• vocabulary activity for ‘Michael Lee’
• for the students
1. look carefully at the list of ten words; if there are any words you don’t know, find out what they mean by using a dictionary or asking other students in your group, or your teacher
2. when you are sure of the meaning of all the words, think about which of them you would like to represent (make a ‘picture’ of) by using the buttons your teacher has given you
3. in a moment your teacher will choose one member of your group to use the buttons to rerpresent one of the words (the picture will be clearer if a piece of blank white paper is used for background)
4. when the picture is finished, the other students in your group will try to guess which word it represents
5. next, the teacher will ask another person to represent another of the words and you will continue in this way until everyone in your group has had a turn
• the word list:
• enslavement
• labour
• illegality
• shelter
• homelessness
• pesticide
• objection
• punishment
• settlement
• complaint
• for the teacher
1. separate the class into groups of three or four
2. give each student a collection of thirty or more identical buttons (or similar shaped objects)
3. explain that the buttons will be used to make drawings of the words (pictures or symbolic representations)
4. show them one or two examples on the blackboard (preferably ones you have created yourself)
5. emphasize the importance of working as quickly and spontaneously as possible (the button drawings should be made in one to two minutes and the whole activity should not take more than thirty minutes)
• sample button drawings:
‘shelter’ (person sitting in shelter)
‘illegality’ (no parking sign)
-the idea for this activity was found in “Vocabulary,” John Morgan and Mario Rinvolucri, Oxford University Press, 1986.