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Zero preparation, fun revision Teaching should be such that what is offered is perceived as a valuable gift and not as a hard duty. Albert EINSTEIN, scientist
➜ Jumping words
Try this brief test to find out if the following article is useful for you. YES
NO
1. Learning with fun is the best kind of learning. 2. I think that CLIL classes should be about co-operative learning. 3. I want my students to be more autonomous. 4. In CLIL classes systematic content revision is essential. 5. My students sometimes perceive revision as testing and they feel pressured. 6. My students forget words from class to class. 7. Some of my students know the meaning of a word and use it in English, but don’t know the equivalent in their mother tongue. 8. Extra revision exercises mean more preparation time for teachers.
ards or flashcards
rdc 1 Put 10 wothe board, randomly, high on in any order.
2 Divide your students into small groups and tell them to choose a captain.
on the board
3 Say one of the wordths er tongue. in the students’ mo
4 Captains run to the board,
jump and take the correc t word.
5 For each correctly taken word the group gets a point.
When you finish with the 10 words and start the next round, tell your students to change the captain so that everybody can participate.
Classroom management tips If you answered “yes!” to at least 5 out of 8 statements, have a look at the proposed fun-forstudents, easy-for-the teacher activities. They put students at the heart of the learning process and encourage their autonomy as learners. They also require zero or almost zero preparation for the teacher!
◗ Instead of using the students’ mother tongue,
you can give your learners a description of the vocabulary item in English. ◗ Another excellent idea is to choose a group of three students who act as ‘word describers’. The describers describe the word, without actually saying it. 75
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It's brown, it's like earth!
It's where worms live!
➜ Back-to-board
➜ Scrambled letters, missing letters
This is one of the most fun activities for children and it requires no planning for teachers. It can create a bit of chaos in the classroom, so we suggest you use it only on special occasions, for example as an extra award after a successfully learnt lesson.
1. Choose a word, e.g. ‘electric’ and write it on the board omitting several letters:
class into 3 or 4
r 1 Divide you and tell each group groups to choose their captain.
2 Tell the captains to turn their back to the board.
3 Write a word
on the board.
4 Group members explain the
word to their captain wit hout actually saying it.
t the 5 The first captain to shou s a point correct answer score for his/her group.
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It's where you put plants!
EL
C
RIC
Tell your students to guess the word. 2. Now, choose a word related to it, e.g. ‘power’, and write it scrambled on the board: WOREP Again ask your students to guess it. Underline the first letter if necessary. 3. Provide another example of related words, e.g. write ‘hydroelectric plant’ as: H
DR
E
ECT
IC
NLAPT
to make sure everybody understands. 4. Now ask every student to invent a similar exercise and only after that divide them into groups to dicuss their fun words together. 5. Call the captains to the front to share one of his/her group’s secret words with the rest of the class. Other groups guess the word. 6. The group which guesses the most words is the winner.
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Zero preparation, fun revision
➜ One Minute Heads Together
dents in groups
stu 1 Put your tell each student to
of 4 and 1 to 4. choose one number from
2 Ask a content related question
and give the groups one minute to answer it.
3
put The group members and er th ge to their heads er. sw an e th on decide
4 Call a number. All students with that number stand up and answer the question.
Version 2: Change the name of the game When your students become familiar with One Minute Heads Together, provide more challenging questions. Ask your students if they need more time to think. Let them change the name of the activity as they wish: Two, Three or Four Minutes Heads Together. This will give your learners a sense of being appreciated and listened to.
Version 3: Use fun riddles You can use the Heads Together activity to revise content with fun riddles. If the topic you are teaching is plants or animals, here are some readymade riddles. If you prefer a calmer type of revision, give each group a photocopiable sheet with riddles to complete.
5 Praise correct responses, but
show interest in incorrect ones, as well. Always ask how they came up with their answers.
To bring more diversity into your classroom, you can present the same activity in different forms:
Version 1: Substitute numbers with words Instead of calling numbers, give your learners a word card, a flashcard or a magazine clip representing the content you want to revise. Tell students to choose one image from those on offer, for example: • Starfish, clown fish, trout, shark.
Photocopiable Activity Key (next page):
• Monkey, lion, whale, deer.
