This lesson is one I use regularly to practise giving advice and letter writing. It includes an idea I got from Cheryl Perkins, which helps students to structure their writing more effectively and is useful preparation for the PET writing exam.
Speaking Game
Giving Advice.
Display the target language on the board, for intermediate students I use something like this:
- If I were you I would ...
- I reckon you should probably ...
- Why don't you ...?
Give each group of students a copy of the board pictured here, some counters and a die. Students take turns to roll the die and move their counter.
Every time they move, their partner reads them a problem from the document below and they have to answer using one of the target phrases on the board.
As the game continues, begin progressively rubbing out the phrases so students have to remember more and more of them.
- If I w____ ____ I w_____ ...
- I r____n you s______ probably ...
- Why _____ you ...?
With teenage students, I've found it very effective to add the rule "every time you speak your L1, your counter moves back one space". The beauty of the game format is that students are very keen to police each other and enforce the rule.
Recapping useful language.
Optional review of vocabulary from the problem cards.
Task 1 (easy)
If you used my questions, you can review the language with this PowerPoint:
Show the questions on slides 2-13 here: Giving advice - Problems HighImpactEnglish.pptx
For each slide, students write the missing words on mini-whiteboards for points.
Task 2 (this might be a review activity for the next class)
Noughts and Crosses (line of 3/tictactoe). Show slide 14: Students have to say the problem to claim the square for their team.
Preparing to Write:
In The Classroom
This brilliant activity came from Cheryl Perkins at The School: Thank you!
Give each student one of the pictures from the gallery below (or someone famous from their culture) and get them to write a problem for them on a piece of paper and stick the picture to it.
Ask students to stick their paper on the classroom wall.
Give everyone 3 Post-it Notes. Students have to write a piece of advice for one of the people on each of their Post-it's.
You can only write one suggestion for each person.
You must use an advice phrase which isn't already on that page.
Your advice must be different from the others on that page.
Each problem can have a maximum of 3 suggestions.
Each student takes their original page with (hopefully) 3 pieces of advice.
At this stage, you may ask learners to discuss their suggestions in pairs, putting them in order of usefulness and justifying their reasoning. Do they have any better ideas?
Online Alternative:
Put each picture on a different slide in Google Slides. Students write a problem on the slide of their choice, then give advice on the other slides. For help using google slides (it's definitely worth learning if you teach online), see my post here.
This is the Google Slides I used. You can make a copy of it in order to edit.
The first couple of slides have been completed as an example of how it can build up to a finished letter (I would delete these after showing them to students, to avoid them using copy and paste instead of trying to remember the language).
Writing a letter
Show students the template on slide 16 and ask them to use it to write an "agony aunt" letter for their person.
Because the ideas are on different Post-it Notes, the structure is very clear and students can visualise how to organise their writing. They need to explain each idea and use linking phrases between them.
I tend to set the actual writing as a homework task. Obviously, it works great on paper (and there is an argument that the act of writing by hand could help students learn the phrases better than when they type) but Google Slides is also an option (see example document above). This way students can see eachother's work and how their advice has been incorporated into their classmates letters.
Below are some silly characters to help inspire students to think of fun problems.
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