My favourite way to start a lesson is by involving all my students in an activity that helps them revise previous content.
I usually like to engage my students in a fun activity, most of the time teacher-guided, and that will require their attention and active participation. It can be quite challenging, though, because my classes start at 3 pm, right after lunch, and most of them are feeling pretty full and sluggish. (Side note: I live in Spain.)
For this activity, we will complete a crossword using clues related to work vocabulary, but this game can be easily tailored to any vocabulary or level of difficulty. So, if you are looking for a fun and engaging way to test your students’ vocabulary and teamwork skills, you’ll love this game.
As expected, being a technology enthusiast, I have used a digital tool to design a crossword that is completely adapted to the vocabulary I have taught my students.
Crossword game
Teacher-paced
Topic: Work
Level: B2+
How to play
The rules of the game are:
Divide the class into two groups, with each group choosing a representative.
A coin flip will determine which team starts the game.
The active team will select a number, and the corresponding definition will be read out loud.
The active team has 10 seconds to provide an answer, which will be given by their representative. If the answer is correct, the team can keep playing. Yes, they keep on playing.
If the team cannot provide an answer or makes a mistake within the time limit, the other team will take their turn.
The game is won by the team that correctly answers the final question.
Note:Click on the red arrows in the top right corner to enlarge the crossword.
This is not the first time I’ve shared a lesson on using Would Rather to express a preference, but this lesson is also an excuse to share some of the tricks (also called activities 😊) I keep up my sleeve to engage my students and make them enjoy learning; because they/ we deserve to have fancy, engaging, dynamic lessons even if what needs to be explained is as dull as ditch water.
I strongly support the use of visuals in the class to create stimulating lessons. I know creating your own content takes time. But it pays off. Trust me on this one!
FIRST SESSION
INTRODUCING THE TARGET LANGUAGE. PRESENTATION.
I have introduced Would Rather presenting students with some slides and some visual prompts and asking them to provide the questions based on the images.
Some help might be needed, at least, for the first two slides. Encourage students to describe their preferences in pairs, even if it’s a guided assignment.
Target grammar:
Question: Would you rather read a book orwatch TV?
Answer: I’d rather read a book thanwatch TV because…
The two activities that follow are meant to be done the following day in order to revise and reinforce this content.
REVISING AND REINFORCING: VIDEO, INTERACTIVE GRAMMAR, FLIP CARDS GAME
(NOTE FOR TECH ENTHUSIASTS) This beautiful activity has been created with @Genial.ly. First I created the video, published it on YouTube, and then embedded it on Genial.ly. Then, I used the Template to create the Flipcards.
Revise with the video (1st slide)
Revise with the matching grammar (2nd slides)
Flip Cards Game (following slides). To be used in the game that follows.
FLIPCARDS GAME. Rewriting with Would Rather. Using Dry-Erase Boards
1. Pair learners and give each pair a dry-erase board and a whiteboard marker.
2. Show the first sentence and ask students to rewrite it using Would Rather
3. Depending on the length or difficulty of the sentence, set a different time limit.
4. Once the pair have their sentence, ask them to write it on the board, big enough for you to see from a distance.
5. When the time is up, ask the pairs to hold it up and quickly go through all the sentences, awarding 1 point to the pair who has the correct grammar.
6. The winner is the pair that get the most points.
Note: Be strict with spelling mistakes or any other tiny mistakes. Students love it when you are strict and don’t give away points easily.
Follow-up: Revise all the sentences again, but this time orally.
SPEAKING: BOARD GAME
This board game has all the ingredients of a good game:
Reinforces grammar
Boosts communicative skills
Improves writing skills
Builds rapport
+ Combines technology with traditional props: in this case, a huge die (there is a built-in die on the board, so don’t worry if you don’t have this beautiful red die; it is just that I love mixing both worlds.
And here’s the board. As you can see,
There are 3 draggable counters.
To see the prompts, you need to click on the number.
As you can read in the Instructions, if they land on a square with the question GIF, students will need to write a “would you rather” question for the teacher. Yes, you need to answer, it is only fair!!!
Hope you have enjoyed this lesson plan. My students have! 🙂
Honestly, not sure if there is anything more fun than turning a classic bingo into a language bingo. Ok, ok, rereading the sentence it is fair to question my fun scale. But I can assure you that it is going to keep your students engaged. That much I can promise.
Playing bingo in my classes is a classic. Not only the usual grid with numbers. The grid can contain pretty much everything and be used to revise almost all skills.
But today, it is going to be a vocabulary bingo with a touch of tech
This activity has two steps:
Building the Word Cloud ( traditionally on the board or, in my case, using the free app Wooclap) https://www.wooclap.com/
Playing Bingo
STEP 1. Building the wordcloud.
This is a retrieval practice activity where students, using their mobile phones, revise vocabulary taught in previous lessons. In my case, I am teaching The Media and we played bingo with vocabulary from the newspapers and the media.
Share the link, the code or the QR Code with your students and Bob’s your uncle.
This video might help you follow these steps
Once the wordcloud is built, revise again pronunciation, form and meaning
And just because I like to play with tools, I have designed my own word cloud on a different tool just because I like the way words are highlighted. Click on the image to see it in action.
Step 2. Playing Bingo
Here we go!!!