Plant riddles
• Ladybird, mosquito, fly, bee. • Sponge, mussel, butterfly, snail. Now, ask the students which animal group they represent (1-fish, 2-mammals, 3-insects, 4-invertebrates). When calling students, instead of numbers call for ‘fish’, ‘mammals’, ‘insects’ or ‘invertebrates’. etc. When they guess, continue with other questions.
1. a plant / 2. roots / 3. a leaf / 4. a seed 5. germinate / 6. a stem / 7. water and minerals; from roots to leaves / 8. a trunk / 9. on branches, on twigs / 10. a photosynthesis Animal riddles 1. an amphibian / 2. an omnivore / 3. invertebrates 4. fish / 5. an arachnid / 6. a scorpion / 7. a whale 8. a worm / 9. a jellyfish / 10. a penguin Note: these riddles are suitable for 3rd grade Primary.
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Plant riddles 1. I am a living being, but I cannot run, jump, or move around. Who am I?
2. Plants and flowers have me, but you cannot see me. Who am I?
3. I can be wide or thin like a needle. I can be big or small. Usually I am green, but in autumn I sometimes change my colour. Who am I?
4. I am very, very small. But give me some soil and water, and you will be surprised! Who am I?
5. You discovered me in riddle 4. If you give me light, water, air, soil and minerals I will do an action. What will I do?
6. I am green and upright. I transport nutrients. Who I am?
7. Now that you know me, tell me what I transport and from where to where?
8. I am similar to my friend in riddle 6, but I am much bigger. Trees have me. Who am I?
Š EDELVIVES Photocopiable sheet
9. I am a tree. I have roots, trunk and leaves. Where can you see my leaves?
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10. I am a process. I transform different elements into energy to make plants grow. What is my scientific name?
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Animal riddles 1. I am cold-blooded, but I am not a reptile and I am not a fish. Who am I?
2. I am not choosy about food. I eat everything: plants and animals. Who am I?
3. We represent 98% of all animals on Earth. Who are we?
4. Birds and amphibians produce eggs. But I produce even more eggs then them! Who am I?
5. I look like an insect, but I can’t fly. Insects have six legs and I have eight. Who am I?
6. I am one of the creatures in riddle 5. I live in deserts and I can be poisonous. Who am I?
7. I look like a fish, but I’m not a fish. And I am really, really big. Who am I?
8. I am slimy and moist. I work underground and I don’t have a backbone. Who am I?
10. I am a bird. I have a beak and wings, but I cannot fly. I am a good swimmer. I live in the North, where it’s very cold.
© EDELVIVES Photocopiable sheet
9. I live in the sea and I am almost transparent. That’s because my tissues are 95% water. Don’t touch me!
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I LEARNED THREE NEW WORDS LAST WEEK!
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REALLY? ME TOO! I LEARNED ‘GAS’, ‘SOLID’ AND ‘LIQUID’.
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I LOVE THE WORD ‘PRECIPITATION’!
➜ Old friends, new words
beginning of the week
the 1 At n3 ask students to write dow
week words they learned last lish. Eng in e nic nd and that sou
2 Tell them to walk around, pretending to be friends who haven’t seen each other for a long time and who now have many things to say to each other.
3
like: “Do you Introduce phrases I learnt 3 new ek we t know that las , that’s interesting. words?”; “Oh, really word mean?”; And what does that rds. Do you wo w “I also learnt 3 ne ?” rds wo my want to know
4 Act out the dialogue with one of the students before doi ng the activity as a class.
5 At the end of the activity ask students to get back to their desk and write 3 sentences with the words their ‘old friends’ told them.
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‘PRECIPITATION’? SOUNDS FUN! I LIKE MY WHAT DOES ‘SOLIDIFICATION’! THATMEAN? FAVOURITE DO YOU KNOW WORD IS ‘COLLECTION’. ‘SOLIDIFICATION’?
➜ Wordsearch
r students to choose 10
you 1 Tell abu lary items on two related voc ise. but different topics to rev
2 Put the students in pairs and give each student a grid of 12 x 12 (use the photocopiable sheet at the end of this article).
rds s to fill in the 10 wo
nt 3 Tell studerd can square. The words in the wo tally, diagonally be written horizon and vertically.
4 Tell your students to fill
the remaining fields wit h just any letters.
5 The students swap the grids in pairs and circle the 10 words.
6 The students check their answers in pairs.