Just a quick share – something we’ve been doing in EAL.
Our learners in KS3 and KS4 are developing their knowledge of task types, both for in-class activities and for their exams. I’m doing little ‘command word challenges’ as starters in our EAL lessons. These familiarise learners with common command words/phrases, and also help them to review curriculum content.
I make these little challenges around content from Science. I try to add different forms of the command word/phrases too, or of keywords (e.g. noun/verb forms), to remind them that they might see/hear the word in different forms.
I chuck the challenges into a Wordwall spinning wheel too. This is just because we are expected to have a ‘Do it now!’ task which is basically a settler, so the wheel can be a good hook for that. Not essential though – I prefer it as a handout or Google doc.
Subject teachers at my school use some cool retrieval grids to review content and for exam prep. These little tasks are similar, just with a bit more chance for learners to notice important command words.
I’ll mix up the command phrases for the next activities. These were just the ones that some learners slipped up on in recent exams.
Two examples in this doc, for respiration and digestion. Feel free to edit etc
Thanks to Mr Simon for collaborating.
Categories: Lesson Ideas, other, vocabulary
ELT Planning 
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