Excerpt from Student A’s paper:

(This posting includes a handout which you are welcome to use with your students.)*

This activity will show how TPR (Total Physical Response) can be more student-centered than the traditional teacher-directed approach.  Also, it is a pre-step to the TPR activity “Movie Directors,” which I’ll share in the next posting .

In this activity, students are put in groups of three (Students A, B, C).  Each member is given a paper with different “commands.”  They read their commands to their partners, who listen and do the actions.

Unlike TPR that is directed by the teacher and done whole class, the small groups of students can move at their own pace and ask to have commands repeated.  There is more assurance that each student is understanding the command and not just following what others are doing.

In addition, it’s a lot of fun and there usually is a lot of laughing during the activity.

Here is the handout that you can use with your students (including the teacher introduction)
TPR Students A B C Handout

After they have experienced this TPR activity, they’ll be ready for the next one called “Movie Directors,” Taking TPR to Another Level of Engagement: Two Fun Lower-Level Activities (Part 2: Movie Directors)  .

For additional engaging pair and small group, student-centered activities for lower-level students, see  Pro Lingua Learning–Basic Conversation Strategies

David Kehe

*About the free-download materials. During my 40 years of teaching ESL, I have had many colleagues who were very generous with their time, advice and materials. These downloads are my way of paying it forward.