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[kev7161]

In May (after the May holiday), I'm planning on holding an "English Olympics" in my school for the Senior middle school students that want to participate. It's still in the planning stages but here's what I have so far. If you want to add any thoughts or ideas, feel free:

1. There will probably be about 10 events that each student has to do. For example, one will be doing a moderately difficult tongue twister, another would be picking a letter from a bag and then coming up with, say, seven words that start with that letter. Other events will include answering 3 open-ended questions or maybe solving a riddle. Unscrambling a mixed sentence in a certain amount of time for it to make sense. So on. I have almost all ten events but have to get the rules down.

2. Each event will be hosted/judged by an English teacher from the department. Each student will be awarded a "1", "2", or "3" based on how the judge thinks the student did, 3 being the best (if I can do it, I'll try and make some little gold, silver, and bronze awards they can carry with them). They can do whatever event they want in any order and then they collect their points.

3. Once all students have finished all tasks, we will tally up the points and determine the winner(s). There's bound to be a tie so I'm not sure yet if I'll do some tie-breaker activities or simply have multiple winners.

4. I brought some ribbons from the US last fall that say things like "Wonderful" and "Most-improved" and "Star Student" on them, so those will be perfect to use as the prizes.

5. Obviously, I plan on taking plenty of pictures and I'm hoping the school will really get into it.

Question: Do you think it would be chaos if I had all students doing this at once? Or should I try it on a class-by-class basis? Maybe each level (Senior One and Senior Two) do it together.

Anyway, it's in the planning stages now and I'll be developing it more fully throughout March and April. Any thoughts you may have would be appreciated and feel free to steal any and all ideas yourself. Thanks!

[Roger]

Great idea! My answer to your question is: yes, you should assess them individually. If all of them chorus you will have one huge shouting fest. It will remind you of one of those mind-numbing Li Yang speak-louder-and-fast-erevents.

[kev7161]

What I meant Roger, was having 10 stations that the students can choose from and then letting them go to wherever they want to - - their task would to get to all 10 stations in no particular order, do their task, collect their point(s) and then go on to another one. I don't know that all students will participate (unless the school makes it mandatory), but there could be general chaos if I let all students do this thing at one time.

However, coordinating the other English teachers to give up some of their "valuable" free time to judge is another obstacle. They may only want to do it once and then forget about it.

[roostasha]

Hey Kev,

I've organised similar events in the past. I think it all depends how many students you are looking at. If you have 10 stations, and you have 100 students, then you have lines 10 kids deep all the time, and let's face it, these kids aren't so familiar with the concept of forming orderly lines). Still, that's not too bad if all of your events just take a short amount of time. If you're going to have 50 students waiting at each stations, then I'd split them up.

Some other things to think about: Will all your stations require a staff member to run them? What about selecting some top Senior Two students to run the events under the supervision of a few circulating staff members with all the Senior One students participating in the Games. (This depends on the competency level of the upper students). Also, remember you probably shouldn't run an event yourself. Instead, be available to troubleshoot, restock supplies at various stations, etc.

Sounds like a cool idea. Good luck!

roo

[kev7161]

good ideas! thanks.