Wipe out exercise

incl. materials

oral, written

15 min.

Objectives

• The learner can consolidate new words.
  
• The learner can learn a text by heart.

Materials

Black board

Preparation

Write a poem or a short story on the board.

Instructions

• Read the text aloud.
  
• Read it aloud together with the learners.
  
• Let the learners read the text aloud (without your assistance).
  
• Explain new words.
  
• Wipe out a few words, such as the first and last word, while the learners are learning the text by heart.
  
• Ask a first learner to delete one or more words, then a second learner and so on.
  
• Once the whole text has been wiped out, let the learners reconstruct the tekst.

Variant

• Delete parts of words.
  
• Delete a specific word type: all articles, all verbs, all nouns, all adjectives, all prepositions…
  
• Let the learners reconstruct the text in pairs.

Tips for the instructor

• You can facilitate reciting and memorizing by
  • underlining the emphasized syllables.
  • reading rhythmically, e.g. alternately hitting your thighs and clapping your hands.
  • associating words with appropriate gestures or emoticons.
  • showing an image of the (deleted) words.
• Emphasize that repetition is essential for learning new vocabulary.