Colourful Teaching

Imagine that even your most challenged students understand new grammar? Imagine that they discover the rules themselves? Imagine that your students ask you to test them on the topic you have just taught. All these things have happened to me after I started to use colourful teaching.

What is colourful teaching? These are cleverly designed materials which use colours to guide students. First the colours show everything but after a while there are fewer of them and the students need to understand the rules to complete the rest of the worksheet.
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[showmyads] I have created several worksheets like this and I would like to share two of them here. I hope you will find them useful.

The first worksheet is for elementary learners of English. Its aim is to teach the basic usage of indefinite articles in English. I need my students to understand that they should not use indefinite articles with plurals and that they should use AN if the word is pronounced with a vowel.

Hand out the following worksheet. You need it printed in colour, otherwise it will not work. Ask the students to look at the first three examples and complete items 4-12. Tell them: “The colours will guide you.” Go around the class and help the struggling students. Check the answers on the board and ask the students to complete items 13-21.

This time, the students will encounter an interesting problem at item 14. Explain that the green colour is more important than the pink one and that the correct answer is no article. Once again write the correct answers on the board. Then ask the students to complete the items 22 – 30. When I used this with my students all of them managed to solve this last section without any mistakes.

It is a good idea to elicit the grammar rules at the end of the activity.

Another grammar point, which I have successfully used this method for, are questions in the present simple tense. Once again, print the following worksheet in colour and make sure that each student has one. Ask the students to study the first examples and complete items number 1-4. Check their answers and write them on the board.

Continue with the worksheet. Now the students should do items 5-9. Check their answers again. The second column is more of a challenge but if you ask your students to complete it on their own you will be surprised how successful they will be.
Elicit the rules at the end of the worksheet.