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🔨 Building a lesson with Lego bricks? Yes, please!

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Yes, these are 16- and 17-year-olds playing with Legi in an English class. Yes, it is fun and at the same time is educational. Yes, they enjoyed it a lot! 

Quick recipe for a Lego-based lesson:

1. Ask students to read a fragment of a book in English (in my case, it was the next several chapters of the Handmaid’s Tale by M. Atwood)

2. Bring some random mixed lego bricks to class- it is essential that you have a board for each student. It is good not to have Lego figures to boost creativity!

3. Ask the students to think of a scene/event/ idea/ problem from the text that they consider relevant/important/relatable/inspiring etc (you choose) and allow them 10 minutes to build a Lego representation of it- very basic, primitive even, as not everyone is skillful with Lego.

4. Once they choose what they want to build, they don’t share it, just create their little project in silence.

5. When the structures are ready, students work in pairs or small groups and spend 5-10 minutes trying to guess what the others meant building a particular structure. They are allowed to ask questions, you might also want to introduce eg one hint allowed rule.

6. After the guessing exchange, the students reveal their intentions and the meaning of the structure.

7. Finally, students work in groups of four and try to discuss a likely development of the story or an alternative ending. This time they create a Lego scene to represent their scenario- 10-15 minutes

8. When the groups are ready, students approach one group and engage in a guessing game based on the project they see- 5 minutes. The creators then reveal the their idea and the whole class discusses how realistic their scenario is, trying to challenge it.

9. The procedure is repeated with each group, generating lots and its of speaking and fun:) And no, no one is ashamed of playing with Lego in high school.

10. Extra homework idea- students write a letter of complaint to the author suggesting improvements to the text- story development, characterisation, ending etc. 


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