Tag Archives: reporting verbs

Reporting Verbs in Action and some Engaging Writing Practice

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Looking for some ideas to bring some excitement into your classroom while teaching grammar and writing skills? Well, you’ve come to the right place! This blog is the second instalment in a three-part series where I design a complete lesson for C1 students, covering vocabulary, pronunciation, speaking, grammar, and writing, all centered around the theme of news and the media.

  • Part 1: from headlines to conversations: Building Media Vocabulary
  • Part 2: this is the one you are reading right now
  • Part 3: Writing a News Article: From Theory to Engaging Practice

This post is all about reporting verbs. But why focus on this bit of grammar when discussing the news and media? Typically, when you interview someone and then need to write a news article, you’ll likely want to sum up what they said. That’s where reporting verbs come in handy! So, here we go!

(Would you rather listen to the podcast where the content of this article is discussed? )

Warm.-up: Introducing Reporting Verbs
STEP 1. The Grammar.

First, write two sentences on the board and show them how a B2 student would rewrite them and how a C1 student would do it using a reporting verb.

He said:” I didn’t do it”

  • He said he hadn’t done it (B2)
  • He denied doing it (C1)

He said: “I won’t do your homework”

  • He said he wouldn’t do my homework (B2)
  • He refused to do my homework (C1)
STEP 2:  Half a Crossword

There are many reporting verbs, but I don’t want to overwhelm my students and tell them to study the grammar for the hundred verbs the book offers, so I am going to select a few and stick to them throughout the whole lesson. These are the ones they will have to study.

To introduce the reporting verbs I wanted them to study, I have used this tool that creates half crosswords. It gives you two versions of the crossword puzzle: Student A and Student B. Each version has only half the answers filled in. Students take turns describing their reporting verbs without directly giving the answer. Once the puzzles are filled, students compare answers to ensure everything matches.

NOTE: when you print the crossword, for some reason the numbers disappear. It was not a problem in my class, they just pointed to the blank they wanted to fill.

Manipulative. Reporting Verbs Matching Activity. PDF
Step 1. Matching

Ah, the never-failing traditional methods! Here’s a classic yet super effective activity to get students comfortable with reported speech. Give each pair of students a set of pre-prepared sentences and reporting verbs—yes, this means some cutting and prepping, but hey, these sets can be reused countless times! Their task? To identify and match each sentence with the correct reporting verb. Then, check the matches one by one as a class

Step 2:  Reporting the sentences

For each pair, ask the students to report the sentence aloud using the correct reporting verb. Write the correct reported sentence on the board and focus on the grammar.

Writing Challenge
STEP 1. Writing

Time to recycle spare photocopies!  Cut them into strips of paper large enough to write a long sentence on.

  • Ask students to pair up and give each pair 3 or 4 strips of paper.
  • Display the interactive activity below and ask someone in the class to choose a box
  • In their pairs, they will have about 2 minutes to come up with their best sentence using the reporting verb on display and, in the case of my students, trying to use vocabulary related to the news and the media: this is the lesson we are studying.
  • In the meantime, I will write the reporting verb on display on a post-it note and post it on a visible part of our classroom wall.
  • Once they have finished writing their “advanced” sentence, we will put them up on the wall, surrounding the verb. You can use Sellotape or Blue-tack for this.
  • Open a new box to reveal a new reporting verb and do it all over again. I have done this  5 or  6 times.
    What is your role as a teacher?  Yes, you need to be working, too. Once they have placed their sentences on the walls, you will need to correct their mistakes.
Step 2 Voting
Once the sentences have been written and mistakes have been corrected, instruct students to stand up in pairs and read all the sentences surrounding the nouns. They will now need to vote for the sentence they think is the best in terms of showing a more advanced level, regardless of the mistakes they might have made. To mark the sentence they like best, they will just have to put a tick on the strip of paper containing the sentence.
This has two aims:
1. To help students identify their own and their peers’ mistakes, which is a valuable learning experience.
2. By voting on the best sentence, students come to understand their own ability to distinguish between writing that meets the C1 level and writing that falls short.

 

And finally, the photocopy

PDF

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2 Engaging Activities to Work with Reporting Verbs

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I have to confess that lately I haven’t had much time to publish. I design a lot of cool, if I may say so, activities for my students but posting about them takes time, time I lack right now. But posting is constantly on my mind, and not because I feel I have to do it, but because it makes me happy. So, today is a happy day.

