Job Discussion Forums

[rap60]

HELP !! Grade 5's 40+ kids per class, activities/games needed. Hardly any room to move. Kids have very limited english so instructions are also hard to relay. i really would apprecaite any game/ activity ideas for this situation. Desks can be moved but floor space is very limited. Thanks, I know it's a big ask. cheers Rob

[Non Sequitur]

Try a word race.
Need 2xavenues between desks for students to line up in.
Call them Red team and Gold Team - same number of students in each.
Have them number off - there's a few minutes hilarity right there.
Covering it with your hand write a word on the board.
At the signal reveal the word. Each team races to write consecutive words with each beginning with the last letter of the previous word, passing the chalk from one to another.
So, if your start word is 'cat' the first student word might be 'talk' followed by 'keep' etc. The first team to have all students write a word wins.
Played straight it is great fun, but the attempts to win at all costs are fun to watch too.
A popular cheating strategy is for a good student to yell out the word for each of his team mates. The counter strategy adopted is for the other team to run interference by having a student yell over the 'coach's' calls.

[kev7161]

A variation of that game is to line up, say, eight desks, one in back of the other with an aisle between each row. Write the starting word on the board as instructed and make sure the first person in the row has a notebook and pencil. Once the word is revealed, that student writes the word down in the notebook, passes the notebook to the person behind him who would write their next word, and so on to the end of the row. Once the 8th person has finished writing his/her word, they run it up to the first person who then runs up to the chalkboard, writing down all eight words (including the origin word). It's interesting to see the mess of words up there and if they are spelled correctly and if the chalkboard writer can figure out the handwriting of the others, etc. Then you rotate the students eight times so each one has a turn of starting the game and writing on the chalkboard. Sure, there will still be cheating involved but you can still involve all the students all at the same time, just with smaller teams.

[askiptochina]

That's a lot of shuffling. I pass out colored markers, 1 for each team. Playing with 6 teams works fine (left, center, and right in the front and back of class). You can then use dice or cards to pair up groups.

Another way is to ask for volunteers. This means the best groups usually start off. I do warm up exercises first in this case. Then, you pair up the 1st group with the 6th, 2nd with the 5th, and 3rd with the 4th. That is one round, if you have time, do a second round. This should get 18 students participating so far. Then you can either continue or have the winning teams playoff.

If you are just practicing, then you can have students either pick the next group or they could even pick a student. It's funny with high school students, but I am not sure how elementary school students will feel. They often choose students who are sleeping or not paying attention, so it helps with policing the students. Younger students might feel they are being picked on though.

This also means you don't have to use their names, just call out a color and keep track of 6.

[Non Sequitur]

IMHO all that effort to get 18 out of 40 students participating is not a good return.
Getting ALL of them out of their seats as per word racing is part of the process too.
Teach the whole class and the whole student, including the kinetic learners. Allowing the boys to work off some of that surplus energy is good too.

[askiptochina]

[rap60]

thanks for these ideas for games, they will work I think. I teach grades 8 and 5. I have put Grade 8 into 4 groups (each in a corner of the room) and moved desks etc, it wasnt so disruptive and in a 45 minute time slot the game (4 teams making new words from the letters in the word 'international' wriiten on the board) worked well. I will try the aisle and moving desk method on the grade 5's that you guys have suggested and see what happens. I am beginning to see that I am going to be very limited in the amount of subject matter i cover in 45 minutes Grade 8/40 minutes Grade 5, apart from using the Chinese parroting method of teaching (which will drive me nuts) so i am happy to shift furniture and kids if necessary and it does give a good return on kids participation. my perfectionist nature will have to take a back seat - I just don't have the ideal TESOL class size, so I'll do my best.

[lydia.bainbridge]

Look on the Teacher Forums under Activities and Games. Great ideas!

[Non Sequitur]

A team game like a word race DOES get every student involved - immediately.
I�ve only worked in one school where the desks were moveable. Most are bolted to the floor with two aisles.
Twenty-odd students in each team easily fit in an aisle and once the students have experienced one game they readily get into position when you announce a word race.
Don�t try to stop boisterous behaviour especially by boys when getting ready/numbering off etc. This is part of the engagement process and from it the disengaged students start to feel that there is more to be gained by participation than non-participation.
Each of my students have an individual progress slip. The slips go into a supermarket bag and a different student lucky dips to select the next student to do a task. Deliberately get disengaged students to do the dipping.
Get energy levels up at beginning of class. I have the CD player at fairly high volume when students arrive. A chanted greeting followed by the current class song � again volume to the max gets things off to a good start.
I feed off that energy for the rest of the 45 mins to get my dialogues heard, which is work I need to do.
After break I have other whole class activities until we finish with the song so everyone exits in a good mood.
No Bunny Suits, just effort.
When one of my 'disengaged' students exits the classroom singing 'As long as you love me babee..' I feel I've succeeded.

[askiptochina]

[Non Sequitur]

Except my younger kids are as old as 22!

[askiptochina]

[Non Sequitur]

Nothing in my post about a �supermarket bag game�.
It�s simply a holder for 50+ student slips from which students select the names of the two students to present their dialogue next.
Taking the bag to the back of the class to get a disengaged student to pull out and announce the names of two fellow students is a step in the right direction. Far better than patrolling the back rows threatening to confiscate mobile phones!
A positive collaboration even as simple as that can get the teacher/student relationship back on track. Teaching/learning can�t take place without it.
If you subscribe to the communicative approach � most ESL courses do � even a simple response like �Mary and John next� is worthwhile.
I�ve got college freshmen who behave/perform like beginners and Saturday morning language school students of 10 or 11 who communicate in fluent idiomatic English.
I�ve never subscribed to the notion that age and ability/motivation go hand-in-hand.