The Last Lesson

Aims

• To review work covered over the year
• To integrate lots of team work into the last lesson
• To enable pupils to express what they have got out of the year and what they have enjoyed the most

Materials

• A stop watch or mobile phone with a stop watch function
• White paper for everyone
• Song sheets for all songs sung over the year
• A transparency
• Transparency pens

Vocabulary review

• Put the class into two teams.
• Place two chairs in front of the blackboard facing the room.
• Number the pupils and call number 1s to come and sit in the chairs. Behind them write two words – one for each team – making sure that the number 1s can’t see them.
• Then each team must describe the word to their team-mate. The first person to guess the word correctly wins a point for their team.
• Then number 2 from each team sits in the chair and the game continues. Make sure everyone has at least one go at guessing a word.
• Prepare which words you want to revise before the lesson. To increase the suspense the last word could be the same for both teams.

Song review

• In groups of three or four they brainstorm the titles of all the songs you’ve sung with them over the year. They can look back through their books to find any photocopies of words you may have given to them.
• Then when they have a few titles one person from each group comes and writes the titles on the board. If a title has already been written up they don’t need to write it again.
• Number the songs.
• Then everyone votes for their favourite song by writing the number on a piece of paper. Choose a volunteer to count and record the votes on the board by putting tally marks next to the songs.
• Once a song has been voted the class favourite you can either go straight into singing it or you can do some language work on the text first. You will need to make sure you have copies of all the songs you’ve done over the year.
• On a transparency start writing out the words of the song and stop randomly and ask the class to fill in the missing word. You could keep the two teams you had earlier to increase their involvement and excitement. Bonus points cold be gained for correct spelling etc.
• Then once you have the words you can then go into the singing. You could repeat the whole process for the second favourite song if you have time.

Grammar review 1

• Put the class into four groups. Draw a noughts and crosses grid on the board.
• The size of it (number of squares) will depend on the time you have and the number of points you want to review.
• One group are the crosses, one noughts, one triangles and the fourth group squares. Use different colour markers for each symbol.
• Do a trial game with you against the whole class to a. make sure they know the rules and b. introduce terms such as top left, bottom right, in the middle etc.
• Without any explanations here rub off the trial game and re-draw the grid but this time filling in the squares with grammar words they are familiar with i.e. some, any, present simple, wh. question. You can also use this game to review any vocabulary you've seen over the year. Then explain for the real game to be able to win a square they must create a correct sentence using the grammar point in the square.
• Ask the crosses to choose the square they would like to try and give them a minute to discuss a sentence. Nobody is allowed to do any writing during the game. When they choose a square draw a mini cross in it so you don’t forget which one they have chosen.
• At the end of the minute ask their spokesperson to give you the final sentence. Make sure the whole class are listening at this point.
• Now you don't say whether the sentence is correct or not. It is up to the other teams to decide. If they feel the sentence is incorrect then they can offer a correct one (using the same vocabulary but just changing the mistake). The first team to put their hands up with a correct alternative can win the square. Only give each team one chance. If the original sentence is correct but the other teams think it is incorrect you can quickly tell them otherwise. Don't give any grammar explanations at this stage as it will slow down the game.
• Once one team has won you can then explain any difficult grammar points so that everyone finishes having discussed the grammar themselves before you provide the answer. It's important though that you do provide any solutions to problems they may have had during the game as because they will be very eager to know why they got a sentence wrong they will be able to take in a lot of information. If you find that no one team can win the game then change the rules to be the winning team is the one with most squares.

Grammar review 2

• You don't need to present this stage as a grammar review but by giving the class a couple of examples of the grammar they have done with you they should be able to brainstorm the rest. So brainstorm grammar points in the same way as the songs. Don't number the grammar points at this stage.
• Give everyone a piece of paper and get them to write down the numbers 1-10.
• Choose a grammar point at random and number it 1. Tell the class they have a minute to write a sentence using that grammar point. Start the stopwatch.
• When the minute is up tell everyone to pass their paper to the person sitting on their left.
• They now have 30 seconds to underline any mistakes they see in their neighbour’s sentence.Now with their new piece of paper they have a minute to write a sentence using the grammar point number 2. Don't forget to number the points on the board as this is vital for the feedback stage.
• By the end of the activity their original page will be ten people away with sentences from ten different people written on it. After the first or second sentence everyone should be really excited about the time limit element of the process. Withhold any grammar advice at this stage.
• When all ten sentences have been written put the class into groups of four. They can then go through all the number 1 sentences together checking the grammar and spelling. If they can't agree on any corrections they should ask you for help.
• You are monitoring the groups at this stage but only offering help when as a group they can't agree. Or if you see that the whole group agrees that an incorrect sentence is correct. Once all ten sentences have been discussed you can iron out any problems as a whole class.

Storybook review

• In pairs they can try and remember the stories you've told them over the year. Once they remember a few they share the titles with the class to jog everyone's memories.
• On their own they then decide which was their favourite story, then their favourite character from that story.
• They each then draw a picture to represent something from the story. It can be their favourite character or a specific scene. Specify the time limit for this before they begin.
• Monitor and briefly ask everyone who or what they are drawing so that they practise saying 'This is a picture of ------.'
• When they've finished they take their pictures and walk around the room trying to find other people who have drawn scenes from the same story. Once they have put themselves into groups they then have to discuss in their groups what actually happens in the story.
• The next stage is in a large circle with each story groups sitting next to each other. They then in their own words re-tell the story holding their pictures up to show the rest of the class.
• The content doesn't have to be true to the original story and if they specifically want to change elements of it then encourage their imagination.

English certificates

• You and your English lessons will have played an important part of your pupils’ school year so to mark the time they've spent with you and the progress they've made you can get them to fill out individual certificates. 
• You can either fill them in yourself prior to the lesson and have a mini awards ceremony where you distribute certificates to everyone for their hard work. Or they can practise some writing by filling in the gaps themselves.
• You should emphasize as they are filling them out the importance of the work they've done and the effort they’ve put into it. Tell them how much you've enjoyed your time with them. Assuming this is the case!