Cline Categorisation

Students place dictated items along a personal continuum (e.g. "Me" to "Not Me"), then compare placements with a partner, explaining their choices.

Procedure

1. Draw a cline (horizontal line) on the board with two poles — e.g. Me / Not Me, Love / Hate, Definitely / No Way.
2. Demonstrate with 2–3 items, placing them on the cline and explaining why.
3. Dictate 8–12 items related to your topic. Students copy the cline and place each item where it feels right to them — not just at the extremes.
4. In pairs, students take turns naming an item, saying where they placed it and why. Goal: find 2 similarities and 2 differences.
5. Report back: pairs share the most surprising agreement or disagreement.

Variations

• Topic lead-in: Dictate items from the lesson topic (holidays, food, hobbies) as a warmer to activate prior knowledge.
• Vocabulary review: Use recently taught words — students explain personal associations.
• Tense shift: Frame the cline as past (things I used to do), present (things I do regularly), or future (things I'd do if...) to target different structures.
• Mingle extension: After pairwork, students find 3 more people and decide who they'd most like to spend a day with.

Tips

• Insist students use the full range of the cline, not just the two ends — this generates richer discussion.
• Works with any topic and any level — adjust the complexity of the dictated items.
• Emergent language typically includes hypotheticals, preferences, and opinion justification.