Yes or No?
Yes or No?
As you may know, I’ve been rethinking how I engage with my students and how I need to make sure that the communication in my classroom is purposeful. That is, I am trying to communicate in a way that allows me and my students:
- to learn about each other and ourselves
- to learn about the world around us
- to entertain/create with language in fun, engaging ways
With that in mind, I wanted to share a simple activity that is (almost) no prep, allows students to learn about each other and engage with the language in an entertaining ways. Plus, the activity easily lends itself to “question threads” that are can be adjusted for any level.
I am talking about a simple “Yes” or “No” acitivity. (And if you are like me, you sometimes overthink things and tend to forget that simple activities are also highly effective.) Let’s take a look at it!
Are you ready? – “Yes” or “No”
- Give students something to signal “yes” or “no”.
- I give my students whiteboards and they hold it “portrait”. They write “Ja” (Yes) at one end of the board and then they turn the board upside down and write “Nein” (No) on the other end.
- When you look at the board, the words are inverted. This is so the students can simply turn the board to signal their answer.
- Tips:
- You can follow the same pattern and have students draw a “thumbs up” and a “thumbs down”, instead of writing words.
- You can have students use notecards. For example, give them a green and red note card and they hold up green for “Yes” and red for “No”.
- Or they can simple raise their right hand for “Yes” and raise their left hand for “No”
- For kinesthetic learners, have the stand up for “Yes” and stay seated for “No”
- I give my students whiteboards and they hold it “portrait”. They write “Ja” (Yes) at one end of the board and then they turn the board upside down and write “Nein” (No) on the other end.
- Then I start asking “Yes” or “No” questions at the appropriate level.
That is it!
Note: This activity is easily adaptable to target certain words, structures, and thematic vocabulary. Plus, you can use this activity to introduce new vocabulary.
Let’s look at some examples!
EMOTIONS/FEELINGS: Are you … (today)? / (Bist du heute _____?)
tired / stressed / frustrated / happy / excited / optomistic / grateful / etc.
Note: Then you can start a (level-appropriate) question thread:
- Are you really tired or just a little tired?
- Did you not sleep enough? How long did you sleep? Did you sleep well or not so well?
- Why are you tired? (“I stayed up to late”) Why did you stay up too late? (I was playing video games.) What did you play? How long? Was it worth it to stay up that late?
- Etc.
BETTER THAN: Is ______ better than ______? / (Ist _______ besser als ______?)
Is Coke better than Pepsi?
(Note: You can always insert a variaty of verbs: Does Coke taste better than Pepsi?)Is chocolate ice cream better than vanilla ice cream?
Is Cane’s (chicken) better than Chick-Fil-A?
Is Travis Kelce a better football player than Patrick Mahomes?
Etc.
DO YOU LIKE: Do you like ______? / (Magst du ______?)
Do you like hamburgers?
Do you like salad?
Do you like green beans?
(Did you notice how you can easily incorporate thematic vocabulary? (In this case “food”)Do you like math class? English? History? Science? (“school subjects”)
Do you like to play soccer? Football? Volleyball? Softball? (“sports”)
Etc.
Note: Then you can start a (level-appropriate) question thread:
Do you like salad? (Yes) What do you like in your salad? Do you like chicken in your salad? (No) Are you a vegetarian? Do you have a favorite type of salad? How often do you eat salad? Once a day? Twice a week? Do you order a salad when you go out to eat? Where is the best place to get a salad?
(Did you notice the different “levels” of questions?)
CAN YOU?: Can you _____? / (Kannst du _______?)
Can you dance (well)?
Can you bake (well)?
Can you cook (well)?
Etc.
Note: Then you can start a (level-appropriate) question thread:
Can you bake well? (Yes) Do you like to bake? What do you like to bake? What is your favorite thing to bake? What don’t you like to bake? How often do you bake? Are cupcakes easier to bake than cookies? What is difficult to bake? Does baking make you happy? (Are you happy when you bake?)
(Did you notice how you can incorporate other types of questions – “Do you like _____?” / “Better than” / etc.)
As you can see, the questions, types of questions, topics/themes, and “question threads” are nearly limitless! Just remember to keep your questions level appropriate and define any new vocabulary that you introduce!
Tip: This activity can be used a quick warm-up, end of class activity, or any time during instruction. It can range from just a few minutes to much longer. I usually take it out as long as I can until I notice that interest starts to wane!
Try it out and let me know how it goes in the comment section below! Danke!
