Who/What/Where/When/Why?

Step 1

On the left hand side of the board write down four questions in short form (e.g. favourite food? best friend? have dinner? go last weekend?) to elicit the question words ‘where’, ‘when’, ‘who’, ‘what’ and 'why'.

Step 2

When the students tell you the answers, write down the four full questions, highlighting the form (e.g. what is your favourite food? = for a noun we use the auxiliary verb ‘to be’, when do you have dinner? = for verbs we use the auxiliary verb ‘do’).

If the students struggle, write part of the question and use gaps to help them.

Step 3

Then tell the students to ask each other the questions on the board (with a weaker class, use a strong pair to demonstrate).

Step 4

Give half of the class Worksheet A and the other half Worksheet B (tell them ‘You are Student A and you are Student B’). Give them a few minutes to fill in the missing information and ask any questions (monitor the students to make sure they are doing it correctly).

Step 5

Check that the students have filled in the worksheets correctly. Ask the students the questions they just formed.

Step 6

Ask Student As to put their hands up. Tell them while writing on the board ‘A ask two Bs’ (i.e. two students with a B worksheet). Then ask Student Bs to put their hands up and tell them ‘B ask two As’.

Step 7

Check with class.