Posted on by karolasenglishblog

Turn over a new leaf

Property of Natalia Wyrzykowska

Introduction:

This is a board game activity to talk about New Year’s Resolutions. It is a great way to help students practise speaking skills as well as reflect on their goals and plans for the following year. This activity is also a great opportunity to review future tenses if you think your students might benefit from it or need it.

Don’t forget to feed students new vocabulary throughout the activity, correct and/ or find opportunities to help them express themselves more precisely and accurately. 

Level: B1+

Objectives:

  1. To write new year resolutions
  2. To practise speaking skills
  3. To increase fluency and confidence

Materials:

turn-over-a-new-leafDownload

A die (or an online dice roller) 

Procedure:

  1. Write the words New Year’s Resolutions on the board and check that all students understand the meaning and/or concept of it.
  2. Give students examples of some resolutions you have made in the past e.g. to go for a run three times a week, to move house, to go to the beach more often, to eat less pasta, to refine your style etc. and ask them to guess which ones you managed to stick to and which ones you didn’t manage to keep.
  3. Put students in pairs or small groups and ask them to choose 5 resolutions for the coming year that they plan to keep and discuss them with their partner(s).
  4. Display Turn over a new leaf on the screen.
  5. In pairs or small groups, one of the students throws the dice twice – the first throw indicates which column they should use, and the second throw indicates which row, to obtain the topic.
  6. The player (s) discuss the resolution they have landed on. I have given you a list of questions the students can answer to help them out if the conversation runs dry: 1. Does it match any of the resolutions you wrote down in the previous activity? 2. Have you ever made a similar resolution? 3. Would you be happy to add it to your list? 4. If you have made a similar resolution before, were you successful in sticking to it? 5. If you have tried to do it before, what advice would you give to your classmates?
  7. Encourage students to ask additional questions and ask for clarification and details. 
  8. At the end, ask students to review their initial lists to see if they want to add any new ideas to them. Also ask students to put their resolutions in order of difficulty and give reasons why.

Related posts:

2020 Round-up

P.S. Happy New Year

Posted on by karolasenglishblog · 2 Comments

Agony Aunt with a twist

Objectives:

  1. To practise giving suggestions and advice
  2. To revise reported speech

Procedure:

1. In pairs ask students to brainstorm expressions to offer advice and suggestion e.g. I (don’t) think you should…, you could try…

2. Go through the expressions together and when the students run out of ideas add expressions of your own.

3. Individually ask students to think of a problem they or their friends are struggling with and write down a very brief description of it. Please feel free to use the worksheet I’ve attached. Let students know they shouldn’t think of anything too personal as they will be sharing the information with each other. Alternatively you can ask them to think of a problem they’ve had and solved but tell them to keep the solution to themselves at this stage. Discourage students from inventing the problem as then their investment in the activity won’t be the same.

4. Students switch papers and write down a piece of advice for the first student using ONE of the expressions they thought of or learnt at the beginning of the class. Tell students to underline the expressions to make them more visible e.g. I don’t think you should date Jack. He makes you so unhappy.

5. Students then pass the paper to the next person who offers a new piece of advice and uses a new expression e.g. How about seeing a marriage counselor? I’m sure he could help you both.

6. Students continue passing their pieces of paper or notebooks round until each person in the class has given each student a piece of advice. Tell students they are not allowed to repeat expressions and suggestions which forces them to read what has been written and constantly exposes them to expressions they might still be unfamiliar with or uncomfortable using.

7. At the end of the activity students choose the most adequate piece of advice they have been given or if their problem has already been solved they compare their own solution to the suggestions of other students and comment on it in their pair/group.

Homework:

Students rewrite the suggestions into reporting statements e.g. Maria suggested breaking up with Jack. Maria recommended that I should see a therapist.

dear-agony-aunt-worksheet