Dossier - 3rd semester

Vocabulary

1. What am I and who's my pair?

Aims: Revising vocabulary that had been already taught before, communication, using correct grammatical structures

Age and level: The participants need to be able to create at least simple sentences which will allow them to explain each other's words. The difficulty can be adapted to the level of learners; thus, can be used with several levels and ages varying from elementary to advanced.

Estimated time: 5-10 minutes - depends on the number of students and their level.

Procedure: The teacher will write words or phrases on sticker papers, there must be an even number of papers and students as each paper should have a pair. If there is an odd number of students, the teacher can join in. The students then put one sticker paper on their forehead or somewhere they cannot see it and they go around the classroom and explain to each other what is on their paper. The task is to guess what is on your paper and find someone who you make a pair with. When the pairs are made, they will create a sentence containing both words or provide an explanation why their words go together.

Example: I have done this activity with six graders on the topic of healthy lifestyle. I had pairs such as "being unfit + exercise, being dehydrated + drinking enough water, having bad teeth + eating sweets too much, coughing a lot + smoking". Verbs must, mustn't, can and can't had been also the topic of previous lessons, so the students could put everything together. This activity could also be done with even younger learners where, for example, colours and fruit or vegetables can be a pair – meaning children would explain: "You are a colour. Sun is your colour." "You are fruit. Monkeys like you." And then the pair could create a sentence: "Bananas are yellow."

2. Flip the card and roll the dice (introduced in micro-teaching)

Aims: Revising vocabulary, thinking about words in different contexts, being able to express them differently

Age and level: Depends on the difficulty of given vocabulary, but it might be quite challenging for some students to come up with synonyms or antonyms. If thought through thoroughly, can be used even with young learners, but would recommend mainly for advanced students.

Procedure: Teacher prepares flashcards or paper cards with vocabulary. Children are divided into groups and take turns. When one person looks at a word, they then roll the dice and introduce their word based on their roll: 1 definition, 2 synonym, 3 antonym, 4 drawing,                5 pantomime, 6 choose your way. Their group then tries to guess the word. If the interpretation is too difficult, the roll may be repeated.

Example: We chose to do this activity with adjectives describing mood or emotion. But it can be adapted to many topics and even the ways of interpreting can be changed – for example adding the option of saying an example sentence without the given word.                                                    Our flashcards: https://quizlet.com/cz/957424245/adjectives-flash-cards/?i=6536dd&x=1jqt 

Grammar

3. What do we have in common?

Aims: Mastering the usage of verbs love, like and hate with other verbs

Age and level: A1-A2, young learners, ideally 3rd - 5th graders

Estimated time: 10 – 15 minutes - depends on the number of pupils and their interest in the activity.

Procedure: The form of love/like/hate + other verbs should be pre-taught. Students and the teacher stand in a circle. Anyone can say a sentence; for example, "I love swimming." Those, who agree, step into the circle and repeat the sentence: "We love swimming." This way, the form is constantly repeated, and students will hear it and say it several times. However, this means we need to be quite precise when it comes to correction, so the students repeat only the correct form. To make it more interesting, we can build a tower or something else along the way - every time a certain number of students agree, we can add another piece of Lego or a cup. Thanks to this, pupils can also see and realize how much they have in common.

4. Pile race

Aims: Mastering the usage of tenses and realizing the differences thanks to "time words"

Age and level: A1 – A2, ideally 5th – 9th graders

Estimated time: around 15 minutes – depends on the number of cards

Procedure: Students will be divided into 2 groups. In front of each group, there will be 2 piles of cards, one with verbs, the other with "time words" such as often, at the moment, regularly, etc. Students from each group will take turns in running to the piles, picking a card from each one, running back and creating a grammatically correct sentence based on the information on the cards. If they get the sentence wrong, they have to run back and return it. Whichever group gets all of the sentences correct, wins.

Example: I have used this activity with 6th graders to practise the usage of present simple and present continuous, and they seem to have enjoyed it. Furthermore, this activity could be used for practising any tense. 

Pronunciation

5. Take what you hear

Aims: Practising phonemes and listening carefully to match the transcription to the sound

Age and level: A2 and higher, this activity can be used with learners of different ages and levels; however, they must know phonemes in their written form and the song played has to be equivalent to the level of students, so they are able to understand it.

Estimated time: 10 minutes

Procedure: Choose a song that you want to play to your students. Pick some words from the song and write their phonemic transcription on separate papers. Place the papers on different places in the classroom. Students will then be played the song, and they will try to find and take the paper with the transcription of a word as soon as they hear it. It will be probably needed to play the song twice. If we want to make it harder, we can add words that are not included in the song to prevent students from taking the paper even if they haven't heard it.

Variation: With learners who don't know the phonemic chart, it is possible to do this activity just as a listening exercise and instead of writing the transcription, we can just write the common spelling.

6. Phone/me maybe

Aims: Practising phonemes and transcription

Age and level: A2 and higher, this activity can be used with learners of different ages and levels; however, they must know phonemes in their written form.

Estimated time: Depends on the version of the game and students' interest. 10 - 30 minutes

Procedure: 

General rules:

1. Number your phonemic chart (or use "wheel of phonemes": https://wheelofnames.com/rys-j7v)

2. Discuss the level of difficulty.

3. Decide on the number of phonemes you want to play with.

4. Use a random number generator to draw the phonemes.

5. Try to make a word or a sentence using the given phonemes.

6. You must use all the given phonemes in your attempt!

Versions of the game

1 Forever alone

• play by the general rules

2 Fast and victorious

• be the fastest within the group and get the extra point!
• the others will try to transcribe the sentence of the fastest one
• point system:
• being the fastest – 5 points
• finding the given phonemes in the sentence – 1 point
• completely right transcription – 3 points

3 The more the better!

• Decide on your time limit
• Try to make up a sentence using the given phonemes as many times as you can
• Point system: 1 point for each correct usage of a given phoneme

4 Less is more!

• Decide on your time limit
• Fit all of the given phonemes into a single word
• Point system: 1 point for each correct usage of a given phoneme

5 A generator among us!

• Pick a generator among the players, who will decide on the first set of phonemes
• The fastest sentence builder is the generator for the next round

Variation: If students do not know phonemic chart, they could play if the teacher says a phoneme out loud, but it might be harder for them to come up with some words.