Job Discussion Forums

[Mike L.]

I've got some classes in the next week with my usual 1st grade high school kids.

However, this time there will be some American kids from our sister school, 3-5 of the same age, in the class and I'm trying to think of the best way to get them involved in the lesson.

This is my own "conversation course" with 20 students. I can teach anything I like. I teach each class once a week.

The level is fairly low, but they are keen.

I use a lot of my own handouts / materials and foucs on using simple grammar points, using materials relevant to the kids, to get them talking.

I've been teaching alone for so long that I'm drawing a balnk for fun/good ideas to make use of the American srudents in my class.

Anyone ever been in this situation?

Any advice greatly appreciated

[denise]

How about a panel discussion, with the Americans as the panelists/guest speakers? Your students could prepare & ask them questions. (I "borrowed" this idea from some friends in my MA program--I was a guest speaker in one of their classes, and it was great fun.)

d

[BenJ]

how about one native to 3 or 4 Japanese students - interview style where the Japanese have to find out as much as possible about the yank including family, hobbies etc.

[Celeste]

Any kind of interview game works fairly well for this kind of situation. If you give each group a card with a series of likes and dislikes, abilities, vital statistics, etc, then have the students interview the guests until they find the one that matches the description that they have. Afterwards you could have the students practice introducing thamselves to the guest that they have found, or you could have them introduce their guest to the rest of the class.You could also assign one of the guests to each group and have them all play an English conversation board game such as you might find on www.bogglesworld.com