How To Bounce Back After A Revision Drought

Picture this:

You’re scrolling through your Instagram feed and a fellow teacher shares a cool revision activity on their story and it suddenly dawns on you that you haven’t done revisions in quite a while with some or all of your students. Oops. You know you should have, but somehow, it completely slipped your mind. One thing after another, and you ended up teaching a new topic every week without circling back to whatever you taught before this sprint. So you frantically start searching for revision ideas and try to overcompensate for this revision slump you (and your students) have found yourselves in. And after a while it all goes back to normal and, at some point, you may fall into the no-revision mode again.

If it has happened to you at least once in a lifetime, then… you’re not alone. We’ve all got carried away with new materials or exciting topics. But there’s a way to get back on track and make revisions a habit, one step at a time.

This article is also for you if you are simply looking for inspiration on what to do in your upcoming lesson or could do with a more systematic approach.

Let’s start with the basics. If you haven’t yet started keeping track of the target and emergent language (i.e. what you plan to teach and what comes up during the lesson), today is a great day to do it. All you need is a designated place to record all the vocabulary and grammar you teach each of your students or groups. Here’s how you can do it:

create a Notion page, a Google Doc, a Google Class, or simply allocate some space on your interactive board – whichever tool you use it should be easy to access both for you and for your students;
decide on the method: sort words into themes or categories, write them down by the lesson, separate target and emergent language – whatever floats your boat;
record new language regularly (opt for collocations and chunks), write down the original sentence in which the word came up, and add some sample sentences from dictionaries for more context.

A clear language-recording system will help you track each student’s progress, free up mental space for creativity (like a brain dump), and help you shave loads of time off lesson prep.

Another useful step is creating a revision ideas bank. Are you the analogue type? Get a nice new notebook. Would you rather go digital? Create a Notion database, a Telegram channel, or a brand-new interactive board just for you. Don’t worry if it’s still empty the second you create it–you’ll fill it in with ideas in no time.

Both the written record and a handy ideas bank will play an important role in making revision a habit.

One more tip that will help you to not skip the revision stage in the future is to eat the big frog first. Okay, as you’ll see later, it doesn’t have to be big at all, but starting your lesson with a revision activity can help you prevent skipping it altogether because you ended up running out of time during the lesson itself. A fun revision activity at the beginning of your lesson will set the right mood for the entire lesson, and, when planned carefully, it can serve multiple purposes—from a much-needed warm-up to a strong lead-in. We'll get into that shortly.

Now that we’ve covered the basics, here are nine revision activities to help you build the habit step by step—three for each stage of your journey.

Chapter One: Start Small

If you haven’t done revisions in a while, don’t fret. It’s never too late to resume. The easiest way to do it is by setting up a low-prep (or even no-prep) quick little activity the next time you teach a lesson. You don’t want to go overboard with it right after you realised you haven’t revised anything in a while. And you definitely don’t want it to look like a test to your students. Running them through their paces like that can really backfire on all of you, so hold your horses and keep the big review for later, once your students have had regular mini-revisions for a while.

Activity 1: No-prep Q&A

How to do it:

Open the written record from your previous lessons (that place where you wrote down target and emergent vocabulary)
Pick a word and come up with a question (or more) following one of the patterns below:

1. So-called lexical CCQs (mostly display questions with some flexibility and optional follow-up questions), where you explore the usage of the words, their collocates as well as co-text.

For example: Name three things you can [verb]. What else can be [adjective]? Name three things you can do with [noun]. Who usually [verb]? What might someone say if they are [adjective]? What can make someone [verb]? What does a [job] do? In what situations might someone say [saying or idiom]?

2. Passive review of the trickier lexical items or grammar through discussion questions that already contain some of the studied language.

For example: What would you like to try your hand at this year? Do you ever jump on the bandwagon when something is trending? Have you or anyone you know ever flooded neighbours? How do you recharge your batteries these days?

3. Active recall of the easier and/or more recent language through riddle-like questions and eliciting. You can later expand on it by creating a mini-dialogue or asking follow-up questions.

For example: If you need to get somewhere, you may ask someone to… – (give you a lift). You say this when something is off but you’re not sure what or you can’t explain what it is. – (I can’t put my finger on what it is but something is off). You say this to your guests when you’ve cooked something and you want them to try it. – (Help yourselves).

