I have this brilliant student called Aurelien, actually I have lots of brilliant students but this boy often comes up with ideas that I use in class or share with other students. The other day Aurelien and his partner came up with the following idea in a revision class, it’s simple, fun, and effective.
Read a story or article to the class, students draw pictures that represent what you are reading. Then in pairs they compare pictures and rewrite the story. As with a dictogloss the objective is to manipulate vocabulary and form correct grammatical phrases, not necessarily recite the whole text word for word.
That’s it – told you it was simple!
What I particularly love about all this (apart from the ideas to use in class!) is the whole idea of really exchanging with students, and learning from them. My journal encourages me to think about what I have learnt at the end of the day, it’s always a bit disappointing if I can’t think anything.
What have you learnt from yours students recently?
Fab English ideas 
Dear Rachael,
I absolutely LOVE the idea of learning from our students. I have recently been in two ‘deep curve’ learning situations. One was emotionally very difficult. The other showed me again the importance of felxibility and humility. In both cases I thanked the students retrospectively in my head for showing me different angles and ways of interpreting.
Cheers!