Misc.ideasandactivitiesvalladolid

YL CLASSROOM IDEASMisc. Ideas and Activities

From: IH Valladolid (Sarah Findlay)

A few ideas, none of them revolutionary, for making the classroom a more interesting place...

ArticulateUsing vocabulary that is known to students create teams of 3/4 Ss. Give each team a bag or box with around 20 words in it (the number increases as the level gets higher). If you want you could colour code the paper (red for verbs, green for nouns etc.,). Issue the words to teams. The rules are that Ss must convey the meaning anyway they can without using the word itself. If the word was ‘football’ then Ss could NOT at any point say ‘foot’ or ‘ball’ or ‘begins with F’ or ‘the 6 th letter of the alphabet’. It’s unlikely, but if Ss are higher level they could not use ‘rhymes with’. Ss can use association (David Beckham), or relative clauses (It’s a thing which.../ a person who) or any other means at their disposal (Sport, 2 teams of 11 players etc.,). Each describer gets 1 minute to do as many as they can before the bag/ box is passed to the next person. The guesser keeps the card. The winning team finishes first and the winner in the team is the person (guesser) with the most cards. Rules can vary according to level, but normally I allow words Ss can’t describe to go back into the bag as they will have to be used by s/one else later anyway.

This is obviously excellent revision of lexis and a good way to practise circumlocution – incredibly necessary for any learner.To cater to all learning styles and for further reinforcement of the language the game can be played 3 ways. First time as above, second time (now that Ss are familiar with all the words) as one-word association and thirdly as mime. You’ll find that Ss just shout out words toward the end but it doesn’t matter – they’re using the language!

ParachutesHangman - but with parachutes. A cord gets removed for every incorrect guess.

What is it??!!!????Create a ‘screen’ using a book or a piece of cardboard and drop items behind it. Ss have to guess what’s being dropped. Simple - but a ton of fun.

Mini WhiteboardsI cannot explain how many times these bad boys have helped me out. Plastify/ laminate a couple of pieces of A4 paper (preferably) of different colours. Ss can use these in teams to write T/F, sentences, definitions, grammar auction answers and/ or bids… The list is endless. It saves on paper in the long run, cuts down on cheating and accusations of copying and is s/thing a bit different for the Ss. The can be wiped clean and re-used as many times as u wish.

YL CLASSROOM IDEAS – Misc. Ideas and Activites

Chiesa’s Diamond/ The Diamond GameAsk your class for a noun. Any noun will do here – but perhaps something on a recent vocab area would make the game more relevant.

If this is a one off class, or a one off game or there’s been no recent vocab theme in class, then especially good nouns for the game model are HOLIDAY PARTY BIRTHDAY (ie ‘Fun’) but really, even TABLE will do!Write up the first noun they give you onto the board, a recent class of mine chose

SUNSHINE

And ask the Ss to tell you the first thing they think of when you say ‘sunshine’. Write up the first 2 words they shout at you, so now your board reads

SUNSHINEWARM BEACH

Now cover ‘sunshine’ with your hand and ask the students to tell you what they associate with a) WARM b) WARM and BEACH c) BEACH. Your board reads

SUNSHINEWARM BEACH

FIRE SEA BIKINI

Ask Ss to ignore the first 2 lines - use a) FIRE b) FIRE and SEA c) SEA and BIKINI d) BIKINI.

SUNSHINEWARM BEACH

FIRE SEA BIKINIBURN DISASTER HOLIDAY GIRL

Now start to close your diamond in, asking only for 2-word associations

SUNSHINEWARM BEACH


HOSPITAL BALI ROMANCE

Keep going until your diamond is complete…

SUNSHINEWARM BEACH


HOSPITAL BALI ROMANCEBOMB KISS

EXPLOSION

Divide the Ss into groups leaving the original diamond on the board as a model.