Now, these are two activities I have designed for my C1 students. If C1 is not your level, keep on reading; they are highly adaptable to any level.

  1. Working on the grammar of reporting verbs
  2. Using post-it notes to reinforce and fix mistakes
One. Working on the grammar of reporting verbs.
Helping students learn this point of grammar is not an easy task. OMG, they are so many reporting verbs….!!! Plus, some of them can be followed by more than one pattern. A nightmare!!!
STEP 1. The presentation.
Even though it is a C1 level, I felt compelled to explain what a reporting verb is with a small presentation.
For this introduction, I’ve used the first 6 slides. I have used the rest of the presentation to explain the game that follows.

This is the infographic that I have designed. Please, bear in mind:
1. It is not meant to be comprehensive
2. Verbs can follow different patterns
You can get it here

reporting verbs by cristina.cabal

Step 2: Using double-sided cards. Now that we have seen the grammar, let’s put it into practice. You can download the cards here.

  • Aim: to place the verbs under the right pattern
  • Before the class: photocopy one set per group of three/four students. In my case, I have photocopied them in different colours.  Also, photocopy the headings with the verb patterns here.

I think the images below clearly demonstrate how we have played this “game”.

Instructions: put students into groups of three and give each group a set of double-sided cards. (you might want to fold them before the game or ask students to fold them; whatever works for you) The aim of the activity is to place the verb on the card under the right column.

First, they guess the pattern and then, before placing it under the right column, they check their guess by turning the card over.

I did it twice:

  1. They just guessed the pattern and placed it under the right column
  2. They did the same as in 1 but, this time,  they also produced a sentence containing the prompts on the card.

Below, students working

Students checking their guess is correct by flipping the card.

 

Two. Using post-it notes to reinforce and fix mistakes.
This activity using post-it notes is dedicated to  Maribel, a teacher in Andalucía (I will say no more as I haven’t asked her permission) who, when we met in person in a teacher training session, gave me a most useful present, a box with 1440 colourful post-it notes (an easy multiplication) + a letter I will always cherish.
The activity is a simple, highly-adaptable one and one that can be done in many ways (you don’t have to use post-it notes-any discarded scrap of paper will do). I just happen to think that presentation matters, and colours and movement is an added bonus in this activity.
Step 1. Writing a reporting verb on a post-it note
Ask students to write on a post-it note a reporting verb. Encourage them to have a look at the infographic (PDF above)and instruct them to make sure they know the grammar of the verb they have written.
Note: If you have a large class, put the students in pairs. You don’t want to have as many as 25 reporting verbs to work with. If you have a 6–12 student class, you might want to ask them to work individually.
Stick their post-it notes on the walls of the class.
Step 2. Gallery walk. Writing sentences.
On a table in the middle of the class, leave some post-it notes -(a) different colour(s) would be great.
Put students in pairs now and ask them to stand up and do a gallery walk. They will stop at each “picture’ and in pairs write down a sentence containing the reporting verb. They should write the sentences on the post-it notes and put them next to the ‘picture’ it corresponds to. Encourage them to write only when they know exactly what they want to write. Otherwise, it would look very untidy. Also, tell them they need to write a sentence showing they are C1 students (you know how it goes if you don’t push them a tiny bit)
Pairs don’t have to walk clockwise; they can choose any ‘pictures’ on the walls in any order, but they must do all of them.
Step 3. Peer correction.
Once they have written their sentences, instruct students to move to the post-it containing their original reporting verb; the one in Step 1, the one they know the grammar for.  Ask them to read the sentences next to their verb.
— If they are correct, they should put a tick
— If they are wrong, they should underline the mistake but not correct it
Step 4: Fixing mistakes
Ask students to stand up again, the infographic containing the grammar for those verbs in their hands, and again do a gallery walk. They should read all the sentences surrounding a “picture’. If their sentence happens to be one of those containing mistakes, they will have to correct it using the infographic as a reference.
Step 5: My turn
Now, it is my turn to make sure, as a teacher, that all the sentences are correct. I have also added my opinion on whether the sentence is a C1-level sentence or a B2-level sentence to encourage them to try harder next time. 🙂
I hope you have enjoyed the activity.