1,2,3 Reading challenge

Students read a text aloud in pairs or small groups. They choose to read either one, two or three words. The student who reads out the final word loses. They could also lose if they read out the last word on each line or their partner gets a point. The student with the most points wins. 

Guess the room!

Record some sounds to play to the class. Soundhound would be good for this or there are some sounds on YouTube. Students have to decide which room there are from. Here are some suggestions:

• running a tap
• flushing the toilet
• brushing your teeth
• turning the shower on
• boiling a kettle
• opening a bottle of fizzy drink
• running the washing machine
• opening the fridge door
• using the microwave
• dropping ice into a glass
• laying the table
• scraping a chair across the floor
• switching the radio on or off
• turning on the TV
• typing on the PC
• opening a packet
• cutting with scissors
• using a hair dryer 
• brushing your hair
• climbing stairs

Wordle

I really like wordle for displaying text. Here are 10 examples of how I've used it in the past. 

1. View for 30 secs - how many words can you remember? 

2. How many adjectives can you spot? 

3. Introduce new vocabulary. Find the 10 items of food etc. 

4. Speaking task where your partner ticks off words as you use them. How many can you use in 1 minute? Same for writing. How many can you include? 

5. I say the English and students shout out the colour of the French, German word.  

6. Introduce the vocab test words. Students could guess the words they need to learn for homework as a plenary.

7. Copy an article from a newspaper/ song lyrics and see the most common words used.

8. Give students a wordle in black and white and ask them to colour all nouns one colour, past verbs another etc.

9. Displays or labels

10. I can't remember who but someone on twitter kindly produced the wordle attached to this post which contains all the words from the GCSE listening papers. Students highlight the ones they know and learn the ones they don't. 

Getting students talking!

I've recently been trying out some activities in my lessons that I'd forgotten about and haven't used for a while to try and get my students speaking. Here are two that worked well. 

Taboo - this works well in pairs or as a whole class. Display a word or picture that a student has to guess with 3 or 4 words that the class are not allowed to use when describing it. For example on the topic of jobs, the word could be chef de cuisine. Words they were not allowed to say were cuisine, restaurant or nourriture. Students could use words or phrases to describe the job - il travaille avec les serveurs. Il prépare les repas. For an extra challenge give them a time limit. 

Just a minute - students talk for a minute on a chosen topic. Partners could have key words they tick off when they hear them. Instead of using a timer, their partner colours in a shape and they have to keep talking until it's completely shaded. 

Lingo Bingo

Thanks to @langwitch for the idea! Students fold a piece of paper in half and cut into two. Draw a grid or fold both bits so you have a grid of 6 or 8 squares depending on how big you want it on both pieces of paper. Number each box 1-6 or 1-8 on both and put one of the grids to one side. On one grid write phrases practising vocabulary or a grammar point. Cut the grid into 6 or 8 little squares.

Now students work in pairs where one partner will say a number and the other asks 'Comment dit-on... en anglais?' If they get it right they can place the card onto the corresponding number on their grid. The aim is to get a row or a full house. They can then swap or move around the classroom playing other grids.

Generation Game

When I was training, we were given the idea of doing the generation game in PowerPoint with images to revise vocabulary. Pictures would scroll across the screen slowly and then students had to write down as many as they could remember after seeing all the images. 

I've recently discovered an App called iBanner HD where you can set words scrolling across the screen so I thought it could be used to introduce new vocabulary or for students to write down as many as they can remember after all have scrolled by. 

Human dominoes

Each student has an English phrase and a French phrase. They have to listen to the student reading their French phrase and stand up if they have the corresponding English phrase. They then read out their French phrase for another student to match. It is like a relay.

To add a bit of variation to it, students could be timed, repeat the activity but swap phrases, make a large circle around the classroom.

Next time I think I will get students to write their own phrases with the English translation on a separate piece of paper. I could then ask them to do a quiz, quiz, trade activity where they just use the French phrase. This will get them swapping papers. They walk around the room, quiz another student on their sentence. If they get it right, they swap sentences.