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Badly Needed - Ideas for kids 11-13

 
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Harley's Angel



Joined: 22 Apr 2003
Location: Gwangju

PostPosted: Sun May 18, 2003 10:39 pm    Post subject: Badly Needed - Ideas for kids 11-13 Reply with quote

I teach at two schools. I teach kindergarten kids at my main school, but once a week I teach kids from 11-13 at another school. I need some ideas to liven up the older kids' classes. Their curriculum is boring. They read out of black and white, photocopied books. I teach them new words one week, and they they are suppose to read the book the next. They are bored and I am bored. The Korean English teacher believes that these small reading books are great. Also, there is a large gap between students' English abilities. They have grouped the classes by age regardless of their English capabilities. I need some suggestions on how to make the classes more interesting for my kids.
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schwa



Joined: 18 Jan 2003
Location: Yap

PostPosted: Mon May 19, 2003 1:49 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Games. Any activity can be livened up with some small component of competition.

Example: you want to quiz them on a reading, dont just ask questions. Bo-ring. Make teams. Draw a target on the whiteboard, crumple some paper into a ball, & whatever number they hit is their score for a correct answer. Suddenly youve got an active interested class. Thats one small idea off the top of my head -- there are endless possibilities. Browse Dave's Idea Cookbook for tons of suggestions.

Vary your activities. Keep your classes fastpaced. Joke around sometimes. Stay on your feet & move around the classroom. Act as if youre happy to be there & smile as much as possible. Try to like them -- if they sense that you do, your classes will become more enjoyable & productive all round.

Dont blame the material -- its commonly dull & inadequate in this trade. Think of it as a starting point. Its your creativity & energy that will make or break a class. Best of luck.
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Lost Seoul



Joined: 10 Jan 2003

PostPosted: Mon May 19, 2003 1:55 am    Post subject: Lesson plans Reply with quote

Check out the below links for lesson ideas

http://www.eslpartyland.com/

http://iteslj.org/
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waterbaby



Joined: 01 Feb 2003
Location: Baking Gord a Cheescake pie

PostPosted: Mon May 19, 2003 2:19 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

You could photocopy a page of their book in advance and white out certain words then make copies for all of your students. After the students read the page, ask them to close their books and then to fill in the missing words. You can turn it into a listening exercise by asking them to listen to you read the page and they can fill in the missing words as you go. If some words are long and difficult, just white out part of the word.

If you've already given them the words to learn in advance, test them right at the start of the class through an eraser game (write the words on the board and call out a word (or the description of the word if they're more advanced) and the students have to erase the correct word first) or use something like fly swatters or oversized plastic hammers and have them hit the correct word.

If you break the class into halves and have 2 teams, it gets all the kids interested (not just when it's their turn) as they encourage each other to do well.

If you're teaching simple verbs or nouns, try an action game where once again you have two teams and one student from each team tries to act out the word and the first person to correctly guess wins a point for their team.
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some waygug-in



Joined: 25 Jan 2003

PostPosted: Mon May 19, 2003 4:58 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I've recently discovered the value of teacher cards. You can use them game style or just as a 5 minute exercise. You can use the let's Go cards if you like. Just divide the class into teams. Cover the words on the card as you hold it up, then ask a question that should bring about the right answer.
EX: What do they like to do in Summer? --Answer: "go camping".

The first team to answer correctly gets a point.

If you can find them, the teacher cards for "Finding Out" course books work great for teaching adjectives and simple sentences.

EX: What is it? --Answer: "It's a Sad panda".

Anyway, I hope this helps.
Cheers
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mokpochica



Joined: 21 Jan 2003
Location: Ann Arbor, MI

PostPosted: Mon May 19, 2003 5:03 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

This site is great for worksheets and activities:
http://www.bogglesworld.com

The flashcards at the site cann be used for games. There are also some great board games. Much of the materials can be used for different levels.
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Harley's Angel



Joined: 22 Apr 2003
Location: Gwangju

PostPosted: Mon May 19, 2003 10:18 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Thanks for all your suggestions. I am quite new at this, so I appreciate you taking the time to help a newbie.
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waterbaby



Joined: 01 Feb 2003
Location: Baking Gord a Cheescake pie

PostPosted: Tue May 20, 2003 1:50 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Just thought of another one... I used to have to read story books with kids at my last job. When reading in class, I used a big fluffy dice. A student would start to read and then I'd roll the dice. If it rolled onto 5, we skipped ahead 5 people. It kept the kids on their toes because they had to know where we were at in the text and they loved to tease each other when it was their turn and pretend to be mortified if they had to read.

Rather than asking the kids comprehension questions, ask the kids to get together in small groups (I'm presuming your class sizes are under 16 here...) and to make up their own questions. Putting a more advanced student with the slower students can help too - don't let all the smart kids get together or it won't be fun for the rest of the class.

You can help them get the grammar right. Give them examples of questions they can ask. Then you can have a kind of quiz show and the students nominate a captain to ask the other teams their question(s). A point to the team if they get it right, a point to the team who wrote the question if the other team gets it wrong. Does this make sense? It's all so clear in my mind... sigh!
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