A colleague asked during one of my multi-tasking episodes (select – copy – paste in notepad – cut – paste in word – adjust font size/bold/no/number of columns – remember I’m in a school meeting – check email/Facebook/the other email – reply on Google Classroom – print – sketch a lesson plan – find scissors – crave coffee – start cutting paper – repeat) what I plan on doing with the words I’d printed and artlessly cut, then shoved in an envelope.
Well, I do stuff… dunno… like… you know, vocab-games stuff (I’m starting to feel I really ought to reread my MA in ELT bibliography).
So here’s a short list. The first activities I could think of, which I adapt & use quite often with A1/ A2/ B1/ B2 students.
1. Word Swap
Put key words from the clip on separate slips of paper (see ‘key lexis’ below).In class, give one slip to each student and put the remaining slips where students can easily reach them. Students mingle, find a partner and help them to guess the word on the slip. They are allowed to reveal the first letter. If they can both guess each other’s words, they exchange words and find new partners. They can turn to you if they need help with words. When a word comes back to them for a 2nd time, they take a new slip.
via http://gisig.iatefl.org/elessons/if-i-could-change-the-world
2. Word-pass-around
Put vocabulary from the clip on slips of paper (see ‘key lexis’ below). In class, give each student a slip. On a given signal, they start passing the words around (e.g. to the right if sitting in a circle, down the rows etc.). They keep the ones they are not sure about. Once all the vocabulary has been passed around, students who have slips in their hands can ask for help with meaning.
via http://gisig.iatefl.org/elessons/if-i-could-change-the-world
3. Bingo
Students get a word list for the topic we’re discussing. Then they’re supposed to listen to the words/phrases I say (drawing paper strips from an envelope adds a bit of suspense & randomness). Since they have three columns, getting a line is considered a Bingo.
4. Word racer
A. Tell Ss they have to ‘collect’ as many words as possible in 5 mins. They have to leave their notebooks open on the desk and start looking for words. Once they find, read and can remember a word (or more) they go back to the notebook.
B.Just throw the slips on paper on the floor, in areas easily reachable.
C. Play ‘Ghost Busters’ theme song – start.
D. Running, pushing, cheating can be ‘rewarded’ with time off.
*depending on the number of words, 5 minutes can be 7.
**asking Ss to copy words in 3 columns could create room for Bingo
5. Spellinguesser
Spell a word in front of the classroom. The first student to guess the word takes your place (and the point) – he/she gets another word/phrase. Keep on playing until every S has at least one piece of paper.
*using the same topic makes Ss think about familiar vocabulary and focus less on spelling – not necessarily a bad thing 🙂
6. Hot seat
- First, split your class into different teams (two is best, but if you have a large class, any number could be used).
- Sit the students facing the board.
- Then take an empty chair – one for each team – and put it at the front of the class, facing the team members. These chairs are the ‘hot seats’.
- Then get one member from each team to come up and sit in that chair, so they are facing their team-mates and have their back to the board.
- As the teacher, have a list of vocabulary items that you want to use in this game.
- Take the first word from that list and write it clearly on the board.
- The aim of the game is for the students in the teams to describe that word, using synonyms, antonyms, definitions etc. to their team mate who is in the hot seat – that person can’t see the word!
- The student in the hot seat listens to their team mates and tries to guess the word.
- The first hot seat student to say the word wins a point for their team.
- Then change the students over, with a new member of each team taking their place in their team’s hot seat.
- Then write the next word…[or sentence]
via https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/hot-seat-0
7. Counter hot seat
A. Split the group in 2 teams (or more, depending on its size).
B. Explain that each team will have 1 minute to guess as many words as possible. Demonstrate: pick a slip of paper and start explaining the word. When someone guesses it, pick another one, and so on.
C. One team (use dice, pen, bottle, anything to see who goes first) sends a person to explain words for one minute. then the other one.
*using their native language or not knowing a word means that a person from another team takes their place.
8. Look, Mum, I’m in a sentence!
Each student gets sheet of paper with a word or a phrase on it.
Ss have to stand in line in the right order so they create a correct sentence.
The last person in the line should write the sentence on the board.
*this activity helps with word order awareness.
*the same principles can be applied using paper slips: Ss work in pairs to organise them
9. To be continued…
Teacher Who 