A reading broken into 3 parts

Chapter 1: Framework Activities Activities that are easily adaptable to a wide range of settings, topics and learning goals. Many of these are well-known teaching activities that I have adapted to make more collaborative. Jigsaw Reading

Level: All Area: Reading Skill: Comprehension Time: 30-60 mins (depending on the reading and number of groups)

Introduction The jigsaw technique creates collaboration by giving different students different parts of a whole such as a reading or a task. Because the students have different information, they must work together to complete the task.

Materials

● A reading ● A sample jigsaw reading

Preparation

Divide the reading into sections that are more or less equally long to read and difficult.

Photocopy the reading and cut each Xerox into sections.

Procedure

1. Divide the students into groups. The number of groups should equal the number of sections of the reading.

2. Give each group one section of the reading. Each member of the group should have their own copy to take notes on.

3. Allow students enough time to read their section (5-10 minutes).

Comment [1]: Walton Burns: Note: Actual number of words is not always the best judge of length here. Do keep in mind difficulty in terms of vocab and density and remember that students will be reading this section in isolation so introductions and conclusions will tend to be easier to read as they assume little to no context.

Comment [2]: May I suggest slightly rephrasing this part - to 'equal in length and difficulty'?

Comment [3]: Walton Burns: Each group gets one section so think about how to divide your class into groups before photocopying.

4. Tell each group to take time to discuss the reading. They need to make sure eachmember understands the reading thoroughly (5-10 minutes)

5. Give each member of each group a number. Then have them get into groups bynumber. The new groups now have one student that has read one section of the reading.

6. Each student now has to explain their section of the reading (5-10 minutes x the numberof students in the group).

7. When they are ready, separate the students and give them a quiz or test on the wholereading. Or quiz the students orally on the sections of the text they did not read. For example, when you ask about section A, tell the students who read section A to be silent.

Extension

Have students read the whole text and do other comprehension or vocabulary activities. Ask students to write three questions they have about other parts of the text and then read for

the answers. Students can quiz each other about the reading.

Variations

The jigsaw technique can be done with listenings as well provided you have enough CDs andheadphones or students can download the listening to their phones. Students would thenlisten to different sections instead of reading them in their initial groups.

The jigsaw technique can also be applied to a long assignment with students doing differentparts of the worksheet and then teaching the other students.

On a larger scale, the jigsaw technique can be used with research. If students are studying theAmerican Revolution, one group of students can research the causes. Another group canresearch famous people such as George Washington and John Adams. Another group canresearch the most influential battles. They then teach each other what they have learned inpreparation for a larger class assignment. Doing a jigsaw research project may likely takelonger than one class.

Teacher Notes

Cloze Paragraph Level: All

Comment [4]: I like the image here. Colorful and makes it easier to understand the tasks.

Comment [5]: Walton Burns: If you have an odd number of students you might have to double up (in which case it's good to pair a weaker student with another student) or you may need to stand in.

Area: Reading, Listening, Writing, Speaking Skill: Comprehension, Questions Time: 10-30 mins

Introduction While it may seem rote and contrived, cloze paragraphs (or fill-in-the-blanks) are a simple way of creating an imbalance in information. Each student has information the other does not. It’s also an activity that is highly customizable. You can turn any text into a cloze by blacking out words or phrases. It’s a great way to review vocabulary or have students pre-view a grammar structure or notice the way a part of speech works.

Materials ➢ A pre-made cloze exercise from your textbook or worksheet -OR- ➢ A reading that has vocab or grammar you wish to target. ➢ A Sample Cloze

[ILO-1-3 Align right]

Preparation

1. If you are not using a cloze paragraph from a workbook, you need to make one copy of your reading for every student in the class.

8. Prepare an A version and a B version by blacking out different words or phrases in each.

Procedure

9. Put students in pairs. 10. Give each partner the A or B version of the text. Make sure they do not show each other

the text. 11. Tell students that each version is missing some information. Their partner has the

missing information. In order to fill in the blanks, they need to ask their partner a well-formed question.

12. Give students time to answer and ask questions. If you are focusing on asking for information, you will want to monitor question form. If you are focused more on the missing text, you will want to monitor answers more.

Extension ➢ If done as a way to pre-view a text, students would then go on to discuss the text as a

whole.

Comment [6]: Walton Burns: Students will have to ask for this information so be sure you are leaving key words that help them know what to ask for. For example: James Pond walked ________. The blank could be an adverb or a prepositional phrase. Students won't know whether to ask HOW did Pond walk? or WHERE did Pond walk? James Pond walked to the _____. gives more context.

