Lesson Ideas

Here are a few lesson ideas that can be adapted for any level and age. Try them out!!

VOCABULARY:
Solver: Form teams of 3-6 students each. Position the students so that one of the players in each team is sitting on the "hot seat", unable to see the word on the board, while the rest of his/her team members forms a semi-circle around the hot-seat, able to see the word. As soon as the teacher writes a word on the board, all the teammates try to use the target language, not their hands, to explain the word until their hot-seat teammate guesses it correctly. When the teammate guesses the correct word, all members raise their hands, this way the teacher can see who gets the point. Students rotate out of the hot-seat every three or four words.

The Game: A variation on Solver. Form the class into two or three teams. Set up: Give each student a piece of paper, which they fold in half four times, and then unfold, creating 16 perforated squares (only had 8 squares for large classes). On each square students write something - any part of speech (nouns, verbs, etc.), vocabulary based on a theme (transportation, music, etc.), of for advanced levels, anything they want - adjectives, quotes, famous people, basically whatever comes to their minds. The more advanced, then increase the number of words students write (of course they must be related, ie. White dog; yellow flower; not shoe, mouse, England. Allow only 3-4 minutes for this. Then tear the squares, fold in half, and place into a box (the top of an A4 paper box works great). Playing: One team starts. One student is the reader, the others are the guessers. The reader picks two squares from the box, and attempts to get his/her teammates to guess exactly what is on it, without using that/those words. Once one square is guessed correctly, its placed on the table, and the reader can pick another square from the box - two are allowed in the hands at one time. If neither square can be correctly guessed, then the reader is not allowed to replace and pick another - they MUST keep trying. After one minute, say stop, and pass the box to the other/next team. Play until everyone has had at least one go at it, then do a SPEED ROUND with the remainder of the box, with the team that guesses correctly receiving the square. Add the tally, highest number of squares wins!! This can be adapted for all levels, and can be an extremely popular filler, and even warm-up to review vocabulary from previous lessons.

GRAMMAR:
Dicte Dash: Setup: 1. Find a fairly difficult text in the target language and cit it into several different paragraphs of equal length and difficulty. 2. Review letters and terms for punctuation, underlined, in bold, quote/unquote etc. in the target language. 3. Divide the students into pairs. One student is the writer, and the other is the dasher. Blue tack a paragraph per group on the walls outside the classroom. Playing: At the start signal from the teacher, the dashers read and memorize the text on the wall and go back into the classroom and dictate the text to the writer. The dasher can go in and out of the classroom as many times as necessary to finish. The teacher can monitor the progress with a highlighter, marking spots where the students have made mistakes, or the text can be given to the students at the end of the activity to check their own answers. Switch pairs, and very important, change the texts they are reading. Follow-up: After the activity has finished, brainstorm as a class what the article is about and play a tape of a native speaker pronouncing the text correctly. This can be a good introduction to reading activities, at any level.

DRAMA:
Fishbowl: Students write on three separate pieces of paper:

- a statement
- a question
- an exclamation

as part of any conversation. Put the pieces of paper in a box. Two students sit on either side of the box. The other students in the class give them identities and a subject of conversation. The two students start the conversation. Whenever someone shouts FISH, the speaker takes a piece of paper and incorporates it into the conversation. (Idea from a seminar on "Drama in the classroom" by Kaye Anderson).