Card swap

When I was a Girl Guide, I was supposed to carry certain items in the pocket of my uniform. I don't remember what any of them were except a two-pence piece. I do know that I never used any of them.

Perhaps there could be a list of really useful things that English teachers should be obliged to carry at all times: a whiteboard pen that works, dice, a calendar, and so on. Something that would definitely be on my list would be a set of cards from the language pages of Spotlight. As you flick through your latest copy, it will almost always open at the cards page. Now's the time to transfer these tactile teaching tools to your bag before you forget!

The following card activity can be as long or as short as you want it to be. It gets students out of their seats, out of established groups and pairs and taking charge of their own learning. Because they are looking at a piece of language and then telling someone else about it, who may come back and teach it to them again, reviewing takes place without any effort!

What it's for
Any time you need students to get up and walk around.

What you need:
Cards from Spotlight magazine. These can be the set from one month, or a collection of one card type, such as "Global English" or "Idioms", from several months.

What you do:
Explain to the students that you are going to give each of them a card. They are going to carry out the instructions on the card individually and check the answer or explanation on the back. They should then stand up and meet each other in pairs. Each student teaches the other what he or she has just learned.

When both cards have been dealt with, the students exchange cards and each moves on to meet another learner. In this way the students work on each card at least twice, more if the activity is continued long enough for cards to be seen again by the original "teacher".

Hand out the cards and start the activity.