EFL Ideas
Scrambled Stories.
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This is a reading activity to be used after the passage has been introduced, any vocab work has been done and the students have read through the passage a couple of times. Its going to take a bit of work on your part, but the rewards are worth it.
Before the class photocopy one copy of the article for each pair of students, or if its a longer passage you might want to make groups of three. Now cut the passages up individual lines. Some people like to cut it up into sentences but if you do this the students soon learn how to put it together like a jig-saw puzzle. If you cut it up into lines they can't do that. This is going to take awhile to prepare so you may want to start doing it a couple of days ahead or time. Be careful to keep the different sets of clippings separate. Take the clippings and divide each set into two (or three) roughly equal parts. The first couple of times you do this exercise you may want to keep things simple and just have two groups. Then once the students know what's expected of them you can branch out into three or even four divisions. The best way to keep the groups of lines together is to wrap them up with elastic bands and put each separate copy of the story into its own envelope. When you have introduced the story and think that the students have an understanding of the story pair the students up, tell them what you want them to do, and give each pair an envelope. With higher level students, have them put their books away before they start. You are trying to assess their understanding, not their copying abilities. Although the first time you do this activity you can do it 'open book' to build the student's confidence. Then have the students recreate the passage. Once all the groups have finished the exercise you can let them open their books and let them see how well they did. One hard and fast rule that I like to follow is that one student can't touch the other student's lines. They can talk about their partner's lines all they want, after all that's one of the reasons why you are doing it, but they can't touch. This prevents the more able student from dominating the proceedings and the weaker student from allowing them to do so. It ensures that everybody gets something from the activity.
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