Recall!

We are all looking for the best way to remember new words and phrases, so that we can recall them and use them in our conversations.

Try a recall slide like this one. It is available to download here.

Screenshot of RECALL.pptx. As an example I have used phrases for talking about our weekend plans.

You can see that there are five speech bubbles and each one has a phrase written inside it. You can make the text disappear and reappear at the click of a button.  After you learn the phrases, remember them, and combine them, you will be able to recall them.

Let’s start off by answering a question that is bound to come up. You might ask ‘why make this when there are plenty of apps and websites out there that serve as flashcard makers?’ Well, why not?

Actually, there are a few reasons.

• It can be used offline and it is very easy to edit.
• You can group a set of phrases that can be combined to make a conversation.
• You are only learning a few words or phrases at a time. An amount that is manageable for the short-term memory.
• Because it is a slide, it is easy to turn into a review game like bingo if you are a teacher.
• It can also be inserted into any presentation for any lesson.

The video below introduces how I made RECALL. Watch it if you want to learn how to customize it to suit your own needs.

Resize the video by clicking on the arrows in the bottom right corner.
The video shows PowerPoint 2013.

Learning with RECALL

Just type in the phrases that you are trying to remember into the speech bubbles.

Click on the speech bubble to make the text disappear.
Click on the ‘hide all’ button to make all the text disappear.
Click on the ‘reset’ button to make all the text reappear.

Use words or phrases that you can connect together. It will build mini conversations for you.

Teaching with RECALL

This isn’t a new activity. There are several ESL activity books that will mention an activity similar to this. If you wrote the words on a blackboard or whiteboard, once you have erased them, you would have to rewrite them. Recall, you don’t – the words and phrases just reappear.

1. Make it a game!
   Challenge students to see how accurately they can remember the words or phrases.
   Set a time limit on how long the students can view the words or phrases before they disappear.
2. Increase the students’ speaking time.
   Put students into small groups. Ask each student to remember only one of the phrases. The students learn all the phrases by asking other students what they remember.
3. Role-play it
   Recall is great at preparing students before role-playing a conversation. If they have confidence to recall and say the key phrases, they have the confidence to role-play.

I hope you have fun with recall.

Download RECALL

If you try it, leave a comment and let me know what you think.

Take care!

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If you wish you could have move phrases on the slide, try Recall 2.0.

Recall 2.0