Cover it up (with questions) for A1 Movers Reading and Writing Part 6

In my previous post, I shared an idea for covering up a large poster with sentences written on post-its.  To practise writing sentences about a picture, which is the final task in Part 6 of the 2018 Cambridge English: A1 Movers Reading and Writing Test.  

As so often happens, one idea leads to another, and I thought – why not do the same activity to practise another thing that A1 Movers candidates have to do in Reading and Writing Part 6 – answer questions!

You could start the activity with your posters on the walls, already covered with post-its with questions.

Questions like they will be asked in A1 Movers Part 6.  For example:

What’s the  (boy/girl/woman/man/mother/father…)  wearing?

What’s the  (boy/girl/woman/man/mother/father…)  doing?

Where’s the ……….?   

What colour is/are  the …….?   Who is (laughing/crying/singing…..)?  

How many (apples/boys/….) are there?

Number each question that you write on each post-it.

Tell students (they can work individually or in pairs or groups of 3) to write the numbers for the questions they will have to answer, leaving room after each number to write their answer.  They should do this in their notebooks.

1

2

3

4

5

• Students stand up, taking their list of numbers.  They go to a poster and lift up each post-it with a question from the poster and write a short answer (1-5 words) to answer it.   They then leave the post-it back in its position.  They can answer the questions in any order, but they should make sure they write the answer to each question next to the correct number.

• You could conclude the activity when the first student/pair/group has written the answer to all the questions or let everyone finish, or when the time limit you set has been completed.

• Check answers to the questions by reading out the question, lifting up the post-it and asking students to read out their answers.  There may be more than one possible answer and you could, if you like, give points and give more points for longer answers.  (e.g  The boy. would get 1 mark.  The big boy. 2 marks  The boy in white shorts. 3 marks.)

* Keep the post-its with the questions in an old CD plastic envelope (they make great storage – they’re light and don’t take up much room and keep paper dry and dust-free!)  Re-use with other classes or share with teachers who teach the same level.

And if you want to save yourself work and get students even more involved, get them to write the questions on the post-its for each other.  You can help them by giving them a sheet with the question formats they can use (see above) or writing the question formats on the board.

Again, I hope you and your students enjoy this activity and I’d love to see photos of your posters with the questions so please share!