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 Compelling Cuisenaire  Quiz time

I often use Cuisenaire rods in my high-
school lessons to teach a variety of language
points, such as prepositions, colours,
numbers and comparatives, but I primarily
use them for retelling the short stories
which we have read together in class. All you
This activity for young learners
consists of having a number of
questions and instructions in English,
with a number of points allocated to
each one. You ask a question or give
a short task to a child as a reward for
??
Sample questions:
One-point questions

need for this activity is a set of Cuisenaire ● What’s your name?

good behaviour or good work during
rods, some Blu Tack and a vivid imagination! the lesson and they score points if ● What’s your telephone number?

● I elicit from the students the setting, the they get it right. This activity can ● Spell book.
different characters, objects and buildings help you calm down a hectic class;
● What colour is your hair?
in the story. you can also use it as a closing
routine for your lessons. ● What day is it today?
● The students then choose (and argue
● Name five colours.
over!) which rods should represent these You can produce a simple list of
parts of the story and they stick them on questions or, if you have time,
Two-point questions
the board with Blu Tack so the whole class prepare a set of question cards so
can see them. that a child who answers a question ● Say the months of the year.
correctly can keep the card. The ● Go to the door and open it
● The students then retell the story in
children can collect the cards in their
groups, moving the rods as required by ● Spell Sunday.
exercise books. Keep a tally of the
the story. ● How much is two plus nine?
points accumulated by each child on
The board can also be divided into sections, a poster displayed in the classroom. ● What time is it now?
representing the various parts of the story,
It is important to have a range of
with each group of students taking Three-point questions
responsibility for telling a different part of difficulty in the questions so that
each can be worth a different number ● Say what you are wearing.
the story.
of points and so that you can offer ● What is the opposite of long?
Rods can also be used for inventing and simpler questions to weaker students. ● Name five fruits.
telling student-generated stories. Some children may want to choose
Teenagers at all levels love language ● Name ten parts of the body.
the difficulty of their question, as in
activities with rods, even though initially ● How many pennies are there in
a quiz, so offer them the chance of,
they find them rather funny and strange. a pound?
say, a one-point or a five-point

?
Some students will remember using them at
option. However, before they make Stefania Scardigli
primary school during maths lessons. Milan, Italy
their choice, remind them that they
Start using rods. Believe me, they’re worth
have to answer correctly to win the

?
trying.
points. Don’t forget to set a time
Maria Fucci
Latina, Italy limit for the answer.

40 • Issue 57 July 2008 • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • www.etprofessional.com •

 Sticky subjects  Wish you were here
Post-it notes are an invaluable and It is often the case that writing, and especially writing in a second language, is
cheap resource that I often use in class, a source of stress for many students.
especially for first-lesson ice-breakers. One of the tasks my intermediate students needed to do was to write a
In this activity, the students are asked description of a place. However, I realised that they
to write on each post-it note a date, wouldn’t be motivated to do the
place and word relating to an important exercise if I just handed
out a set of instructions.
event in their life. I use the following
Personally, I wouldn’t
as an example: Tarnow 2003 lesson. I
either. Students tend to
then invite questions from the students
want something both
as to why this is important for me (my
meaningful and amusing to
first class after passing the Trinity
be incorporated into their
exam). Using this as a model, the
learning.
students complete five post-it notes
My idea was to copy
with important events in their lives. The
a few pages from a
class is then split into small groups of
travel magazine
three or four and the students look at
which gave a
the dates on their notes and put them
description of a
all in a line in chronological order.

© iStockphoto.com / Ricardo De Mattos

small Greek town,
Using a counter and a dice to move
accompanied by
along this time-line, the students take some really
turns to talk about their topics and the motivating
other students in the group are invited pictures. The first
to ask questions about the events. So, goal was achieved.
for example, if the first number rolled It attracted my students’ interest.
is a three, the counter is moved to the
● To start with, I asked my students to identify the three main parts of the
third post-it note in the line and the
article: Where to go, Where to eat and Where to stay.
student who wrote it talks about their
event and answers questions. This note ● Then, working in groups, the students read each part separately, underlining
the adjectives that described the sights, the accommodation and the food:
is then removed from the line, the dice
a magnificent place, cobbled streets, picturesque houses, a town with a vivid
is rolled again and the counter moves
history, incredible scenery, lovely cooked meals, handmade furniture, wonderful
on. When the counter reaches the end
architecture, etc. They also highlighted useful expressions and structures, such
of the time-line, it moves back to the
as imperatives like Don’t miss ... and Don’t hesitate to try ... and noted the use
beginning again.
of the passive in expressions such as is located, is comprised of, etc.
This activity immediately provides a
● Finally, as a project for the following lesson, each group was asked to prepare
community feel to the class and allows a similar travel guide for a city of their choice. I helped them find webpages
a lot of surreptitious student where they could look for pictures and information. I then asked them to put
observation by the teacher. I have never their work on a disk so that I could format it and print it all out together as a
had this fail – even with classes where travel magazine.
the students know each other quite
I was surprised and delighted that everyone participated in the project without
well, there is always extra information
making any complaints. In most cases they had used English correctly, having
available. Why not try it first with your
had a model description to refer to. The students themselves were proud to see
colleagues to see what I mean?
that they had produced their own travel guide.
Martin Warters Anna Karapanou
Hove, UK Limassol, Cyprus

• www.etprofessional.com • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • Issue 57 July 2008 • 41