We have reached the end of the school year in many countries, including mine, and I shall be taking a break from blogging and sharing brand new content until September. That doesn’t mean that I won´t be writing. Far from that, in the next couple of months I will be busy enough developing ideas that have been sitting on the back burner for a while and I will have them on queue ready to share in due time. I use summers to mostly rest, travel and bask in the sun but I still like to keep myself busy to do research and write in the mornings.
In the meantime, I will be updating the site every other week with a collection of “old activities” in the shape of series. The first summer series focuses on writing. And here are three writing activities from this blog:
Random word generator takes a look at the site by the same name. Based on the random words prompted on the screen I suggest three activities: using some of those words to write Confucious proverbs and six word stories. Also, and my favourite, students grab four random words. The first word has to be in the title. The second one will define the plot. The third one is something about the main character. The fourth one is something to do with a twist in the plot.
Vertical and Horizontal Development. By developping a sentence horizontally students add something that the writer or speaker might say next. By developping a sentence vertically students add something that someone else might say next. Great micro writing activity in combination with listening comprehension transcripts.
In Delexical Verbs 2 the target is on a delexical verb, such as “take”. Students look at examples provided by dictionaries with different usages of this verb. For instance:
- Take it from me, I’m telling the truth.
- I couldn’t take it in the military.
- What do you take me for, a fool?
- They took to each other at once.
- Do you take sugar in your coffee?
- Can’t you take a joke?
- Can you take the kids to school?
- She took her own life.
They translate these sentences into their L1 on cards. The teacher collects those cards and randomly distributes them to other students for them to retrieve the original sentences by translating the L1 sentences back into English.
Have a fabulous summer and see you in a couple of weeks with three grammar activities.
Keep It Simple Activities 