teaching-learning process. As vocabulary revision at the end of the unit I recently asked pupils of different grades to form groups of 4, choose a number of vocabulary items that we had previously agreed on together and present each one either forming still images or using their bodies to convey the meaning of the words. All pupils had to participate in the presentation. They really loved the experience and didn't find it difficult at all to perform. Let me tell you at this point that we have a drama teacher in our school that does wonderful things with all pupils as far as body expression and spontaneity are concerned. I also love role playing. This year we have had a city council with 5th graders while we were talking about environmental issues of our city and a teachers meeting with 6ht graders during which teachers were given the 'good teacher manual' that pupils had agreed on. Both activities were quite time consuming, but definitely worth trying. The second was actually presented in front of the teachers of the school and got very positive remarks. This month we are talking about road safety with 4th graders. Pupils wrote down their thoughts in a few lines as road signs (how they feel when drivers and pedestrians conform or don't conform to them). They brought boxes and drew a road sign on it to wear while performing (Georgia Kosma). 8. Students are divided into groups, each group consists of two studentsinterviewees or applicants, and one or more students take on the role of the interviewer or employer. The two applicants go in for the interview in turns. However before the interview they're instructed that one of them desperately wants this job, and the other doesn't want it at all. They’re not allowed to say it explicitly, though. So they must do everything in their power to be selected or not! At the end, the interviewer announces who was successful and who wasn't! Believe it or not, sometimes the one who does everything to appear as inappropriate for this job gets selected (Arjana Blazic). 9. Some activities I've tried out in class: - creating and acting out a scene from a text we've read (creating a newsflash for example) - the "chorus" activity: after reading or writing a short text (a poem for example), the students divide up the text into small parts, then they stand in a semi-circle in groups of 5-6 students, and for each line a leader steps forward, delivers the line and adds a gesture to it (descriptive or abstract), the chorus behind repeat and copy, then the leader steps back into the chorus, another leader steps forward and does the next line in the same way, and so on and so forth. It's easy and quite quick; we can do it in one class period. Sounds childish but my 15 year-olds enjoy it!
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