Many of the English Forward lessons include extension activities that allow you to either take the lesson into the real world or take time to take a closer look at a piece of the lesson. These are often great opportunities for students to take what they have learned and practiced in class and apply it to an authentic context. Most frequently these extension activities are field trips designed to reinforce something covered in class, a guest speaker who can offer more information on a topic, or some sort of in class activity, such as a potluck.
What can you do if you want to extend a lesson but no extension activity is listed? Or if you want to continue working with a topic even longer than the extension activity provides for? This is a great opportunity to provide your students with important information or experiences that will help them to navigate their community and improve their ability to use English. Think about what information would be most useful to them related to the topic of the lesson. For example, Lesson 3.3, Calling for Repairs, provides language and practice around calling for repairs, but provides no extension activity. A few potential extension activities for this lesson could be inviting a landlord or property manager to come in and speak about the process of finding someone to make repairs, giving students the opportunity to work with resources on finding someone to make repairs in their community, or even asking a plumber, an electrician, or a repairman to come to your class and talk about their job.
How do you extend activities and help your students to apply what they learn in class to the real world? Let us know in the comments below!