Would Rather Activities

"Would you rather" and "I would rather" are common in English. We use them to discuss preferences. They can be a challenge for students.

Most lesson plans focus on the correct form of the verb after rather. This is great, but what about having some fun too?  Here are three activities you can use for rather. 

Would You Rather Survey

This activity works well because it gets students moving around and interacting with their classmates. It also allows them to find out more about other students and their opinions.

Students create 3-6 "would you rather" questions.

Encourage them to create questions that are hypothetical and fun. For example:

• Would you rather be able to fly or swim under water like a fish?
• Would you rather meet Brad Pitt or Barak Obama?
• Would you rather be deaf or blind?

You will be surprised how creative the students can be with their questions.

After they have finished their questions and the teacher has checked them, the students then mingle around asking their classmates the questions. They should record the results from each person.

In the end, the students should have a survey completed for each of the questions. This way they are able to say that 7 people would rather be able to fly and 8 people would rather be able to swim under water.

Finally, the students report their findings to the class. This results in sentences such as these:

• Most people would rather live in a warm country.
• Everyone would rather meet Brad Pitt than meet Barak Obama.
• 75% of the people would rather have unlimited pizza than have unlimited ice cream.

Rather/Prefer Dialogoues

In this activity, students create dialogues and present them to the class.

Students work in pairs. The teacher gives each pair a situation containing two choices. An example looks like this:

Vacation

• Montreal or New York?
• Hotel or Hostel?

The students then create dialogues form these choices. They must use would rather and would prefer. Finally, they present their dialogues to the class. The presentations are short, with really only about 5-8 sentences.

Here is an example:

A: So we need to talk about our vacation.

B: I know. Would you rather go to Montreal of New York?

A: Well, I think I would rather go to Montreal. I have never been there, and I would love to practice some French.

B: OK., I think that is a great idea. And where should we stay?

A: I don't know. Would you prefer to stay in a hotel or a hostel?

B: I'd prefer to stay in a hotel. It would be nice to stay in a fancy hotel with a pool.

A: Great idea!

You can see the dialogues aren't too lengthy, but there are still several examples of the target language.

Around the Circle with "I'd Rather"

This game is perhaps the most popular for pratcicing Rather and Prefer. I have seen it many times on the Internet and in different books.

The students are in a circle or seated at their desks. The first student starts by making a statement such as these:

• I'd like pizza for dinner.
• I'd like to travel to Argentina.
• I'd like a bicycle.

The next student simply says "I'd rather" and then adds another idea. It looks like this:

A: I'd like rice for lunch.

B: I'd rather eat chicken.

C: I'd rather eat pasta.

The game works best when the students increase the value of the item only slightly so that in the end they have arrived at the best possible choice. I usually use money as my example to show them how to progress.

A: I'd like $5.

B: I'd rather have $10.

C: I'd rather have $25.

D: I'd rather have $100.

In this way, the final answer is really the best option of all. So conversations will go from eating bread to lobster, or from driving a bicycle to driving a helicopter.

In another way, it can simply be used to show student opinion. For example, discussing famous people to meet allows the students to give their opinion. So while one might say Lady Gaga, another will say Cristiano Ronaldo or Barack Obama.



Those are some activities for would you rather and would you prefer. If you are interested in some online lessons and tests, take a look at the links below:


Rather/Prefer Lesson

Rather/Prefer Test

Rather/Prefer Test 2

How it Should Have Ended

I found an interesting website the other day. It is called How it Should Have Ended, and it is about movies.

English teachers will know from the title, this website can help with the 3rd conditional.

It's a fun website that has a number of animated videos showing how the authors think movies should have ended.

The animation is actually pretty decent, and the videos are funny. More than that, the site can be used to get your students thinking and speaking using the 3rd conditional.

So check out the site, and hopefully you find it useful for your classrooms.

http://www.howitshouldhaveended.com/

Games for Should

Here are some excellent games to practice the word "should". 

"Should" is used to give advice. These games allow students a chance to give and receive advice.


The Tourist and The Tour Guide


This is a role-play that works well when it is presented to the class.

In this activity, students work in pairs to create a dialogue. One student is a tourist in the other student's city. The tourist must ask questions, and the tour guide must give advice.

For example:


A: You should visit the Eiffel Tower.
B: Really? Should I go up the Tower?
A: Oh yes. You should definitely go up. It costs about $15, but it is worth it.
B: And what about The Louvre?
A: You should definitely go to the Louvre. In fact, you should try and go on a Sunday because it is cheaper. And when you are there, you should try and see the Mona Lisa.

Now, this dialogue can be used in a number of ways.

Presentation
The students can work together and practice the dialogue to present it to the class. This has a few advantages. First, they will focus on accuracy
They will certainly be writing things down, and probably want to read from a script.

Fluid Pairs
For a more informal take on this activity, you can simply have the students moving around the class talking to different people about their cities.



Advice Contest
In this activity the students are placed in pairs or groups of 3. The object of the game is to be the team who gives the best advice.

The teacher starts by saying a problem. Each team brainstorms ideas for advice. Then each group says its advice.

For example,

Teacher: I lost my keys.

Group A: You should call the police.
Group B: You should ask your friends.
Group C: You should put a classified ad in the newspaper.
Group D: You should look for them in your house.

Then the teacher awards one point for the best suggestion.

The teacher continues the game by giving new problems.

I like this game because it allows the students to brainstorm multiple idea and choose the best. It is wonderful to see the partners listing 4-6 suggestions to each other, and using the proper grammar structure the whole time.


Things

Things is a board game marketed to adults. It is designed as a party game. You can see the game here:

The Game of Things

In this game, the teacher says a problem, and the students write a suggestion on a piece of paper.

Example: You should exercise in the morning.
You should use your credit car less often.

The teacher collects the pieces of paper from the students and mixes them up. He/she then reads the suggestions in random order. Read it a second time so the students can remember them.

Then, each student takes a turn guessing who wrote each suggestion.

For example:

"I think Ricardo wrote, you should exercise in the morning."

If the student is correct, 3 things happen:

The student gets a point
The student continues guessing
The person whose suggestions was guessed is eliminated.

If the student does not guess correctly, the next student takes a turn. Remember: when a student guesses incorrectly, he or she is not eliminated from the game. You can only be eliminated when your suggestion is guessed.

After half of the suggestions have been guessed, the teacher reads the remaining papers again.

The person who is eliminated first takes the first turn in the next round.

This game is a fun way to get your students to produce written sentences with the targeted language, which in this case is "should". 

Guess Who - ESL Board Games

Guess Who is an excellent game for ESL students. It is perhaps the board game you can have for an ESL class. I recommend buying it for your class. If you can't buy it, you can take its ideas and use them in your ESL class.

Guess Who allows students to practice asking ans answering yes/no questions.

The Game:

Each player chooses a card with a character name and face on it. Then the players take turns asking yes/no questions to try and guess who the character is. Each person has a board with all the characters on it that they use keep track of the characters.


Formulating yes/no questions is incredibly important, and it is not always easy for ESL students. This game really let's them practice. Some common questions:

Does he have a mustache?
Does she have red hair?
Is he bald?
Is it a woman?
Does she wear glasses?

Apart from asking yes/no questions, it is also helpful for face vocabulary like beard, mustache, lips, eyes, etc.

If you want more information, or would like to purchase the game, you can click on the link below.

Guess Who


Guess Who is fun and gives a focus on form. It makes a great ESL game for any classroom.