Year 10 have just finished writing a piece of coursework on school. Before embarking on their next piece, they will spend this half term on role play situations, but also with a focus on learning vocabulary. Some of the last lesson was devoted to a 'Werken' activity of making boxes to keep vocabulary cards in.
This is yet another good idea from one of our trainee teachers. The vocab cards have English on one side and German on the other, preferably the word itself and a sentence containing the word. Students are expected to test themselves little and often from English into German.
As their production of the word and the sentence becomes more secure, the card moves to the back of the box (it is divided into 8 sections). If, when they revisit a card, they cannot reproduce the German accurately, it goes back to section 1. If they can, it moves into the next higher section.
This technique relies heavily on students motivating themselves not only to revisit the cards regularly, but also to continually add to the stock of cards, although teachers could help by boosting the stock of cards now and then, particulary when vocab-heavy topics come up.
