
players, including himself. For example, if there are 7 players, including the
leader, he will select 28 cards in categories of four, e.g. the 4 colours,
animals, things in the kitchen, etc.
2. Players should be seated in such a way that they can pass one card at a time
to the player on their left.
3. The leader deals 4 cards to each player. Players pick up and look at their
cards without letting other players see what they have.
4. The aim of the game is to try and collect 4 cards from the category. Players
decide which category to collect (although they may change their mind as play
progresses).
5. Each player puts an unwanted card face down on the table and slides it to the
player on the left who takes it up. Try to do this in a rhythm so that all
players are passing and picking up at the same time. When he player has
collected 4 cards of the same category, he slaps them down on the table
calling out: My ship sails! The game continues until all the cards have been
slapped down on the table.
6. ROLLING STONE
This is an easy card game for all ages. Be warned. It can be very
frustrating: just when you think you are about to win….
1. Players are seated round a desk/table so that cards can be passed easily to
the player on the left. The cards are shuffled and dealt out to the players.
Each player picks up his cards, looks at them but keeps the faces concealed
from other players.
2. A player begins the game by laying down 1 card face up.
3. The player on his left must play a card that belongs to the same category. If
he can lay down a card from the same category, he places it down on the pile.
4. When a player cannot lay down a card belonging to the same category, he must
pick up all of the cards from the table. The next player on the left restarts
the game by laying down a card face up.
5. The game continues until the last player is left holding the remaining cards.
7. SNAP!
This is probably the most popular of all simple card games. It can be
played one against one, or one group against another, or the whole group
against the leader.
1. The pack of cards is shuffled and dealt randomly to each player so that each
player has 26 cards. Players must not look at the faces of their cards.
2. One player begins the game by laying down a card face up. On top of this, his
opponent lays down another card face up.
3. If the two top cards belong to the same category, each player tries to slap
his hand over the pile and claim all the cards.
4. The winner is the player who ends up with all the cards in his hand.
8. OLD MAID
‘Old Maid’ is part of a family of card games known as “scapegoat” games.
In scapegoat games, the goal is to avoid having a particular card or cards.
The game is suitable for 2-8 players and it uses the whole pack of 52 cards.
1. The dealer/leader removes three cards from one of the categories, e.g. one of
the four animals. The remaining animal is the Old Maid. The aim of the game
is to avoid being left with the Old Maid (an elderly unmarried lady).
2. The dealer deals the cards as evenly as possible among the group. It's
acceptable for some players to have more cards than other players.
3. Players sort their cards and discard any pairs belonging to the same
category. (If a player has three of the same category, he discards two of
the cards and keeps the third).
4. The dealer then offers his hand, face down, to the player on his left. That
player randomly takes one card from the dealer. If the card matches one he
already has in his hand, he puts the pair down. If not, he keeps it.
5. Play proceeds clockwise, so the player to the left of the dealer then offers
his hand, face down, to the player on his left. This cycle repeats until
there are no more pairs and the only remaining card is the Old Maid. The
game ends when the Old Maid is the only card in play. The person holding the
Old Maid loses that game.
9. I DOUBT IT
In this game players try to get rid of all their cards by deliberately
tricking other players. It is up to the other players to decide whether or
not to call another player’s bluff.
1. The dealer shuffles the pack and deals out the cards to each player in the
game. Three to five players is ideal where there is one pack of cards. It’s
fine if some players have one more card than others.
2. The first player plays one or more cards from his hand, face down, starting a
discard pile in the middle of the table. He says, “One animal,” or whichever
category he is laying down. He may say “Two Animals” – “Three Animals” or
even “Four Animals”. It is interesting that the player must call out the
category, not the individual item on the card.
3. Each player who discards cards can be challenged by any of the other players
who do not believe he has laid down the cards he says he has laid down. In
other words, a player may call another player’s bluff.
4. If the player is challenged successfully, if he is caught out bluffing, he
must pick up all the discarded cards in the pile on the table and add them to
his pile. If he has not been bluffing, the challenger must pick up all the
discarded cards and add them to his pile.
5. The first player to get rid of all his cards wins. The last play is always
made face up, because other players will inevitably doubt it.
10. INVITE SUGGESTIONS
Invite the players to suggest any card games they know that can be played
using word cards. Even better, ask them to invent card games that can be
played using the word cards. Invite players to suggest sets of four words
that can fit into the same category.
11 GAMES USING ORDINARY NUMBERED PLAYING CARDS
PREDICT HIGHER OR LOWER
1. The group get into pairs; include a threesome if numbers are odd.
2. Leader shuffles the pack. Then turns the first card face up.
3. First pair guess if the next card will be higher or lower in value.
4. Leader turns up next card.
5. If pair guess correctly, they win and keep the card, and have another go.
If they guess incorrectly, turn passes to next pair, and so on.
6. Winners are the pair who win most cards when the pack is exhausted.
PREDICT RED OR BLACK
As above, except that pairs win and keep the card when they predict
the colour, red or black, of the next card.
PREDICT THE SUIT
As above, except the pairs win and keep the card when they predict the suit
– hearts, clubs, spades, diamonds – of the next card.
