Drilling with bookr

Using drills or drill like activities will sometimes save us. However it is up to the teacher to turn it into something more enjoyable.

We revised Past Simple Tense and past Continuous Tense last week and while doing this I felt hopless and then I decided to make them write as many sentences as they can using when and while.

After a lot of repetition they are much better now.

Some ideas which worked well with them:

I wrote half sentences on the board and asked them to complete the gaps.

1. My brother …………………………….. when my father arrived home.
2. My sister ………………………………..when my sister arrived home.

Then in the computer room I asked them to create their photo-books using bookr.

http://www.pimpampum.net/bookr/bookr_blog.swf

The next lesson I asked them to come to the board and write some verbs then put them in groups and asked them to write a story using at least 10 of the words and when/while. They worked hard and wrote great stories which needed less correction then they exchanged the stories and marked them out of 10 giving their reasons.

I’m thinking to do this one later. I will ask them to write a poem.

Here is what I think if you have an idea for a poem, I’ll be glad to know.

While my mum was cleaning the house

I was dreaming

While my father was writing his reports

I wasdreaming

While my sister was doing her homework

I was dreaming

And while I was dreaming

They were all working hard.

Then as a follow up, I can ask them to create glogs, animations, slides for their poems and they can even turn it into a song, any kind they prefer.