Groups of 3/4 Ss work best here, but more than 4 actual groups will be extremely time-consuming , so play around with what you’ve got…Ss make their own diamond in their groups. Monitor, check, help with spelling, vocab etc… but ESP! Check that the diamond frame is the same as your model – all manner of things are produced here – not least with younger learners.As soon as each group is finished ask them to write their diamond on the board (if you have only 1 board marker – do it yourself - it’s quicker, neater and less distracting!!). After ensuring that all of the words in all of the diamonds are legible ask each team to write a story. The story should:

• Use the words out of the running order they are in the diamond (e.g. I heard the explosion as I turned the corner toward my hotel. The girl next to me started screaming and everyone on the beach looked scared)

• Include a MAXIMUM of 2 diamond words per sentence• Be approx 100 – 150 words in length (about 12/14 sentences).

**If Ss want/ need to change the form of a word (e.g. FIRE to FIREMAN or ROMANCE to ROMANTIC) that’s ok as long as the word is changed on the board too. Monitor, check, help – they’ll be reading these out to the class later (don’t let them know that at this stage) so there does need to be a degree of grammatical accuracy – although we’re not looking for perfection.

As the groups finish, ask them to highlight or underline each ‘Diamond Word” the 1ST TIME!!! they use it ONLY. (If you look at our example, the word ‘beach’ or ‘holiday’ could easily occur more than once, but should only be highlighted/underlined once).

Depending on age (although I do this bit every time) ask the teams to choose an animal. Ask them what sound it makes – obvious problems will now occur for the group that chose giraffe, but you live and learn.

Each team now reads their story aloud to the class but make their animal noise (or a beep if they prefer) instead of their diamond word when they hit a highlighted/underlined word. The other groups get a point each time they guess the correct missing word.

***Don’t let Ss shout out a constant stream of words from the diamond – they should listen carefully and respond with one word, if it’s wrong the other team has a chance and so on, until the answer is correct*** The winner is the team with the most points.

Additional Scattegories possibilitiesPerson, place, food, drink, noun, verb, adjective, comparative, superlative, irregular verb, gerund, something bigger than an Alsatian, something heavier than [insert Ss name here], something in this room, something that ISN’T typical in Spain, something natural, something smaller than my hand, a word from this Unit’s lesson, a word with more than 6 letters etc., It doesn’t have to be the same old same old all the time.


“A is stupid, but it could be A!

It can’t be C! I know indecisive and I’ve never heard wiggle.”

What’s the word in Spanish….?

BluffThis is excellent. It’ll really put you centre stage and get your class laughing, so save it for when you’ve had one of those lessons – but careful – it’s VERY teacher-centred, so don’t let it go on too long.Take a somewhat obscure or amusing word – one that’s useful but that they won’t know. With Upper Int. to Advanced students all vocab is useful but with Pre Int. be more selective…As an example, wiggle is useful and fun, so let’s use that. Your board wiggle A B C Team 1 Team 2 Team 3 Points:

Put Ss into teams (2/3 Ss per team works best) On a piece of paper have a word and then 3 definitions (2 of them, obviously, spurious). This paper is just for you, but I suggest that you write down all definitions – not just the nonsense ones). Write the word (in this case wiggle) into the word space on your board. Ask if anyone knows what it means (they won’t). Tell Ss you are going to give them 3 options, they must decide within their teams which option is correct A, B or C.

Example:A. to wiggle (v.)(n.) to make small movements from side to side or up and

downB. wiggle (n.) a small wig for use, for example, on only part of the headC. wiggle (adj.) used to describe a person who’s very indecisive “Oh don’t ask him, he’s far too wiggle!!”

As long as all your definitions sound as plausible or ridiculous as each other Ss will love this!! Be as long-winded and elaborate as you like, but then once they’ve heard all 3 parts recap with a brief, simple explanation again and note down something under each letter – even it’s just the part of speech or, with our example, move, hair, decision SS discuss the plausibility of each definition.

“No, I’m sure wig isn’t real hair – it’s B! It must be!!”


