One of my classes and I have been spending time on you should, also known as jussive subjunctives. They've been proposing things for each other to do for the last several days, so today we brought it to a head in talking about our own problems.
I gave each student two small squares of paper.
If you have a paper guillotine, one of the best things I keep in my classroom is squares of paper guillotined from stuff in the recycled paper bin. We use them for warm-ups, quick quizzes, and any manner of things that don't require a full sheet.
On the first sheet, they wrote about a problem they have - my boyfriend doesn't love me, my history grade is bad, I hate physics, my brother won't give me the car.
On the second paper, they wrote a solution, either to their own problem or simply something they felt was good advice. I then collected the papers in two separate bowls and stood in front of the classroom drawing from each one. We got some of the following pieces of advice:
My boyfriend doesn't love me. You should punch your brother.
My physics grade is awful. You should steal a lot of money.
I don't have time to sleep because I am addicted to The Office. You should move to Mexico.
It allowed them to exercise their jussive subjunctives and definitely resulted in some entertaining pieces of advice. I could see this working for if/then statements, when/then statements, or anything else that has two pieces. Of course, the kids made errors, so it was part of my job as the interpreter to correct those errors in reading aloud. One of the most fun parts for me was being overly dramatic about the problems and their solutions - it brought another kind of life to what could otherwise have simply been mechanical.
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