Drumming the Past Continuous

Caroline Thomas, UK

Caroline Thomas is a teacher and teacher-trainer, who was living in Tripoli, Libya until late February 2011. She had wide work experience across local society there, after arriving early in 2007. Her interest is in being a contributor to the utilization of ELT as a tool for development, individually, locally, nationally, internationally. She believes the right path is to support, enhance and learn from local practitioners at grass-roots, rather than importing foreign ‘experts’, so pushing out the home-grown educators and entrepreneurs or relegating them to second-class status, so seen as not ‘ good enough’. She worked along this path as much as circumstances allowed there, and voiced her beliefs. She witnessed the beginning of the Revolution and was trapped in Tripoli, when the city ‘shut down’. She managed to reach the Tunisian border with her Algerian husband, and they are presently staying in that country, safe but ‘in limbo’. She is currently working with American NGO, Amideast.
E-mail: carolinemarythomas@yahoo.co.uk

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A brief description of the activity
Materials and preparation
Preparation
Procedure
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A brief description of the activity

This is a kinaesthetic/musical/visual way of learning the difference in time concept between the Past Continuous and Past Simple tenses.

Materials and preparation

For pre-intermediate upwards learners
Using a drum and some small pieces of card

Preparation

Write an imperative instruction on each piece of card. Use some verbs that the students know and some unknown ones. Examples: ‘stand up’; ‘cough twice’; ‘pat your head’.

Procedure

1. The group seat themselves in a long line, as a circle or semi-circle so that everyone can see everyone else.
2. Give an instruction card to each learner except for one volunteer, who has the drum.
3. Check that all the students understand all the imperatives, their own and each others’.
4. The drummer starts drumming and drums until you ask her/ him to stop.
5. Whilst the drummer is drumming, the others, consecutively, in order of where they are sitting, perform the action on their card. (You need to make sure there’s a long enough pause between each action for all learners to see and register what has been done, so for the first round I recommend that the teacher controls the pace, by beckoning/ pointing).
6. After the final action the drummer drums for another 10 seconds or so.
7. The group recount what has just happened, e.g.: ‘While X was drumming, Y scratched her head, Z opened his book...’..etc...
8. Instruction cards are re-distributed, and perhaps another drummer found, and the activity is repeated, as many times as is necessary.

NB. The target structures could be written as well as spoken.

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I have done this activity with a number of groups, both of learners and trainee-teachers, and the feedback has generally been very good. I have been told that it is a memorable activity, and I feel sure that this aids the learning process.

Please check the Creative Methodology for the Classroom course at Pilgrims website.
Please check the Teaching English Through Multiple Intelligences course at Pilgrims website.