Heads I win, tails I win

If all you have to do for homework is colour in a few pictures and cut them out, can you really improve your English?


Somehow I doubt it too - actually, any homework that is not followed up on is homework virtually lost. It has to have a purpose and a value of itself to be meaningful & motivating for the learner, and it must also be seen, and have, a greater use ie in class. Whether that is having students read their work back out loud, or engage each other in Q & A, or pick on teacher's "mistakes" etc, some extension is essential so that 'just doing it' is not the task completed - for me it is next task prepared.



So, my simple dominoes game (combining colours with clothes) was a popular 'easy' bit of
homework & a very extendable activity. I encourage my young learners to find shortcuts - in this case reading the colours off their pencils even if books are 'closed'. They know I know...pretty soon they were all 'cheating', and then deciding themselves that they shouldn't - "You've read that twice already!" Peer regulation is unbeatable!

As for the game, our most reticent reader won easily. Our best reader was annoyed that she ended up with too many cards...until although she had lost, she could put down and read all her extra cards with a big flourish and lovely pronunciation at the end, upstaging early finishers!

High five Ha-chan