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Connecting Classrooms - Starter Activities
Connecting Classrooms - Starter Activities
Once you have agreed to work with a school in another country, one of your first questions will
be ‘How shall we get started?’ A good first activity will capture learners’ interest and can be
used to find out what they already know and think about each other. You can then use these
starting points to evaluate your work. For example, you could repeat your starter activity later, to
see how learners’ responses have changed.
A country web
Learners draw a web of their ideas about their new partner’s country and exchange this. Each
school then comments on the web about their country. Is it accurate? What has been missed
out?
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The 10/10/10 strategy
At the beginning, learners are told only the name of the country that they are going to be
working with. Then, in groups, they come up with:
a) ten questions they would like to ask their counterparts
b) ten points of information about themselves that they would like their counterparts to know
about them, and
c) ten rights which they feel every child or young person should have
Each group is then asked to contribute one question from list a), with the other groups agreeing
or not as to whether the question should go in the first list of ten questions. Any not agreed can
be sent at a later date.
Co-ordinate the exchange of list b) so that ten points of information are sent before you receive
any questions or information from your partner school.
Thanks to Humanities Education Centre, Tower Hamlets, for permission to use this activity.
100 words
Learners identify 100 words that capture the essence of their culture and language and present
these to international partners in a short play or story. Provide a 100-word translation dictionary,
if necessary.
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Thanks to Cumbria Development Education Centre (www.cdec.org.uk) for permission to use these activities.
A B
They eat frogs and snakes There are big forests
There are no pickpockets They have large roads
There are no black people They have beautiful
Guns come from there coins
They have very tall
mountains
C D
Their policemen wear There are lots of old
red and black uniforms things
They live in flats They have a nice
There are many climate
factories There are many shops
There are lots of It has a large
churches and hospitals population
The people speak a beautiful language
Talk about the inaccuracies of some of these views and where these might have come from.
Now place each of the ideas listed on a chart with three columns, indicating the ideas that
learners:
• think do describe England, e.g. they have large roads
• think do not describe England, e.g. their policemen wear red and black uniforms
• are not sure about.
Talk about any inaccuracies that we might have of others or others might have about us,
including the country that we are about to start working with.
Thanks to Leeds Development Education Centre (www.leedsdec.org.uk) for permission to use this activity from
Speaking for Ourselves, Listening to Others (1996).
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Share your ideas about good starter activities for new international work.
Discuss ways of:
Copyright information: With acknowledgement to copyright holders these materials may be reproduced for non-commercial,
educational purposes. Contact copyright holders for other usage (schools@britishcouncil.org) © Copyright British
Council 2020.
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