Breathing Life into Checking Answers
By Hall Houston
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Reward or Punishment
Write the words REWARD and PUNISHMENT on the board. Ask students what the two words mean. Call on a student to read a question from the coursebook, and then allow that student to choose another student to provide an answer. If the answer is satisfactory, he must offer a reward to the student (for example, the first student will buy the second student a snack after class or carry his books back to his place). If the answer is not satisfactory, he must think of a good punishment (for example, the second student must buy the first one a piece of candy or sing for the class). Repeat a couple of times, and then write the word EXTREME next to REWARD and PUNISHMENT. Tell students you want to continue, but this time they must think of an EXTREME reward (giving the student 1000 red roses for the next 50 years) or an EXTREME punishment (must be locked in a cage with a lion for 24 hours). Continue until all questions are answered.
A Personal Question
Call out the question from the book, and then wait for the answer. After the student answers, use a word from the question or answer and create a personal question to ask the student. After the student has answered your question, give a reaction and maybe even a follow-up question. Continue in this manner with all the questions.
Mind Reading
Read out a question, and then ask a student to look at another student. Can the first student guess the second student's answer? Allow him to make a guess, and then get the other one to verify is the answer is right. (This works best for exercises that ask for personal responses.)
A Good Reason
Call on a student to read out a question, but not to answer. Instead, the student should call on another student to answer the question. Before she calls on the other student, however, she must provide a superb reason why she chose that student. If you think the reason is acceptable, tell the second student to answer. If you think it's unacceptable, then the first student must answer the question. Continue this activity with all the questions.
Teacher's Mistakes
Tell the class that you are going to read out the answers, but you're not feeling well today, and you might make a few mistakes. Tell students that they must correct you immediately when they hear a mistake. Read out the answers, adding in some errors. Finally, let them know if they missed any of your errors.
Panel of Judges
Choose 3 students who will be judges for this activity, and have them sit in the front of the class, off to one side. Tell them to create a list of criteria for judging students' answers. These can include linguistic elements, as well as other factors (enthusiasm, tone of voice, facial expressions, etc.). While the judges are creating their list, give the rest of the class a few minutes to read over their answers. Next, call on 2 students to come to the front of the class. Have each one read out their answer. Then ask the judges to give each student a score from 1 (terrible) to 5 (terrific). Then call on 2 different students, and continue the procedure. When all the questions have been answered, ask students to count up their points. The student with the highest point gets a prize.
Roll the Die
This game is ideal for an assignment with many items to check. You will need a die for this activity.
Give students the following handout or write it on the board:
If you roll a….
1 - you can get someone else to answer for you
2 - you can answer in your own language, and get another student to translate
3 - you can answer a different item
4 - you can look at another student's answers if you need to
5 - you must give the answer for this item and the next one, too
6 - you must stand on top of your chair and read out the answer in a dramatic voice
Tell your class that they will have the option of rolling a die before they answer a question. Rolling a 1 to 4 might make the task easier, but rolling a 5 or 6 will make things even worse. Read out the first question, and call out a name. Give the student the option of coming to the front of the class and rolling a die. Continue until all questions are answered.
Biodata
| Hall Houston has been teaching English for over a decade. His first book, The Creative Classroom, was published in 2007 by Lynx Publishing (www.lynxpublishing.com). He taught EFL for many years at universities in Taiwan. Now he is a full-time English Instructor at the English Language Centre at City University of Hong Kong. His professional interests include cross-cultural communication, discourse analysis, creativity and critical thinking. He is currently working on his second book. |
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