Best Practices for Creating Conversation Assignment Topics

See example assignments at the bottom of this article!

Clearly and briefly communicate the topic

  • Write all instructions in the target language - not all our partners know English!
  • Pick familiar topics, based on the level of your learners and their classroom learning
  • Pick a topic that works for 15 or 30 minutes. Suggest how much time for each part of your topic.
  • Only include information useful for both the partner and learner. Don't reference class materials our partner can't access.
  • Limit pdf attachments to one page

Add context in "Private Instructions for Partner"

  • Partners will see this, but learners won't
  • Share about student levels
  • Specify how to discuss a certain part of the topic
  • Add a few words and phrases studied recently

Start assignment names with a number

  • Our system organizes assignments by number and then by alphabet
  • Put a number in front of the assignment names so they appear in the right order

Examples

See 15-min and 30-min example assignments here.

Successful 30-minute assignments

Successful 10-minute assignments

Unsuccessful 30-minute assignments

Unsuccessful 10-minute assignments


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