Find the Differences

In today's lesson, with four Jr. High School Students we did a 'Find the Differences' lesson.

Students were put in pairs, and one person from the pair was given Sheet A and the other was given Sheet B. They were not allowed to show each other their sheets and they were only allowed to talk to 'find the differences between sheet A and sheet B items.

Not all items are different. One pair was done relatively quickly, within 30 minutes and when I asked them how many of the items were the same, they replied 'ten'. At that point I wrote on the board, that only the gloves, key and the wallet were the same, all others had some sort of difference.

Now, this class has had experience in the past with being able to ask for meanings, or ask to acquire new language, this kind of task is ideal for that. Yes, they need to use language that they already know, but they need to ask for more. I sometimes answered, but most times, I redirect the question to the rest of the class.

Finding the differences is not the point, the point is being able to communicate what you see to the other person. Confusions were mostly on the jeans or the suitcase.

The jeans drew confusion from the students in one case saying the 'happy face is on the left' vs the other student 'the happy face is on the left leg'.

The suitcase drew confusion, since they were all able to tell that the arrow was pointing up, but no one was able to determine that one arrow was short and the other was long.

The writing colors threw them off as well. All of the pictures were discussed diligently, the point of the lesson being just that. I didn't want them to feel that they failed in the lesson if the differences were not discovered, but I wanted them to be able to be able to discuss the pictures in detail, or most importantly ask for new language when needed.

At the end of the lesson, when the students were able to see the differences, groans and laughter filled the classroom.

The last 10 minutes of class was to discuss the various lexical items or chunks that they learned during the task.

At the bottom, at the top, left leg, facing, long, short...

but in asking about the lesson itself, all students agreed that this kind of lesson is useful just about in any situation, and although one of the students is not as grammatically advanced as the others, he was very good at being able to communicate exactly what he wanted to say.

How was the lesson?

fun, useful, difficult to explain the pictures but I could use my English, I learn how to say more English when describing things.

Great lesson and great student response.

Mark