Fillers, life-savers, warmers & coolers August 2010
Fillers, life-savers, warmers & coolers
Ray Parker – November, 2010
Further contributions to [email protected]
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Activity Page Category*
Introduction 3 Radiotherapy 4 F Word combs 5 F Crossword puzzles 6 L-S Categories 13 F 20 questions 16 F Alibi 17 L-S “Open” scrabble 19 L-S Implanted words 20 F Call my bluff 21 F Chinese translations 22 C Treasure hunts 23 F/L-S Pelmanism (memory) 24 F Word searches 27 C My Aunt’s cat…. 29 W The Rizla game 30 W The Yes/no interlude 32 W Classroom bingo 33 W Hotel receptionist 34 W Carroll’s quartets 36 C Hangman 38 C Five senses dictation 40 F “Unjumbling” dialogues 42 F Heads & tails 44 F My Bonnie 46 W Peter’s coloured balls 48 W The right hand side of the board 49 F Sentence auctions 50 F Getting to know the teacher 52 W Murder 53 W Kim’s game 54 F Storyboard 56 F Crime & punishment 59 L-S Find someone who …. 60 W Back to the board 64 F Laura’s conditional cards 65 W & F Nick’s musical icebreaker 66 W A word puzzle 67 F
Some useful websites 70 * explanations of these codes are in the introduction
Introduction
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These notes are designed to provide a useful follow-up to the series of workshops that I conducted in Italy at the end of February and beginning of March, 2006. The workshops were entitled “Fillers & life-savers – anticipating the unexpected” and were intended to provide teachers with and remind them of activities that could be used in one emergency or another in the English language classroom. These resources are downloadable and photocopiable. Where possible the sources of the various activities are acknowledged but most are lost in the mists of time – any information about origins would be welcomed and incorporated. The various activities were classified into four broad types:
1. Warmers (W in the index)
These are activities that may help to energise a class either at the beginning or in the middle of a teaching session.
2. Fillers (F in the index)
Activities which serve to fill in an indeterminate amount of spare time, but which appear to be planned and coherent.
3. Coolers (C in the index)
The opposite of a warmer – i.e. an activity which may help to calm an excited class down – for example, before handing a class over to another teacher.
4. Life-savers (L-S in the index)
These are whole lessons which appear purposeful and planned but which can be delivered with a minimum of preparation and intervention by the teacher.
As you try these activities out in your classes, if you find that the instructions need modification or if you would like to contribute a modified or a different idea, please contact me direct at my email address: [email protected]
If you are contributing an activity it would be very helpful if you could follow the format used here.
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1. How many words can you make? (radiotherapy)
Level: all levels Method: Ages: all ages Step one - the teacher writes Time: 20 minutes + a long word in the middle of an otherwise blank board - I Materials: none normally choose the word “radiotherapy” - hence the Purpose: vocabulary consolidation/communicative practice name of the activity.
Type: filler Step two - the teacher explains that the class, as individuals, must write down all the words of three or more letters that can come out of the word radiotherapy that they can think of. The teacher announces that there will be a thirty second time limit.
Step three - the teacher rigorously imposes the time limit.
Step four - the teacher elicits from each individual the words they have thought of and writes them up on the board.
Step five - (optional) the teacher awards a score for each word - typically one point for each word that other people have also thought of; five points for any word no other student has thought of.
Anticipated problems:
1. Large classes will produce an amazingly large number of words - the time limit must be rigorously enforced to prevent the teacher being overwhelmed.
2. During step four the teacher is being presented with a lot of words with no supporting context - even slight pronunciation faults will make this quite difficult for the teacher and the class may need to have practised in advance spelling words out since this strategy will often need to be employed.
3. Step 4 can be very time-consuming.
D:\Docs\2017-12-13\01e58cafe36f7b83496155456d90486a.doc Page 4 of 69 Fillers, life-savers, warmers & coolers August 2010 2. Word combs (relay race)
Level: all levels Method: Ages: originally devised for children - surprisingly successful with adults! Step one - the Time: 5 - 10 minutes (repeatable) teacher establishes two Materials: chalk/boardpens as appropriate teams of, say 3 to 10 people
Purpose: vocabulary consolidation/writing & spelling practice Step two - the teacher writes up Type: filler a word on the board in the top left hand corner and then again in the top right hand corner. It is the same word in the two corners and it can be any word at all but it must be the same number of letters long as there are students in each team.
Step three - the teams line up on each side of the room, facing the board.
Step four - the first member of each team is given a board writer.
Step five - using the boardwriter both to write on the board and as a kind of baton in the relay race that follows, each member of each team in turn runs to the front and writes downward, starting from any one of the letters on the board the longest word he/she can think of.
Step five - as the baton passes from team member to team member they run out to the front and add another word.
Step six - As soon as the first team has finished the race stops but the first to finish is not necessarily the winner. The winner is the team which has produced the longest words and this is determined simply by counting the number of letters on the board.
Anticipated problems:
1. Young learners may get over-excited by the race element of this activity.
3. Crossword puzzles Level: Intermediate +
Ages: teenagers upwards Method:
TimeD:\Docs\2017-12-13\01e58cafe36f7b83496155456d90486a.doc 40 - 60 minutes Page 5 of 69
Materials 2 copies of crossword grid per student
Purpose: Communicative practice (+ vocabulary consolidation & writing skills)
Type: life-saver Fillers, life-savers, warmers & coolers August 2010
There are, of course, many ways that crosswords and crossword-like activities can be exploited in the language classroom but the following is a procedure which will generate a lot of communicative activity.
Step one - the class is divided into small teams (say 6 per team)
Step two - each student is given a copy of the blank crossword grid.
Step three - using pencils (and rubbers!) each student tries to fill the grid with words.
Step four - the members of each team pool their efforts and agree on a single complete version.
Step five - each team now devises clues which will produce the words on their grids and writes them down.
Step six - lists of clues are exchanged between teams and fresh blank crossword puzzles distributed.
Step seven - each student now tries to solve another team’s crossword puzzle.
Step eight - Each team checks the work of those who have been solving their clues.
Anticipated problems:
1. Step three can be extraordinarily difficult. To make it easier, less challenging grid formats can be employed. (see below)
2. Most students will need some help with formulating clues. Typical clues can include:
gap-fill clues (e.g. He ______a cold caught)
anagrams (e.g. ectbuk bucket)
opposites (e.g. what is the opposite of generous? mean)
D:\Docs\2017-12-13\01e58cafe36f7b83496155456d90486a.doc Page 6 of 69 Fillers, life-savers, warmers & coolers August 2010 Samples of crossword grids
1. a challenging one:-
1 2 3 4 5 6
7
8
9 10 11
12 13
14 15
16
17 18
Clues across
2. ______
7. ______
8. ______
9. ______
12. ______
13. ______
D:\Docs\2017-12-13\01e58cafe36f7b83496155456d90486a.doc Page 7 of 69 Fillers, life-savers, warmers & coolers August 2010 14. ______
15. ______
16. ______
17. ______
18. ______
Clues down
1. ______
2. ______
3. ______
4. ______
5. ______
6. ______
10. ______
11. ______
Practical tip
D:\Docs\2017-12-13\01e58cafe36f7b83496155456d90486a.doc Page 8 of 69 Fillers, life-savers, warmers & coolers August 2010 To make a grid like the above using Word for Windows follow this procedure.
