One might think that after 31 years teaching, I wouldn’t need to spend time preparing for classes. After accumulating so much content over the years, it would seem logical to just retrieve what I need from my files. However, for some reason, that’s not how it works for me. As a result, I find myself once again in the process of creating content, this time on the subject of travelling.
This post revolves around the topic of Travelling and Tourism and considering what I have written above, I have come up with this brilliant đ idea.  Use a board from Canva and replace specific questions with numbers, making it applicable to any topic. Alongside this, we can create cards that include the relevant questions and reference their corresponding numbers. What do you think?
Hold on, Cristina! Did you read the title of the post? It says “Two decks of cards”. So, we have one deck for questions, but what about the other one? I haven’t forgotten! The other deck contains useful phrases to help students express themselves more effectively. đ
What do we need?
Print the board multiple times. Print as many copies as groups of students. What works best for me is groups of 3 students. Get the PDF here
Reusable cards with useful phrases. One deck per group. PDF here.
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Ready to play?
Create groups of 3â4 students and give each group a board game, the two decks of cards, counters and a die. Students decide who starts the game. Student A throws the die and places his/her counter on the corresponding square, which contains a number. On the deck of cards with the conversation questions, he/she finds the card that matches the number of his/her square, reads it aloud and then takes a card from the Useful Language deck. These cards are placed face down on the table. The student will need to talk for at least two minutes, trying to use the expression on the card. Then, it is student B’s turn.
I find it really hard to stick to the textbook every time the lesson is about Relationships. With any other lessons, about any other topics, it might be easier to be content with following the dictates of the textbook. But I think Relationships, and all sorts of ideas spring up. Not all of them are good, to be honest. But these, I have tried and tested in class. They work.
This lesson is divided into two chunks:
The first part is dedicated to revising, reinforcing, and introducing new vocabulary.
The second part is dedicated to honing students’ listening and speaking skills using different visual inputs: images, audio, video, and cards.
VOCABULARY
GUESSING THE TOPIC WITH A FRIENDLIER VERSION OF THE GAME HANGMAN
Students will need to guess what topic we will cover in class next, ButâŚ. There are rules to follow:
The class is divided into 2 teams. Each team names a spokesperson.
Letâs say Team 1 starts. Now, to get the chance to say a letter to solve the puzzle, theyâll have to answer a content review question. For example: âwhat preposition collocates with the verb âdependâ?â. After a quick discussion with the members of their group, the spokesperson will give an answer. If correct, they can suggest a letter. Whether it is a correct or incorrect guess, the turn will pass to Team B, who will get another content review question and the chance to guess a letter if the answer to the review question is correct.
Important: Teams canât try to solve the puzzle until half the letters have been guessed(i.e. if the word has 14 letters, 7 must have been guessed) and only the Team playing will have this chance.
If they guess and fail, their turn will be skipped.
GAME: THE 15 SECONDS CROSSWORD GAME TO REVISE VOCABULARY
Divide the class into 2 teams.
Team A chooses a representative who chooses a number from the crossword puzzle, reads the description, and has 15 seconds to guess the answer with the help of their team.
If they guess the answer, they can continue playing until
they canât guess the word,
they run out of time (remember 15 seconds) or
they guess three answers in a row.
If this happens, it is Team Bâs turn.
The winner is the team that solves the last clue.
In this case, the terms in the crossword were related to the ârelationshipsâ
NOTE: (click on the top right-hand corner to enlarge the crossword)
INTRODUCING NEW VOCABULARY: PEER TEACHING AND PARTNER DISCUSSION.
More Vocabulary here. Give students some individual time to read through the vocabulary, underlining any new terms.
Building on the belief that ” to teach is to learn twiceâ (Whitman, 1998), ask students to get into groups of 4 and help each other with any vocabulary they haven’t been able to guess on their own.
Whole class: ask students in Group 1 which vocabulary items are still unfamiliar to them. Ask the other groups in the class to volunteer an explanation if they know. If nobody in the class knows, clarify the meaning. Continue in the same fashion with all the groups until all the vocabulary has been clarified.
 Work on pronunciation and then test students by giving a definition and asking them to quickly give you the term.
SPEAKING and LISTENING
MARRIAGE
SPEAKING.
Display this picture and ask students to comment on this picture. Ask:
Who do you feel more sorry for? The bride, the groom, or the mother-in-law?
 LISTENING. Why bother with marriage? Watch from 0:00- 0:34
Play the beginning of the video (0:00- 0:34) In pairs or small groups, comment on the following:
What is the speaker’s view on marriage? Do you agree with his view?
Are there more benefits or drawbacks to getting married in your country nowadays?
What is the right age to get married in your country? And to have children?
FAMILIES: LISTENING and SPEAKING
Write NUCLEAR FAMILY on the board and ask students to explain what type of family a nuclear family is and what other different family types they know. Write them on the board. Ideally, they will come up with stepfamilies (also called blended families), cohabitation, extended family, lone parenting, DINKS (I know, unlikely!) and some others.
Time for listening. First Listening:Play the audio once and ask students to jot down the different types of families that are mentioned (stepfamilies. Cohabitation, DINKS, lone parenting and people living alone). Write them on the board. You will probably need to add People living alone. Second Listening: Note-taking. Form groups of 4 students and assign a different kind of family to each of them. Ask them to take notes, as their final task would be to retell the information they hear about their assigned family structure. NOTE: I have assigned cohabitation and DINKS to the same person.
Follow-up: ask students in their groups to comment on the strengths and weaknesses of each type of family structure
PARENTS AND THEIR OFFSPRING: SPEAKING AND LISTENING
1. LYING. Play this video where children confess the biggest lie they have told their mums, in front of their mums. Ask students to confess theirs.
