I WORK AS AN ENGLISH TEACHER AT LYCEUM № 17 FOR ABOUT 3 YEARS. I’M TEACHING STUDENTS OF DIFFERENT AGES FROM 2ND TO 11TH FORMS. BASED ON MY RATHER LITTLE EXPERIENCE, HOWEVER, I’VE REALISED THAT THE MOST INTERESTING AND EFFECTIVE WAY OF CHECKING STUDENTS’ KNOWLEDGE IS A GAME. THERE IS NO DOUBT THAT YOU USE DIFFERENT GAMES AT YOUR ENGLISH CLASSES. BUT I’D LIKE TO SHARE THE GAMES I USUALLY OFFER MY STUDENTS AT MY LESSONS. LET ME INTRODUCE MYSELF: I AM ERSHOVA NANI NODAROVNA.

DIFFERENT METHODS OF CHECKING A NEW LEXICAL MATERIAL

One of the games I offer to play with pupils of Primary school is a game with a ball.. The rules are very simple: All the students’ books should be closed. I start a game throwing a ball to a pupil and ask him a new word. He answers and throws this ball to another student asking him one more word. In this way, we make a chain of questions and answers. If a pupil can't answer 3 times, it means he hasn’t learnt these words. This method lets teachers check almost all the students and also involves even weaker students in this process.

For Secondary school I advise a game called «Brainstorm». But it's not a typical Brainstorm as we used to think. The rules are quite easy too: All the students’ books should be closed again. The first student goes to the blackboard and throws a ball to the second student from the group. The second student must ask him a new word/phrase and throw the ball back. So, this method also allows to check the students’ knowledge and increase the motivation to learn new words as they are afraid of failing among the groupmates.

AS FOR SENIOR SCHOOL STUDENTS (PROFILE GROUP), I PREFER MAKING A VERBAL QUIZ FOR THEM. THEY USUALLY LEARN APPROXIMATELY WORDS AT ONCE. TO HAVE TIME TO CHECK THEIR KNOWLEDGE I DIVIDE THEM INTO TWO TEAMS. THEN THEY CHECK ONE STUDENT FROM THE FIRST TEAM AND STUDENTS FROM THE SECOND TEAM ASK HIM NEW WORDS/IDIOMS/PHRASES ETC. FOR 1 MINUTE. THE MAIN AIM IS TO ANSWER AS MANY WORDS AS YOU REMEMBER. IN SUCH A WAY EACH STUDENT FROM BOTH TEAMS TAKES PART IN THIS QUIZ. I ADVISE TO USE THIS METHOD FROM TIME TO TIME BECAUSE IT WAKES THE SPIRIT OF COMPETITION AND, THUS, MOTIVATE CHILDREN TO WIN BY LEARNING MORE AND MORE WORDS. AT THE SAME TIME IT'S A GAME FOR THEM AND ALTHOUGH THEY ARE TEENAGERS, THEY STILL LIKE PLAYING AND GET A LOT OF PLEASURE FROM IT.