Sometimes, teachers find it difficult to come up with pair and small-group activities for their lowest level learners. This article will give you some collaborative lesson ideas that will provide your students with multiple opportunities to practice and internalize language whilst building community!
Beginning ESL learners need lots of practice speaking and listening to English. Paul Nation states an amazing fact: Before we ‘own’ a word we are exposed to it around 20 times and we produce it almost 60 times. Alongside building vocabulary, students need to develop communication skills. According to the new College and Career Readiness Standards, students need to prepare for and participate effectively in a range of conversations and collaborations with diverse partners. This encourages them to build on others’ ideas and express their own clearly and persuasively.
So, without further ado, let’s take a look at some collaborative activities for low-level learners…
Picture Cards and Word Cards
Virtually every beginning level ESL text presents new vocabulary using photos and illustrations. Using a copy machine that can reduce or enlarge the images, it takes just a few minutes to create a page of illustrations that can be cut up and manipulated by students. After cutting up the picture cards, students can practice with partners. A student holds up the cards one at a time and asks a question or makes a statement. For example, one asks “What’s this?” and the other responds with the word “custodian.” As a variation, one student can say to another, “Show me the cashier.”
These same activities can also be used with word cards. When word and picture cards are used together, students work in pairs to match the picture with the corresponding word. This is especially effective when you have literate and less literate students in the same class.
Download the picture cards and word cards for Ventures Basic, Unit 8, Lesson A.
Grids
Numbered grids with boxes can be used with picture and word cards for vocabulary practice. Students work in pairs. One student gives commands such as, “Put the salesperson on number two. Put the cashier on number six”, etc. The other student listens and places picture or word cards on the grid in the appropriate place. When there are nine vocabulary words, grids can be used for a game of Bingo. After students randomly place their cards on the grid, the teacher or a designated student calls out words one by one. Students put coins or markers on each picture as it’s called. The first student to get three pictures in a straight line calls out “Bingo.” This link shows you an example of a grid with nine boxes:
Download grids with four, six, nine, and twelve boxes.
It’s also easy for students to draw their own grids on a sheet of paper, copying a pattern that the teacher models for them.
Match Mine
By creating a grid and putting a name in each square, you can create yet another activity that uses picture or word cards. For example, in a unit that deals with free-time activities, students will need a set of cut up cards (pictures or words), such as “watch TV,” “cook,” or “dance.” Students will also have a grid with the same number of squares as the number of vocabulary words. There is a different name in each square, such as Maria, Mei, Luis, or Farah. Students sit so that they cannot see each other’s grids. The grids with names can be prepared before class, or students can quickly make the grids and write in the names as guided by the teacher. One student places an activity on the grid and says a sentence, for example, “Luis likes to dance.” The partner listens and places the pictures on his or her own grid in the proper place. At the end of the activity both students check their work. If they have communicated clearly, both papers will match.
Download the Collaborative Activities for Ventures Basic, Unit 10, Lesson C, including Match Mine.
Unscramble
Many beginning level textbooks have readings with corresponding audio, and this activity provides practice in connecting sound and print. Put each sentence of the reading on a separate line, so that the sentences can be easily cut apart. As the teacher plays the audio, students work in pairs with the cut-up sentence strips, putting them in the correct order. Try pairing literate students with less literate students so that there is support for the weaker student. A variation is for students to work with books open, matching the sentence strips to the reading in the text.
Download the Collaborative Activities for Ventures Basic, Unit 8, Lesson D, including Unscramble.
Partner Dictation
An easy way to build in vocabulary review at the end of a unit is to identify key vocabulary from the unit and then develop two worksheets – one for Student A and another for Student B. Students dictate the spelling of new vocabulary words to each other. For example, if there are twelve new vocabulary words in the unit, spell out six of them on Student A’s paper and spell out the remaining six on Student B’s paper. Students will spell the words to their partner as the partner writes. For example, “Number one. Server. S-E-R-V-E-R. Server.”
Download the Collaborative Activities for Ventures Basic, Unit 8, Lesson E, including Partner dictation.
Conversation Cards
A fun mingling activity involves conversation cards. It’s easy to make them using the Tables function in Word. Let’s say that you have a unit dealing with free-time activities. Make a table of nine or twelve squares and type a different question in each square. For example, “Do you like to watch TV?” “Do you like to cook?” Print enough sets of cards so that when the cards are cut up, each student in the class can have a question card. All the students stand up, walk around the classroom, and connect with one other student; each asks and answers their classmate’s question. Then they exchange question cards and move on to new partners.
Download the Collaborative Activities for Ventures Basic, Unit 10, Lesson C, including Conversation cards.
Share Information
Another activity that might be a little more challenging to create but an excellent activity for developing listening skills is Share Information. Two students work together. Each student has some information that the other lacks and they must communicate to obtain the lacking information. For example, in a unit that deals with time and schedules, prepare a simple appointment calendar showing the seven days of the week. Student A will have some days filled in with information, such as Tuesday: 6:00 PM movie, Thursday, 1:30 PM concert. Student B will have different information, such as Monday: 10:00 AM class, Friday: 8:00 PM party. At the top of each paper, list the missing events (party, movie, etc.) that need to be added to the calendar. The students take turns asking and answering. For example, Student A asks “What day is the party?” “What time is the party?” Student B answers, and Student A writes the event and time in the correct place on the calendar.
These collaborative activities are great for several reasons: they provide multiple exposures to new vocabulary, they develop listening and speaking skills, and their manipulative aspect is not only superb for kinaesthetic learners but keeps students engaged in the learning process. I’d love to hear your comments and questions, and also your suggestions for other activities that you have found to work well with low-level learners.