Top Tips for FCE/CAE Reading and Use of English 1 Reading Classroom activity Newspaper reading Aim to encourage students to read quickly to find a particular piece of information Timing 15–20 minutes (depends on number of students in class) Rationale Students need to develop confidence in dealing with texts that might contain unknown words, and in reading quickly. Materials an English newspaper, or a printed page from an internet site for each student Procedure 1. Tear up the newspaper into separate pages. Write a number at the top of each page: e.g. for 15 students write the numbers 1–15. Give out a page of the newspaper to each student. 2. Each student has to find a piece of information somewhere on the page (in an advert; in a headline; in an article, etc.) and write a question at the top of the page whose answer is this piece of information. 3. If there are 15 students in the class, each student writes the numbers 1–15 in his/her notebook, and then goes around the class, reading each page quickly until they find the answer to the question written at the top of the page. 4. When they have found it, they write it next to the correct number in their notebook. The student who finishes first is the winner 5. The winner can start writing up his/her answers on the board while the others finish. As students finish they check their answers with the ones on the board. Variation • If there are a lot of students, they can work in pairs. • If this is a mixed ability group, don’t make it into a competition, and give the early finishers another reading task, e.g. read one article in more depth and tell another student about it. The activity can be carried out using computer screens instead of newspaper. This modernises the activity and appeals to teenager’s interest in technology and being out of the traditional classroom. Students can also select their own web-site and web-page, thus reflecting their own interests and improving motivation. The selecting of a web-site and page is also a reading activity within itself. 2 Use of English Classroom activity Transformer Hangman! Aim to improve student’s marks in the final part of the Use of English by making sentence transformations a dynamic team game. Timing 10+ minutes (cane be repeated in a “league” format) Rationale 32% of the Use of English mark is allocated to part 4 alone but it is a part of the exam which students find tedious and monotonous and do not give the time its importance merits. Teachers also find it difficult to “teach” part 4 as it is an activity designed to test. This activity is designed to bring sentence transformations to life in an exciting and competitive way which appeals to children. It can be used as on-going cooler in a league format, as a one-off, to revise certain aspects of grammar or even as warmer / introduction to a new piece of grammar. The more it is played the more the children understand its complexities and the more competitive they become; it provokes perpetual motivation! Materials A blackboard or digi-whiteboard, examples of part 4 transformations. Procedure 1. Teacher writes on the board the original given sentence in the question plus the given (underneath) transformation. HOWEVER, all of the words of both sentences which give the transformation are shown only as dashes (as if playing traditional hangman). For example: Question sentence: School prizes are given out at the end of each year. Complete answer: School prize-giving takes place at the end of each year. Teacher writes: School prizes _ _ _ / _ _ _ _ _ / _ _ _ at the end of each year. AND School prize-giving _ _ _ _ _ / _ _ _ _ _ at the end of each year. 2. Students are organised into two teams with a nominated spokesperson varying from game to game. 3. Team A suggest a letter, if the letter appears in either sentence it is written in and a point is scored for each time it appears. If the letter does not appear two points are deducted. After team A’s turn, team B have a turn. 4. As the words in the sentences begin to complete teams will think they know the answer. The answer MUST BE PERFECT and MUST BE FOR BOTH sentences. Suggesting the answer is a turn in itself (teams cannot guess letters and then the answer in the same turn). If the answer is 100% correct the team score 10 points with a further 2 point-bonus for every dash that remains without a letter. However, if the guess is incorrect (in any way at all) 10 points are deducted and the turn moves to the other team. 3 5. The winning team is the one with the most points at “the end” (of the class / the day / the week / the month / the term / the year etc.) NB. Teenagers become ferociously competitive when playing this game and shouting out answers and “cheating” or accusations of it need to be kept under strict control. Variation • Many variations are possible including changing the scoring, altering the number of words given at the beginning, the number of teams in play. • The game can also be played on a word-level if you provide the students with all of the words (mixed up!). This works best if you tell them a fixed number of transformations that you’ll be doing and then provide a word bank from which they can choose / work out which words to nominate. Use of English - Countdown conundrum Timing varies, depending on the number of words chosen Materials timer; a list of words with the letters jumbled (see examples below) Rationale Students are reported to make frequent spelling mistakes in Part 3 of the Use of English paper. The following activity addresses this issue. Procedure 1. Arrange students into teams (either pairs or groups of three). 2. Explain that they will see a word (perhaps one that recently came up in a Part 3 exercise, or just typical Part 3 words that could be usefully recycled), but this word has the letters mixed up. See examples below. 3. Students then compete against each other and against the clock to find the word. 4. Award points where applicable, and add them up at the end to decide on the winners. Examples (step 2): • TIEHHG (height) • VRMEIISEPS (impressive) • OTLISNOU (solution) For countdown clocks: • The IWB Activstudio/Inspire toolkit (complete with Big Ben chimes) 4 • Talking Timers, Countdown Circles or Time Bombs are available at: http://eslgamesworld.com/members/games/tools/index.html • Mobile phones may have timers and sound effects Use of English - Prefix and suffix bingo Timing 20 minutes Materials A list of 20–30 root words; a list of prefixes and suffixes which go with these words; a sheet with a blank 9-square grid for each student (there may be two or three blank grids on the sheet, if the teacher wants to repeat the game) Rationale number This activity gives practice in learning and revising the large of affixes that are needed for Part 3 of the Use of English test. Procedure 1. Write a list of 20–30 root words on the board (e.g. manufacture, access, anger, dismiss, comfort, agree, child, kind, practical). 2. Give out the 9-square grids. Students write nine root or base words from the list on the board into the squares on the grid. They can work individually, in pairs or in small teams. 3. The teacher reads out either a prefix or a suffix. 4. If students think the affix can go with one or more of their words, they write the word again in the box, incorporating the affix and altering the spelling, if necessary. For example, ‘estimate’ becomes ‘estimation’. 5. The student or team of students who has added either a prefix or a suffix correctly to all nine words calls out ‘bingo’. This idea is taken from http://www.educationalinsights.com Variation To make this activity livelier, the grid containing root words could be on the board. The prefixes and suffixes needed for the activity could be placed around the classroom, each one written on an A5-sheet. When the teacher points to a word in the grid, e.g. ‘comfort’, students have to find either the sheet of paper with ‘dis’ or the sheet with ‘able’. They then take this sheet, run to the board and attach it in some way (sticky tack) to ‘comfort’. The first team to do this correctly gets a point. 5