B2 Vocabulary

FIRST

1A The writing race

Aim Adaptation and extension
to explore and practise using unit vocabulary in context • To give more concrete feedback on students’ writing,
collect in the texts to check, review and mark yourself.
Activity type • Fast finishers can do this task individually, using as many
a writing activity with the challenge to use as many given words as possible in their piece of writing. They can finish it
words and phrases as possible for homework if necessary.
• For further writing practice or to revise Writing Part 2, this
Classroom dynamics task can be adapted so students complete the task as
above for an article, review or report.
pairwork or groups of three

B2 Vocabulary
Time taken FIRST

15 minutes
1A The writing race
Preparation verbs nouns adjectives/adverbs phrases
announce hype apparently a fair number of
You will need one activity sheet per pair or group. devote photograph a while back come across
Alternatively, and to save paper, write the phrases in influence position last-minute come up with
columns on the board and have students write in their reflect reality stunning turn up

notebooks.

Procedure
1 Divide students into pairs or groups of three and give
each pair or group a copy of the activity.
2 Tell students they have six minutes to write a text and
to include as many of the given words as possible.
The pair or group who has included the most words in
their text in the correct context by the end of the task
is the winner. Explain that they will need to write it in
the style of the main body of an essay. You may need
to revise the register required, the purpose of the main
body (advantages/disadvantages or arguments for/
against) and format of this (as studied in Unit 1 of the
Coursebook). Tell students it is up to them to decide on
the topic for the piece. This can be brainstormed on the
board for lower levels, e.g. crime, films, etc.
3 Give students a couple of minutes before the task begins
to look at the words and to decide what their topic will
be. They should also decide if they are going to write the
text together or if each person in the pair or group will
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write part of the text to put together at the end.

4 Tell students you are going to start the timer and you
will tell them when the six minutes are up. Monitor
the students but try to let them complete the task
autonomously.
5 At the end of the six minutes, students should swap their
text with another pair or group to count how many of
the words or phrases have been correctly used, and to
correct any mistakes.
6 Once the corrected texts have been returned to the
original pair/group, conduct class feedback to determine
who has used the most words and phrases correctly and
to review any queries.