Writing clues for crosswords

Aims:Writing skill, sentence making, imagination

Level:Pre-intermediate-Advanced

Time:15-20 minutes

Organisation:Pairs/Groups

Procedure:For this the students, working in pairs or small groups, are given a crossword puzzle (perhaps made up by another groups). They then have to write the clues. The clues can consist of a series of sentences.

Instructions for a game

Aims:Writing skill, game-like learning

Level:Pre-intermediate

Time:10 minutes

Organisation:Groups

Procedure:For the single board game below, the students working in groups, can write their own instructions for moving round the board. For example:

o If you can ride a bicycle, go forward 3 squares

o If you got up before 9 o’clock, go back 2 squares

o If you haven’t had breakfast, go back 4 squares

To play this game, the students take it in turns to throw a dice, moving round the board first from left to right, then right to left. When they land on a square, they look at the instructions to find out about their move. The first player to reach ‘home’ is the winner.

Jumbled story

Aims:Writing skill, make up a story

Level:Pre-intermediate-Advanced

Time:15-20 minutes

Organisation:Groups

Procedure:The students, working in groups, have to write two short stories of about four to six sentences each. The stories can be about the same person or similar event. The stories are then cut up into separate sentences and given to another group to sort out into the two original stories.

Instructions for drawing a map or a picture

Aims:Writing skill, using of instructions, fun.

Level:Pre-intermediate-Advanced

Time:15-20 minutes

Organisation:Groups

Procedure:The students, working in groups, have to draw a simple map or picture. They then work out the step by step instructions for drawing these. They must decide how much detail they want to include. The groups then exchange instructions and try to draw one another’s pictures. As the final stage they check their pictures against the original ones. Then at home they can colour the pictures.

Headlines

Aims:Writing skill, imagination

Level:Pre-intermediate

Time:10 minutes

Organisation:Groups

Procedure:Give each group one or more headlines. These can be invented or taken from real newspapers. Ask the students to discuss and write out the related story. At this level the students should not be asked to try to write a newspaper account of the story. The important thing is for them to use their imagination. Real or imaginary book titles can also be used to stimulate a similar activity.

Cutting down texts

Procedure:Take a short text of up to about 30 words (it can be from your course book), and write it up on the board. Students suggest any section of one, two or three words that can be cut out, while still leaving a grammatically acceptable – though possibly ridiculous – text. Sections are eliminated for as long as it is possible to do so. For example:

       The princess was awakened by the kiss of a handsome prince.

The princess was awakened by the kiss of a prince.

The princess was awakened by a prince.

The princess was awakened.

The princess!

Princess!

The students then try to reconstruct the original text.

Writing Idea

Level: Medium to Difficult

I asked my students to write in their daily journals what rules they would like to see implemented in our classroom and which rules they beleived would benefit our class the most. I then asked them to imagine how it would be if we had no rules in our class, in our school, and in the world. I asked them to weigh the pros and cons of this idea and write whether or not they would like to experience or live in this type of environment.

Warmer games

Picture difference

Aims:Find out the differences

Level:Beginner/Intermediate

Time:10 minutes

Organisation:Individuals/Pairs

Procedure:In pairs, one student is given picture A, one picture B. Without looking at the other picture they have to find the differences (ie by describing the pictures to each other).

Three adjectives

Aims:Speaking skill

Level:Intermediate

Time:10-15 minutes

Organisation:Individuals, class

Procedure:On a piece of paper each student writes down three adjectives which he feels describe himself. All the papers are collected. The teacher reads out the papers one after the other. With each set of adjectives the group speculates who wrote them. The student concerned should be free to remain anonymous. Then each student is asked to write down three adjectives which characterise his state of mind.

Rules and regulations

Aims:Rules and regulations, comparison, writing skill

Level:Pre-intermediate-Advanced

Time:5-10 minutes

Organisation:Groups

Procedure: Divide the class into groups and ask each group to draw up a list of rules and regulations to control a certain situation: for example, safety precautions (fire, hygiene, etc.) for a holiday camp. After each group has finished drawing up its list of rules and regulations, ask them to compare these with those of other groups. 

Don’t say yes or no

Procedure:One volunteer student stands in front of the class. The rest fire questions at him or her, with the aim of eliciting the answer ‘yes’ or ‘no’. The volunteer has to try to answer the questions truthfully without these words. This will mostly be through the use of ‘tag’ answers such as ‘I did’ or ‘She does not’. If the volunteer does say the forbidden words, he or she is ‘out’ and another is chosen. Give a time limit of one minute; if within that time the volunteer has not said ‘yes’ or ‘no’, he or she has won.

Finding the page

Procedure:Write upor dictate a series of words (possibly ones they have learnt recently). The students have to find each word in the dictionary and write down the number of the page where it appears. You, of course, have to do the same! How many of the words can they find the right pages for in three, four or five minutes?

The aim of the exercise – which the students should be made aware of – is to improve their speed and efficiency in finding words in the dictionary.

Numbers in my life

Procedure:Each student thinks of a number which is important in his or her life – a date, a telephone or house number, an age, or whatever. A volunteer writes his or her number on the board, and the others try to guess what it is and why it is important.

Odd one out

Procedure:Write six words on the board from one broad lexical set. For example:

       Chair         table           window      cupboard               desk            shelf

Ask the students which word does not ‘belong’ to the others. Challenge the students to argue why this word is the ‘odd one out’. For example, a window is outside and inside a building and the other objects are all inside. Encourage students to argue that another word is the odd one out. One might say that chair is the odd one out because it is the only one that you normally sit on.

Use the dictionary

Procedure:Give a set of six to ten English words the students probably do not know yet. They find out the meanings of as many as they can from the dictionary within a given time: three minutes, for example. Check the meanings.

       This activity can be used to prepare the vocabulary they are going to meet in their next reading passage.

Bang Bang

Level:Easy

Divide the group into two teams. Explain that they are cowboys and they are involved in a duel. One student from each team comes to the front. Get them to pretend to draw their pistols. Say "how do you say..." and a word in their mother tongue. The first child to give the answer and then "bang bang", pretending to shoot his opponent is the winner. He remains standing and the other one sits down. I give 1 point for the right answer and 5 extra points if they manage to "kill" 4 opponents in a row.

Editor's Note: Instead of saying the word in the students' mother tongue, it would be possible to use a picture or to say a definition ("What do you call the large gray animal with a long nose?")

Paper Airplane Game

Level:Any Level

Draw a target (with points - like a dart board) on the white board or use a cardboard box in the middle of the room. Then, students make paper airplanes and launch them after they answer your question in the form of a sentence. I don't except my beginners/low intermediate students to form complete sentence so I help them to form correct sentences. To my surprise they will repeat the sentence several times (while I'm helping them) just so they can throw their airplane. For beginner and low intermediate classes, I recommend formulating questions that lead to 1 or 2 types of answers. This allows for better memorization. For example, use CAN/WILL questions and write the beginning part of the answer on the board "I can/will...". I recommend giving a prize to make the target points mean something, thus peaking their interest.