Thursday, October 23, 2008

Snakes and ladders and young EFL/ESL learners


Snakes and ladders, originally uploaded by deebeeandswivel :D.

Over the last couple of years I have been doing more lessons with younger learners of English. It makes a welcome change from the usual exam obsessed classes I teach. However, it does involve approaching the subject from a completely different angle.

Here is a teaching idea that you might find interesting as it can be used to recycle/revise a whole range of ideas using snakes and ladders. Currently I'm using it to help revise numbers 1 - 100 but that is just the beginning (click here to play online).

1 Some alternatives might include creating questions for each ladder or snake. When you land on a snake or ladder to go up or avoid dropping down you have to answer a question correctly. This could be anything that you have already covered.

E.g. What is this (showing a picture of a pen/chair/notebook etc)

or

Count up to ten.

2 When you throw a six you answer a question. Get it right you double your score. Get it wrong you do not move.

3 Every time you throw you get the chance to double your score if you answer a question correctly.

As you can see the questions can be about anything so the possibilities are endless.

To involve the students more you could get them to write their own questions or vote on the rules they want to play by. In addition younger learners could make their own boards.

2 comments:

Theodora Papapanagiotou said...

nice to see you have teaching ideas on your blog again! I hope you're doing great!

Christina Markoulaki said...

Hi there! I'm a teacher of English in Crete. I've just taken a look at your blog and EFL wiki page and I think your ideas and way of seeing things are pleasantly ... different! I've already recommended your work to other teachers in my latest post

http://markakischool.blogspot.com/2008/10/blog-post_26.html

Keep being as imaginative as you are, your readers certainly enjoy it!