Speaking and listening ideas

Transcription

1 Lips Have a range of laminated lips on each table. Pupils share out the lips equally between them. Decide upon the theme topic of the discussion. Children must give in a pair of lips for each comment they make. This really makes them think about the questions that they are asking or the comments that they are making. Show not tell Teacher or pupil actually shows a character s feelings or attributes and acts it out whilst the children add the dialogue. Talking with puppets Discuss how the puppeteer has to make the puppet speak. Brainstorm questions that we could ask a puppet. Split the class into mixed ability pairs and allow each pair to choose a finger puppet. Let the children take turns to ask questions and to be the puppeteer. Visit pairs of children as they talk to the puppet. Also ask the puppet questions. The children will become proficient with the puppet very quickly. Now who is the teacher? This is a great activity to use to figure out if the children really have been listening in class. Teach the class on Monday to Thursday as usual. Each Thursday the teacher will announce three children who will teach the class on Friday. They will need to plan something that reviews everything that they learned that week. It can be a game show, a mural, a song, or whatever they can come up with. It's not only a fun way to finish the week, but it keeps the children on their toes! Interviews Interviews can take a variety of different formats, with children interviewing or being interviewed. Interviewers should prepare their questions beforehand, and may wish to record the interview in some way (written notes, audio recording or video recording), and the interview should take place in a suitable (preferably quiet) place. The whole class may take part, or the interviews could be conducted in small groups. Below are some ideas for the settings for interviews: Interviewing school staff Ask a few members of staff (e.g. headmasters, teachers, secretaries, cleaners) if they would be willing to be interviewed. The children can ask them what their job entails, and what they like / dislike about their job. Interviewing the teacher The children could interview their teacher about his or her job, and why they like (or dislike) being a teacher. Interviewing the class The teacher could interview children in his or her class. The children could also interview each other to find out about each other (e.g. hobbies, family, like / dislikes). Interviewing other children Page 1 of 5

2 Children from other classes in the school could be interviewed. This would give your class an understanding of what younger and older children are interested in, and how they feel about school etc. Hot seating The person being interviewed should take on a character s role (e.g. a famous person or a character from a story). A few suggestions are listed below: 1. Alexander T. Wolf (from The True Story of the Three Little Pigs by Jon Scieszka) could be interviewed about what really happened to those three pigs! 2. Mrs Trunchbull (from Matilda by Roald Dahl) could be asked her opinions of children and school. 3. Babe (from The Sheep-Pig by Dick King-Smith) could be interviewed about his achievements. 4. The current Prime Minister could be asked about his job and about how he intends to improve education in Britain. 5. A survivor of the Titanic could be asked what it was really like to be on the sinking ship. Almost any character / person can be used for this activity, but it is best to choose somebody the children are reasonably familiar with. In order to answer questions, the interviewee will need to have a good background knowledge of the character / person. Speaking non-sense Public speaking is a critical part of our children s education. So why not make it fun, and a little interesting, too! This game, called Speaking non-sense, is a great way to get children s bad speaking habits out of the way, and good ones in! Here is what you do: 1. Choose a child. 2. Give them a topic: it can be anything from Spam to the Holocaust. Things that you are learning about work well as topics. 3. They must talk for two minutes straight about their topic. They cannot say Um, etc. or use the word and more than twice. They must also keep eye contact with the audience at all times and use public speaking skills. 4. The winner or winners are those who can complete this task and adhere to all of the rules. Character acting This activity is good for a plenary if you have been working on characters in stories. A child is given a character from a book to act out (without speaking). The other children have to guess who this character is and explain their reasoning. It is a wonderful drama game for children to play and they really enjoy it! (Expect a lot of giggling!) During the last week of the school year, I set up a Film Week in my class which was a huge success Page 2 of 5

3 At the start of the week, the children were asked to get into groups of three / four / five, and were told that by the end of the week, they should all have made a film lasting about five minutes. Although they were asked to make films, they were also allowed to make TV programmes (which could be based on programmes which already existed, or could be new concepts made up by the children). Lots of guidance was given and the children were asked to do the following things throughout the week: Decide the group of children they were working in. Decide on the type of film / TV programme they were going to make (e.g. comedy, action, educational). Think about the content of the film - what was going to happen? Which characters were going to appear? Write a script for the film / programme, making sure that all children got a chance to speak. Think about the location of the film - in the classroom, in the playground? Make / find the necessary props which they would need to use. Think about sound effects and music - what do they need? How could they make / play the sounds? Titles and credits - these needed to be made to show viewers the name of the film and the names of those involved in its production. Advertising - they also made posters to advertise their films. REHEARSE! When all of the above work had been completed, each group had a chance to record their film. I acted as a cameraman, and we managed to get all of the filming finished in one day (during break and lunch times, and at other spare times throughout the day). The films were then transferred onto a VHS overnight. On the last day of the week, I set the classroom out like a cinema (rows of seats with no desks, curtains / blinds closed to make it dark, film posters around the room), with the TV and video in the middle of the room. We all then watched our films (while munching on popcorn!). My favourite subject 1. Ask children what their favourite school subject is. They should give a reason. 2. Group children according to their answers, i.e. all chemistry lovers will form one group. If there are too many children in one group, they can break into pairs. 3. Ask them to recall what they have learnt or found interesting about a topic done recently (e.g. climate of southern Europe). 4. Each group prepares and presents their topic orally for the rest of the class. You are free to decide how long and thorough the presentation should be, depending on their level of English and time you have in the class. Variation: 1. Children (the whole class, a group or a pair) can prepare the presentation of their topic in advance. Most of the children find it easier and more interesting to use Page 3 of 5

4 pictures, maps, course books, encyclopaedias, and other resources which are easily available. 2. The teacher can write down what he/she had found interesting in the children s presentations and ask them comprehension questions later. 3. The children can write comprehension questions on pieces of paper. Each group (except the presenters) takes it in turn to give answers. This can be a competition or a quiz. Ask me later Group children in fours or fives. 1. Ask one child in every group to make up a phrase imagining that it is an answer to a question (e.g. At the bus stop. or Because it was cold.). They must keep their phrase to themselves. 2. Now in their groups each child tells his/her answers and others provide possible questions. They write these on a piece of paper. 3. In their groups the children come to a decision as to which question is the best or the most appropriate. They read it to the class. 4. Now some other child makes up an answer and the activity goes on until each child has made up one answer. 5. During the activity, the teacher monitors their work and writes down incorrect questions for later discussion. 6. You can practise some specific teaching points in this way (e.g. tell the children to use only present tense). What a silly thing to say! 1. Group children in fours or fives or ask them to form pairs. 2. Write this table on the board. Ask them to tell you three items in each of the categories. For example: Name Verb (Object) Place Time Bob play a pen on a bus every night Alice watch a bunch of roses in a drawer last winter Jane go trousers under the bed now 3. Write numbers 1, 2, 3 randomly next to each item. Name Verb (Object) Place Time Bob 2 play 2 a pen 1 on a bus 3 every night 1 Alice 3 watch 3 an armadillo 3 in/ into a drawer 1 last winter 2 Jane 1 go 1 trousers 2 in a shop 2 now 3 4. Now three sentences can be made: Jane goes into a drawer every night. (All number 1.) Bob played with trousers in a shop last winter. (All number 2.) Page 4 of 5

5 Alice is watching an armadillo on a bus now. (All number 3.) 5. Now the children get together and make their tables. Tell them to pay attention to the concord of verb form and time preposition. One more thing they should be careful about is the necessity of an object (intransitive verbs do not have an object), but they are allowed to add prepositions if needed (e.g. play with trousers in number 2). Variation: 1. You can add or remove categories. 2. You can practise a specific grammar point in this way. 3. Children who draw well can draw a picture based on the sentence made. The others can try to form a sentence. A four word story 1. Divide the class into groups of four or five. 2. Give each group an A5 blank piece of paper. 3. Tell the groups to elect the child who will start the activity. 4. This child writes down an English word that first comes into his/her mind when you say start (it is not association on the verb start, but any English word he/she can think of at that moment). 5. The child sitting to his left side writes the next word which comes into his/her mind, but which starts with the last letter of the previous word (e.g. race elephant). 6. When each child has written a word, they prepare to tell a short story containing words from the list. Every child in the group must say at least one sentence. Variations 1. Depending on the level of knowledge of the class, you can have children write a story or use the words from the list in their story in alphabetical or some other exact order. 2. You can give points (e.g. one point for every word). Children s attention is at a high level here, because they all have different words, thus different stories. What's more, advanced children tend to make their stories funny, so you can all have a good laugh! 3. When the group tells their story, other children try to guess what were the four initial words. Conscience Alley Line children up to form an alley. Choose a pupil to be the main character in a text that has a question/dilemmas to think about. The other children in the class call out questions/comments that may be going through the character s head Page 5 of 5