2. OVERPROTECTING PARENTS.
Ask these questions
Are parents today too overprotective?
What is considered overprotective parenting?
What can overparenting do to a child?
FAMILY TRACKING APPS. Display with the OHP this article from the BBC about family tracking apps and ask them to read the first 3 paragraphs. Ask students to talk about the advantages and drawbacks for both parents and children.
SPEAKING CARDS: FINDING THE MATCHING PAIR.
Put students into groups of 3 or 4. Give each group a set of cards and ask them to place them face upon the table. Student A begins by taking the beginning of the question (in blue) and finding the matching pair (in orange).
Student A has two minutes to express his/her opinion. Then, it is Student B’s turn.
Two ideas that can easily be adapted to your own context.
True to my habit of beginning the class with a retrieval practice activity, I have added to my growing arsenal two new ones:Â playing hangman and doing crosswords. This is how I have modified the rules of the games to adapt them to teaching/learning more effectively.
GUESSING THE TOPIC WITH A FRIENDLIER VERSION OF THE GAME HANGMAN
Playing hangman is an old classic. Well, at least for me. I cannot count the number of times me and my friends whiled away the time between classes (sometimes during classes) playing the paper and pencil version of hangman.
And playing hangman is just what I need to start my classes this week. (Aside note: did you know that the hardest word to guess in Hangman is Jazz?) This time, the word will be easier. Students will need to guess what topic we will cover in class next, ButâŚ. There are rules to follow:
The class is divided into 2 teams. Each team names a spokesperson.
Letâs say Team 1 starts. Now, to get the chance to say a letter to solve the puzzle, theyâll have to answer a content review question. For example: âwhat preposition collocates with the verb âdependâ?â. After a quick discussion with the members of their group, the spokesperson will give an answer. If correct, they can suggest a letter. Whether it is a correct or incorrect guess, the turn will pass to Team B, who will get another content review question and the chance to guess a letter if the answer to the review question is correct.
Important: Teams can’t try to solve the puzzle until half the letters have been guessed(i.e. if the word has 14 letters, 7 must have been guessed) and only the Team playing will have this chance.
If they guess and fail, their turn will be skipped.
Tool used: Learning Apps
GAME: THE 15 SECONDS CROSSWORD GAME
Ready for another engaging gamified retrieval practice activity? Here we go!!
Divide the class into 2 teams.
Team A chooses a representative who chooses a number from the crossword puzzle, reads the description, and has 15 seconds to guess the answer with the help of their team.
If they guess the answer, they can continue playing until
they can’t guess the word,
they run out of time (remember 15 seconds) or
they guess three answers in a row.
If this happens, it is Team B’s turn.
The winner is the team that solves the last clue.
In this case, the terms in the crossword were related to the ârelationshipsâ
NOTE: (click on the top right-hand corner to enlarge the crossword)
Tool used: Learning Apps
I hope you have enjoyed these two activities I have created for my students.
This is not the first time I’ve shared a lesson on using Would Rather to express a preference, but this lesson is also an excuse to share some of the tricks (also called activities 😊) I keep up my sleeve to engage my students and make them enjoy learning; because they/ we deserve to have fancy, engaging, dynamic lessons even if what needs to be explained is as dull as ditch water.
I strongly support the use of visuals in the class to create stimulating lessons. I know creating your own content takes time. But it pays off. Trust me on this one!
FIRST SESSION
INTRODUCING THE TARGET LANGUAGE. PRESENTATION.
I have introduced Would Rather presenting students with some slides and some visual prompts and asking them to provide the questions based on the images.
Some help might be needed, at least, for the first two slides. Encourage students to describe their preferences in pairs, even if it’s a guided assignment.
Target grammar:
Question: Would you rather read a book orwatch TV?
Answer: I’d rather read a book thanwatch TV because…
The two activities that follow are meant to be done the following day in order to revise and reinforce this content.
REVISING AND REINFORCING: VIDEO, INTERACTIVE GRAMMAR, FLIP CARDS GAME
(NOTE FOR TECH ENTHUSIASTS) This beautiful activity has been created with @Genial.ly. First I created the video, published it on YouTube, and then embedded it on Genial.ly. Then, I used the Template to create the Flipcards.
Revise with the video (1st slide)
Revise with the matching grammar (2nd slides)
Flip Cards Game (following slides). To be used in the game that follows.
FLIPCARDS GAME. Rewriting with Would Rather. Using Dry-Erase Boards
1. Pair learners and give each pair a dry-erase board and a whiteboard marker.
2. Show the first sentence and ask students to rewrite it using Would Rather
3. Depending on the length or difficulty of the sentence, set a different time limit.
4. Once the pair have their sentence, ask them to write it on the board, big enough for you to see from a distance.
5. When the time is up, ask the pairs to hold it up and quickly go through all the sentences, awarding 1 point to the pair who has the correct grammar.
6. The winner is the pair that get the most points.
Note: Be strict with spelling mistakes or any other tiny mistakes. Students love it when you are strict and donât give away points easily.
Follow-up: Revise all the sentences again, but this time orally.
SPEAKING: BOARD GAME
This board game has all the ingredients of a good game:
Reinforces grammar
Boosts communicative skills
Improves writing skills
Builds rapport
+ Combines technology with traditional props: in this case, a huge die (there is a built-in die on the board, so don’t worry if you don’t have this beautiful red die; it is just that I love mixing both worlds.
And here’s the board. As you can see,
There are 3 draggable counters.
To see the prompts, you need to click on the number.
As you can read in the Instructions, if they land on a square with the question GIF, students will need to write a “would you rather” question for the teacher. Yes, you need to answer, it is only fair!!!
Hope you have enjoyed this lesson plan. My students have! đ
