Here’s a useful website that I came across the other day that I thought was perfect for reviewing IELTS task 1 language, specifically describing and comparing trends. Storyline is a game designed to see how well you can guess various trends related to technology over time, so nothing to do with ELT or IELTS, but you know what us teachers are like, as soon as I saw it, I only had one thing in mind!

Here’s how I’m going to use it with more students. I think it’s best suited as a review task, but you could use to introduce the idea with some adapting.

1 Open up the website and ask the student to make their prediction for the trend. 

2 After they’ve drawn the line, ask them to explain to you or to a partner what they think the answer is, reviewing the language that they’ve studied so far.

3 Monitor and give feedback on their use of the language for describing trends.

4 Show them the answer and ask them to describe to you or to a partner the differences between their prediction and the correct answer.

5 Monitor and give feedback on their use of the language for comparing trends.

6 Repeat for the next four graphs.