One of seven - what do you do?

Attendance isn't usually a problem I have to worry about much with my business classes, so I have gradually relocated my stock of 'emergency' activities to more likely places (back of the car, mostly!). By about 8.40 this morning I was wishing I hadn't been so complacent.

The one student who did turn up, of the seven I was expecting, has just come back from a lengthy placement ie has missed the last two months because he was on Yamada denki skivvy duty ("researching sales outlet & consumer behaviour"). So, plan A went flying out the window (closed, it was bracing this morning)...

I did not want to wade into 8 weeks catch up, in case stragglers turned up. Luckily these days I have internet access in the classroom, albeit limited. Fortunately the book we are using has a variety of rather good resources online (becoming a very important component of any materials package). Thank you OUP & Clive Oxenden!
Got to say I am a flag waving fan of the English File series :)

Blended learning then, initially teacher directed until he figured out the parameters and started challenging himself. He self-diagnosed a weakness with prepositions, so we found an activity to practice them. After that, a text completion exercise (by which time a colleague had wandered in to join us), a fiddle with some past tense verb patterns, collocation practice and identifying stress patterns in longer words.

I enjoyed seeing my students realise they could do an awful lot more out of class if they have the inclination. I hope they catch the bug!