1. Click on Table from the menu
2. Click on Insert Table from the Table menu
3. Specify the number of columns as 8 (more to make it tougher; fewer to make it easier)
4. Specify the number of rows as 8 (more to make it tougher; fewer to make it easier)
5. Click OK
6. Select (& highlight) whole table (click & drag the mouse)
7. Click on outside border & then inside border buttons in order to make the grid visible.
8. With whole table still selected (& thus highlighted) click on Table again.
9. Click on Cell Height & Width
10. Set width of column at 1.5 cms & click OK
11. Repeat steps 8 & 9 but now select the Row dialogue box
12. Set the At: box to 30pt & click OK
13. Click somewhere outside the grid to check on the screen that you have got the size and shape of grid that you were aiming at.
14. One at a time select (with the mouse) the boxes you want to make black.
15. Click on Format.
16. Click on Borders and Shading.
17. Click on Shading.
18. Select Solid 100%.
19. Click OK.
20. Select next box & repeat steps 15 - 19.
D:\Docs\2017-12-13\01e58cafe36f7b83496155456d90486a.doc Page 9 of 69 Fillers, life-savers, warmers & coolers August 2010 21. When you have finished blackening all the cells you want blackened, select the whole grid again .
22. Click on Format
23. Click on Font
24. Select 8 in the size box.
25. Click OK.
26 Now type in the numbers in the top left hand corners of the appropriate cells.
D:\Docs\2017-12-13\01e58cafe36f7b83496155456d90486a.doc Page 10 of 69 Fillers, life-savers, warmers & coolers August 2010 2. A less challenging grid:
1 2
3 4
5
1. ______
2. ______
3. ______
4. ______
5. ______
D:\Docs\2017-12-13\01e58cafe36f7b83496155456d90486a.doc Page 11 of 69 Fillers, life-savers, warmers & coolers August 2010 Practical tip
To make a grid like the above using Word for Windows follow this procedure.
1. Click on Table from the menu
2. Click on Insert Table from the Table menu
3. Specify the number of columns as 14
4. Specify the number of rows as 15
5. Click OK
6. In successive horizontal and then vertical groups select (& thus highlight) the cells you want to appear.
7. click on outside border & then inside border.
8. Repeat steps 6 & 7 building up the shape you want to have.
9. Click on Format
10. Click on Font
11. Select 8 in the size box.
12. Click OK.
13. Now type in the numbers in the top left hand corners of the appropriate cells.
D:\Docs\2017-12-13\01e58cafe36f7b83496155456d90486a.doc Page 12 of 69 Fillers, life-savers, warmers & coolers August 2010 4. Categories
Level: Elementary + Method: Ages : all ages Step one - write any four letter word Time 20 minutes + (longer than you'd think!) downwards on the board thus
Materials board & boardpen/chalk S A Purpose: vocabulary consolidation & extension F E Type: cooler Step two - draw a grid around the word like this:
S
A
F
E
Step three - Add appropriate labels to the columns ( e.g. vocabulary areas you have recently explored with the class and that you wish to revise)
FOOD PETS TRANSPORT CLOTHES
S
A
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F
E
Step four - Ask the students to copy the grid into their workbooks or onto a piece of paper.
Step four - announce that they have, say, one minute to fill each box with a word belonging to the category at the head of the column and beginning with the letter on the left. They should produce something like this:
FOOD PETS TRANSPORT CLOTHES
S salad shirt
A apple airplane
F fruit
E eggs Step five - When the time limit is up, feedback and scoring can follow the pattern established in the “radiotherapy” activity (Activity one, steps four and five.)
Anticipated problems:
1. As was the case in the “radiotherapy” activity, the teacher can be exposed, during feedback, to a lot of unsupported and uncontextualised vocabulary items. It may well be sensible to link this activity with revision of spelling out skills.
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5. 20 questions
Level: Elementary +
Ages: all ages
Time 10-20 minutes
Materials: one slip of paper for each student with the name of a famous person on it.
Purpose: Practice of yes/no question forms
Type: filler
Method:
Step one - (before the lesson) The teacher writes out a series of slips of paper (one for each student) with the name of someone sufficiently famous to be known to everyone in the group. (There is a list of suggestions on page 28)
Step two - the slips are distributed to the students who must not tell anyone “who” they have got.
Step three - the teacher explains to the class that during the activity they must pretend to be the person on their slip.
Step four - the teacher explains the rules:
1. Each student takes it in turn to pretend to be their “person”.
2. Everyone else asks questions in order to get information and guess the identity. 3. All the questions must be answerable with “yes” or “no”
4. The teacher will tally the questions on the board and after 20 questions will end the activity and ask the mystery person to reveal their identity.
5. Optionally the teacher can “punish” errors in question formation by counting such errors as 2 - 5 questions
Anticipated problems:
1. Students may not know all the answers to questions they are asked - the teacher must be ready to intervene
D:\Docs\2017-12-13\01e58cafe36f7b83496155456d90486a.doc Page 16 of 69 Fillers, life-savers, warmers & coolers August 2010 6. Alibi
Level: Intermediate + Method: Ages: All but children Step one - The teacher announces that Time: 30 - 40 minutes the Prime Minister (or suitable substitute) visited the Institution where Materials: none the students are studying yesterday evening between 7.00 and 9.00 p.m. and that there was an assassination Purpose: Practice of question forms & question tags attempt. The police suspect that two foreign students were responsible and Type: life-saver have even named the two people they suspect. The teacher then names two members of the class and tells them they must leave the class for five minutes and establish together a watertight alibi for the period concerned. The teacher warns them that when they return they will be intensively questioned by the “police” - i.e. the rest of the class.
Step two - While the two suspects are out the teacher practices with the class question formation and rehearses the kind of question they should ask the first suspect.
Step three - The teacher suggests that one of the best ways of tripping up the second suspect and thus breaking the alibi will be to make misleading statements followed by question tags instead of asking questions.
e.g. If the first suspect says that they went to a French restaurant, were served by a waiter, drank red wine with their meal, paid with a Visa card and went home by bus etc., then the second suspect can be asked:
You went to an Italian restaurant, didn’t you? You had white wine with your meal, didn’t you? You paid in cash, didn’t you? You were served by a waitress, weren’t you? You went home by taxi, didn’t you? etc.
Anticipated problems:
1. Classes can take this kind of role-play very seriously and it would, therefore, be wise to select two suspects who are confident enough to stand up to some pretty robust interrogation!
