Making Arrangements ESL Activities

In this making arrangements activity, students use an example dialogue and schedule to arrange days and times to do various activities with a partner. Divide the students into pairs (A and B) and give each student a corresponding worksheet. Working alone, the students begin by putting a dialogue about making arrangements in the correct order. When the students have finished, go through the answers and review the making arrangements language shown in bold. Next, the students use the language from the dialogue to practice making arrangements. The students look at their schedule for next week and see the days and times they are available. The students then take it in turns to make arrangements with their partner to do the four activities shown on their worksheet, arranging a day and time when they are both free for each activity. When the pairs have finished, have them give feedback to the class on the arrangements they made.

In this free making arrangements activity, students practice scheduling and rescheduling appointments with their classmates. Give each student a copy of the worksheet. Students begin by making arrangements to do different activities with six classmates. The students move around the classroom, talking to different classmates one at a time. With their partner, students choose a time slot and an activity, writing the activity and their partner's name in the schedule. The students then move on to speak to a new partner. Each student must choose a different activity to do with each partner and can only schedule one appointment in each time slot. When everyone has made arrangements with six people, divide the students into groups of four. The students then make arrangements to do a different activity with each group member as before, rescheduling appointments when needed and writing each arrangement in the schedule. Finally, the students arrange one activity to do together as a group and a time to meet, rescheduling earlier arrangements as necessary. At the end of the activity, each student will have a total of ten different activities scheduled. For more advanced classes, you can increase the difficulty by having the students arrange more activities in Exercise A, increasing the group sizes, or having the students arrange further group activities.