MATCHING PAIRS – in PAIRS
1. The group get into pairs; include a threesome if numbers are odd.
2. Leader shuffles the pack and spreads all of them face down on a table.
3. Leader turns over first card, shows card, then lays it back where it came
from face down.
4. First pair pick up another card.
5. If they can then pick up another card that matches, they keep both cards,
and have another turn. If not, they must lay both cards face down where
they came from.
6. It is the turn of the next pair, and so on.
7. Winners are the pair who have collected the greatest number of pairs when
all the cards have been taken.
MATCHING SEQUENCES – in PAIRS
As above, except teams pairs are attempting to pick up three cards in
sequence; for example, 3-4-5, Jack-Queen-King, Ace-2-3, Ace-King-Queen.
COLLECTING CARDS IN SEQUENCE – in PAIRS
The aim of this game is to collect five cards in sequence,
regardless of suit.
1. Each team (pair) is dealt five cards by the leader.
2. The remaining cards are piled face down on the table.
3. Each team takes it in turn to take two cards from the top of the pile, and
discard two cards that go to the bottom of the pile.
4. The winners are the first team to collect a sequence of five cards.
5. If the playing deck is used up and there is no winner, the discard pile is
then shuffled and used to continue with the game.
12 JUST FOR FUN
JUNGLE SAFARI
1 Everyone sits in a circle.
2 The circle appoints a leader.
3 Each player adopts the name of an animal they might see on a Jungle Safari.
4 Leader notes down the name of each animal.
5 Players have a few moments to practice making the sounds their animal
makes.
6 Leader invents and tells a jungle story which includes the names of the
safari animals
7 Every time a player’s animal is mentioned, he/she must respond with the
sound of his/her animal
8 When the leader mentions the words ‘Jungle’ or ‘Safari’, all players
must respond with the sound of their animals
9 At the end of the story, appoint a new leader and have another go.
10 As a follow-up, players can make masks of their animals and wear them
when they play.
It’s easy to see how this can develop into a full scale drama activity.
SAUSAGES
1 Spin the bottle, or whatever, to decide who the first ‘Sausage’ will be
2 The ‘Sausage’ must sit facing everyone else; they sit in a semi-circle
3 When everyone is ready, players in the circle fire questions at the Sausage
4 No matter the question, the Sausage must reply loudly Sausages!
5 Players are attempting to make the Sausage smile or laugh
6 About 2 minutes, timed, for each Sausage.
HEAD AND SHOULDERS - KNEES AND TOES
This is an old favourite with a twist. It’s especially useful for those
cold winter days when the boiler system breaks down! But can be used as a
happy energiser at any time.
1. Everyone knows the old favourite ‘Head and Shoulders, Knees and Toes.’
Tell the learners you are all going to stand a go at it.
2. When some of them protest, say that you are going to introduce a challenge,
a competition (that usually gets them going).
3. Run through the whole thing quite speedily:
HEAD AND SHOULDERS, KNEES AND TOES,
KNEES AND TOES
HEAD AND SHOULDERS, KNEES AND TOES,
KNEES AND TOES
AND EYES AND EARS AND MOUTH AND NOSE
HEAD AND SHOULDERS, KNEES AND TOES,
KNEES AND TOES
4. Now ask learners to face each others in pairs or three.
(Here’s the twist).
Tell the learners they must run through the whole thing again,
BUT
They must call out the wrong body parts!
For example, when they are touching their knees,
They can touch any of the other named body parts EXCEPT their knees.
5. The ‘winning’ pair or threesome, is the one who can go through the whole
thing most accurately (i.e. getting the body parts wrong). The leader (you)
observes and decides on the winners.
THE NEVER-ENDING SENTENCE
1 Everyone sits in a circle
2 Leader begins with a name, for example ‘Fred’
3 Moving clockwise, each player in turn must continue the sentence by adding
one word e.g. FRED bought some old shoes….. etc. The word ‘and’ may only be
used 4 times in any sentence. Players must try to avoid completing the
sentence but it must make sense at all times.
4 A player may challenge at any time if they believe the sentence no longer
makes sense. If this is a wrong challenge, the challenging player must start
a new sentence
5 Each player is free to end a sentence if he/she believes it is grammatically
correct to do so, by simply calling out ‘FULL STOP!’
6 The leader will disqualify any player, including him/herself, who takes more
than 5 seconds to add the next word.
SPEEDWORDS
After explaining the activity, the teacher gives notice of a topic or
theme (e.g.: numbers, animals, names, something you eat, words beginning
with a specific letter, etc.)
1. All students stand.
2. One by one, the teacher points to each student.
3. Each student has to say a word that fits with the theme - without repeating
any previous suggestions.
4. If the suggestion is a valid suggestion, all other students clap twice and
the student making the suggestion sits down.
5. If the suggestion does not fit with the theme or has already been suggested
by a previous student, all other students silently wave their hands in the
air, the student remains standing and makes another suggestion. (The teacher
may point to another student and returning to this student soon afterwards).
6. The activity continues until all students are seated.
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