Variation:

Have your students ask those questions instead. After a few demonstrations, students can take turns asking similar questions in pairs.
Give clear instructions and provide some examples of the types of questions you want them to practise. This way, your students will, hopefully, start wondering about and digging deeper into new lexical items (especially in the case of CCQs) whenever they come across them outside the classroom.

Pros: This activity requires absolutely zero preparation and is highly customizable. You can adjust its length as well as the level of challenge. You can also join the dots between your lessons or center the questions around a specific theme.

Cons: It may take some practice and experience to come up with questions like these on the go, so it’s better to try it out on your own and/or write down a few questions before the first time you use it in class.

Activity 2: Storytelling

How to do it:

Pick 5-10 words or expressions from the previous lessons that you want to activate.
Ask the student(s) to connect them by telling a story (orally). They do not have to use them in any particular order. When working with groups or pairs, ask each student to say one sentence or fragment of the story, using a lexical item from the list in each turn.

For example: show you around, react to, explain to, for the rest of my life, put it off, take an exam, urgent, thrilled, suggest, take it for granted, pluck up the courage

I woke up early that day because I had to take my IELTS exam. I couldn’t concentrate because I was so stressed, so I decided to leave home earlier. When I arrived, the instructors showed me around the exam centre and explained all the rules to me. The test was very challenging and once it was over I had an urgent need to cry to let some steam off. I don’t usually react to stress in a healthy way. Even though waiting for the test results was unbearable, I was actually putting off opening the email for a few days. When I finallyplucked up the courage to open it, I was thrilled to see a great result! I knew I could now get into my dream university abroad. I’ll remember that day for the rest of my life. And I will never take my privilege to speak more than one language for granted.

(Did I pick random words from one of my student’s language profile? Sure thing. Did I just come up with this story on the go? Absolutely. Will I use this very activity with her in our very next class? You bet!)

Variations:

Select more words but ask your students to use at least, say, 10.
Have your students pick the words on their own. You do not have to tell them what the purpose is (storytelling). They can also pick words for the other pair/team.
Add more structure to the story by using the Fortunately/Unfortunately pattern. The first sentence can start with “Once upon a time…”, the second participant can pick “Fortunately…” or “Unfortunately…”, and then they do it by turns depending on what was said in the previous sentence–“Fortunately” or “Unfortunately”, so that they have a proper rollercoaster.
Set the scene by adding a photograph of people and/or scenery. This may help some students who find it more difficult to think on their feet by adding some creative constraints.
Ask your students to brainstorm lexical items from previous lessons that they think they may need in today’s class based on the lesson title. This way, you can use this story as a bridge between lessons.

Pros: It’s fun. It can activate a lot of language. It can boost your students’ creativity.The set up is part of the activity itself.

Cons: This might not work for lexical items your students haven’t learned to use confidently yet or cannot quickly check the usage of in their written record, otherwise you run the risk of having to (re-)teach some of those items or assist, if not correct your students too much. You want to make sure they have a sense of achievement and a boost of energy. Also, some students may not like this type of activity or might not be used to it–or any other activity, for that matter.

Activity 3: Reuse

How to do it:

Pick an activity or exercise your students have done before.
Change one or more of the conditions: set a stricter time limit, change partners, change roles in a role play, change the subject (e.g. use a different city, country, celebrity, job, gender, means of transport, point of view, etc. which is being talked about), assign each student a word they should ‘sneak’ into the conversation, focus on a new subskill (e.g. this time students should ask one another follow-up questions at least twice).
Ask your students to evaluate their performance compared to their first attempt. Did they use the new language more confidently? Did they notice their partner using the target language?

Pros: This helps students build confidence, as they will hopefully complete the activity faster and with more accuracy. You don’t need to give complex instructions again, especially if that was the case in their previous attempt.

Cons: Unfortunately, some students may be reluctant to re-do the same activity and consider it a waste of time. So you may need to explain to your students what the benefits of this activity are. In case your students have doubts, offer this as an experiment and then ask them for feedback on their performance.

