TESL 0110: Unit 3 Reflection

TESL 0110 Unit 3 Reflection: Mad Libs and Grammar Instruction 

 
(Source: http://www.madlibs.com/content/themes/madlibs/dist/images/intro_logo.png) 

Growing up, one of my favourite word games to play was Mad Libs. In case you aren’t familiar with it, Mad Libs gets its players to come up with different words, such as verbs, nouns, or adjectives, which are then put into blank spaces to complete a story. The players do not know the context of the story until after they’ve come up with the words, so it can produce some pretty silly results! 

After having recently stumbled upon some old Mad Libs I had done in the past, I thought to myself what a great activity this would make for ELLs! It’s a fun way to get students to practice identifying the different parts of speech, as well as various vocabulary items, such as colours, articles of clothing, etc. It really can be customized to meet the needs of the ELLs. Once the story is completed this game can then be turned into a listening activity where the teacher reads aloud the final story. Another way Mad Libs could be incorporated into a class activity would be for students to be put into groups, with one person designated with writing down the words into the story. The possibilities are endless! Anyway, those are my thoughts for this week’s reflection; let me know what you think of using Mad Libs as an ESL class activity! Below I’ve added a picture of a typical Mad Libs story for reference. Enjoy! 


(Source: https://i.pinimg.com/originals/ba/b3/96/bab39680bf6c30b61c4feac459cc328e.jpg) 

Comments

  1. Vicky26 November 2017 at 22:11

    This is a great idea. It shows that even though the result can be a completely absurd story, it will still make sense if the right parts of speech are used.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Etienne Robin29 November 2017 at 20:52

    Thanks, Vicki!

    ReplyDelete

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