IT WORKS IN PRACTICE 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.
All the contributors to It Works in Practice in this issue of ETp come
from the Amnuay Silpa-Bell English Centre in Bangkok, Thailand.
They will each be given a copy of IELTS Testbuilder (with audio CDs) by
Sam McCarter and Judith Ash, published by Macmillan. Macmillan have
kindly agreed to be sponsors of It Works in Practice for this year and
contributors will be given copies of books in their Testbuilder series.

 The dollar game

 Backwards cities  Story starters This simple game is a great way to get the
& terrible weddings I use short, ambiguous whole class mingling and talking in English.
We spend a lot of time teaching rules and passages, without context, to Any number of students can play and it
prohibitions. I find that students are much facilitate question formation. really works.
more willing to put time into a writing Students have to choose a
For best results, model the game with two
activity if it is funny and anarchic, and if it passage and write five questions students so that the rest of the class know
lets them feel as if they are bending the based on that passage using what to do. Ask two students to come to the
rules. I use the following ideas to get who, what, where, why and how. front of the class. Give them both three
students writing: They then swap passages and copies of a dollar bill. Then prompt them to
write a complete story in which have a conversation. For example,
‘In backwards city, nothing is as it should be.
all of their partner’s questions
Stoplights are green and people eat ice cream S1 What are you wearing?
for breakfast. There are some very strange
are answered. For example: S2 I am wearing a white shirt and blue
rules in backwards city! For example …’ John held Claire in his arms. shorts.
‘Who wants to have a normal, boring ‘Let’s run away together,’ he The conversation can be written on the
wedding? Not me! Make a list of things the whispered. Claire sighed, ‘Oh board for extra support. I usually put it in
bride and groom should and shouldn’t do to John, it was all a mistake! You speech bubbles on coloured paper.
ensure that they have a terrible wedding.’ have to go to the police and tell
When the students have completed the
them what you have done. A man
conversation, they play Paper, Scissors and
 Story rounds with walrus tusks and a purple
tail can’t run forever!’
Stone. The loser hands over one dollar to
the winner.
The purpose of this activity is to help develop
self-assessment and editing skills. Students ● Who are John and Claire? The students swap roles and repeat the
● What has John done? conversation again. Continue like this with
are given a list of titles to choose from, very
● Where are they? the same students or two others until the
silly ones like The Boy Who Fell in Love With a
● Why does John have walrus rest of the class are familiar with the game.
Cucumber or My Teacher is a Vampire! They
tusks and a purple tail?
have five minutes to work on a story based on Then give everyone three dollars. Ask them
● How does the story end? to mingle and practise the conversation
this title before they must pass it along for
with other students. They should swap
the next student to work on. When several
students have worked on each story, the result
 Excuses, excuses partners as often as possible. (I always
keep a few dollars to give to those students
will be messy, possibly incoherent texts. Don’t Students who have not
who inevitably lose all their dollars straight
forget to tell them to finish off the story with done their homework must away.)
a final paragraph. They then correct the work provide a clever, creative After five minutes, ask the students to sit
of their fellow students using a pre-taught excuse, eg I was walking to down and count up their dollars. The
correction code (eg Sp for a spelling mistake, school when a rhino gored student with the most is the winner.
G for a grammar mistake, etc). At home, they
me and triumphantly sat on By now the conversation should have been
must re-write the text, fixing the grammar and
my homework. practised about ten times by each student,
spelling, and editing for content so that it is and the dollars can be collected in and used
now a coherent story. Noah Schwartzberg for another class or conversation.
Julia Buckley

42 • Issue 30 January 2004 • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • www.etprofessional.com •

