Job Discussion Forums

[Capergirl]

Do you do warm-up activities in class? If so, what are your favourite warm-ups to do with students?

[denise]

I have given up on warm-up activities. I've only got 50-minute lessons, so I'd rather not take the time to set up a warm-up. Also, I don't know how appropriate they would be in my classes, which are all very academically-oriented: a TOEFL prep class, a writing class in which they're doing mini-research papers, etc. Sometimes I throw in a warm-up in my speaking class, but even then I feel like the students could make better use of their time preparing for their speeches and presentations or having a more in-depth discussion. And timing has always been an issue for me--what I think will be a 5-minute warm-up oh-so-often goes on for 20, 30, 40 minutes... And I simply cannot afford to take time away from the actual content of the lessons.

That said, though, when I do/did warm-ups, I like/liked chain stories (like where one person says or writes the first sentence and then passes it on) and lateral thinking puzzles--"A man is driving to work, listening to his radio. His radio stops, and he kills himself. What happened?" (My plan with these is to spend five or 10 minutes at a time on them and then carry them over to the next day, but they tend to go on and on...)

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[Capergirl]

Good points, Denise. I guess it depends on how long the class is, not to mention how many students are in the class and how long you've been teaching them. I generally only do warm-ups in the first week, when I am still getting to know my students. After that, it just becomes time-consuming and counter-productive. In the beginning, however, it really helps to break the ice and relax the students. I also use some of the activities to help remember their names and get to know them a little better before we get into the meat-and-potatoes of the lessons.

None of my classes are shorter than 90 minutes. I'm jealous. lol

[dyak]

I've found recently that a speaking activity first of all really warms up the lower levels, especially when they're finding out new things about each other. I'm lucky in that I have the best part of 3 hours to fill so any grammar, pronunciation problems etc. that come out of it can be dealt with in detail.

Other than that, a warm up with my apathetic advanced class usually means closing the window...

[surrealia]

Here's a icebreaker I used today to great success:

Put students in small groups. Have them make a list of things that all the students in the group have in common, working in their native language (although this won't work if you have students who have different native languages). Give them a time limit of 10 minutes to do this. Then tell each group to translate each item into English. When they are finished, first tell each group to listen carefully, and if they hear another group read out an item on that is also on their own list, they should applaud wildly. The last step is to go around to each group and have them read their list, and make sure the other groups are listening and applauding when appropriate.

For more excellent games and activities, go to:

http://www.geocities.com/allhou/lessgames.htm

[Cleopatra]

With ss who don't know me very well, I sometimes write three 'facts' - two of which are true, one of which is false - about me on the board. EG "I have been to Paris" "I have gone bungee jumping" "I have met the President of my country".

The ss then have to try to find out - by asking me question - which of the 'facts' are true and which is false. They find this odd at first but soon get into it. It's also a good way of practising/revising the present perfect, and, as a great plus, requires virtually no preparation!

[biffinbridge]

stretches,pushups,burpees,star jumps.... all guaranteed to make your large arab students complain and get u fired.

[denise]

[shmooj]

This has worked wonders helping my adults (small classes of up to 8 students) acquire vocab:

note new vocab in class
next week test these vocab orally as a warm up
if they get it right reward them with a week off that item. These weeks add up so that the frequency you check the word decreases each time they get it right.
But, if they get it wrong, they lose a "week off" so that the frequency increases a bit.

I find that this means words are only practiced as much as they need to be with acquired words decreasing in frequency every time they are recalled. Words that they have trouble with however keep coming up and the students then work really hard at these words as their awareness of their lack of acqusition is heightened through getting it wrong week after week.

I keep all the data on an excel spreadsheet so I can see at a glance which weeks I need to practice which words. I find this as a warm up means that students tend to try to use particularly words they get wrong in class during the lesson.This boosts their acquisition.

[SueH]

Denise,

IIRC a burpee is otherwise known as a squat thrust with a star jump thrown in.. fortunately my team's soccer training is mainly skills based.. Seems like Biffin has been on the bevvy again.

As to your comments about timings.. not just me then!

Sue

[Capergirl]

[shmooj]

Wow, thanks for asking Capergirl - I didn't think anyone would be bothered to try to understand how it works. I admit myself that it sounds way harder than it is.

Okay here goes...

Class of five adults come in. You have a spreadsheet printout of all vocab covered last week. You start off with one student, say Miyoko, and give a prompt for the vocab item and see if they get it. Say the word is banana so you say "long yellow fruit". If she gets it, I put her initial in my spreadsheet (rows are words, columns are dates of classes). I also cross out the next date for that word so that, next week, we won't check that word but the week after. This is ONE week "off" as it were.

Two weeks rolls round. I whip out my spreadsheet and turn to Satoko and ask her "long yellow fruit". She says "banana". Great I enter her initial in my spreadsheet and then cross out TWO weeks so that we won't practice it until three weeks later.

If they keep going like this, we will practice the word less and less frequently as they always get it right.

But say, the third time rolls round and I turn to Hiromi and say to her "long yellow fruit" (Miyoko and Satoko are smiling to themselves cos their safe). She has a fit of panic and says "lemon". Uh oh, enter her initial with a cross next to it and instead of giving them THREE weeks til the next time (2 +1) reduce it to ONE week (2-1). Oh, and next time, I'll be checking Hiromi again, cos she got it wrong last time.

If they keep getting it wrong, whatever weeks off they have earnt will diminish until they are practicing it every week.

Though I only test an individual in the class a week, the others are all answering the question in their own heads of course.

This method is based on memory stuff I picked up from Stevick about how in order to move something from short to long term memory you need to keep pulling it into short term memory on a gradually lengthening basis. Eventually it settles into long term memory and I can testify that this really works for my students irrespective of age it seems.

Hope that explains it. Gotta rush... student on the prowl....