Job Discussion Forums

[naturegirl321]

I have classes at a uni that are 1.5 hours long. We have tests every 2 weeks that only last one hour and we are supposed to fill the rest of the time with supplementary material. After the test, their brains are fried and they can't concentrate. So that means I have to fill 30 minutes before the test.
I reveiw the day before and don't want to do grammar, because the get too worked up for the test.
I want to do fun activites, like the dream game, you know where the house sympbolizes you and there is a wall the you have to get around and a door symbolizes death and water is your outlook on the world.
Things like that, got any ideas, or know any good websites for things like this? Things where you can learn more about your self. Fun, short easy quizzes.
My students are intermediate and advanced levels.

[dmb]

check out kent's list. It's pretty big
http://www.eslcafe.com/forums/job/viewtopic.php?t=13675

[vre]

DMB you are so very helpful! And the list is great, thanks to Kent. Kent, where are you? Ribbit

[leeroy]

The "Running Chairs" activity:

For the sake of argument, we have 12 pre-intermediate students. This works with classes from 3-20 though - and at any level.

Divide the students into 3 teams, you will need

* an open space (I just get the students to push the tables against the walls in the class - but you could play it in a courtyard or somewhere outside the classroom.)

* six chairs

* "currency" (paperclips, photocopied money, whatever)

Arrange the area like this... (*=student, o=chair, 1-3=teams)

1 2 3
* * *
* * *
* * *
* * * --- first row

o....o
o....o
o....o

The chairs should be facing opposite each other.

Now get the first row of students (so it's one from each team) to come forward and stand in a line between the two columns of chairs

1 2 3
* * *
* * *
* * *

o * o
o * o
o * o

Now give these students standing between the chairs some "money", I give about 7 units each.

Let's make the left column of chairs represent "adjectives", and the right column "nouns".

The teacher says a word, if it's an adjective then the three students must sit on the respective "adjective" chairs on the left. If it's a noun, then they must sit on the right.

The last student to sit on their correct chair gives you one unit of currency.

Then these three students go to the back of the queue of their respective team, giving the money to the next row of students, who come up and stand between the chairs and we repeat until only one team is left with some money. They are the "winners".

Of course, it doesn't have to be "nouns" and "adjectives".

It could be...

Formal/Informal
British/American
Long vowel/Short vowel
Questions/Statements
Correct/Incorrect

etc...

Try to keep the pace quick, i.e. don't wait for the next batch of students to assume position between the chairs before saying the next word. This is usually fun, and can kill 15 minutes. It can be adapted to pretty much any area of language, and can work for any level. The pedagogic purpose? Um, listening, I suppose...

[leeroy]

Gambling, for Pre-Int upwards.

Find a quiz with 10-20 questions, ideally it should be mutiple choice answers..

Divide the class into 3-5 teams, and give each team a title and a column on the board.

Explain that each team has �200 (or whatever) - and that for each question on the quiz they must tell you what they think the answer is, and how much money they bet. However much money they have is the maximum they can bet, naturally. So, for example,

T: Question one. What do you think, a, b or c?
Team 1: �100 on a
Team 2: �150 on c
Team 3: �50 on c
Team 4: �100 on b

The teacher writes these all up on the board, then tells the class the correct answer. If the teams got the correct answer then they win that much money which they bet (duh!) - naturally if they got it wrong then the y lose whatever the bet was. So, at the end of question 1 (where c was the correct answer), Team 1 would have �100 left, Team 2 �350, team 3 �250 and Team 4 �100.

[naturegirl321]

For the person with the running chair activity, I must say it�s a great idea and I'm jealous that you can move the chairs and tables, mine are bolted to the floor, like who is going to steal a 12 foot long table?!
nd thanks for the other ideas.

[naturegirl321]

BUt do you know of activites not just for ESL and not too active? Since it's about 100 degrees here without air and it's winter!
YOu konw, like those email forwards that say, if you like this color you are, ____ if you like this animal, it means_____
things like that?

[cimarch]

Dicta-draw.

Materials: A couple of drawings of faces, as simple or complex as you like.

Method: Drill facial vocab. Divide them into pairs, one describer, one drawer. Put a picture on your desk. The describers can come look at it as many times as they want but the drawer can't leave their seat. Give them 5 minutes to produce a picture, only the drawer can draw and ALL communication must be in English. Collect the pictures and put them on the board with the original, let them compare. Switch roles, and picture, and repeat.

[cimarch]

Or you could try...

EINSTEIN�S RIDDLE

This is solvable��..I swear

1. There are 5 houses in 5 different colours. In each house lives a person with a different nationality.

2. The 5 owners drink a certain type of beverage, smoke a certain brand of cigar, and keep a certain pet.

3. No owners have the same pet, smoke the same brand of cigar or drink the same beverage.

The question is �Who owns the fish?�

Facts:

The Brit lives in the red house
The Swede keeps dogs as pets.
The Dane drinks tea.
The green house is on the left of the white house.
The green house�s owner drinks coffee.
The person who smokes Pall Mall rears birds.
The owner of the yellow house smokes Dunhill.
The man living in the center house drinks milk.
The Norwegian lives in the first house.
The man who smokes Blends lives next to the one who keeps cats.
The man who keeps the horse lives next to the man who smokes Dunhill.
The owner who smokes Bluemasters drinks beer.
The German smokes Prince.
The Norwegian lives next to the blue house.
The man who smokes Blends has a neighbor who drinks water.

[jpvanderwerf2001]

I have used both Balderdash (or a version of it) and Pictionary (again, a version of it) in my classrooms and students loved it (and learned applicable vocab. along the way).
If you don't know what either of those games are (they're pretty popular in the U.S.) PM me and I'd be happy to respond with the instructions. I simply don't have the time to write it all here and now.

[Dr.J]

I'm not sure how you do a class without air...

but here's a 10 minute warm up that always gets them going.


The students sit in a circle (works with up to 15 students...maybe)

You sit in it too.

Take out a big plastic bottle of water and a paper cup. Put a small amount of water in the cup.

Then start the game. Say a word and each following student has to say a word that relates to it in any way e.g. blue-bird-dog-walk-run-race etc.

If they take too long, or if they can't explain the relation, chuck the water in their face (does not work for all ages BTW). Then put some more water in the cup, give it to the wet student and start again.

You can think of another penalty, but water almost always wakes them up.

*Make sure that you lose the last round on purpose because they love to get the teacher.

[dmb]

What's your favourite animal? Use adjectives to describe it.

What's your favourite colour? Use adjectives to describe it.

What's your favourite body of water? Use adjectives to describe it.

You are in a white room. The floor is white. The walls are white. The ceiling is white. There is no door and there are no windows. However there is skylight in the ceiling and warm sunshine is flowing into the room. How do feel?

The animal represents how you want other people to view you.
The colour represents what you think of yourself. The water represents your love/sex life. The room represents how you feel about life in general.

students then discuss. Do they think it is true about themselves or is it a pile of Sh**.

Is that what you meant naturegirl?

[denise]

[dmb]

There is often one student who says ' If there is no door how did you you get in'

[BethMac]

@Cimarch...I've used Einstein's Riddle with my students. Only one of them was able to figure it out. I put them in pairs to solve it but one guy had a partner who wasn't much help to him and he pretty much got it all on his own. Fortunately for me, I had the answer key so I didn't have to solve it before assigning it to them.