Variations ➢ Blackout particular parts of speech or target grammar forms. ➢ Have students guess what word is missing based on context clues before asking their

partner. ➢ Rather than paragraphs, the cloze can be unrelated sentences. ➢ Turn it into a competition with prizes for the pair that finishes first.

Video

Teacher Notes

[Text Field Center Full Screen]

Student Dictations

Level: All Area: Reading, Listening, Writing, Speaking Skill: Comprehension Time: 15-30 mins

Introduction This is a form of cloze with two differences. First, students are filling in entire sentences instead of words. Second, students do not have to ask questions to elicit information. These exercises work well for targeting a complex grammar structure as students are repeating larger chunks of text. They also work well for vocabulary in context or a particular sentence frame.

Materials

● A series of sentences ● Sample Dictation

[ILO-1-4 Align right]

Preparation

1. Prepare a series of sentences with vocabulary or grammar that you want to target. 13. Prepare a Master Copy with all the sentences.

14. Prepare an A version with the blank spaces instead of even-numbered sentences. 15. Prepare a B version with blank spaces instead of odd-numbered sentences.

Procedure

1. Prepare task language—“How do you spell that?”, “Can you please repeat that?”, “What did you say?”, “ Did you say in or at?”

16. Put students in pairs. 17. Give each partner the A or B version of the sentences. Make sure they do not show each

other the text. 18. Instruct students to take turns reading their sentences to their partner. The student

listening should write down the sentence verbatim so they will need to listen carefully and ask questions.

19. When both students are finished, they can swap papers and check their answers.

Extension

● After finishing students can create their own sentences using the target form or function.

Variations

● Instead of sentences, you can give students questions to dictate to each other that they then have to answer or discuss.

● Students can create their own sentences given guidelines on what language feature to include. Just make sure that students are not going to be receiving their own sentences.

Video

Teacher Notes

[Text Field Center Full Screen]

I Am a Word

Level: All Area: Speaking Skill: Defining Vocabulary Time: 10-20 minutes

Comment [7]: I love all of these activities - they are inspiring me - for dictation maybe they could also try simple poetry dictation or joke dictation - or even tongue twisters? Then put the jokes into comic-style strips?

Introduction This is a more collaborative variation of Hot Seat the vocabulary guessing game. I Am a Word was designed to practice or review vocabulary. However, you can also use it with grammar terms, the names of the parts of speech, or content-related key words. It could even be extended to review verb tenses and their meanings.

Materials

● Post-It Notes or index cards/bits of paper and sticky tack

Preparation

● Write one key word or expression on the Post-It Notes or index cards or bits of paper ● Fold the bottoms several times so that the word is hidden ● Stick them randomly to the board or wall.

[ILO-1-5 Align left]

Procedure

20. Students will come up as a group and each will take one paper and stick it to their shirt. They will then unfold it carefully so that the word is showing. However, they cannot peek at the word.

21. Tell students that they have to find out the word on their shirt by asking another student to define or explain it to them. The other student can say anything except the word itself.

22. When the student has guessed their word, they should deposit the note and get another one.

23. The activity goes on until all the notes are finished.

Extension

● Review the most difficult words or concepts. ● Have students use the words in a sentence. ● Ask students to think of the words they had the most trouble guessing or defining and

record them in a vocabulary notebook.

Variations

Comment [8]: Walton Burns: The number of times you repeat a word depends on the number of students and how much exposure you want each word to get. If you write each word once, then it will be practiced by only one pair. If you write it ten times, then 20 students will be exposed to it. Students are usually willing to do three or four rounds before getting bored.

● You can target a particular method of defining by having students help each other guess using only examples or only antonyms, for example.

● For text review, you may want students to only give the definition directly out of the book.

● If you are playing with grammar forms, students can give an explanation. For example, they may discuss the meaning of a verb tense. [ILO-1-6 Align right]

● To make it easier, students can play open book or you can put a list of all the words on the board.

Video

Teacher Notes

[Text Field Center Full Screen] Thanks to Stephanie Owens who originally devised this activity and presented it at ConnTESOL 2012. Snowballs

Level: All Area: Writing, Reading Skill: Cohesiveness, Editing and Proofreading Time: 10-15 minutes

Introduction A fun way to get students writing to each other in the classroom anonymously. Students write and then crumple their papers up and throw them around like snowballs. This method can be used for simple dialogues, to write a collaborative story, to answer and ask questions, peer editing. And students love it because they get to throw stuff.

Materials ➢ Sheets of identical paper. At least one per student.

