REFLECTION | 07 Appropriation activities
In class, the teacher showed us a lot of activities that are very useful to help the students when they have to talk. Here I will explain those that I consider the best.
CONTROLLED PRACTICE WITH DRILLS
Drilling is a way of practicing structures in a very repetitive way. The activity consists on listening and repeat, so it is a very controlled practice.
2. WRITING TASKS
Students can do a "paper conversation", because it can be really healpful for them to write de conversatuin down and then try to speak with the guide.
Another activity that implies writing something is the Computer Mediated Chat, that is very similar to the paper conversation, but they firts write on the computer and then they can talk about what they have written down.
3. ASSISTED PERFORMANCE AND SCAFFOLFING
With a folowed diagram conversation we can help the students to understand perfectly what we are talking abaout, because they have visual aid that shows the most important things of the teacher.
We can also play "Conversational tennis". The teacher throws a tennis ball to the student he or she wants, and this student mus talk about a topic. Then, the studentthrow the ball to a classmate. This way of generating conversation is very useful if we want to introduce the group dialogue, because students learn to respect the speaking time.
4. COMMUNICATIVE TASKS
Children can play in groups or pairs to spot the difference. But teacher has to be sure that the students understand that the most important rule is to talk about the differents aloud, and discuss them with their mates.
The info-gap race consists on dictating a draw usinf prepositional phrases and geometrical shapes. Then, they do it in pairs, so one student draw a picture and dictate it to his/her pair. In the end, it can be fun to do a competiion wth all the class.
5. TALKS AND PRESENTATION
An activity that I really like is one called "guess the lie". One student explains three personal stories. Two are true and one is false. When the student finish the explanation, the others have to guess wich story is false.
For learning new words there is also a wonderful game! The teacher gives each student a card with a strange or new word and its definition. Then, they have to explain a personal anecdote using this word, and the others have to guess the meaning.
6. DRAMA, ROLE-PLAYS AND SIMULATIONS
They can play games in which they have to guess the guilty of a crime, for example the "Cluedo". The most important thing is that they become a carachter and change.
