Friday, March 26, 2021

Vocabulary Cards for Grouping

(TESOL Worksheets--Classroom Management, Q: Skills for Success: Listening and Speaking 5)
Sheet 1: drive, docs, pub
Sheet 2: drive, docs, pub
Notes: The most common way to assign student groups is just to number them off.  (John number one, Kelly number two, Paul number three, Justin number four, Jason number one...)  But this can get boring very quickly. 
I once had a colleague suggest giving them objects for groups instead.  (John ice-cream cone, Kelly watermelon, etc.)  My colleague said he got the idea from a presentation that he once saw Jim Scrivener do, and since then I've used that idea a few times in my class.
More recently, however, I decided that the names for groups could be a great way to recycle vocabulary from the unit.  (Particularly for classes which need to learn vocabulary for the test.)  So in my classes, I've started experimenting with using key vocabulary from the unit for grouping.
The example here is from Q: Skills for Success: Listening and Speaking 5 , but the general idea could be adapted for any class, so I'm also filing this under my general Classroom Management posts.  
The cards are cut up and shuffled before class.  Each card has one of the key vocabulary words on it, and a little picture to help students remember the meaning.  The students have to find other people who have their same card to make a group.



No comments: