Our Cambridge IGCSE™ English (as an Additional Language) coursebook and teacher’s resource are coming in 2022. In the meantime, we’ve been working with our authors to create a series of blogs to support you from first teach.
Our teacher’s resource author, Annie Altamirano, has created three warm-up activities that you can use in your classroom.
We hope these ideas give you and your students a focused and interesting start to your lesson.
Why should you start every Cambridge IGCSE™ English (as an Additional Language) lesson with a warm-up activity?
If you were asked what dream you have as a teacher, I’m sure your reply would be something like this: ‘to see my students actively involved in the tasks I have presented, focusing on what they need to learn and finding the learning experience stimulating and enjoyable’.
Sometimes the dream comes true, but other times our learners are disengaged and distracted. And there are a host of distractions that we have to compete against. Therefore, we need to create an engaging climate that attracts our students’ attention, and one way of doing this is by means of warm-up activities.
Warm-up activities are designed to attract students’ attention, to help them put aside distracting elements, and to get them ready to focus individually and as groups on whatever activities that follow (Allwright, 1984)1.
Useful tips
- Use a variety of activities to keep students’ interest. Even if an activity is fun, doing it too often may be boring!
- Don’t let the activity drag on for too long. Students will lose interest.
- Warm-up activities are not only games.
- Allow students to choose or create their own warm-up activities.
- Use a variety of resources, media, online tools and apps.
Three warm-up activities
From here to there – Good for the unit on transport (5 – 10 minutes)
Bring a large map of the world to your lesson. If you are teaching online, choose a map that is large enough for the class to see and share it on your screen. Choose two places on the map and ask the class, e.g. If you had to go from London to Shanghai, how would you travel? Elicit the answer, e.g. By air. Provide different destination options so that learners have to reply by air, by sea, on foot, by car, etc.
Ask learners to work in groups and brainstorm different means of transport. If you are teaching online, divide the class into breakout rooms. Give a time limit, e.g. 5 minutes.
Also, give learners a list of suitable websites and encourage them to look for unusual means of transport and types of transport from other countries, e.g. rickshaw, canoe, elephant, yak, etc. You can share the links in the chat box. If teaching face-to-face, give groups a card or sheet of paper with the links or books where they can find information and pictures.
When all groups have finished, ask them to share their findings with the class. Encourage them to classify them into a mind map. Write TRANSPORT in the middle and ask learners to think of categories, e.g. city / country, 2 wheels / 4 wheels, animal / engine powered, etc. You can easily do this online using an online whiteboard or, instead of a mind map, students can create a Padlet.
K-W-L with a twist (Know, want, learn) – Good for the unit on natural world (5 – 10 minutes)
At the beginning of the lesson, draw a six-column table on a large sheet of poster paper. If you are teaching online, you can create the table on the whiteboard or use Jamboard.
Ask learners to write what they know (or think they know) about animals that live in different habitats, e.g. in the desert, in the first column (K).
In the second column, (W), ask them to write what they want to know about these animals in the form of questions.
At the end of the lesson, or at the end of the unit, refer students back to the table again.
Ask them to reflect on the questions in the W (What I want to know) column and then ask them to add statements to the What have I learnt? (L) column about what they have learnt. Next, ask them to put ticks or crosses in the Was I right? column and write in the corrected and/or added information.
Question time!
Asking questions is a very effective way of engaging students, as well as generating interest and curiosity. Getting students to ask and answer questions makes them think actively and engage with the content. (Dörnyei & Mercer, 2020)2.
You can ask, and encourage learners to ask, each other questions that promote higher order thinking. You could start with what do you think about …? and build upon their answers, e.g.
- Why do you think so?
- What makes you say that?
- Is this always true?
- Can you think of an example?
- What would be an alternative?
- What would the consequences be?
Questioning makes up a large percentage of everyday teacher-student / student-student interactions. Using a variety of higher-order questions effectively can help students become more open-minded and may help you develop a set of very useful assessment practices.
Find out more about our brand new Cambridge IGCSE™ English (as an Additional Language) series today.
Annie Altamirano is an ELT & ESL writer, teacher and trainer. She is also the author of our Cambridge IGCSE English (as an Additional Language) teacher’s resource and a mentor in Cambridge Teacher support service.
References
1Allwright, R. (1984). The importance of interaction in classroom language learning. Applied Linguistics, 5(2), 156-171.
Dörnyei, Z & S. Mercer (2020). Engaging language learners in Contemporary classrooms. Cambridge Professional Learning. CUP
