Archived from Englipedia.
Originally submitted by Joyce P. Le on Feb 20, 2008.
This activity is best divided into 2-3 classes to allow students to get familiar with giving and receiving instructions.
Class 1:
- Teach students the basic direction terminologies (turn right/ left, at the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc. corner, go straight, you will see ~, you can't pass ~, go along this street, etc.)
- Teachers should give a few examples to ensure students understand the instructions. Use these directions if necessary: From Ninja station, go straight. At the first corner, turn right and you will see a monkey but you can't pass it. So at the 1st corner, turn left and go straight. At the 2nd corner, turn right and go straight. At the next corner, turn left and go straight. At the 2nd corner, turn left and go straight. You will see children dancing, a baseball player and a person biking. Go straight and at the 3rd corner, turn right. Go along this street and you will see a shop. Where are you? (The answer should be book shop).
- Make sure students understand that there are obstacles on the map and they cannot pass them unless there are dots on the street.
- Pass out the worksheet to each student and encourage students to work individually or together to find the places. Then each student should write his/her own set of directions individually like the examples on the worksheet. When students are finished, teacher will pair those who are finished together (teachers should make sure not to pair up those who are sitting close to each other so that students will have to read their own directions to their partners). The students will then interview and find out each other's place.
Class 2: (same map used from last class is needed)
- The next class should be group work and speaking practice. Give each group an envelope with the small cards. The first student in the group will pick a card and make a set of directions based on the 2 places written on the card.
- The first student will then go to the teacher and give the directions. The group gets a point if the teacher understands and reaches the destination. Otherwise, the student will have to return to the group and correct the instructions.
- Students will work together as a group to come up with a set of directions, write it down on a piece of paper before they go to the teachers.
- While the first student is giving directions to the teacher, the next student should pick out the 2nd card and make directions. Other students should help write the directions. Make sure students are not just writing their own directions and neglect to help each other. To prevent this from happening, give each group 2 pieces of blank paper and have them write the directions on the paper. So when the 1st student is reading off from 1 piece of paper, the other members in the group should be working on the next set of direction on the other piece of paper.
Variations:
- Teacher calls out two places and give students a few minutes to think of a set of directions. The first group to raise their hands and be able to give the directions gets a point. The group with the most points wins.
Teaching Suggestions:
- Directions could be really easy or really complicated for students. I recommend teaching the terminologies and then do a gesture activity where students walk around class based on what the teacher says. (turn right/ left, go straight, go 5 steps, stop, etc.) Then, use the attached Pirates of the Caribbean game as a warm up activity because the game only uses the directions: turn right/left & go # steps. This game has more directions, such as "at the # corner, turn left/right, you will see XX, you can't pass XX, etc.)
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