Second observation, using tag questions

The lesson I had to prepare, just like the first one, had to follow the school and course syllabus, hence I planned a lesson about Tag Questions.

My idea for the Warm Up was to present students a number of inkblots and then ask them to say what they think they represented.

Their answers included insects, animals, people, machines etc, I just wanted to ask for impressions to see how different reactions the pictures elicited. Of course there weren't any "good" or "bad" answers. Students were supposed to say the first thing that came to their minds.

They found it a every interesting activity and even better, they got to use English to express their ideas. Besides, I used several question tags to "sort of" contextualize the topic of the class. After that, I wrote three questions on the board about general knowledge using question tags. This time, students noticed I was pointing out a special part of the question (the question tag) and eventually realized the use of them.

I also handed out a paper in which students found a simple explanation of Tag Questions, this way I didn't have to spend much time on a copying-from-the-board session. Then, we practiced the use of tag questions by filling out two different handouts.

I have to say that grammar learning is rather systematic and somewhat structuralat GV therefore students basically follow grammar formulas and use them in writing and speaking activities.

However, I tried to make things a little bit more fun and brought a game chart, a dice and 5 coloured chips (representing every student) to play a game in which students had to take turns and use question tags to complete statements. I noticed they were having lots of fun when doing this activity :)

I felt really happy to see that my students were actually learning and having fun at the same time...