Procedure Ground Rules This is one activity where I like to lay down some ground rules such as The basic procedure:

1. Lay down the ground rules: no throwing at each other, no hurting each other and keep the language respectful.

24. Hand each student a piece of paper. They should do nothing to identify that paper as theirs.

25. Give students a question to answer or a writing prompt. 26. Tell students to crinkle their papers up into a ball. When everyone is ready, countdown

from three and let students throw the balls around the room. 27. Signal students to stop throwing and then tell them to find the nearest ball. 28. Students uncrinkle the ball and respond to what is written in some way. 29. This activity can be repeated ad infinitum.

Some ways to apply it: Editing/Review

30. This is a great way to make a safe space for students to make mistakes anonymously. It also gives students lots of chances to edit and check each other’s editing.

1. Give students instructions to produce a sentence or a paragraph. You may want them to answer a question or use a vocabulary word correctly or write a sentence with a particular grammar structure. It could also be an introduction to an essay. This can be a way of reviewing homework sentences too.

2. Let students crinkle, throw, uncrinkle and read. 3. Now, direct students to edit and correct the paper in front of them. Have them focus on

the language you are practicing or serious errors only. 4. Let students can then crinkle, throw, uncrinkle and read. 31. Now, tell them to edit the editor. Looking at the original sentence and the edit, they

should produce a correct version of the original sentence [ILO-1-7-Align right]

32. Let students throw the sentences around one more time. 33. Finally, have students read aloud the sentences the last student wrote. This could be

done as a class or in small groups. They then have to say if the sentence is correct or incorrect and why or why not. Snowball Texting This makes a nice warm-up for a writing class or a fun energizer or a way to start a discussion on a topic. Scott Thornbury (2005) has noted that allowing students to write dialogues in the classroom gives them more processing time, more time to focus on grammar, than speaking, which tends to be more fluency focused (pg. 25).

1. Lay some stricter ground rules. I usually put an example of a bad dialogue on the board and go over the issues with it, namely 1) rudeness, 2) a random non-sequitur, 3) not continuing the conversation and 4) not writing or not writing in English.

Comment [9]: Walton Burns: This works best when students write short answers—1 or 2 sentences. However,t hey could theoretically write a whole paragraph or more.

Comment [10]: Walton Burns: And then wait another minute until they actually stop throwing.

Comment [11]: Walton Burns: Note that any paper that is crinkled and uncrinkled multiple times gets quite thin and brittle so if you have students submit part of an essay, be aware that they will have to rewrite that essay somewhere else.

34. I like to tell them I will play too which means that I will be seeing some of the dialogues. That helps keep them in line a bit and also it’s fun for me!

[ILO-1-7 Align left] 35. Ask students to write a question that they might text to a friend such as: How is your

day going? or How much homework do you have? or What are you doing this weekend? 36. After students have thrown the snowballs around and gotten a new piece of paper,

have them answer the question and pose a new question, much like a dialogue. 37. Have them crinkle, throw, choose, uncrinkle and then continue the conversation. 38. Stop the activity when students are spending more time throwing than writing.

Exquisite Corpse An old stand-by where students create a story sentence-by-sentence. Doing it as a snowball game means students can read the whole story but it also means they don’t know who wrote what. And the passing process is a lot more fun. I’ve also found that students are so excited to throw that they really pressure their friends to write fast, adding a different dynamic to the game.

1. Give students the first part of a story such as: It was a dark and stormy night, or I was on my way to school when...

2. Have students write the prompt and finish it or add another sentence. 3. Students crinkle their papers, throw them around, pick up a new paper and uncrinkle it. 4. Have them read what was just written and then add another sentence. 5. Students crinkle, throw, pick up and uncrinkle it. Then they read the whole story and

add another sentence. 6. Keep going until students seem to be slowing down. 7. Have students throw the paper one last time but then instead of adding to the new

piece of paper, let them read it aloud to the class. These get very funny, very fast.

Extension

Video

Teacher Notes

[Text Field Center Full Screen] Thanks to Shannon Boss for introducing me to this activity and Stephanie Owens for collaborating in designing the texting variant. Directions

Level: All

Area: Skill: Time:

Introduction One student has the directions and another has to follow them

Materials

Preparation

Procedure

Extension

Variations

Video

Teacher Notes

[Text Field Center Full Screen] Answer Check

Level: All Area: Skill: Skill: Time:

Introduction Students have answers to each other’s tasks.

Materials

Preparation

Procedure

Extension

Variations

Video

Teacher Notes

[Text Field Center Full Screen] Dictogloss

Level: All Area: Skill: Time:

Introduction

Materials

Preparation

Procedure

Extension

Variations

Video

Teacher Notes

[Text Field Center Full Screen] Collaborative Stories