D:\Docs\2017-12-13\01e58cafe36f7b83496155456d90486a.doc Page 17 of 69 Fillers, life-savers, warmers & coolers August 2010 2. Teachers should think carefully about the instructions for this activity and how to communicate them efficiently to the class - OHP?, handouts? as there are many things that can go wrong. If it all goes right the amount of focused practice it generates repays the investment in working out the instructions carefully.
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7. "Open" scrabble
Level: Elementary + Method: Ages: all ages Step one - The teacher organises Time 40 minutes + the class into teams, each occupying one side of the scrabble Materials: one scrabble set, board and boardmarker board. Numbers in each team will clearly depend on class size but Purpose: Vocabulary consolidation & extension more than three begins to be a bit unwieldy. Type: filler/life-saver Step two - All the letter tiles are placed face up around the board.
Step three - The normal rules of Scrabble now apply but of course the students can choose from all or any of the displayed letters.
Step four - the teacher’s role is to adjudicate contested words and to do the scoring.
Anticipated problems:
1. It should be noted that Scrabble sets are language specific, and even language sets with very similar consonants and vowels will not have the ideal distribution of letters for playing in English.
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8. Implanted words
Level: Advanced
Ages: adults/teenagers Method:
Time 15 - 20 Step one - (before the lesson) The teacher writes Materials: slips of paper with unusual words written on them difficult (but recently seen in class) words on slips of Purpose: Spoken fluency & listening skills/vocabulary review paper.
Type: cooler but can get competitive Step two - The teacher explains that, one at a time, each person must look at their word and then immediately start talking and try to use their words in such a natural way that no-one notices it. During this “speech” it is the job of the remaining students to listen carefully and try to identify the implanted word.
Anticipated problems:
none
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9. "Call my bluff"
Level: Upper intermediate +
Ages: adults & teenagers Method:
Time 20 - 30 minutes Step one - (before the lesson) The Materials: as many monolingual dictionaries as there are learners in the class teacher slips of paper with very difficult words on them prepares as many slips Purpose: Dictionary practice and listening skills of paper as there are Type: filler students in the class each with an extremely difficult word written on it.
Step two - The class is divided into (ideally) two teams of four.
Step three - each member of each team is given a slip of paper with an extremely difficult word written on it.
Step four - they inform the rest of their team of the words they have.
Step five - the “owner” of each word looks it up in a dictionary and copies out the dictionary entry, the other team members copy out an entry for an entirely different but plausible word - normally the same word class.
Step five - When everyone in both teams has completed step five, the activity begins: the teacher announces (and pronounces) the first word, each member of the team reads out their definition, the opposing team must use their judgement and intuition to determine which of the first team are lying and which one is telling the truth.
Step six - on to the next word - the teacher keeps score on the board.
Anticipated problems:
1. The instructions are a bit complicated and it may well be worth providing each participant with a handout detailing the procedure.
D:\Docs\2017-12-13\01e58cafe36f7b83496155456d90486a.doc Page 21 of 69 Fillers, life-savers, warmers & coolers August 2010 10. Chinese translations
Level: Elementary + (monolingual groups only)
Ages: all ages
Time 20 minutes +
Materials: some slips of paper with sentences written on them in English, a set of readers at an appropriate level
Purpose: Development of translating skills
Type: cooler
Method:
Step one - (before the lesson) The teacher writes sentences on slips of paper. These sentences are designed to possibly give the learners some translating difficulties. Step two - If necessary the teacher divides the class up into subgroups of, say, 12 students (whatever the number it must be even) Step three- The teacher gives the first slip(s) to the first student(s) who must not show it to their colleagues but must translate it into the mother tongue of the class on another slip of paper. Step four - He/she then passes the translation on to the next member of the team who must translate it onto another slip of paper into English and pass this translation on to the next student. Step five - this process continues with the sentence being translated into and out of the learners’ mother tongue until it reaches the last person in the group. Step six - The teacher retrieves the original and final English versions and, on the board or by dictating them elicits comparison and discussion - if possible points in the multiple translation process where significant changes occurred should be identified and discussed. N.B. Significant changes in this activity are by no means always errors and the teacher must be careful to praise really good translation as well as pointing out and correcting errors and noting changes that make little or no difference. Note: This can sometimes be a rather slow process and the purpose of the readers is to give people something to do while they are waiting for their turn or have had their turn and are waiting for the feedback stage. The activity can also be played as a “background activity” while something else is going on. Anticipated problems: none 11. Treasure hunts D:\Docs\2017-12-13\01e58cafe36f7b83496155456d90486a.doc Page 22 of 69 Fillers, life-savers, warmers & coolers August 2010
Level: Pre-intermediate +
Ages: all ages
Time 30 - 40 minutes
Materials: supplied by the students
Purpose: Practice in the realisations of the functions of asking & giving directions
Type: warmer/life-saver
Method:
Step one - The teacher asks the students to leave the classroom and go as far as they want on the school premises and then hide something identifiable but of no value (e.g. an old pencil) and then return to the classroom.
Step two - On their return they sit down and write out directions to go from the classroom door to the hidden object.
Step three - They exchange written instructions and, following them, attempt to retrieve the hidden objects
Anticipated problems:
1. permanently lost pencil stubs - the teacher clearly has to trouble shoot in such circumstances.
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12. Pelmanism
Level: all levels
Ages: all ages
Time 10 - 20 minutes
Materials: sheets of blank A4 paper, boardmarker
Purpose: Practice and revision in any part of the language which can be divided up into pairs of items - E.g. phrasal verbs, collocations, prepositional phrases, translations etc. etc.
Type: filler
Method:
Step one - The teacher pairs up the class and tells each student whether they are A or B
Step two -The teacher distributes a sheet of A4 to each student
Step three - The teacher then demonstrates the folding of the sheet (1. down the middle, lengthwise and then into three equal parts) the class follow instructions and fold their sheets.
Step four - the teacher unfolds his/her sheet and tears it up along the fold lines, the class follow suit. Everyone should now have six identical squares of paper.
Step five - the teacher establishes (typically by elicitation) a binary group on the board - e.g.
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A B VERBS NOUNS to make the bed to reach a conclusion to take a photograph to catch a cold to tell lies to do your homework
Step six - as each pair is established on the board, the A’s in the class should write down the word(s) appearing in the A column on one square of paper and the B’s should do the same for the B column.
Step seven - At the end of steps five and six each student should have six squares of paper with half a collocation written on each.
Step eight - The pairs of students now combine their squares and place them face down scattered over the desk in front of them.
Step nine - in turn they pick up and publicly turn over two squares. If they don’t combine to form one of the target collocations they replace them face down on the desk. If, by chance (at this early stage) they do combine, the student keeps them and tries again.
Step ten - as the activity progresses, students must try to remember where particular words or phrases are so that they can pick up and keep pairs.
Step eleven - the player with the largest number of matching pairs is the winner.
Note: The larger the number of pieces of paper the more challenging the activity becomes.
