My favorite activity on the CELTA course – a successful lead in activity

A successful lead in activity

A lead-in stage is  the first stage of any lesson and one of the first and  really basic  tools for an efficient and successful learning experience.

With the right lead-in, students will be motivated and become more interested in the lesson.

It is usually a short activity, but if it is well designed,  it can quickly attract student’s attention and help them clarify the purpose of the lesson.  A good lead-in can make them take an active part in class activities.

I have always focused my attention on creating effective lead-in activities because I consider them to be really important as I mentioned above.

My favourite lead-in on my course

In one of my later Teaching Practices my main aim was to develop reading sub-skills, and for that reason I used a text that was relevant to lotteries.

In order to draw my student’s attention to the topic  I very quickly showed my students two lottery tickets (flashed them really!!!) and then I hid them behind my back.

Then they had some time to guess what the mystery object was. After the time was up, I revealed the lottery tickets in order for them to confirm their guesses.

Why was it successful?

This was one of the most effective lead-in activities and generally one of my favorites throughout the course.

I think that this was an effective activity as it was brief, it was authentic and close to students’ life.

Another reason is that I used the element of mystery which almost every time attracts students’ attention.

As a result of this, the students were much more motivated and curious and read the text with great interest.

If you have any good ideas for lead ins, please add them as a comment below my post

Download my lesson plan and handouts