Resource 1: More information gap activities
Teacher resource for planning or adapting to use with pupils
What is common?
Choose sets of six or eight pictures. Each set of pictures should have something in common. For instance, you might have six pictures which all have something in them that is made of glass or a set of six where someone is eating in every picture. Maybe you have six pictures that all show a baby, or show poverty, or kindness.
Divide your class into groups so that each group can have a set of pictures. Make sure that you have some spare sets, for any groups that finish quickly. Once a group has finished, you can collect their set of pictures and hand them to another group that has finished.
The members of the group should not show one another their pictures. They should ask the following kind of questions of the other people in the group:
Is there (a) …. in your picture?
Are there …. in your picture?
Does your picture show .... ?
The other members answer:
No, there isn’t/aren’t. or Yes, there is/are.
No, it doesn’t. or Yes, it does.
The person who identifies the common element is the winner.
The game is easier or more difficult depending on how abstract the common element is.
What do they do for a living?
Write a list of occupations, like the one below, on the board.
Doctor | Dentist | Teacher |
Shopkeeper | Nurse | Manager |
Clerk | Pilot | Engineer |
Gardener | Bookkeeper | Police officer |
Farmer | Fishmonger | Computer operator |
Air hostess | Pharmacist | Food vendor |
Florist | Scientist | Musician |
Computer technician | Shop assistant | Garage mechanic |
- Ask the pupils to say what they would like to do when they finish their studies. They might want to add occupations to those listed.
- Give out cards to pairs of pupils and let them write the name of an occupation on their card. On another card, they should write the meaning of the occupation.
- Ask one member from each pair to report to the class on the type of occupation they had, and its definition. The other pupils should comment on whether they think the definition is correct.
- Collect the occupation and definition cards, and distribute them randomly. Ask pupils to go round the class and find a partner with the appropriate definition or word.
- When the partners have found each other, they should stand together until everybody has finished the activity.
- Then ask them to make a sentence using the occupation they defined.
3. Making meaning: sequencing