Anticipated problems:
None
D:\Docs\2017-12-13\01e58cafe36f7b83496155456d90486a.doc Page 25 of 69 Fillers, life-savers, warmers & coolers August 2010 Variations
The activity can be made considerably more challenging by folding and tearing the paper into 8 or 10 pieces.
In addition to collocations, many other parts of the language come in pairs and can be practised in this way – for example:
. Phrasal verbs . Infinitives and past forms of irregular verbs . Opposites . Translations . Hyponyms & superordinates (e.g. bed & furniture) . Etc.
D:\Docs\2017-12-13\01e58cafe36f7b83496155456d90486a.doc Page 26 of 69 Fillers, life-savers, warmers & coolers August 2010 13. Word searches
Level: all levels
Ages: all ages
Time 10 - 20 minutes
Materials: prepared word search grids - one for each student, OHT with the results
Purpose: Practice and revision of recently studied vocabulary
Type: cooler
Method:
Step 0ne - (before the lesson) Prepare the grid. The framework can be made using the Table facility on Word for Windows as detailed in section 3 (crossword puzzles - page 7) but in the example on the next page there are 11 cells each way. Alternatively a perfectly good framework can be made with a ruler and biro!
Step two - Fill in, say, ten words in the grid randomly placed and interlocking where convenient
Step three - fill in the remainder of the cells with fragments of words from the lexical set being revised. Of course, you can make this more manageable for low level learners if you list the target words at the bottom of the page.
Step four - if you are preparing on a word processor, colour the target words and run off an OHT for later feedback purposes. If you are doing it by hand, make the OHT in a similar way.
Step five - distribute the completed grids and allow individuals five minutes to find the words.
Step six - invite the students to pair up and share what they have found
Step seven - Conduct a short feedback session using the OHP.
D:\Docs\2017-12-13\01e58cafe36f7b83496155456d90486a.doc Page 27 of 69 Fillers, life-savers, warmers & coolers August 2010 A Word search example
This word search contains ten words associated with the language awareness content of typical TESOL courses. They are hidden horizontally, vertically and diagonally. Ring or highlight the words you can find. After five minutes, compare your results with those of a neighbour.
M O R P P A O N O M A
E F R E M P A I E P T
C T I M O D A L V F E
T S O P R E F I X U P
A M O D P I B F I N O
D I A C H R O N I C P
V E R P E R E P O T E
E N O V M I T I S I R
R S E M E A N T I O A
B F C P R O N O U N T
I E L D P R E P O S O
I D E T E R M I N E R
Anticipated problems: None
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14. My Aunt's cat …..
Level: Pre-intermediate +
Ages: all ages
Time 5 – 10 minutes
Materials: none
Purpose: A bit of fun and activation of a random set of vocabulary, revision of the sequence of the alphabet, conditioned choice between "a" & "an".
Type: warmer
Method:
Step one – The teacher presents the sentence – "My Aunt's cat is an active cat", generates practice in the pronunciation of the sentence and then writes it up as a marker sentence on the board. It's worth highlighting and drilling the connected speech phenomena in this sentence.
Step two - The class then take it in turns to repeat the sentence, replacing the adjective with another starting with the next letter in the alphabet – i.e. bellicose, crafty etc. etc.
Anticipated problems:
1. Some letters present problems for most classes – for example, xenophobic and xylophone-playing may be a bit far-fetched as descriptions of cats for most classes. Teachers may prefer to skip certain letters!
D:\Docs\2017-12-13\01e58cafe36f7b83496155456d90486a.doc Page 29 of 69 Fillers, life-savers, warmers & coolers August 2010 15. The “Rizla”1 game
Level: Pre-intermediate +
Ages: all ages Method:
Time 5 – 10 minutes Step one – The teacher prepares a series of labels on Materials: some post-it notes post-it notes, as many labels as there are people in the class. Purpose: practice in question forms and general revision Each label has the name of a well known person. There is a Type: warmer suitable list on the next page but teachers will need to modify it to suit the general knowledge of their particular classes.
Step two – (Read step three) The teacher drills and rehearses with the class the kind of questions they will need.
Step three - The class then mingles and each person tries to find out “who they are” by asking questions.
Anticipated problems:
1. None – except gaps in general knowledge.
Some well-known people
George W. Bush Queen Elizabeth II Beethoven
1 “Rizla” is (or was) the name of a company that manufactures cigarette papers for people who like to roll their own cigarettes. Some resourceful teacher realized that these could be used for this activity long before post- it note pads were invented. The name, like the object, has stuck! D:\Docs\2017-12-13\01e58cafe36f7b83496155456d90486a.doc Page 30 of 69 Fillers, life-savers, warmers & coolers August 2010 Maradonna Madonna Michael Jackson Ray Parker (all right, seriously – your own name!) Marylin Munroe Albert Einstein Sylvester Stallone Sir Paul McCartney Pele Lady Diana Yasser Arafat Julius Caesar Dante Silvio Berlusconi Pablo Picasso Mother Teresa Christopher Columbus John Lennon Nelson Mandela Winston Churchill William Shakespeare David Beckham Leonardo da Vinci Mozart Karl Marx Sigmund Freud Gandhi
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16. The Yes/no Interlude
Level: Pre-intermediate +
Ages: all ages Method:
Time 5 – 10 minutes Step one – The teacher selects one “victim” at a time to sit at the front of the class. Materials: a watch with a second hand Step two – the teacher appoints a time-keeper Purpose: fluency practice and makes sure they have a watch or a mobile phone with a facility for counting a minute. Type: warmer Step three – The teacher explains the purpose of the activity. The “victim” is to answer all the questions they are asked without using the words “yes” or “no”. They must try to survive the ordeal for 60 seconds. (few people manage it). (At this stage, a demonstration is a good idea.)
Step three - As each person fails or succeeds another takes their place.
Step four – If the teacher feels students can do it, they should take over the role of question master.
Anticipated problems:
1. None.
17. Classroom bingo
D:\Docs\2017-12-13\01e58cafe36f7b83496155456d90486a.doc Page 32 of 69 Fillers, life-savers, warmers & coolers August 2010 Level: Pre-intermediate +
Ages: all ages
Time 5 – 10 minutes
Materials: none really, though a generous teacher might like to give each student a sheet of A4
Purpose: familiar vocabulary practice
Type: warmer
Method:
Step one – The teacher instructs the class to each make a blank “bingo card” with say eight squares – like this:
Step two – the teacher instructs the class, working individually, to look around the room and write the names of eight objects they can see – one in each box. As they are doing this, the teacher similarly makes as long a list as possible of visible objects for use when s/he becomes the “bingo caller”.
Step three – The teacher calls out the objects and the first student to cross out all the words on their card shouts out “bingo” and is the winner.
Anticipated problems: It might be a good idea to have a bar of chocolate for a prize.
