Zero Prep: Ready-to-Go Activities for the Classroom

Laurel Pollard
Educational Consultant lpollard@dakotacom.net www.laurelpollard.com

Natalie Hess
Professor, BME Northern Arizona University, Yuma natalie.hess@nau.com

ALTA BOOK CENTER www.altaesl.com

What if you reviewed every activity you ever used or heard of, choosing only the ones that are the very best teaching/learning practices? What if you selected from that collection only the activities that take NO TIME for the teacher to prepare?

We did that. Here it is. Enjoy!

The three filters:

We bring you activities that

are the very best for learning take no time for the teacher to prepare before class are adaptable for level and content (routines)

Planning:

The vision we have of our students goals and how to help them get there

Routine
An activity so effective, so flexible, that we find ourselves using it again and again, varying the content and level but keeping the basic structure of the activity intact.

Preparation:

What a teacher needs to sit down and do to get activity ready for class

When we include Zero Preparation routines in our lesson plans, we have more time to relax, reflect, and recover our vision!

Zero Prep 1997 Alta Book Center Publishers at www.altaesl.com All rights reserved. Permission to photocopy must be obtained from the publisher.

5.6

MISSING WORDS DICTACOMP

This activity is good for recycling vocabulary. It also works well as a pre-reading activity.

LEVEL: IntermediateAdvanced AIM: Writing, listening Procedure :

1. From your students textbook, choose any new paragraph that is not too long or too hard. 2. Students keep their books closed as you read the paragraph three times. Increase speed with each reading, but do not exceed normal speed. 3. Reread the paragraph a fourth time. This time leave out about five to ten key words. Make a sound such as mmmm in place of each missing word. 4. When you make the mmmm sound, students write the word they think you left out. 5. In small groups, students pool their lists of missing words. 6. Individually, students write the passage as well as they can remember it, using as prompts the missing words they wrote. 7. In small groups, students compare what they have written. 8. Each group appoints a secretary. They rewrite the passage as a group effort. 9. A reader from each group reads the groups passage. The class compares and evaluates these for correctness of language and content. Note: Accept paraphrasing and synonyms; meaning is whats important here.
Zero Prep for Beginners 2001 Alta Book Center Publishers at www.altaesl.com All rights reserved. Permission to photocopy must be obtained from the publisher.

1.9 STAND FOR YOUR WORD

This activity gives students a feeling that they own certain words and helps them to put these words in context. AIM: Vocabulary review, reading review MATERIALS:A text (with questions) that students have read

Procedure :
1. Students take out a piece of paper. 2. Give each student a word from a text they have read. The same word may be given to several students. 3. Be sure students know what their words mean. They may get help from other students or from you. 4. Read the text out loud while students listen. 5. As soon as a student hears his/her word, they stand up. Repeat this step a few times if it is challenging for them. 6. Students trade words. 7. Students hold up their new word and call it out. (Again they get help with meaning, if necessary.) 8. Read the text aloud again while students stand up each time they hear their new word. 9. Repeat steps 6-8 several times. 10. Write the words on the board in the order that they appeared in the text. 11. Students look at the text and read out the sentences where their words appeared. 12. Students read the whole text and answer the questions. 3

Zero Prep for Beginners 2001 Alta Book Center Publishers at www.altaesl.com All rights reserved. Permission to photocopy must be obtained from the publisher.

1.12 PICTURE DICTATION

Students have such fun drawing that they may not notice how much they are learning! They use visual and spoken information to create a picture and recreate sentences. You can use this activity to teach or review vocabulary, and its a wonderful way to practice prepositions of location. AIM: Speaking, listening, vocabulary

Procedure :
1. Dictate an imaginary picture to your class. Adjust the dictation to your students level. For example, in a low beginners class, dictate a few nouns and see whether students can draw them. You can also review vocabulary and structures theyve already studied by making up a paragraph like this one: In the middle of the picture there is a house. In front of the house there is a tree. Above the house there is an airplane. To the left of the house there is a happy girl. 2. Students listen to the description. 3. Dictate again while the students draw the picture. 4. In pairs, students look at their completed pictures. They notice similarities and differences and talk about what they drew. 5. A volunteer goes to the board. The class tells him/her what to draw to recreate the picture on the board. (Help with their language if necessary.) 6. Go to the big picture on the board and point to the house. Students say: In the middle of the picture there is a house. Write this sentence by the house. Continue until everything in the picture has a sentence by it. (You may have some students advanced enough to write the sentences on the board themselves!)

Zero Prep 1997 Alta Book Center Publishers at www.altaesl.com All rights reserved. Permission to photocopy must be obtained from the publisher.

5.15

GIFT EXCHANGE

This vocabulary-enriching activity helps to build a pleasant and supportive classroom climate. It is as much fun for students as giving and receiving real presents. You might use this activity when a student in your class has a birthday or at the end of a course.

LEVEL: Advanced BeginningIntermediate AIM: Writing, speaking MATERIALS: Small box Procedure :

1. To make sure that everyone gets presents, have every student put his or her name on a slip of paper and drop it into the box. Students choose a name at random each time theyre ready to give another present. 2. Together with the class, create a list on the board of what people like to give and receive as presents. 3. On the board write a simple formula for a note to give with a gift and for a thank-you note as well. 4. Students pick anyone in class and get busy sending that person a present. That is, everyone creates a present note. 5. When a student finishes his or her present note, he or she folds it, delivers it to the recipient, and returns to his or her desk to write either a thank-you note or another present note. 6. Each time students receive a present note, they immediately write and deliver a thankyou note. 7. The writing can continue for about half an hour as students busily rush about and happily open their presents. 8. Students talk to the whole class about their favorite presents.