A Revising Circle: vocabulary activity

Looking for a simple idea to help your students revise VOCABULARY?

This week, we had to revise for the final tests.

I was trying to think about a simple activity for my Upper Intermediate students and I remembered something I'd tried with my Intermediate students in the past.

What would I need?

- For 8 students = 4 slips of paper (or as many slips of paper you feel are necessary).

- Five words students need to revise written down on each slip of paper.

In class, I organized the desks in a circle and had 4 pairs of students: 1a + 1b , 2a + 2b, 3a + 3b, 4a + 4b.

1. I gave a slip of paper to each STUDENT A who had to describe the words on the slip of paper for STUDENT B to guess the word. I kept monitoring in case students needed help remembering what words meant. (Ex: 1a describes for 1b to guess)

2. When I noticed most students had guessed the 5 words, I asked STUDENT A to pass the slip of paper to STUDENT B who now would have to describe the same words to the next student to their left. (Ex: 1b now describes for 2a to guess)

3. The slips of paper kept on passing to each student, the student with the slip describing and  the other student listening and trying to guess the words.

Why do I like this activity?

- it's incredibly easy to organize.

- you can revise any kind of vocabulary.

- students are involved all the time.

- students keep alternating partners as they talk to the people to their right and then to their left.