Question Review

[Maria]

My intermediate students hit ch 5 in Fundamentals of English Grammar, so we were ready to review questions. These students have been making questions since level 1, but since question form can be confusing, they never say no to practice!

To try something a little different- though not earth-shaking I warn you- I created a matrix on the board and in the left column wrote a bunch of question words. I left the other columns blank. I brought all 14 students to the front of the class, gave them all markers, and asked them to make questions on the matrix, putting one "word" per box (I guided so that it would be like WHY/ do/you/want/to go or When/did/your brother/leave, or Where/ is/ he/ living/ now). When all the rows had questions, I asked to the students to look for patterns, and it didn't take them long to see the column of question words, the column helping verbs, the column of subjects, main verbs, and ..... everything else that follows.

I then asked a student to erase the question words to turn them into yes or no questions, noticing how the basic pattern didn't change. We then tried modals in place of the helping verbs. Finally, we turned to BE questions which have a different pattern.

I think the hands on, and the change of pace by bringing them all to the front created a nice dynamic and a gave true "discovery" sense to lesson. More and more I am reminding myself to relinquish control of my marker, relinquish control of my projector and keyboard, and let students create.