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18. Hotel receptionist
Level: Intermediate +
Ages: all ages Method:
Time 10 - 15 minutes Step one – The teacher prepares slips of paper with problems written on them – one for Materials: slips of paper with prompts on them each member of the class. (there are some samples on the next page. Some may not be suitable for your classes. Purpose: fluency practice Step two – the teacher forms the class into Type: warmer groups of six and distributes the slips. Students must not show each other the slips.
Step three – The teacher explains the scenario. I.e. they are all guests at a hotel where there has been a sudden outbreak of laryngitis. They have all lost their voices except the receptionists, who live outside the hotel and have not been affected.
Step three - In each group of six, two people are to be the receptionists.
Step four – students take it in turns to mime their problem to the receptionists – the receptionists can, of course, speak and prompt the guest, check their guesses etc.
Step five – as each “guest” gets their message across, they replace one of the receptionists.
Anticipated problems:
1. Despite being a mime activity, this can get quite noisy!
D:\Docs\2017-12-13\01e58cafe36f7b83496155456d90486a.doc Page 34 of 69 Fillers, life-savers, warmers & coolers August 2010 Prompts for hotel receptionist activity
1. You went on your balcony this morning. Unfortunately you sneezed and your false teeth flew out and landed in the deep end of the swimming pool six floors below. You can’t swim.
2. You woke up this morning and found a complete stranger in the bed next to you. It’s a man. He’s very fat and smells strongly of alcohol. He’s still there now …… snoring!
3. Your wedding ring has fallen down the drain of your shower.
4. The remote control of your television doesn’t work and you can’t switch the television off.
5. A large bird has flown into your room. It has eaten your breakfast and is refusing to leave.
6. It’s very hot today but the air-conditioning in your room is blowing out hot air. None of the windows will open.
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19. Carroll’s Quartets
Level: Intermediate + Method: Ages: all ages Step one – The teacher writes two unrelated four letter words Time 10 - 15 minutes – one at the top and one at the bottom of the board
Materials: board & boardmarker Step two – the challenge is to transform one the top word into the bottom in steps – each step must be one letter different from the word above and must be a real word. Purpose: intellectual challenge Example challenge Type: cooler WORD
HINT
D:\Docs\2017-12-13\01e58cafe36f7b83496155456d90486a.doc Page 36 of 69 Fillers, life-savers, warmers & coolers August 2010 One example solution
WORD
CORD
CORE
TORE
TONE
HONE
LONE
LINE
LINT
HINT
Anticipated problems:
1. Some of these may be very difficult – dictionary use can be encouraged and the challenge set for homework or to occupy a break etc.
A more learner-centred version (involving dictionary practice)
Step one – The teacher asks each member of the class, privately, to write down a four letter word.
Step two – With the help of dictionaries they now produce a list of words with each word being one letter different from the word before.
Step three – When they have reached a word with no letters in common with the starting word, they copy their starting and finishing words onto another piece of paper and exchange with a partner.
Step four – as step two above.
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20. Hangman
Level: All Method: Ages: all ages Everyone already knows this game but just in Time 10 - 15 minutes case…………
Materials: board & boardmarker Step one – The teacher writes the letters of the alphabet at the top of the board. If appropriate this might be an opportunity to revise the names of the letters – possibly Purpose: vocabulary review using Adrian Underhill’s techniques (see Sound Foundations) Type: calmer but can get competitive Step two – the teacher or one of the students selects a word (for example “basket”) and represents it on the board with as many lines as there are letters in the word. Thus:
______
Step three – the (remaining) students should then be encouraged to guess possible letters in the word.
As they guess letters the letter should be crossed off at the top and inserted on the appropriate line if successful. If not successful, one line of the gallows should be drawn.
Step four – if the students are unlucky the gallows should eventually look like this:
this allows for ten wrong guesses – if you want more, you can always add a face this allows three more wrong guesses.
Anticipated problems:
D:\Docs\2017-12-13\01e58cafe36f7b83496155456d90486a.doc Page 38 of 69 Fillers, life-savers, warmers & coolers August 2010 1. You may find the whole concept a bit too gruesome – in which case the traditional hanging man – and therefore the name of the game – can, of course, be changed for any other line drawing.
Tip: Keeping a running record of vocabulary which has come up during a lesson (e.g. in a dedicated column on the right hand side of the board) is a good source for this and other end-of-lesson fillers. It’s also valuable for next-lesson review procedures.
Another tip: Many teachers find a quick burst of hangman a neat way of introducing the topic of a lesson.
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21. Five senses dictation
Level: All Method: Ages: all ages
Time 10 - 15 minutes Step one – draw a diagram on the board like this: Materials: board & boardmarker
Purpose: generating communicative interaction
Type: filler
And ask the class to copy it onto a piece of paper
Step two – elicit from the class the names of the five senses and write them into the diagram as headings instructing the class to copy them.
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vision taste touch hearing smell
Step three – tell the class you are going to dictate a number of words quite quickly and that they have to write them in whatever they consider to be the most appropriate column. Reassure them that this is not a test and there is no “correct” answer – you expect everyone to be different.
Step four – dictate a list of, say 20 words quite quickly so that the class don’t agonise about placement for ever. Here is a possible list:
1. whiskey 8. grammar 15. England 2. yellow 9. cheese 16. wine 3. pillow 10. cat 17. fish and chips 4. rain 11. Brad Pitt 18. trousers 5. the name of the town 12. coffee 19. mountains where you are 6. your name 13. sunshine 20. football 7. Mozart 14. train
Step five – put the class into pairs to discuss and explain to each other their placements.
Step six – re-pair the class and repeat step five.
Anticipated problems:
This activity seems to generate a strong compulsion to explain the reasons for placing things in particular columns and it can prove difficult to stop the discussion.
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22. “Unjumbling” dialogues
Level: All levels
Ages: all ages Method:
Time 15 – 20 minutes Step one – the teacher prepares or selects a dialogue and cuts it into strips. There should be as many lines as there are students in the class but of course large classes can be divided Materials: dialogue cut up into strips into manageable groups – say 12 people in each. They should leave their desks and stand in an area large enough for them to Purpose: pronunciation practice move around easily.
Type: filler Step two – each student is given a random strip of the dialogue and they have 30 seconds to memorise it and then return it to the teacher. They must not show it to anyone else.
Step three – they now have as long as they need to tell each other their line and form up in sequence.
Step four – they should then sit down again and, in turn, dictate their lines to the whole group.
Step five – when the dictation is finished they should compare their dictations with the original (I always use an OHP for this but it can, of course be pre-written on the board, covered and revealed at this stage.
Step six – a brief class discussion about any deviations from the original – i.e. do changes make no difference, improve the dialogue or spoil it?
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Sample dialogue
Hi Mary
Hi Teresa – how are you?
Not too bad, thanks. And you?
Fine. What are you up to tonight?
Nothing special. Why?
I was thinking of going to see a film.
Great! Count me in. How about cocktails first?
Oh – bit of a problem – I’ve got to take Jack.
