I don’t do enough spelling practice. I should develop in that area, definitely. But one fun thing I do is a simple whiteboard spelling game as a review.

Give each team (about 4 students) a mini whiteboard, pen, eraser. Say one of the target words, and students spell it on the board. But…

• Each student can only write one letter
• They must then pass the board to their left
• The next student writes the next letter
• Students can collaborate over the spelling
• When they’ve completed the word they hold the board up. The first team to finish gets a point.

Not got mini whiteboards? Just use a laminated piece of paper and some tissue as the rubber.

One team keeps winning…

Ha! Always happens. The game is just for fun. If a team keeps winning just get them to use their wrong hand to write each letter! Educational value, a bit. Fun and hilarity, plenty.

Alternative:

On our CELTA YL course one teacher put piles of letters (cut up) on each desk. He said a word and students worked together to construct it using the letters. One student tended to take over, but you could introduce some rules to prevent this.

I’m writing a series of short posts in response to Martin Sketchley’s blog challenge. You can view his new blog here.

Categories: Lesson Ideas, teacher development, vocabulary

Tags: British Council Bangkok, elt, form, group games, mini whiteboards, reviews, short activities, spelling, tefl, vocabulary