Chapter Two: Carry On

In this section, you’ll find some activities that may require a bit of preparation but you can introduce them into any lesson with minimal adjustments of the lesson itself, which means you can leave the activity out or rearrange your lesson outline without having to stray too far from your original plan. In short, they can be viewed as separate one-off activities.

Activity 4: Something is off

How to do it:

Pick 5-10 sentences from the written record (language profile) of your student/group. Alternatively, find new ones in learner’s dictionaries such as Longman.
Do one of the following things in all or some of the sentences:

Remove one word from each sentence without indicating where the gap is. Opt for ‘small’ words: articles, prepositions, auxiliary verbs, de-lexicalised words (which have little meaning out of context, e.g. have, put, thing, way), particles.
Add one extra word to each sentence. Again, opt for ‘small’ words.
Make one mistake: in grammar, vocabulary, or anything else depending on your students’ needs.
Replace one word with a similar one (a synonym that doesn’t fit: catch->grab a plane; a word from the same category: sweep problems under the carpet->table; or simply something that sounds similar: save a buck->duck).

Have your students correct the sentences individually or in pairs.

Variations:

Turn it into an auction. Students can place their bets on the correct/incorrect sentences.
Create a Quizlet set instead of using an interactive board or a handout. This will take you just a few minutes but will make the whole activity more interactive. Your students will also be able to practise again outside the classroom.

Pros: This activity helps students develop their noticing skills. This activity is also very easy to set up in terms of technical skills as you don’t need to reinvent the wheel and think of ways to organise the layout–you simply create one text box on an interactive board and quickly make changes in the sentences.

Cons: Correcting mistakes may backfire on some of your students if they tend to memorise the incorrect version easily. To be honest, this is the reason why I personally don’t like seeing Instagram posts with common mistakes–I will inevitably memorise the mistake even if I had no intention of making it ever in my life.

Activity 5: Sorting

How to do it:

Select as many as 30 or even 50 expressions from the previous lessons.
Ask the students to group them into categories:

Fridge (what I want to use regularly) // Freezer (what I want to keep but not use very often) // Dustbin (what I don’t need at all);
Useful expressions // I'm not sure if I'll ever need these // Might not be super useful but I love these // Weren't new for me;
Those your students came up with on their own.

If there are any words left because a student doesn’t remember them, ask other students to remind of or explain the meanings to them.
Have your students briefly compare their boards, giving them the opportunity to change their mind.
Ask your students to work in pairs and tell a story together, where each of them will use words from their “fridge” or “useful expressions” box. As they use them in their stories, they should tick them off.
When your students are done, you can ask them to present their story to class.

Pros: This activity develops learner autonomy. It can also boost your students’ confidence since there are no wrong answers here. The activity also allows you to revise lots of expressions in one go. The fact that the expressions are written on the board, allows your students to have more exposure to them in the form of passive review before moving onto the part where they are supposed to use the expressions in their speech.

Cons: This activity may take some time (around 30 minutes if you include the storytelling part).

Activity 6: Connecting the dots

How to do it:

Pick at least 20 expressions from the previous lessons.
Hide them somewhere so your students can pull them out. In an offline class, these would be slips of paper in a bag. In an online class you can either spin a digital wheel with the words written on it or hide the words on your board. I use Figma, so what I do is write the words in white and put them on a locked white shape (e.g. a star). My students then pull out the words without seeing them initially (until they put them aside).
Demonstrate the activity by pulling two words and making a sentence using both.
Have your students take turns to do the same.
Give them feedback on each sentence and correct any mistakes they might make with the target words. Alternatively, ask the other students in the group if they believe the sentence is correct.

Variations:

Instead of making arbitrary sentences with the pair of lexical items, you can have your students:

say true/false statements about themselves,
make a story together,
ask each other questions,
make mini-daligues,
stick to a particular theme.

Pros: This activity is perfect when you need to gauge your students’ understanding and ability to use target language. It also helps them develop their creativity.

Cons: Depending on the student, producing one sentence like that can take some time. The activity also requires a lot of monitoring on the teacher’s part, so you can’t always send your students to work in breakout rooms.

Chapter Three: Think It Through

If you want revisions to be seamless and closely intertwined with your current lesson, then you might need to create something a bit more bespoke for your students. At this point, revision may also resemble recycling as you marry old words with a new topic. These activities cannot be reused as separate activities later and they are an integral part of your lesson. However, they definitely take it up a notch and help you unleash your creativity.

