The Many Ways to Use Lists

Yesterday I watched Lindsay Clandfield talking at the Istek conference in Turkey. His topic was using lists in the classroom.

I've always been a fan of lists for various reasons, but Clandfield has turned list-compilation into a profession! His website www.sixthings.net is a collection of lists on all sorts of topics, for classroom use and otherwise.

*To do lists: could be used to teach grammar points such as the imperative or present perfect.

I liked the activity where students write a to do list of five things they've done this week and two they plan to do, then they interview each other, asking, "Have you washed the car yet?" They should reply in full, such as: "No, not yet, because I haven't had time."

*Shopping lists: for chunks of language like a carton of milk, a crate of beer...

*To teach intonation: I never thought about how we read lists out loud. Clandfield pointed out the importance of using the right intonation with a story from one of his Japanese students. She apparently always using rising intonation, and wondered why bar-tenders and waiters kept asking her, "...and?" not understanding that she had finished her order.

*Student-generated lists: These make good pyramid activities, where students choose their top five something, then create a larger group to justify and rethink their list, and so on.

*Reasons: Tonight I'm going to try Clandfield's name activity: Five reasons why it's good / bad to be called Sarah...

What do you use lists for?

Wordle for Use of English - 1

My FCE students have just finished their first full Use of English paper. In general, I was pleased with the results, as all but one passed, and we still have plenty of time before the exam. Interestingly though, they all did very badly in Part 1, so my current goal is to find ways to train them in this part without simply repeating the exam task a hundred times.

The task involves choosing the most appropraite word from 4 options which are very similar, or identical, in meaning. The task tests knowledge of:

a) phrasal verbs

b) collocations

c) set expressions

d) synonyms

e) linkers.

I think that it is the synonyms, the finer nuances of vocabulary, that are the greatest stumbling block, so I decided to use a Wordle to focus the students' attention on shades of meaning.

i) I went to www.wordle.net and entered 24 vocabulary items on the same topic, in this case crime. The words were in groups of 4, with categories such as Criminal, Verb, Punishment, etc.

ii) Wordle scattered my words tandomly, splitting up the categories.

iii) I printed the Wordle and gave a copy to each pair of students.

iv) The students tried to group the words into categories. They could choose their own categories and titles.

v) Once the categories were complete, the students explained to one another how they understood the difference between, for example, con artist / fraudster / embezzler / forger.

The advantages were that I could monitor and hear their explanations, finding out which words were proving difficult and thus needed to be clarified later. The Wordle is a great visual tool, but the circling and categorising suits those who like to engage with paper themselves. The students got plenty of spoken practice, as well as vocab recycling, and there was a certain amount of autonomy in the activity as they could create any category they liked, as long as they could justify it logically.

I think they wondered why I had gone to so much trouble with the preparation, and would have been just as happy to listen to a list and write them down, but I hope that this activity will help memorise the words and strengthen the awareness of finer differences.

My Favourite Teaching Quote

Education is the manifestation of the perfection that already exists in man.