Job Discussion Forums

[ellenjane10]

I'd like to learn more about Activities and Games which work well with large groups of middle school students (class size 40+). Any suggestions?

[Roger]

Your class is not "
very large" by Chinese norms, but I know how you feel about this!
Your teaching depends on a variety of conditions; how many periods, are there any two consecutive? Subject?
I had some astonishing results when I gave them one lesson of regular lectures during which they had to jot down relevant information. For example, I would explain to them climate and weather. As you will easily find out, this topic needs expansion by covering the concept of time as well (year, seasons, months, weeks, days!). There are a lot of new lexical items to be acquired (and they can learn them monolingually, that is without recourse to Chinese, or if they so wish, give them an assignment to do the translation of the relevant words at home, then check it in the next lesson!).
Depending on the topic, you can do a lesson of practical activities. Ask them for instance, "in the month of JANUARY, what kinds of clothes do you wear?"). Or "In JUNE, what is your favourite hobby/outdoors activity?"
You can also vary it to drive home some GRAMMAR points that Chinese teachers neglect, such as the USE OF THE PAST TENSE or the correct subject-verb agreement in sentences using "he" or "she". "Last MAY, what clothes did you wear?" "JUne of last year, where did you go?"

Middle-school kids are still full of physical drive; have them move around the school complex, do orienteering, or do physical exercises.
Running 5 floors up will do you good too!

And, for more info, please refer to the ELEMENTARY EDUCATION forum - you will get a lot more feedback!

[ellenjane10]

Thanks Roger, all great suggestions. To clarify the situation, I teach the same lesson 16 times. As I understand it, the classes can be up to 90 students. My role is to review the lessons which the Chinese English Teachers have taught. I have the text and I have worked out some follow up and extension activities. I weas just wondering about ideas which more experienced FE might have.

[woza17]

Hi
I have posted this before . I have found the flyswatter game from Dae's idea cookbook great and the trivia game is excellent for reviewing lessons. If you need more details post me
Cheers Carol