Activity 7: Lead-in with a twist

How to do it:

Before planning your next lesson, look through the written record from the previous lessons. Pick 10+ expressions that are loosely related to the new topic and can be reused in class.
Create a lead-in activity (discussion questions, statements to agree or disagree with, speech bubbles with different people’s comments, facts, etc.), using some of the words you have picked. It’s okay if you can’t use all of them. Make sure the texts are plausible and natural.
Cover the expressions with washi tape or rectangular shapes, or gap them out.
Ask your students to reconstruct the texts first. After that, uncover the correct answers.
Then they can discuss the questions, agree or disagree with the statements, think of a possible consequence, rank the statements, etc.

Variation:

Provide the expressions you want to revise before showing the sentences/texts. Ask your students to discuss in pairs how they think these words can be related to today’s topic. Then show them the gapped sentences/texts and ask them to fill in the gaps with the words from the list above.

Pros: It’s a revision that doesn’t look like a revision at all. It helps your students understand that new language can be easily reused in pretty much any topic.

Cons: It takes time and sometimes research on your part to prepare the activity.

Activity 8: What would you say?

How to do it:

If you’re planning to have a discussion during your next class (no matter when exactly), review the questions and, if need be, either tweak them or add more to your list.
Then open all the language notes with this student/group and pick all the expressions that could be potentially used when answering the questions.
After that, do one of the following things:

write 3-5 useful expressions next to each question;
write all the expressions on stickers and ask your students to decide which ones they might need to discuss the questions.

Let the students enjoy their discussion.
Ask the students to let the class know what words their partner used in their discussion.

Pros: This add-on can lift the strain off your students and help them be more aware of the language they use.

Cons: If this is a freer practice activity, the words on your list may interfere with the lesson’s target language, so it’s better to use this activity in a lead-in discussion, in a speaking club, or during the post-reading or post-listening stage.

Activity 9: Write your own

How to do it:

Prepare a list of discussion questions (5-7 would be enough) related to the current topic that include target vocabulary from the previous lessons–you will need it for later, so do not disclose them yet.
Ask your students to brainstorm expressions from the previous lessons (using their language notes) based on the lesson title/topic. They can put their ideas on sticky notes in a designated place on the board. Set a strict time limit (e.g. 3 minutes) and set an ambitious goal (e.g. at least 15 expressions each) to boost your student’s productivity. It’s okay if they don’t manage to reach this goal. The point is to help your students to not overthink it. You can now briefly comment on some of the items.
Then ask them to write three to five discussion questions on the topic of today’s lesson using some of the words they’ve generated. They can work in pairs/teams. Monitor them in breakout rooms to make sure they use the language correctly.
Then reveal your questions.
Your students look through all of the questions (the other teams’ and yours) and give themselves a “heart” stamp for every question that is similar to any of the other ones on the board and a “star” stamp for every unique question. This ensures the students actually have the incentive to look through all of the questions.
Then ask your students to discuss any of the questions (theirs, the other teams’, and yours) in breakout rooms.

Pros: Your students get to explore older vocabulary in several ways. The whole sequence is quite dynamic and provides lots of scaffolding for the students. It can be a great bridge between different topics and units.

Cons: The full sequence may take quite a bit of your time.

Conclusion

Revisions can be tough. But they can also be fun and low-prep. Don’t worry if you haven’t done it in a while, you can always bounce back and get back on track. Possibilities are endless and revisions come in all shapes and forms. You can also adjust the frequency, the amount, and the level of challenge. Start building your bank of revision activities, so you always have something up your sleeve if you feel like panicking.

Viktoriia Besarab is an English teacher with a passion for methodology and creative writing. She enjoys exploring topics such as sustainability, social issues, consumerism, psychology, and art—which often shape the short-term themed courses she designs. Viktoriia is also dedicated to developing teaching materials and values minimalism and structure in boards and handouts. With extensive experience leading workshops and webinars for teachers, she is always eager to offer guidance to fellow educators. In her free time, she enjoys (in no particular order) reading, cycling, bullet journaling, creative writing, and watching YouTube with a mug of Lady Grey tea.