25 SquaresThis is the ultimate back-pocket activity as it actually fits in your back pocket.Get 26 squares all about the size of a post-it note. Make all the squares from different coloured card or paper (use as many different colours as you have access to). On one side put each letter of the alphabet, on the other the numbers from 0 – 25, don’t make ‘A’ 1 and ‘B’ 2, mix it up a bit. Plastify or laminate these. X is the most rubbish letter of the alphabet so it’s always a good idea to make it ‘0’ so it can be ignored or removed in most games. Now you can do pretty much anything you want with them, but here are my top ten favourites.

1. Blu-tac the squares to the board and set questions. Ss in 2 teams. Each correct answer ‘wins’ that square. Teams are aiming for 4/5 in a row. They can choose the square they want next in order to block another team or get their row (diagonal, horizontal or vertical).2. Getting back into the book. This is great post each semester or at the start of the year to make the book and English more engaging. As above but the questions are book based, i.e. What B is the character on Pg 23? or What’s the theme of Unit 2? or Find a word on Pg 54 that means happy.

If you have more than one set (or if all teachers have a set and you borrow each others):

3. Giant scrabble (don’t believe there’s anyone who doesn’t know the rules)4. Boggle (9 random letters on board, Ss make as many words as they can from them, 1 point a letter).5. Say it, Spell it! (Teacher/ Ss reads out a word, Ss spell it)6. Scattegories (provide categories and Ss must complete them with a matching letter, e.g. A person, a city, a food etc., with D – see Pg 7 for more challenging/ different categories).

They can also be quite a useful classroom management tool:7. Issue a number or letter to each Ss and use that to split teams or decide on who goes first with minimum fuss.8. Have an A card and a Z card (or a 1 and a 2 card) and use them much as a referee would use a yellow and a red card (for those of you unfamiliar with the rules of ‘soccer’, ask a friend or google it).

Additionally you can do old classics such as:9. The alphabet game (put up all the letters, Ss name jobs/ animals/ food)10. Don’t have a 10, just liked the roundness of a ‘top-ten’.


Whispering DictationI love this. Get Ss into teams (more than 4 teams will be unbelievably hard work for you, the teacher) and insist on silence. Have the text you wish to dictate (also sentences work well for pronunciation practice) ready and give each team a piece of paper and a pen/ pencil. The first person (runner 1) from each team comes up to the front and the teacher whispers the first part of the text. Runner 1 goes back and whispers what the teacher told them. ANYONE in the team can write it down except for the runner. The runner can come up as many times as they wish for another rendition of their text portion. When it is written completely, or as best as the team can, the next person runs up. All Ss should have written and run at least once, but the writer and the runner cannot be the same person at the same time. If team 2 is ready before team 3 then the teacher is simply whispering different parts of the text at different times to different teams. The winning team is finished and accurate first. This is obviously great as it covers all four skills at the same time, which cannot be said for most activities!

Ladders to the FrontDivide the class into 2 teams and draw 2 sets of ladders on the board.

Ss stand in 2 lines (teams) facing the front of the class. Give a board pen/ chalk to the person at the front and show a flashcard or a word or a meaning of a word to the person at the back. They then whisper this forward and when it reaches the front they write it onto the board. The person at the front runs to the back after each turn. This is obviously massively adaptable so do what you want with it and be creative so Ss can’t copy!

Line by LineA nice, point scoring variation on Pictionary. Draw something, but line by line. If Ss can guess after 1 line then it’s 6 points, 2 lines means 5 points, 3 lines means 4 points etc., Be as obscure as you can and start with odd parts of pictures. Good warmer to get the brains working!


Finish the PhraseTake a well known phrase or the introductory sentence to a reading or Unit. Write the words onto pieces of paper or card, one word per piece. Stick these to the board. Have a copy of the text to hand and number the card so that you can see which numbers correlate to which words. Give the title or topic and get Ss using interactive processing to deduce the words they would expect to see.Theme – Animal Facts!

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

Elephants can’t jump as they have no knees.

One last note. The word ‘game’ is, in my experience a dangerous one. In my classroom we don’t play games we do fun stuff. Ss begging for games is a bad thing and you end up bartering for their education ‘Just do this last exercise and we’ll play a game’… Everything is an activity and everything, to the best of our abilities, should be fun and engaging.


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Misc.ideasandactivitiesvalladolid