 Whispers  The game-o-meter
This idea came to me one lesson when I
 What’s the plot?
This is an old game (Chinese whispers)
couldn’t seem to find a way to keep a large This activity uses film to prompt
which can be varied to make it creative use of language and encourages
class quiet. I drew a semi-circle on one
competitive. active student participation. It can be
side of the board and at the two points
Divide the class into two equal adapted to different language needs
wrote Game and No game. I then added
and levels – I have used it to practise
groups and have them form two lines in an arrow in the centre. Here is what it
adjectives and narrative tenses with
front of the board. Put a board pen in looked like.
an intermediate class.
front of each line. Then, whisper a word
Choose a film or episode of a TV series
or sentence from the target vocabulary
which you think will appeal to your
to the first student in each line. The No game Game
class, one with distinctive opening
word is whispered down the line until it I then explained to the students, who by titles. Preparation time is reduced if
reaches the last student. The last this stage were quiet and listening with you choose a film you know fairly well.
student then runs to the board and interest, that good behaviour would result Pick two interesting scenes from the
in an arrow-shift towards Game, while film, one towards the start and one
writes the word or sentence. Points can further on. Using the video timer, note
be awarded for the first answer and for unpleasant behaviour would result in a
down the time of each.
No game shift. If, by the last five minutes
correct spelling.
of the lesson, the arrow was pointing at Without telling your students anything
With lower-level classes, you could Game, the students could stop work and about the film, play the opening
ask the students to draw the word on play a game. If not, they had to continue titles, asking them to take notes on
the board rather than spell it. working until the end of the lesson. To genre, era, mood, setting and possible
Holly Nelson keep them informed of their behaviour, main characters and events. Discuss
I would ‘update’ the arrow about every their ideas together.
five minutes.
 Roll call fun Obviously there are many variations you
Next, play the first scene, asking the
class to check their ideas from the
I use the five-minute period at the
can add to this idea to suit your situation. discussion activity and comment in
beginning of the class – while
For example, playing a game can be more detail. The students can work in
attendance is being taken – to drill
replaced with no homework, etc. groups and then as a whole class.
students on simple, useful phrases.
Instead of calling out names, with This form of class control works best with Show the second scene, asking the
the children raising their hands to large classes as it encourages the students class to think about what has
indicate their presence, I call out to police themselves: lots of students = happened between this and the first
questions such as What day is it lots of police officers. scene (you may have to play the scene
today, Jeffy? Jeffy then responds A few things that should be considered a couple of times). Students then
with the correct day of the week. when using this idea are: discuss their ideas in small groups and
Of course I have to make sure they construct a plotline. At this stage, you
have the answers to the questions, Don’t update the arrow too frequently as it could choose to focus the activity on
but it doesn’t take a minute to will distract the students. writing. Groups then present their
drill them on possible responses. Don’t be afraid to have the arrow on No stories to the class.
My students learnt the days of the game at the end of the lesson. The game- It would be cruel not to show the film
week this way. o-meter will be taken more seriously then. in its entirety at some point, maybe as
We’re only half way through the Try not to use it every lesson. As with a Friday treat. Students can then
semester, but so far my students anything, the students will eventually lose compare their ideas with the real plot.
are able to respond to the following interest if it’s used too often. Christina Johnson
questions: Daniel Cole
● What’s your name?
●
●
How old are you?
How are you today?
 Have fun watching TV
This is a good way to practise listening skills,
● What’s the weather like today?
vocabulary and the present continuous.
● What day is it today?
Pairs of students sit back to back with one facing a
● Where do you live?
TV. A scene from a video is played but with the sound
● How do you spell …?
turned off. The students watching the video describe
You’d be surprised what six year what they can see to their partners. The partners take
olds can achieve. One day when I notes. After two or three minutes, the video is stopped. The students who have taken
asked a girl What day is it today? notes tell the class what they have written. The others say whether or not they are
she responded with It’s Monday correct. They can then watch the video together to check, before swapping roles and
and it’s cloudy. repeating the activity with a different scene.
Audrey Ahwan Jonathan Fernandes

• www.etprofessional.com • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • Issue 30 January 2004 • 43