Inspirational English
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Another popular activity in my lessons challenges my students’ imagination. I use a story or a piece of news which corresponds to the English level of my class. I copy only the beginning of the text, then the students have to read and finish it. At the end of the lesson we compare their versions and often vote for the best one. The activity is usually carried out in pairs or small groups.
Find a text that the students have read recently and leave no spaces and punctuation. The learners work in pairs to edit the text and bring it back to the original.
Find a story or an article which is suitable for the topic of your lesson. Cut it into strips and give one to each student. Everyone has to walk around and put the strips into the correct order. If your class is too big, split it into two groups and prepare two separate texts.
Find a text from a newspaper or a magazine at the right level for your students. Make enough photocopies and ask the pupils to cover a certain number of words with some correction fluid. Then they swap the texts and fill in the blanks. Point out that they should blank out words such as quantifiers, determiners, pronouns or articles.
The students are asked to work in pairs and collect information about the main events taking place in cities, such as London, Cambridge or Brighton. They need to select the most important pieces of information, create a news bulletin and present it to the class.
This activity is suitable for higher levels. The students work in pairs and find an interesting story or article online. They read it, identify the main events and prepare questions to ask their classmates in order to predict what happens next or why the character may have done something. Once the students are ready, they take turns to read the stories to their classmates and ask the questions. It is important again to remind them that they should use the right intonation and diction.
Plan a regular lesson around your students’ favourite books. For example, every Friday a student has to tell the rest of the class about their favourite book or the one they are reading now. They should explain why they like the book, who their favourite character is and the plot. Students love to read what their peers enjoy, not what we teachers recommend.
What is your students’ favourite reading activity?
Inspirational English
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