Speaking lessons in the time of COVID-19

Ms Leanne Cesare, a frequent contributor to this blog, sent us an idea how to do a COVID-friendly speaking lesson. We'll let her describe it in her own words:

Recently, I adapted a speaking activity for ‘giving advice’ which used to be done using flashcards and group work.

Instead, I took my students outside and instead of flashcards, I showed the flashcards with the ‘problem’ on my laptop. A student was nominated and they read out the problem to the class. Using pre-taught expressions on how to give advice, students were asked to give advice to the student on the problem. Students took turns to give advice.

It was fun to see this done on a whole class level since usually, advice is simply shared between a group. Instead, everyone gets to give input on each others’ advice. Hope this helps other teachers.