Which One Doesn’t Belong? This activity gives students practice in classifying items and finding similarities and differences. Preparation
When to Use It •
To give students practice or review of lexical items or grammatical structures To find similarities
Decide on what vocabulary (or grammar structure) you want to use.
•
Procedure
Level
1. Present, either as a handout, on the board, or via projector, one or more examples for the students to figure out, either individually, in small groups, or as a class. 2. The examples can check student understanding of semantic categories, collocations, verb tenses, register, idioms, etc.
Variations
1. There should be no obvious items that do not belong. In groups, students must decide which item on the list does not belong and why. Then, the groups present to the whole class. The group with the most creative and unique reasons wins. 2. Students can be asked to make their own examples for other classmates.
Depends on material
Skills Practice Materials
Handout, chalkboard, or digital video projector
Preparation Time 10 minutes
Activity Time 5–30 minutes
Contributor: Elizabeth Crockett Hixon, English teacher, Florence RE-2, Florence, Colorado; English Language Fellow, Brazil, 2011
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