One. Have students draw a grid on their notebooks: 3×2 ( 6 words) will work just fine. There should be significantly more words than squares in the bingo card. Ask them to choose any six words from the cloud and fill in the bingo squares.
The idea is to randomly give definitions for the words in the cloud. As students match definitions and words in their bingo, they cross them off. Bingo is shouted when all the squares have been crossed.
Note: Although you might think that everyone knows how to play bingo, trust me when I say several of my students had no idea how to play. So, explain that their goal is to cross all the squares in their grid before anyone else.
Two. How to play
This can be done in two different ways. One requires no preparation, the other one requires a little preparation. If you know me, I am sure you have guessed the one that I favour.
No preparation: randomly define the words in the cloud. I’d suggest keeping a record of the ones you have already done so as not to repeat the same definition twice. It can happen. Trust me.
Preparation: More fun. More drama. More everything.
Write the words in the cloud on small strips of paper.
Search your house for a suitable bag and put the strips of paper in it. Draw a strip of paper at a time and give a definition for the word. You might need to repeat the definition twice. As students listen to the definition, they have a look at their grids. If they have a word matching the definition, they cross it off. The game continues until someone shouts bingo.
Don’t forget to build suspense. It adds to the game.
A simple but very effective game.
Follow-up:
Ask a question or several and give students a strip of paper or several. When answering the question, they should try to use the word(s) on their strips.
How do you get the news in your country? Has the way of keeping up to date changed over the years?
Repeat procedure with as many questions as you want students to answer. Ask them to swap their words so that they get new ones.
2. In the next class, I am planning to play bingo again. Same steps but with a twist. This time, the students will draw the slips of paper from the bag and they will be asked to provide the definition.
Inspired by Serena’s blog choice of words. Here you can revise taking her quiz.
Yes. I am sure you have all heard about the latest craze in word games. No? You haven’t heard of Wordle? Well, if you haven’t, you missing out.
If you have played and loved but discarded Wordle as a teaching tool, I am here to show you there is a great alternative. Keep on reading!
Created by a software engineer called Josh Wardle, Wordle is a word game and it has become so popular that it has even been verbed and people are beginning to say “have you wordled today?”
But, how do you play?
The idea is that you need to guess the Wordle in 6 tries.
Each word must be a valid 5-letter word
After each guess, the colour of the tiles will change to show how close your guess was to the word. Green if the letter is in the correct spot; yellow, if the letter is in the word but not in the correct spot and grey if the letter is not in the word in any spot.
Anyway, the game is fun to play but as a teacher, I thought it was maybe a bit too difficult for my students. Sometimes the words to be guessed are “knoll” or “crimp”. So, fun for me but I could see no use for the game in my classes as the words to be guessed were either too difficult or not relevant for the content I was teaching.
But, thanks to Tony Vincent and his awesome blog learninginhand.com, I learned there is a Wordle you can easily customize with the words you need. How cool is this to use as a warmer, stirrer, filler or cooler?
The website is called mywordle.me and was developed by Pallav Agarwal. It works as explained above as regards tile colours. What’s different?
You can customize your own word
It can be 5 or 6 letters long
You can do as many as you want
You can share the link with your students and they can all play at the same time.
Next class? Start with a Wordle game to revise vocabulary.
If you love giving quizzes to your students or if you are a student yourself, you’re going to love doing this quiz. Why? Because in this quiz, students are going to learn some expressions that are not in the dictionary. Well, some of them might be. Plus, they are going to take an active role when answering the questions in the quiz. All of the students. Keep on reading!
Why is not giving the quiz enough for me?
It very often happens that when you display a quiz such as this one for the whole class only a bunch of students – normally the ones who volunteer for everything you do in class- actively participate in giving the answers.
Well, this is not enough. Not for me. I need all the class to participate. And I don’t really mind here whether the answers are correct or incorrect. That’s not the point. The point is that they are, at least trying. And trying is learning, And making mistakes is learning.
NOTE: I am well aware that there is not just one way of saying the expressions in the quiz. This is just the way I say them.
(Click on the image, it will take you to the quiz)
Procedure
Give each student two pieces of paper; 10×7 cm approx. will be perfect.
Ask them to write on one side the letter A and on the other side, the letter B. On the second piece of paper, ask them to write the letter C. Tell them to write the letters big enough to see from a distance.
The letters A, B and C correspond with the three possible options in the quiz. For example, if they think the second answer is the correct one, they should choose and show the letter B.
Tell students they will be competing in pairs and they should keep score of the points each of them gets. If both students guess the correct answer, no points are awarded; but, if one student beats the other one in a question, that’s when they score a point.
BONUS: A nice idea to keep track of the points they score is to use, for example, chickpeas, pasta or peas. That adds a fun touch to the exercise.
Display the first question. Give students 10-15 seconds to think. Say “UP” and have students display the correct answer. Students in pairs compare their answers and score points, if necessary.
Follow-up
Sadly, just because they do the quiz once does not mean they are going to learn the content in it. You will need to revise it, and not just once. So, this is what I do:
Once they finish, ask them to write down all the expressions they remember and share them with the class.
Display the quiz again, one question at a time, but do not show them the answers. Students will need to try to remember the correct answer.
Give them the link to the quiz to practise again at home.
