Pencils Down!

Thanks to Jinks for this somewhat genius idea. When students are doing grammar exercises in their books, I don't let them use their pens to write in the answers the first go. They have to talk with their partner and work it out together. Sometimes there are over 10 questions to do, and so they have to remember their answers for when I randomly call on them later. I'll let them write the answers in when we're going over it as a class.

This has the following advantages:

1. Speaking/reading practice. It's a whole different world when you must actually produce the language as opposed to just taking it in.

2. A more focused effort. They will perhaps get called upon later to answer.

3. Error correction on the go if you have a good partner. At the very least, more thought put into it if you're doing it together, as opposed to alone and just writing any old crap down to get it done.