The following activity gives learners the opportunity to practice using new words from the reports (our favourite Friday afternoon class activity!)
Preparation
- Teacher chooses 2-4 different report titles (2 if you want pairs, 3 for groups of 3, etc) to focus on
- Reports are divided evenly among students (give them a copy of the transcript as well if you can)
- Students go to the grabaword.com site (they need an account to log in) and complete all the activities for the story, including reading through the transcript, highlighting key words and details, etc.
- Students then prepare a summary of the report to present to other students
- Include as many of the grabbed words (the ones you are trying to focus on) as possible
- Don’t just lift sentences from the report and repeat them – try to use your own words where ever possible
- Try to Google other stories related to the same topic
- Students rehearse the talk, paying particular attention to using the grabbed words
Presentation
- Students form pairs or groups with each member having a different report
- Students take turns to introduce their topic and present a summary
- After the summary is presented, students could ‘show and tell’ some of the new words that they learned, e.g. they could say which ones they think are most useful, ask others in the group if they know the meaning, etc.