Fun with Grammar
This isthe title of a workshop that was given to the UNRWA teachers in Irbid by Peter Lucantoni from the British Council. He emphasized that grammar should be presented & practiced in an interesting way that attracts & involves all sts. In the class. This demands applying activities & games which are competitive, interactive & involve problem-solving, sharing of information. Some of these activities could be done in the class with other sts.. Some of the activities could be designed as homework.
Asteachers we should provide our sts. With exercises, presentations & games that reinforce the grammar the sts. already know by providing realistic settings in which they may practice their knowledge.
Here are examples of such tasks that could be applied to make grammar fun.
YES/NO QUESTIONS
1. SHORT ANSWERS 1
a-Material: Your own strips with answers
Dynamic:Pairs/Small groups
Time: 15 minutes
Procedure:1. Arrange students in pairs orgroups of three or four. Give each
group a strip with short answers on them. Have the students work together to write questions for the answers.
2.Have each group read the questions and answers aloud and let the rest of the group judge whether the questions
B - Dynamic: Whole class
Time: 10 minutes
Procedure:1. Choose a category (famous people, occupations, food, animals, etc.)
2.Choose one student to answer questions from the rest of the class.
Show the student a word on a piece of paper (what he or she is).
The word should be an object or person. Have this student sit in
front of the class. Instruct this student to answer only yes or no to
any question asked of him/her.
3.Instruct the class to ask only yes/no questions. Their purpose is to
discover the identity of the student in front of the class. The class
is allowed only 20 questions. If they can guess the student’s
identity before or by the twentieth question, the class wins. If they
do not guess correctly, the student wins. (Although this is based on
the popular “Twenty Questions” game, you may want to actually
vary the number of questions the class can ask. Be sure to make
.the number clear before the activity begins.
2) QUESTION ORDER
Materials: Cards or strips of paper
Dynamic:Groups
Time: 10 minutes
Procedure:1. Prepare a list of questions for this activity. Make questions with
enough words so that each student will have one card.
Example: Where has he already traveled?
Cards or strips:
2. Arrange students in groups corresponding to the number of words
in each question. Give each group one cut-up question.
3.Have the group put the words into correct question order. When
they have finished, call each group to the front of the class and
have the students stand in order, holding the cards. (If a student is
absent on the day of this activity and you have an extra card,
simply have a student hold up two cards.) The rest of the class
judges if the order is correct.
NOTE: This activity can be used at any level. Just prepare questions
that cover the tenses/structures that you want to review. If you want
to use punctuation, include that on a card also.
Fatima Ramadan ( Jerash Camp)
--
This isthe title of a workshop that was given to the UNRWA teachers in Irbid by Peter Lucantoni from the British Council. He emphasized that grammar should be presented & practiced in an interesting way that attracts & involves all sts. In the class. This demands applying activities & games which are competitive, interactive & involve problem-solving, sharing of information. Some of these activities could be done in the class with other sts.. Some of the activities could be designed as homework.
Asteachers we should provide our sts. With exercises, presentations & games that reinforce the grammar the sts. already know by providing realistic settings in which they may practice their knowledge.
Here are examples of such tasks that could be applied to make grammar fun.
YES/NO QUESTIONS
1. SHORT ANSWERS 1
a-Material: Your own strips with answers
Dynamic:Pairs/Small groups
Time: 15 minutes
Procedure:1. Arrange students in pairs orgroups of three or four. Give each
group a strip with short answers on them. Have the students work together to write questions for the answers.
2.Have each group read the questions and answers aloud and let the rest of the group judge whether the questions
B - Dynamic: Whole class
Time: 10 minutes
Procedure:1. Choose a category (famous people, occupations, food, animals, etc.)
2.Choose one student to answer questions from the rest of the class.
Show the student a word on a piece of paper (what he or she is).
The word should be an object or person. Have this student sit in
front of the class. Instruct this student to answer only yes or no to
any question asked of him/her.
3.Instruct the class to ask only yes/no questions. Their purpose is to
discover the identity of the student in front of the class. The class
is allowed only 20 questions. If they can guess the student’s
identity before or by the twentieth question, the class wins. If they
do not guess correctly, the student wins. (Although this is based on
the popular “Twenty Questions” game, you may want to actually
vary the number of questions the class can ask. Be sure to make
.the number clear before the activity begins.
2) QUESTION ORDER
Materials: Cards or strips of paper
Dynamic:Groups
Time: 10 minutes
Procedure:1. Prepare a list of questions for this activity. Make questions with
enough words so that each student will have one card.
Example: Where has he already traveled?
Cards or strips:
2. Arrange students in groups corresponding to the number of words
in each question. Give each group one cut-up question.
3.Have the group put the words into correct question order. When
they have finished, call each group to the front of the class and
have the students stand in order, holding the cards. (If a student is
absent on the day of this activity and you have an extra card,
simply have a student hold up two cards.) The rest of the class
judges if the order is correct.
NOTE: This activity can be used at any level. Just prepare questions
that cover the tenses/structures that you want to review. If you want
to use punctuation, include that on a card also.
Fatima Ramadan ( Jerash Camp)
--
dear Fatima
ReplyDeletereally interesting topic
and we need it for our students since they face alot of difficulties in understanding grammer
thank u dear, thanx alot
Tahani S.
Dear Thani
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comment,this is a link of fun with grammar site where you will find very interesting tasks & exercises ( with alot of fun)I am sure you wihttp://www.azargrammar.com/materials/FWG_TOC.htmlll be interested.
Really it sounds marvelous that u applied such strategies. It reinforces the sts as well as it makes a sense of challenge besides, more competitive sts more interesting teaching.Finally, it breaks the ice and the students would claim that, English is the most interesting class. As a result they are very keen on having such a class.
ReplyDeleteSaleem M. Al-Jabali