More tested lessons, suggestions, tips and techniques which have all worked for ETp readers.

Try them out for yourself – and then send us your own contribution. Try them out for yourself
– and then send us your own contribution. Don’t forget to include your postal address.
All the contributors to It Works in Practice in this issue of ETp will receive a copy of
Email English by Paul Emmerson, published by Macmillan. Macmillan have kindly agreed
to be sponsors of It Works in Practice for this year.

A medley of metacognition
Here are some ideas for helping your learners become more Put them in groups to share their response to the activity
self-aware, task-aware and strategy-aware. Why? So that they (Was it hard? Easy? Challenging? Fun? Boring? Useful?
are better able to make use of what you do with them in the Useless?). Every opinion is valid, provided it is backed up with
classroom and continue learning outside the classroom, a good reason or reasons.
where most of their time will be spent.
Ask each group to come up with an idea for adapting the
activity to make it more useful for them.
1 Subvert the sequencing
Subvert your coursebook (they tend to follow a predictable Next time you do a similar activity, let them use their
pattern, so breaking this pattern can spice things up) or your adaptation idea and see if it does make the activity more
usual approach to sequencing activities: useful for them.

Skip an activity or a stage that you would usually use to help 3 Encourage evaluation
your learners. (But be nice about it – explain that today you At the end of a coursebook unit, or a series of self-created
are going to do things a bit differently, before launching into a lessons, build in a reflection and evaluation phase:
different game plan: get them on board and ready to spot the
Ask the learners to turn back to the beginning of the unit and
differences!)
look through all the activities they’ve done.
Build in time for discussion following your atypical choice of
Give them a set of the following questions to discuss in
activities or sequencing. Get your learners to consider in what
relation to that unit. For example:
ways the lesson was different – and what impact this had on
how easy or difficult they found the reading text/listening What was the aim of each activity?
text/speaking task/writing activity, etc. How useful did you find each activity? Why?
This will help the learners to become more aware of the value What do you think you could do to be more successful next time
that different activities have for them, in approaching texts or you do a similar activity?
tasks. Could you use any of these activities outside the classroom to
help you learn? How?
2 Pinpoint the purpose
Encourage your learners to think about the purpose behind the Give the learners a chance to discuss their answers together
activity you are using: and learn from each other.

Before they start doing an activity that you have prepared, The first few times you use this activity, you may want to
and when they know what is expected of them, ask them how monitor and feed in ideas by asking guiding questions based on
they think doing it might help them. (‘It will improve our what you know the purpose of certain activities was, and do a
English’ is not an acceptable answer! Get them to be more short plenary at the end to bring it all together. However, once
specific.) the students are accustomed to doing it, this will become
unnecessary and you will be able to let them take full
At the end of an activity, ask the learners to reflect on the
responsibility for the activity.
experience of doing the activity and whether it met the Lizzie Pinard
expectations they had prior to starting it. Leeds, UK

38 • Issue 87 July 2013 • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • www.etprofessional.com •

 TV games
As we all know, games can be both educational and fun for 3 The price is right
students. Adaptations of famous TV games often work This works well for revising numbers, weights or prices.
particularly well as the students already know the format Put the students into teams and ask them a question, such as
and enjoy watching them in their free time. Here are some How much does a ticket for X cost? or How old is Y? The group
games you may like, and which can be done in teams, which guesses nearest the correct answer wins 100 points, but
competing for points. then can try ‘double or nothing’ to guess the exact amount. If
they get it exact, their points are doubled to 200; if they don’t,
1 The weakest link they lose their 100 points.
Put the students into small teams and give them sheets of
paper. Ask a question and, after one second, ask the teams to 4 Mr and Mrs
hold up their answers. Give 100 points for each correct answer In this adaptation, the students ask and answer questions about
and put the points up on the board so everyone can see them. each other.
After three questions, ask the teams to vote for one other team Select two students to be presenters and put the others into
to be ‘the weakest link’. They must explain their reasons. At two teams. Get the teams to ask each other questions about
first, this may simply be because they did not get the last themselves to find out as much information as possible, while
question right or have the least number of points, but later on, the two presenters write a series of questions asking for
teams usually start ganging up on rivals and become very personal information. Tell the presenters to select one person
competitive. The team that is voted the weakest link loses 200 from each team and to ask them their questions in private,
points and the questions resume. After a further three noting down the answers. Meanwhile, the teams brainstorm
questions, have another vote. what they remember about the person from their team who has
been selected, pool what else they know about them and also
2 Deal or no deal
what they know about the person from the other team. Finally,
Put the students into two teams and ask a question to the
the presenters tell the teams the first question they asked and
first team. They have ten seconds to answer it correctly for
give three possible answers for each person, only one of which
ten points. If they can’t, then it goes to the second team for
is correct. The team that selects the correct answer wins a point.
ten seconds and you add a little more information to help them.
If they get it right, they get five points. If they don’t, it goes Phil Wade
back to the first team for one point. La Réunion, France

What are you plinning at?

This a good activity for both reviewing verbs questions as possible. With higher levels,
Do you have an idea which you
and practising questions in English. It can just write a couple of examples so that
would like to contribute to our
be done in pairs, but you need to model the they have to think up further questions for
It Works in Practice section? It
exercise first with the class. themselves. The questions can be in the
might be anything from an
present, past, present perfect, etc
1 Tell your students that you are thinking of activity which you use in class to
(depending on the level of your students a teaching technique that has
an action verb and that they have to guess
or the verb tense you want to focus on). worked for you. Send us your
what it is.
1 Get the students to ask questions and try contribution, by post or by email,
1 Write on the board some suitable
to guess the verb you are thinking about to [email protected].
questions for them to ask, but don’t use
When you answer the questions, be sure All the contributors to It Works in
the verb which you have in mind. Instead,
you use ‘plin’ in your answers. Practice get a prize! We especially
use a nonsense word, such as ‘plin’. For
For example: welcome joint entries from
example:
Students: Do you plin during the day? teachers working at the same
Do you plin every day? institution. Why not get together
Teacher: No, I only plin at night. (if your
Do you need your hands to plin? with your colleagues to provide a
verb is sleep)
Are you plinning now? whole It Works in Practice section
Ronaldo Lima
For elementary students, write as many Recife, Brazil of your ideas? We will publish a
photo of you all.

• www.etprofessional.com • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • Issue 87 July 2013 • 39