Inside-Outside. I’ve seen classrooms literally transformed when teachers start using this technique in their classrooms!When teaching, there is always a time when there are last minute ch
What it does is allow students to work with others in the class that they might never have a chance to. It is egalitarian and quick paced. Students love it and learn from it. Download the full instructions here.
What is it exactly?
The video above and also this video - explain it very well. Basically, put students into two circles – one inside, one outside. However, most classrooms don’t have the room for this , so I just get students standing or sitting in two lines facing each other.
On the “bell” or signal from the teacher, students practice with the partner facing them. It can be homework, an exercise from the textbook, a dialog, a survey question, an interview, story sharing – almost anything you’d normally do traditionally as more sitting, boring desk work. It’s also great for just reading to each other and “devouring” a text.
On the next signal, one line/circle rotates and then continues to practice with a new partner. Keep rotating as needed and enjoy your coffee!
It really is a special “communicative” technique perfect for language learning/teaching. Kagan – the guru of collaborative learning really divined a good one when he started promoting this! It is akin to his Think-Share-Pair activity but with more interaction, less repetition.
Zip-Zap. A fun game to see who will be the last one standing and the winner! This is an activity that your students can do whenever some fun yet competitive language practice is needed. It would be a great activity for a camp or for a party or just as a reward for students. I discovered it when teaching Grade 4 and having my students in the portable on rainy days. I observed the games they played and modified this one for learning. It is called Zip – Zap.
Get the students in a circle standing, best size is 6-12 . One student starts in the middle. The student in the middle is the boss, what they say goes. The winner is last person standing.
The “boss” spins around pointing and saying , zip zip zip……when they stop, the person they are pointing at ducks. The two on either side have to draw and shoot or “zap” the other person. The boss calls the winner. In the ESL / EFL variation, instead of just pointing, the boss says a letter. The two students shoot each other by drawing and saying a word beginning with that letter. The loser dies and must sit down. Continue until 2 students left. Stand them back to back. They pace 3 steps and then draw. The winner, the last person alive goes to the middle as “boss” and you start again……
Lots of variations. Saying a letter is the simplest. But you can do ending in the letter, word association (boss says food, they say a food or associated word), verb – noun , noun – verb. opposites, colours. Country / city or language or nationality etc……
Fun game and the students really concentrate and get into it. Zip – zap. Sounds complicated but anything but. My grade 4s would play this all day if I had let them….. Here’s the handout with a full explanation.
What’s your favorite low-tech or no-tech lesson technique? Got one to share?
2 Useful Activities