Oh no! Not your brother! You know he gets bored.
Yes, but I’m kind of baby-sitting.
Well I suppose that if we have to take him we have to.
Good, that’s settled, then. We’ll pick you up at seven.
OK – Don’t forget to bring some money!
Of course not! I know you never have any!
Anticipated problems: None
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23. Heads & tails
Level: All levels
Ages: all ages Method:
Time 15 – 20 minutes Step one – the teacher prepares a series of two line Materials: strips of paper with a “head” or a “tail” on them dialogues and cuts them into single lines – there should be Purpose: pronunciation practice one line for each student. If there is an odd number of Type: filler students two should be given the same line.
Step two – students then mingle and have to find their “partner”
Step three – they sit down with their partner as soon as they have linked up.
Step four – when the pairing is complete they should say their mini-conversations in order for the teacher to check that they have found the right person.
Step five – a brief class discussion about the contexts, locations, probable speakers in each mini-conversation
D:\Docs\2017-12-13\01e58cafe36f7b83496155456d90486a.doc Page 44 of 69 Fillers, life-savers, warmers & coolers August 2010 Sample mini-conversations
This won’t hurt a bit.
That’s what you say!
(Dentist and patient)
Can you cover my next class?
Not another headache, surely?
(Two teachers)
Is this seat free?
Sure - help yourself.
(strangers on a train)
Does your dog bite?
No – he’s really friendly.
(strangers in a park)
Are you hungry?
No – I had a huge breakfast.
(friends at lunchtime)
Anticipated problems: None
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24. My Bonnie
Level: All levels I first witnessed this activity some years ago at an NLP conference Ages: all ages in Edinburgh conducted by Jane Revell (to whom thanks – I’ve used it on many occasions since) Time 5 – 10 minutes Method: Materials: none Step one – the teacher divides the class down the middle of the Purpose: a bit of fun room into two groups.
Type: warmer Step two – the teacher tells the class they are going to sing a song – “My Bonnie”
Step three – if the song is unfamiliar to the students they should rehearse it once with the teacher.
Step four – the teacher instructs the group on the right to stand up and the group on the left to be ready to stand up.
Step five – the teacher explains that every time they reach a “b” in the song, anyone who is standing must sit down and anyone who is sitting down must stand up.
Step six – sing the song together and enjoy the chaos!
D:\Docs\2017-12-13\01e58cafe36f7b83496155456d90486a.doc Page 46 of 69 Fillers, life-savers, warmers & coolers August 2010 The words of My Bonnie
My Bonnie lies over the ocean My Bonnie lies over the sea My Bonnie lies over the ocean Oh! Bring back my Bonnie to me.
Bring back, Bring back Oh! Bring back my Bonnie to me, to me. Bring back, Bring back Oh! Bring back my Bonnie to me.
(My Bonnie probably means my darling)
Anticipated problems: Not an activity for the inhibited or the faint-hearted but second to none as a warmer.
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25 Peter’s coloured balls
Level: All levels
Ages: all ages
Time 5 – 10 minutes
Materials: three coloured balls
Purpose: a bit of fun and an opportunity for newly-formed groups to get to know each others’ names
Type: warmer
I was introduced to this activity by Peter Scaratt who at that time was making the transition from a successful career in mainstream primary teaching to TESOL.
Using a ball for name games is something of a commonplace in TESOL methodology but this technique adds a fresh dimension to the standard activity.
Method:
Step one – the teacher gets the class standing in a circle and checks names round the group.
Step two – the group throw a ball randomly to each other and as each person catches the ball they announce their name.
Step three – the teacher interrupts the activity and asks the thrower now to announce the name of the person who is to receive the ball.
Step four – the teacher interrupts the activity again to give fresh instructions. The receiver is now to say Hello red ball (or whatever colour it is) as they receive the ball then name the next receiver then say goodbye red all as they throw it.
Step five – as soon as a decent rhythm has built up, the teacher quietly introduces a green ball somewhere in the circle and the activity continues with both balls
Step six as soon as a decent rhythm has built up, the teacher quietly introduces a blue ball somewhere in the circle and the activity continues with all three balls
Anticipated problems: At first sight this might not look like an appropriate activity for teenagers but it has proved surprisingly acceptable to all age groups. Typically it ends in chaos with balls bouncing around the room.
D:\Docs\2017-12-13\01e58cafe36f7b83496155456d90486a.doc Page 48 of 69 Fillers, life-savers, warmers & coolers August 2010 26 The right hand side of the board
Level: All levels Most of these activities are Ages: all ages designed to require few or no additional resources. This one Time 5 – 10 minutes exploits resources in the form of vocabulary which naturally accumulate during a typical Materials: white or blackboard and accumulated vocabulary lesson.
Purpose: recycling vocabulary Method:
Type: filler Step one – the teacher draws a line down the right hand side of the board at the beginning of the lesson.
Step two – as the lesson progresses the teacher records new vocabulary or “newish” vocabulary that has been focused on, in the column on the right hand side of the board.
Step three – the teacher exploits this resource in a number of possible ways at the end of the lesson. For example:
Step four – the teacher quickly rubs out alternate letters and tests the students ability in writing and/or orally to reconstruct them.
Step five – the teacher replaces the words with anagrams and does the same as in step four.
Step six – the teacher selects the longest word from the column and plays “radiotherapy” with it (see page 4)
Step seven etc. etc. i.e. there are endless ways of exploiting and thus reviewing a set of vocabulary items – the key to the process is getting into the habit of collecting them routinely and systematically every lesson.
Anticipated problems: None
D:\Docs\2017-12-13\01e58cafe36f7b83496155456d90486a.doc Page 49 of 69 Fillers, life-savers, warmers & coolers August 2010 27 Sentence auctions
Level: All levels
Ages: all ages Method:
Time 15 – 20 minutes Step one – a selection of sentences are displayed or Materials: white or blackboard a selection of sentences distributed to the students. Step two – in pairs they must Purpose: communicative practice and/or error correction discuss the likelihood of the sentences being true or the quality Type: filler of the sentences in terms of their accuracy.
Step three – the teacher elicits the key word auction and displays it on the centre of the board.
Step four – initially pairwork and then whole class brainstorming of vocabulary associated with auctions.
Step five – the teacher announces that class will hold an auction – each member of the class has £/$/€100 but they can work in pairs/small groups and thus pool their resources.
Step six – the teacher conducts the auction and records purchasers and prices on the board
Step seven – after the auction the teacher discusses with the class who has managed to get a bargain and who has ended up with a rip-off
Anticipated problems: None
D:\Docs\2017-12-13\01e58cafe36f7b83496155456d90486a.doc Page 50 of 69 Fillers, life-savers, warmers & coolers August 2010 Sample sentences for a sentence auction “Facts” about Ray Parker
1. He’s 63 2. He has a dog called Pepsi 3. He has done 3 bungee jumps 4. He loves washing up 5. He’s married with 1 daughter 6. He plays tennis at weekends 7. He went to school with Paul McCartney 8. He used to sail a dinghy 9. He’s writing a grammar book 10.He’s Scottish
N.B. for a correction-focussed activity sentences (some accurate, some not) can be selected from the written work produced by a class.
