Author: Adrian Tennant | Published on 1 February 2023

 

Question: Can learners make their own materials?

Answer: Yes they can. It’s a great way to develop creativity, cooperation and communication. 

 

One of the best teaching resources is our learners. They should be actively involved in many aspects of the lesson, including making materials. For example:

  • flashcards
  • activities
  • audio recordings

With young learners, getting them to make flashcards or simple game activities is a really good way of involving them, and develops a range of skills.

As learners get older they have lots of experiences of using different types of activities. Ask learners to create:

  • a gap-fill activity
  • jumbled sentences
  • questions for a reading text
  • tests for each other

They should be able to do this as they have already seen many similar activities in textbooks. Creating materials can result in deeper learning than just completing an activity in a textbook 

What will you try in your next class?

Glossary

Jumbled: Where a sequence is mixed in a random order and does not have a regular pattern.