examples of tasks used in the lessons

Today I have already conducted 4 CLIL lessons, so finally I would like to share with a few tasks that I have used.

Task 1 - Debate "Street art - art or vandalism?"

At the lesson about street art, we discussed whether graffiti is an art or vandalism. In order to do this, I made a debate. I divided children into two teams. Children needed to draw cards with colours, thanks to which they knew their teams. The red group needed to give arguments that street art is vandalism and blue one that t is art. I gave them 5 minutes to talk about their thoughts in their groups. Each child needed to say one different sentence.

After a few minutes, two groups needed to discuss the topic and give each other arguments and counterarguments.

Justification - Using debates in the classroom can help students grasp many essential critical thinking and presentation skills. Among the skills, classroom debates can foster are:

-abstract thinking,

-analytical thinking,

-citizenship/ethics/etiquette,

-clarity,

-cross-examination/questioning,

-point of view,

-distinguishing fact from opinion,

-identifying bias,

-language usage,

-personal vs. political values,

-persuasion,

-teamwork/cooperation.

Task 2 - Revision game

I often use warm-ups for revising kids' knowledge from previous lessons. Once, we played a game in which I put two cards with - yes and no on the carpet. Next, I asked questions connected with previous lessons and kids needed to stand on the card with the correct answer. The child that chose the wrong answer was out of the game.

Justification - Thanks to this activity children revise their knowledge from the previous lesson and also get more energy.

Task 3 - Creating art

On the one lesson children needed to create sculptures made from rubbish.

Children were working in pairs and they had 15 minutes to prepare their works. After that, they needed to present their works in front of the whole class. They told about the materials that they used, what did they create and also the name of their sculptures. After each presentation, children asked questions to students that were presenting.

Justification - This activity showed children how can we protect our environment, also that recycling is important and that we can give a second life to things that we are not using anymore.

Creating art on a lesson also developed children imagination and stimulated them to further discussion.

Task 4 - Describing photos

To teach children phrases connected with describing photos I have shown children a photo and described it for them.  

Next, I asked children what vocabulary I used for describing a picture. I wrote their ideas on the board and I also added things that pupils didn't say.

Subsequently, I dived pupils into pairs and I gave them different photos In pairs, they needed to describe their pictures using vocabulary from the board. After a few minutes, children presented their descriptions in front of the whole class. 

Justification - Thanks to this activity, children practiced writing and also speaking while they were working in groups. They also practiced new phrases and present continuous tense. 

Task 5 - Closure

To sum up the lesson and to check what children remember from it, I found a fun activity in which children write down what they have learned on a piece of scratch paper and wad it up. Teacher gives them a signal, and children throw their paper snowballs in the air. Then each learner picks up a nearby response and reads it aloud.

I haven't tried it yet, but I will during my next lesson. I think that this activity helps students to revise all important data from the lesson and also gives the teacher information about the things that children liked from the lesson.

I have already planned my 8 CLIL unit lessons, and in this post, you can see just a few tasks that I used. There are many more fun and valuable activities.