D:\Docs\2017-12-13\01e58cafe36f7b83496155456d90486a.doc Page 51 of 69 Fillers, life-savers, warmers & coolers August 2010 28 Getting to know the teacher
Level: All levels
Ages: all ages Method:
Time 20 – 25 minutes Step one – a selection of sentences about the teacher Materials: white or blackboard and a selection of sentences are displayed or distributed to the students.
Purpose: practice of question formation (& indirect questions) Step two – individually they must try to devise the Type: warmer questions that would have produced the displayed sentences as answers.
Step three – the teacher elicits the questions from the class correcting and drilling as necessary before writing them up on the board.
Step four – the teacher sets up pairwork for students to ask and answer the same or similar questions to each other in order to introduce their partner to the class and the teacher.
Step five – the teacher invites students to introduce their partners.
Step six – the activity can easily be extended to practice indirect questions by introducing phrases such as “Could you tell me ….” “I wonder if you’d mind telling us ……” etc. etc.
Anticipated problems: None
D:\Docs\2017-12-13\01e58cafe36f7b83496155456d90486a.doc Page 52 of 69 Fillers, life-savers, warmers & coolers August 2010 29 Murder
Level: All levels
Ages: all ages Method:
Time 5 - 10 minutes Step one – the students are arranged standing in a circle of, say, 10 or 12. More than one group in the case of larger classes. Materials: none Step two – they are instructed to stare at their own feet.
Purpose: ice-breaking Step three – as the teacher says “one, two, three, up”, they look up and make eye contact with one other member of the group. Type: warmer Step four – if, by chance the person they are looking at is looking directly back at them they are both deemed to have murdered each other and must leave the circle.
Step five – the teacher then says “down again” and the process then recycles until only two are left.
Anticipated problems: None
Comment: This is an odd activity, which involves very little in the way of language. It does, however, seem to work in that groups, particularly groups who are new to each other, seem to find it reduces the tension of those first classes.
D:\Docs\2017-12-13\01e58cafe36f7b83496155456d90486a.doc Page 53 of 69 Fillers, life-savers, warmers & coolers August 2010 30 Kim’s game
Level: All levels
Ages: all ages Method:
Time 20 – 25 minutes Step one – the teacher displays on the OHP or in Materials: OHP or alternative some other way a group of pictures of objects for 30 seconds. Purpose: prepositional phrases of position/existential “there” Step two – After switching off Type: filler the OHP or hiding the picture in some other way, the teacher ask the class individually to remember as many objects as they can.
Step three – the teacher then puts the class into pairs to try to produce as complete a list as possible – at this stage they should be told how many objects there were.
Step four – the teacher then draws a large oblong on the board and elicits/drills prepositional phrases for describing positions – e.g.
. In the top right-hand corner . At the top . On the left (-hand side)
Step five – the teacher then asks the students, back in their pairs, to go through their lists and note the precise position of each object as far as they can remember.
Anticipated problems: None
On the next page there is a template for copying on to an OHT.
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D:\Docs\2017-12-13\01e58cafe36f7b83496155456d90486a.doc Page 55 of 69 Fillers, life-savers, warmers & coolers August 2010 31 Storyboard
Level: All levels
Ages: all ages Method:
Time 20 – 25 minutes Step one – the teacher displays a skeleton text
Materials: OHP or white/blackboard Step two – the class guess the content of the text Step three – as students make good guesses the Purpose: exploitation of discourse intuition words are written on to the developing text
Type: warmer Step four – the teacher puts in multiple occurrences of words which occur more than once
Step five – the teacher “sells” letters or, in emergency, whole words to help the class along.
Anticipated problems: None
This technique can be used for any short predictable text such as a commercial letter, poem, song lyric or can be used to review texts previously studied. It is based on the classic CALL program of the same name.
Preparation
If using an OHP it is sensible to remember that you need large writing and therefore a short text. The text should be written out and the acetate can be prepared by putting a blank acetate over the text and underlining all the words with a permanent OHP pen. Punctuation can optionally be included. The writing in should then be done with a water-soluble OHP pen so that after the lesson the acetate can be rinsed and re-used. The next pages contain sample materials.
D:\Docs\2017-12-13\01e58cafe36f7b83496155456d90486a.doc Page 56 of 69 Fillers, life-savers, warmers & coolers August 2010 A F a i r y S t o r y
O n c e u p o n a t i m e t h e r e w a s a b e a u t i f u l p r i n c e s s w h o l i v e d i n a f a n t a s t i c c a s t l e w i t h h e r f a t h e r, t h e K i n g.
A l t h o u g h s h e w a s b e a u t i f u l s h e w a s v e r y s a d. S h e w a s i n l o v e w i t h a c o m m o n c a r m e c h a n i c!
D:\Docs\2017-12-13\01e58cafe36f7b83496155456d90486a.doc Page 57 of 69 Fillers, life-savers, warmers & coolers August 2010 A f a i r y s t o r y
O n c e u p o n a t i m e t h e r e w a s a b e a u t i f u l p r i n c e s s w h o l i v e d i n - f a n t a s t i c c a s t l e w i t h h e r f a t h e r, t h e K i n g.
A l t h o u g h s h e w a s b e a u t i f u l s h e w a s v e r y s a d. S h e w a s i n l o v e w i t h a c o m m o n c a r m e c h a n i c!
D:\Docs\2017-12-13\01e58cafe36f7b83496155456d90486a.doc Page 58 of 69 Fillers, life-savers, warmers & coolers August 2010 32 Crime & Punishment
Level: All levels
Ages: all ages
Time 30 - 40 minutes
Materials: OHP or white/blackboard, dictionaries
Purpose: communicative interaction, vocabulary development, dictionary practice
Type: life-saver
Method:
Step one – the teacher writes the headings “crime” & “punishment” on the board.
Step two – the class is divided into two halves (smaller groups if necessary)
Step three – one half has to appoint a note-keeper and brainstorm crimes using dictionaries if necessary. The other group has to do the same with punishments.
Step four – the groups transfer their findings to the board under the two headings
Step five – the teacher checks understanding, corrects spellings and drills pronunciation of the accumulated vocabulary.
Step six – the class is divided into pairs – one student from each of the original groups and they must now discuss what they feel is an appropriate punishment for each of the crimes.
Step six – full class discussion of the topic
Step seven – further exploitation of the vocabulary (see “radiotherapy”, categories and the right hand side of the board)
Anticipated problems: None
D:\Docs\2017-12-13\01e58cafe36f7b83496155456d90486a.doc Page 59 of 69 Fillers, life-savers, warmers & coolers August 2010 33 Find someone who …..
