Students' Opinion Surveys

Bill Pellowe — Tue, 14 Mar 2017 15:11:50 +0000

Have students work in small groups. Each group receives a copy of the Survey worksheet. The group should create a question and four options. If you find that your students have difficulty creating questions, you could print out a list of questions, cut the questions into small strips of paper, put the strips in a bag, and have student groups pick a question that way. If you do this, then all they have to do is think up four options as answers.

Ask students to discuss which option they believe will be most popular answer. Why do they think so? Ask them to fill out the "prediction section" section of the survey form.

We think "New York" will be the most popular answer, because recently, some Japanese celebrities have posted Instagram photos from Times Square and the Statue of Liberty.

To start, have the students put their reply scale on the board. For example:

London

Paris

New York City

Tokyo

After their introduction to the survey question, they pose the question:

Where would you rather go to visit for a week?

The class replies all at once, using their Captur paddles to give their answers. The students should count how many of the class responded with each option.

After all of the votes have been counted, the students can write those tallies on the board, next to the options.

Discussion Option

At this time, the teacher should tell the class to get into small groups to discuss their reaction to the vote tally, and to explain their reasons for their own vote. Even reluctant students seem to be more willing to become engaged in discussions after they have committed to an answer.

A follow-up vote could be taken later, to see if anyone has changed their minds.

"Remarks" Section

Have students write their own comments on the survey. Did the results align with their predictions? Why (or why not)? Any surprises?

We thought that many students would choose New York City. But most students said "Tokyo." Maybe they want to speak Japanese and eat Japanese food every day. Or maybe it's because most of the students are from Kyushu, and they've never been to Tokyo before.

We believe that the prediction and the analysis stages help students think more deeply about the activity. These stages also provide good opportunities for expressing themselves in English.

Type of Activity:

Surveys

Skills:

Listening

Materials:

Handouts

Other:

Activities Which Include Handouts

Student-Centered Activities

Trivia Quizzes with Captur Paddles

Bill Pellowe — Tue, 14 Mar 2017 12:14:44 +0000

Preparation

Students can work in pairs or groups. The students come up with a trivia question and options.

They also fill in the prediction section of the trivia quiz sheet -- how many people do they think will answer correctly (all, most, half, some, none)? Why do they think so? Afterwards, they will be asked to compare their prediction with the actual results.

Giving the Trivia Quiz

You can opt to have students write the options on the board, or to simply say the option aloud. If aloud, they could do it like this:

One student says the question.
Another student says each option.
The first student repeats the question.
The students do a "countdown" for the rest of the students to show their answers ("3, 2, 1, answer!")
The students count the answers, and write them in the "results" section of the handout

Alternatively, you may decide to have students write the options on the board, maybe because you have lower-level students, or maybe it's because the response options are more complex. In that case, prior to step 1 above, have the students write the options on the board. For example:

fish

mammal

reptile

bird

During step 2 above, the students point to the response options as they say them aloud.

Follow-up

Have students fill out the "remarks" section. Here, they can comment on how well or how badly their prediction matched the results. They could speculate on possible reasons for this.

Example:
We asked, "What kind of animal is a whale?" Our options were fish, mammal, reptile, and bird. Most students knew that whales are mammals, but some answered "fish". I wasn't surprised, because it's an easy mistake.

Teams Option

One option is to put students into "teams". You can have more than two teams. The challenge is to have the same number of students on each team. The students can count the number of correct answers for each of the opposing teams, and write the results on the board.