Hello fellow educators! I’m Miss Andrews, an English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teacher, and I recently had the pleasure of teaching a unique class of lovely couples who were embarking on a linguistic journey together. I’d like to share an innovative approach that I took to teach them the first three tenses in English, all while making sure they had a blast! The idea was to mix playing and learning, or as I like to call it – “plearning”.
Title: Playing with Time: How I Engaged Couples in Learning English Tenses
Hello fellow educators! I’m Miss Andrews, an English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teacher, and I recently had the pleasure of teaching a unique class of lovely couples who were embarking on a linguistic journey together. I’d like to share an innovative approach that I took to teach them the first three tenses in English, all while making sure they had a blast! The idea was to mix playing and learning, or as I like to call it – “plearning”.
Getting Started
I began the class by assessing my students’ proficiency level and found that they were mostly at the A2 level. This was an adult class and being made up of couples, I wanted to make sure the activities were both engaging and romantic. I focused on the simple past, present, and future tenses.
1. Sentence Building Relay
The first activity was a Sentence Building Relay. I placed word cards at the other end of the room and the couples raced each other to pick up cards. They had to form grammatically correct sentences in either past, present, or future tense. The catch? They had to hold hands while running!
2. Tense Charades
Next, we played Tense Charades. Couples acted out a scene and their partners had to guess the action and state which tense was being depicted. This was both hilarious and educational!
3. Date Planner
The Date Planner activity involved couples planning their ideal date together. One partner had to describe the date in the past tense, as if it already happened, while the other person described the same date in the future tense. This added a delightful romantic twist!
4. Story Telling Dice
We then rolled Story Telling Dice with pictures and prompts, and the couples had to create stories. I assigned a tense for them to use, and they came up with the most whimsical stories.
5. Memory Game
I spread cards face down on a table, each card had a verb in its base form. The aim was for the couples to match the base form of the verb with its past tense form. It was wonderful to see them work together!
6. Correct the Sentence
I prepared some funny and exaggerated sentences with tense errors. The couples had a blast correcting them together.
7. Time Travel Interview
In the Time Travel Interview, one partner pretended to be a time traveler from the past and the other from the future. They interviewed each other using the appropriate tenses. They got really creative with their characters!
8. Verb Pictionary
Next up was Verb Pictionary. Couples took turns drawing an action from a card while the other guessed the verb and made a sentence in the assigned tense. The drawings ranged from cute to hilarious.
9. Create a Comic Strip
For this, couples collaborated to create a comic strip with dialogues in different tenses. Some of the stories were genuinely heartwarming.
10. Romantic Tense Poetry
Lastly, I challenged them to pen down romantic poems using past, present, and future tenses. The room was filled with love and laughter.
Reflection
The “plearning” method was a massive hit! Not only did the couples have an amazing time, but they also grasped the essence of English tenses effortlessly. It was fulfilling to see the romance bloom while knowledge blossomed.
So, if you ever find yourself teaching English to couples, don’t hesitate to add a dash of love and play to the mix. It’s a win-win for learning and building relationships!
Wishing you a classroom full of love and learning,
Miss Andrews