How to use the zipper

 

So, you are probably quite confused with the title of this post. We all know how to use a zipper, right? 

 

Well, I've decided to tell you a bit more about my favourite ways to promote French speaking in the classroom. I’ll keep it a little shorter this time. This activity is called The zipper.  It works very much like the “onion – inside/outside circle” activity previously talked about in my blog post of May 2. However, you do not need to move your furniture around to make space for it and we used to often step into the hallway of the school in order to do this one.  Or on a nice day, we’d step outside our school doors onto the entrance sidewalk which was beside our classroom as a change of pace. How does this work you are thinking? You need to start with some kind of guided question/answer activity. For better success with your students, allow a sheet of paper with questions and possible answers on them. As you probably have already gathered, I’m a big supporter of one-page question prompts that are theme or grammar concept based.  So, with 10 questions in hand the students line up with a partner facing each other in 2 lines, like a zipper. Again, like the onion, only one line moves. One line of students asks one of the questions first and the other student answers it. Then, immediately the partner student asks a different question and the first student answers it. When it appears that most of the students have had an opportunity to do so on both sides, call “zipper” . The moving line moves one place to the right and the student at the top end of the zipper walks to the other end of the zipper to join in again. Repeat! 

 

We often did this activity around the perimeter of the classroom. It is great for students to be able to get out of their seats and stretch their legs while still having a "controlled scenario" for you. If you have an odd number of students in your class on that day, jump into line with your students! You then get the opportunity to help, correct and praise one on one with a good number of your students within a short amount of time. To make the activity a little more challenging have your students ask the questions "out of order". This forces your students to listen carefully to the question being asked instead of "Oh now it's question number 4", for example. 

Have fun with this!  

Lorraine

 

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