Phrasal Verbs Relay. The purpose of this activity is twofold. First, students will practice using a variety of phrasal verbs at the sentence level. For this activity students won't be asked to practice a set of phrasal verbs. They will have the freedom to think of different phrasal verbs themselves. Also, students will practice using dictionaries to look up phrasal verbs. This is very important. There are many phrasal verbs out there and students need to learn how to check whether they are transitive or intransitive, separable or inseparable. They should also learn to check for the meaning as well. Students will need materials, including dictionaries. They can use paper dictionaries, electronic dictionaries, or even devices to access to Internet. How many dictionaries will you need? Well, enough for each group of four students. If you have 40 students, you will need ten dictionaries. Let's continue with the materials you'll need. You will also need this worksheet that's been provided for you. Make sure to prepare one per group and also prepare a timer. You want to give students at least 15 minutes to complete this activity. So imagine, one of the groups of four students. You will need to assign a secretary and a fact checker. The fact checker will have the dictionary. These roles will rotate like this. After each sentence students will pass along their roles until the time ends. Now, let's discuss the rules for this activity. Well, students will have to follow a particular relay pattern in order to choose their phrasal verbs. It goes, same verb, same preposition, same verb, same preposition and so on. The first phrasal verb will be given to the students by the teacher. Let's take a look at an example. If the teacher gives, pick on as a first phrasal verb, here we can see pick is a verb and on is the preposition. Students will then have to keep the verb pick, and think of a different preposition, like out. Next, students will keep the same preposition, out, and choose a different verb such as eat, and again students will keep eat as a verb, and choose a different preposition, like up and so on. Let's go back to the rules. Rule number 2. Students will use the dictionary to check whether the phrasal verbs are transitive or intransitive and separable or inseparable. This will help them to write their sentences. The sentences must be about the theme given by the teacher. In our example we will make the theme, family. Also the sentences must be at least ten words long. Giving students guidelines ensures that they do not copy the sentences in the dictionaries. Here's an example what the students will need to do on their work sheets. They will need to fill in the column phrasal verb, transitive or intransitive, separable or inseparable, and then write their sentences. So the first phrasal verb given by the teacher was pick on. The students will have to figure out that it is a transitive and also inseparable phrasal verb. Here's an example sentence. I used to pick on my younger brother when we were little. Pick out. Well this one is also transitive, but separable. My mother often picks out clothes for me and my sister. It would also be correct to say, my mother often picks clothes out for me and my sister. Eat out. Well, this phrase of verb is intransitive and so, therefore, inseparable. Our family eats out together a few times each week. And finally, eat up. Transitive and separable. My fathers old car eats up a lot of gas. So if you look at all of these sentences, you can see that they're all about family members, and they each have at least ten words. So don't forget to give students a time limit for this activity, and a theme that is appropriate for their age and their interests. The group with the most number of correct sentences will win the relay race. And teachers as an informal assessment, you can collect the worksheets and check the students' work. Dont forget to provide them with some helpful feedback. Before we end, let's also talk about a possible formal assessment. You can give students an assessment that is similar to the activity. Similar in that the chart they fill out is the same, and they are allowed to use dictionaries. However, make sure to provide the phrasal verbs this time. Here is a list of common phrasal verbs you can asses them on. Of course, for the assessment, students will work alone. For this test there are closed questions, as well as open ended questions. For the open ended questions, you want to think carefully about the set of criteria you will use to grade your students. Here are some suggestions. Content is about the assigned theme. There's a minimum of ten words per sentence. The sentences are complete. The correct meaning of the phrasal verbs are used and the correct syntactical use of the phrasal verbs is evident. Great. We hope that you enjoyed practicing phrasal verbs.
