ID cards in the ESL classroom

Language Skills: Writing and speaking about personal contact details

Lesson Time: 30 – 40 minutes

Student Level: Suitable for all levels

The first lesson of an ESL class can sometimes be a bit awkward for both the teacher and the students. If you are a new ESL teacher, you may struggle to think of ideas for what to do for that first all-important lesson. After all, you don’t know the students, they don’t know you, and, if it is a brand new class, they may not know each other. 

Accordingly, making ID cards is a nice, gentle activity for any first lesson. The exercise can easily be adapted to different age groups and ability levels, and can be used as an icebreaker for classes where the students don’t know each other well. The completed ID cards also help me become familiar with my students and put names to faces quickly.

For the lesson, you will need lined filing/index cards like those found in stationery shops. These cards come in various sizes and usually have a pre-punched hole in the top left corner to be quickly bound together and flipped through.
I recommend size A6 for most students. This first photo shows an example of a completed university-level ID card:

For lower-level students, who can’t write as much, I use A5. Here is an example of an elementary school grade 4 card:

The Lesson

The teacher distributes one card to each student and draws the front of the card out on the board, indicating that the punch hole should be in the top left corner ( keep a couple of spare cards for the students who will invariably get this wrong!).

-The teacher draws a square in the top right corner to indicate where the ID photo will be stuck ( I usually quickly sketch out an unflattering version of myself, but a simple face will suffice). 

For older classes, the teacher requests that the students bring in a passport-type photo to stick on the card soon (you will be lucky to get the whole class to bring in a picture, but I find most usually will have a spare one).

 For younger classes, the students enjoy sketching a picture of themselves. 

The teacher informs the students that they will write down some personal information on their cards and asks them what the first thing they should write is, which, of course, is their name. 

The teacher proceeds to elicit other personal/ contact information that the students think should be included on their card, writing up their ideas. Depending on the class’s age and level, these will differ.

The first board photo below shows a sample card for a university-level class:

This second photo shows a board ID card set up for a junior class:

-As each item is added to the board, the students can fill it out and write down their personal/contact information. 

Questions and answers

Once this stage is completed, the teacher can ask ” What is your…..?” questions. Starting from the top of the card:

What’s your name?  

Here, I can 100% guarantee the student will answer with a long-form answer:

My name is Julia Sanchez

So this is a good time for the teacher to demonstrate a short-form answer on the board:

What’s your name? My name  is Julia Sanchez —–> It’s Julia Sanchez

What’s your major? It’s nursing

…and so on.

-The following board photo shows a card with some further valid speaking points highlighted:

-In the photo, I’m explaining how to say a few points in English  (1)-(5):

1. When spelling my name, it is smoother and more precise to say ‘double g’.
2. We can say ‘oh’ or ‘zero’. Which one is easier to say?
3. When saying a phone number, we can say ‘double’ if two numbers are the same. Here, I would say ‘Double oh’.
4. The ‘@’ character is pronounced as ‘at’ when saying an email address.

5. The ‘ . ‘ is pronounced as ‘dot’ when saying an email address.

-Once I have enough basic contact details, I add a couple of more headings, where the students can start to express themselves:

Likes:

Dislikes:

-You can keep this simple and ask the students to write down the ‘things’ they like and don’t like. Write up a couple of examples on the board:

Likes: I like pizza and computer games

Dislikes: I don’t like cucumbers and homework

The above example can be used to point out to the students that some nouns are countable (computer games) and require a plural ‘s’, whereas some nouns are uncountable (homework) and do not. Later in this lesson, teach this distinction to the students.

One step more

For slightly higher-level classes, I like to make it a little more challenging by asking the students to write about the ‘things’ they like and don’t like doing, using the gerund activity form. For example:

Likes: I like eating pizza and playing video games

Dislike: I don’t like eating cucumbers and doing homework

-I also introduce the option of using other adverbs and verbs to help the students express themselves:

Likes: I really enjoy eating pizza and playing video games

Dislikes: I really hate eating cucumbers and doing homework

Students usually make plenty of mistakes when writing this part of the card. So it’s a good idea to zip around the class and point out mistakes as the students make them. 

Finally, for higher-level classes, if there is enough space on the card, I ask the students to write down a phrase or motto they like in English. If they don’t know one—well, everyone has cell phones!

So the finished card on the board should look something like this …..

The Back of the Card

Don’t forget the back of the card!  

Recording homework grades and exam scores can be helpful. Again, this will be different for every age/level. The card below shows the points a university student accrued over a semester. The student was graded on homework, classwork, mid-term exam, final exam, and attendance.

For younger classes, the back side of the card can be used as a sticker reward space. Have the students draw two sides of a river bank and sketch some stepping stones in between. Whenever students win a game or complete a task, they get to put a sticker on a stone. This student is well on their way to a brand-new eraser…woohooo!

Review Exercise: ID Card Information Exchange 

This can be a follow-up/review exercise for the next class.

 -For the lesson, the students are divided into pairs (facing each other if possible).

-The teacher hands out fresh blank cards to each student.

-One student takes on the role of asking the questions, and the other student answers the questions.

-The exercise aims for the first student to correctly write down all of the second student’s information on the ID card by asking ‘What is/are your….’ questions. For example:

What’s your first name?

What’s your phone number?

What are your interests?

A couple of useful expressions in this lesson will naturally be helpful for this exercise. The two expressions are:

Can you repeat that, please?

How do you spell…..?

-During the exercise, the teacher monitors around the classroom to check and encourage the use of these expressions by the students to help them write down the correct information

-Once the card is completed, the two students can check for accuracy with the original ID card and then change roles.

Notes

Regarding the storage of the ID cards, if you entrust them to your students, they will lose them, tear them, or have their dog eat them. Collect them at the end of each lesson and keep them safe and dry, attached to a binder ring.

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

Ok, that’s a wrap. See you at the next lesson here!