In this next instalment of a series of QT participant-authored blogs, Richard Ashelford recounts how he gets students to focus on their own knowledge, and how this can sometimes have unexpected consequences …
I often save a few minutes at the end of a session to play a game of ‘opposites’ with my younger students, – ‘antonyms’ for Year 6 just to please Michael Gove!
Simple choices to begin which develop into more difficult ones. Challenging words to work on are: straight/bent, sharp/blunt and wide/narrow (this is one of the most difficult). And you can turn it around so that the student asks first, and be prepared for real challenges here when the student asks you for the opposite of ‘yellow’…
A game of synonyms works well too.
This is how a recent game went with a student new to Year 4 who had a difficult Year 2 and only half of Year 3.
Me: Let’s play opposites! I say ‘up’ you say ‘down’. (I point up and down)
Me: up
Student: down
Me: in
Student: out
Me: wet
Student: dry
Me: boy
Student: girl
Me: man
Student: woman
Me: dog
Student: Oh, I can’t say that – it’s swearing.
Me: OK. Let’s talk about that later. (Tutor makes note to discuss swearing next time)
Me: Cow
Student: Bull
Me: Yes, well done. And some other animals are cows and bulls. Like elephants for example. So we have cow elephants and bull elephants.
Student: I didn’t know that. That must hurt.
Me: open
Student: closed.
Me: Ok we’ll finish there then shall we?