You Rule The School

Setup

Students normally complete this activity in groups of two or three.

Activity

1. Ask students what they don’t like about school, or what they think could be better. What would their perfect school be like?
2. In their groups write ten sentences in the target language to describe their new, improved school.
3. Optionally, you could get students to display these sentences by creating a poster. They could even illustrate it with pictures.
4. At the end, each group presents their ideas. If you have a large class (and want to save time), each group could just share their top three sentences.
5. Discuss what the most popular new rules were. You could even hold a vote to decide which one the class would like to adopt.

Target Language

The You Rule The School ESL activity is primarily designed for kids, who always love pointing out things they don’t like about school. With young beginners, students could simply write a description using the present simple (e.g. School finishes at 1pm).

With a low intermediate level, try modal verbs of obligation and permission. In this case, students should describe their school as a set of rules. For example, You don’t have to wear a uniform, or You can eat snacks in class.

Or for higher level intermediate students, the second conditional is another option. Instead of just repeating the same condition (e.g. If I ruled the school, I would…), students should explain why their changes would be an improvement. For example, If we didn’t wear a uniform, we would be happier. If we ate in class, we wouldn’t be hungry.