When it comes to revision, this is an activity I've found time-effective and motivating. After my students have worked on three texts in the textbook and done various comprehension and grammar exercises I use this activity to revise.

The activity goes like this:

• First, I tell my students to read the first text we did for exactly 1 minute (I tell them not to read the whole text, just to scan the main points). When the time is up, I tell them to close the books, but they may open their copybooks.
  
  On the board, I had already written 5 questions they should answer:
  
  • What is the story in the text about?
  • Who are the people in the story?
  • What do they do?
  • What can we learn from the text?
  • What are the new words or expressions?
  • e.g. I ask them to tell me 3 important verbs, 3 adjectives, 3 prepositions...

• I prompt their answers by writing this next to the questions:
  
  • The story in the text is about...
  • The people in the story are...
  • They...
  • We can learn that...

This is important because weaker students can easily get to grips with what I ask them to do, yet more advanced students put their efforts into making more complex sentences.

• Second, for each question I call for 3 different answers from 3 different students. That way, each student tries to give a better answer, someone combines 2 previous answers, someone gives a whole new idea of the context.

• I praise their comments, even if they are simple. And we all benefit from this quite lively and competitive spirit in the class.

Neskovic Milos, Serbia

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