One Runner and One Writer

World Language Educators constantly seek innovative and engaging activities to enhance students' language skills. One activity promoting collaboration, attention to detail, active participation, and healthy competitiveness is "One Runner, One Writer". 

This activity involves pairs of students working together to complete a language task but having two different roles. 

By incorporating movement and competition, this activity not only makes language learning enjoyable but also stimulates students' motivation and engagement.

THE MECHANICS OF THE ACTIVITY

Group your students in pairs (ideally) or small groups (in big classes) using any randomizer, for example, this one.  

1. Each team member has either the role of the runner or the writer. Despite their different roles, they both work collaboratively to get their answers. 

2. The runner's task is physically moving between their table and the teachers’. 

3. The writer remains stationary with a mini-board or whiteboard.

4. The activity begins with the teacher providing a language task, such as correcting mistakes in 5-10 given sentences. 

5. The team works together to spot the mistakes; the writer writes the sentence they agreed upon, and the runner takes the miniboard to the teacher. 

6. The teacher verifies the correctness of the sentence and places a tick mark after the last correctly written word. If the runner encounters difficulties, the teacher can provide hints to guide them. 

7. Once the runner receives the tick mark, they return to their partner with the mini-board and relay the information. Together, the pair collaborates to identify and correct any mistakes in the sentence.

8. They can only proceed to the following sentence once the teacher has marked the completion of the previous one.

    

THE TYPES OF ACTIVITIES THAT YOU CAN USE IT WITH

1. Translations

2. Correct the errors (2 or 3 errors per sentence) 

3. Unjumble the sentence

4. Sentence transformation (playing with tenses and time phrases)

5. Writing questions to given answers

THE BENEFITS 

1. Collaboration: The activity fosters collaboration and teamwork as students work together to accomplish the language tasks. It encourages interaction and cooperation, allowing students to learn from one another's insights and perspectives.

2. Attention to Detail: By focusing on accuracy and error correction, students develop a keen eye for detail. They become more conscious of grammatical structures, vocabulary usage, and sentence formation, improving their language skills.

3. Active Learning: Incorporating movement and physical activity keeps students engaged and energized. The dynamic nature of the activity prevents passive learning and encourages active participation, enhancing retention and comprehension.

4. Competitiveness: The competitive element of the activity motivates students to strive for excellence. The desire to be the first team to complete the task creates a healthy competitive environment and can effectively incentivize active engagement.

Compared to the popular activity of Running Dictation, the "One Runner, One Writer" format offers a similar level of engagement and collaboration while providing a different dynamic. Running dictation involves a runner retrieving information from a text and returning it to a writer who transcribes it. On the other hand, "One Runner, One Writer" allows for a broader range of activities beyond dictation, such as vocabulary matching, sentence transformation, and cultural exploration. It offers flexibility in adapting to various language learning objectives and can be used to reinforce different language skills. 

Do you incorporate this type of activity in your classes? In my experience, incorporating movement activities like the "One Runner, One Writer" format or the “Running Dictation” in language classes is an absolute must. These activities provide the perfect solution, especially during those post-lunch hours when both students and teachers can feel in need of a siesta. The engagement and physical movement involved in these types of activities help to keep everyone awake and energized. By incorporating such activities, I have witnessed firsthand how they create an interactive and dynamic learning environment that promotes active participation and enhances language acquisition. Plus, observers would love the engagement they see amongst the students, so if you haven’t tried it, try it and let me know how it goes.