Level: All levels
Ages: all ages
Time 10 - 15 minutes
Materials: handouts
Purpose: practice of a target structure/ice-breaking/practice of question formation
Type: warmer
Method:
Step one – the teacher distributes a prepared “find someone who…” sheet or more than one if circumstances permit.
Step two – the teacher reviews and drills the necessary question forms
Step three – the class mingle and try to find people who can answer the questions positively
Step four – the teacher elicits a little random feedback
Anticipated problems: None
Sample “find someone who….’s) (focused on the present perfect & simple past) on next page. N.B. this technique can easily be adapted to focus on other target language.
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Perfect forms A
Find someone who......
has been to..... Name When did they go? America India Singapore Venice Granada Dublin Prague Argentina Pakistan
Have you ever been to ...... ? Yes, I have. No, I haven’t. When did you go to ...... ? I went there in ...... /last ...... / ...... years ago
D:\Docs\2017-12-13\01e58cafe36f7b83496155456d90486a.doc Page 61 of 69 Fillers, life-savers, warmers & coolers August 2010 Perfect forms
B
Find someone who......
has eaten/drunk Name When did they last try it? whiskey snake octopus raw fish a kiwi fruit cheese made from goat’s milk caviare champagne lobster
Have you ever eaten/drunk? Yes, I have. No, I haven’t. When did you (last) try it? I tried it in ...... /last ...... / ...... years ago
D:\Docs\2017-12-13\01e58cafe36f7b83496155456d90486a.doc Page 62 of 69 Fillers, life-savers, warmers & coolers August 2010 34 Back to the board (vocabulary review)
Level: All levels
Ages: all ages Method:
Time 10 - 15 minutes Step one – students close text books and notebooks Materials: white/blackboard Step two – the teacher cleans the board Purpose: to review and consolidate recently taught vocabulary Step three – students in Type: filler pairs are given 3 minutes to brainstorm and note down all the new words they can recall from that lesson/day/week
Step four – (optional) re-pair and repeat step three.
Step five – whole class mode – brainstorm product of pairwork via teacher onto the board or alternatively invite them all out to write their words up.
Step six - once step five is completed the teacher can use her/his judgment to decide which ones to re-focus on for review of pronunciation/spelling/meaning
Step seven – one student is brought out to the front of the class and must sit with her/his back to the board.
Step eight – the teacher silently points at one word.
Step nine – the class must then describe, define, give the word class etc. – everything but saying the word so that the student at the front can guess which word the teacher has pointed at.
Step ten – when successful the student nominates a replacement student and back to stage seven
Anticipated problems: None 35 Laura’s “Conditional cards”
Level: All levels Laura Martins Campos is an Ages: all ages English Language Teacher from Santos, Brazil. Time 5 - 10 minutes Method:
D:\Docs\2017-12-13\01e58cafe36f7b83496155456d90486a.doc Page 63 of 69 Materials: a standard pack of playing cards
Purpose: to activate,review and consolidate 1st conditionals
Type: warmer/filler Fillers, life-savers, warmers & coolers August 2010
Step one – prepare a pack of cards by removing unnecessary cards. You need 4 of each number and as many sets of four as there are students in the class. (If you’ve got more than 13 students, you’ll need more than one set of cards) Step two – shuffle this modified pack Step three – distribute 4 cards to each student Step four – explain that the object of the game is to swap cards one at a time until you have four of the same number – the first to finish is the winner. Step five – explain that they must use the sentence “If you give me a ………, I’ll give you a ……….” and drill it.
Step six - demonstrate with a strong student
Step seven – the class should stand and mingle – and away they go! Variations I saw Laura use this activity as a warmer but it would also serve as an excellent practice activity – there are probably a couple of million other ways that a pack of cards can be used in class – all contributions will be attributed!
Anticipated problems: There is a severe danger that students will want to do it again! 36 Nick’s musical icebreaker
Level: All levels Nick Perkins is Ages: all ages Pearson Longman’s Academic Time 25 minutes Development Manager for Latin Materials: CD player & CD’s or computer with decent sound system America
Purpose: To break the ice in a different way with new classes Method:
Type: warmer Step one – the teacher prepares 30 second excerpts from their top 5 songs or pieces of music and downloads them without gaps and then prepares for display a list of the names of the pieces, artists, possibly dates if known.
Step two – the teacher plays the music to the class D:\Docs\2017-12-13\01e58cafe36f7b83496155456d90486a.doc Page 64 of 69 Fillers, life-savers, warmers & coolers August 2010
Step three – the teacher then displays the details and briefly explains why each piece is so important to him/her
Step four – the teacher then invites the class individually to list their top 3 and write two or three sentences explaining their choices
Step five – pairwork follows with each class member telling their partner what their list contains and the reasons for the choices
Step six - a very learner-centred follow-up is to invite the class – say, once a week – to take turns to start a class by preparing and delivering steps one to three
Anticipated problems: None – other than the obvious that some age groups can sometimes be scathing about each others’ taste in music so strict rules relating to respect and tolerance may need to be established and enforced
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37 A word puzzle
Level: All levels
Ages: all ages Method:
Time 5 minutes Step one – the teacher displays the list of words on the next page (currently set out Materials: OHT or alternative display medium as an OHT template).
Purpose: To amuse Step two – the instructions are in the display. It can, of course, usefully be done Type: filler/cooler in pairs
Step three – the teacher stops the agony or congratulates anyone who has managed it.
Solution: If you take the first letter of each word and put it at the end of the word, then read it backwards, it is still the original word. See page 69.
Anticipated problems: None – other than the obvious that some age groups can sometimes be scathing about each others’ taste in music so strict rules relating to respect and tolerance may need to be established and enforced
What do the following words have in common?
D:\Docs\2017-12-13\01e58cafe36f7b83496155456d90486a.doc Page 66 of 69 Fillers, life-savers, warmers & coolers August 2010 1. Banana 2. Dresser 3. Grammar 4. Potato 5. Revive 6. Uneven 7. Assess
What do the following words have in common?
D:\Docs\2017-12-13\01e58cafe36f7b83496155456d90486a.doc Page 67 of 69 Fillers, life-savers, warmers & coolers August 2010 1. ananaB 2. resserD 3. rammarG 4. otatoP 5. eviveR 6. nevenU 7. ssessA
Websites for various classroom activities
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http://puzzlemaker.school.discovery.com teachers can use this website to make up puzzles, such as crosswords and wordsearches, and print them out for their students http://www.teflgames.com/games.html this website offers a number of games which teachers can print out and use with their classes http://www.tefl.net/lessonplans/activities. another website with lots of activities for htm teachers to print out and use http://www.esl- this website has board games to lounge.com/board_gamesindex3.shtml download and adjust to suit your own class http://www.onestopenglish.com/tefl_esl_ lots of games that can be used as warmers/index.htm warmer (or cooler) activities http://www.world-english.org lots of free online games and quizzes for students to practise English at home http://www.english-at-home.com free online grammar games for students to use at home
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