Introduction:
These are activities for advanced students to introduce and practise idioms and phrases relating to school. Students match the sentence halves; complete the sentences with the missing expressions, decide if the statements are true for them and discuss the statements with their classmates.
Level: C1
Time: 60 minutes
Objectives:
- To match idiom halves to make idioms and phrases relating to school.
- To complete the sentences with the missing idioms.
- To decide if the sentences are true/ not true for the students themselves.
- To discuss the statements with a classmate.
Materials (Click on the worksheet below to download the PDF file):
- There is no place like…school Worksheet, one per student.
Procedure:
- Write the following questions on the board and ask students to briefly answer them in pairs: What’s your first memory of school? Do you think your school days are the best days of your life? What do you think students should be taught at school but aren’t?
- Hand students ‘There is no place like…school’ Worksheet.
- Individually, students match the idiom halves and then compare their answers with a classmate.
- Check the answers as a class – you can make this more competitive by asking each pair for their answer and awarding a point for the correct answer.
- Now, individually ask students to complete the sentences with the missing idioms before they compare them with their partner.
- Check the answers as a class.
- Ask students to read the sentences again and decide if there are or aren’t true for them.
- Put the students into pairs and ask them to compare how many things they have in common and to discuss the statements in more detail.
- At the end ask the students to describe one experience they have in common with their classmate and one that was different.
Fast finishers:
- Ask students to come up with some ideas of what an ideal school should look like and write them down in bullet points using the expressions studied e.g. In a ideal school students should be allowed to skip class if they are bored out of their minds.
P.S. Encourage students to watch a great Ted talk about education: https://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity
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