Directions: How To Get From Here To There

Overview(Introduction) :

Giving and receiving directions in English is a great lesson because it is useful, easy, and can be modified to suit different levels and abilities. In addition students practice movement, speaking, listening, and critical thinking skills. Because of this, the students tend to remember this lesson pretty well. This lesson works well with students ranging from primary school students to adults (and even to some degree in nursery school). .

Optional Song:

I like to use the song “Tootsie Roll” as an introduction because the kids can follow the directions pretty easily (examples: “I put my hand upon my hip, when I dip you dip we dip” and “to the left, to the left, to the right, to the right”- you get the point).

Warm up:

I start the lesson out with a game of “Hot and Cold”. A pair of students is sent out of the room, while the rest of the classmates hide an object. They are then allowed back in and depend on the other students` cues to home in on the target. When they get closer, students use adjectives like warm, warmer, hot, burning, on fire, etc… to let them know that they are getting closer. When they stray away from the target, students use adjectives such as cool, cold, colder, freezing, ice cold, etc. The students usually get pretty into this game so we practice it for about 10 minutes.

Vocabulary and key sentences.

Depending on the level of the class, you can make this more difficult or easier, however, I use the following as a basic outline. The students practice reading and saying the following Words and Sentences:

Where ,Go(to), Turn, Right, Left, Straight, Forward, Back, Past (pass), Block, Street, Before, Signal, (Stop) Sign.

Key sentences:

Where is the post office?

                (location)

At the signal, turn right.

(location) (action)

Go straight past the post office

Turn right at the Lawson’s

(action) (location).

Drills:

I prepare a large map, and give all of the students smaller maps to trace along with. The students practice getting to and from locations on the map by dictating directions, after they practice a couple of times as a group with the teacher. Then I pick on random groups of students to help guide me from point A to point B.

Once the students become comfortable with the simple map, I pull out real maps of real places and challenge them to find their way to and from real places, such as Space World, Kumamoto Castle, or any other places that they know and are interested in. After they get the hang of this, we move on to the games.

Games:

Game #1: Police dispatch.

This is a role playing game, in which one student is a robber, one is a witness/dispatcher, and one is a police officer. The robber picks a heist location (for example, the J.A. Bank) and chooses another location as a safe house (the Zoo), while the police officers wait outside. Then it is up to the witness/dispatcher to direct the police officer to the safe house. After this is completed, participants change roles. The police officer who catches the robber the fastest (who picks the safe house out the fastest) is the winner. You can also play this with one robber team and one cop team with a student team or teacher giving directions.

Game #2: Treasure Hunt.

In this game, you scatter a trail of clues, each one leading to another clue. It is best to make up several trails and to split the students into groups of reasonable size. Students read the clues out loud and use team work to get to the objective. This game is also a good way to review location words, adjectives, and random vocabulary.

Game #3: The Blind Race

This game is like “Pin the Tail on the Donkey”, but more fun. Have the students set up a course of check points that the students must touch, go through, or avoid. One student is then blindfolded and their team feeds them verbal cues to navigate through the course. Other spatial words should also be taught (such as up and down) along with other useful action words (crawl, jump, etc…).

Conclusion:

My students like directions, so we usually spend two or three lessons on this topic. The games are English intensive in nature, so I dedicate more time to them, and only as much time as necessary to learn the key sentences and vocabulary.

This lesson is ideal because students practice speaking, listening, movement, gestures, critical thinking skills, and teamwork. Also, students will be able to use this English in everyday conversations in class, when conversing with other English speakers, or while traveling.