This week I tried a lesson that required a lot of student - student interaction and I was very pleased with the result. It was with the first year students and the topic was 'Travel'. I really like the student asking student questions strategy so I centered the lesson around that. On the big screen I put a picture of a famous tourist attraction from around the world (ie. Statue of Liberty, Eiffel Tower) and arranged the students in 6 groups of 6. Each PPT slide had 3 questions: 'What is this attraction called?', 'Where is it?', and 'Why is it famous?'
The first student would ask the first question to the student sitting in the same seat at the next table that way the students always knew who they were supposed to ask and answer to. So each turn a different student would answer and ask, answer and ask...
It was really successful because every student had to do it at least once and they actually enjoyed it because they got to see and learn about lots of different world attractions. In fact, my co-teachers gave me a lot of compliments on the lesson as well.
I also added a handout where the students had to write where they wanted to go and what they would do when they are there. I closed the lesson by having students read their answer and then choose another student and ask '(name) What country do you want to travel to?' They seemed to have a good time with it.
I will definitely be using this formula with other topics.
Nice ideas! Maybe soon you can let Ss call on whoever they want at the next table (after the groups have had a chance to talk about the picture and come up with some answers), to make the moment a bit more authentic. Also, rather than READ their answer at the end, why not try having them put the paper in their pockets (or close their books) after more or less memorizing the one sentence, then ask and answer with as many people as they can -- like a survey. We'll talk more about surveys later.
ReplyDeleteI originally tried having the students choose whoever they want at the next table but they wasted a lot of time trying to decide. For some reason choosing a friend at random was a really complex decision for a high school boy haha... next time after a few practices I'll have them turn their paper over.
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