Next time when you’re lost for ideas while PLANNING an IELTS lesson, try including some sort of a GENRE TRANSFER ACTIVITY.
For example, let’s say your learners have just read an article about Albert O Hirschman’s book ‘Exit, Voice and Loyalty’ about how people essentially always have two options when they are dissatisfied: they can either ‘exit’ (withdraw from the relationship); or, they can ‘voice’ (attempt to repair or improve the relationship through communication of the complaint, grievance or proposal for change).
As a follow up to this READING lesson, you could have them to WRITE
· an OPINION ESSAY answering the question ‘There is such a thing as destructive loyalty. Do you agree or disagree with this idea?’
· a FOR AND AGAINST ESSAY responding to the prompt ‘What are the advantages and disadvantages of complaining about something you are dissatisfied with in life?’
· a DISCURSIVE ESSAY discussing ‘some examples in your life where you chose to ‘exit’, to ‘speak up’ (i.e. voice a dissatisfaction with something) and to be ‘loyal’
· a SOLUTION ESSAY offering ideas as to what ‘political exiles can do to protect themselves and their freedom of speech’
· an IELTS Task 1 descriptive report TASK (e.g. create a flow chart of how people make decisions whether to exit, voice or be loyal)
· a LETTER to a friend responding to the following prompt:
Your friend is planning to leave their job. You think it would be a bad decision to quit now. Write a letter to your friend. In your letter
-explain why you think they should stay for a little while more
-give some tips on what they should say to their boss
-offer to help them with anything they need
With more autonomous learners you can even combine this with a HOMEWORK CHOICE BOARD where you give them a variety of options (depending on their needs).
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Hi. I’m Fatime. I’m an IELTS Teacher Trainer, helping CELTA-qualified English language teachers become better at teaching SKILLS, as opposed to just testing them.
Check out my courses here:
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