Korean Job Discussion Forums

[butlerian]

I just thought I'd try something a bit different today and give my 2nd graders (boys middle school) a game to play related to Battleships (you can see it here: http://www.mes-english.com/games/files/bombsaway.doc ) Suffice to say it didn't work as they just couldn't grasp the idea, despite my explanations and help from my Korean co-teacher. I was told that the students don't like "ask and answer", but surely that's the kind of thing I'm here to encourage, rather than "open your notebooks". Was I wrong to attempt something like this?

[Colorado]

It looks like a great game to me.
I'm going to try it this afternoon with my after-school class of grade 2 middle-school boys. It's a small class (about 10 students). I'll let you know how it goes.
I don't think I'd try this in my regular grade 2 classes. It's difficult to do much of anything with them these days.

[butlerian]

[bosintang]

[xCustomx]

I used the get 4 game with my 2nd grade class this morning. They recently learned the present perfect in their textbook, so I thought it'd be a fun way to practice using that tense. Even though I showed them examples of how to play and the Korean teacher explained the game in Korean, several groups were just marking their papers and not making senteneces at all. I'm gonna try it again this afternoon and if it doesnt work very well then I'm gonna scrap that activity

[bosintang]

Interesting. That makes three of us. In my opinion, I think it could be because these style of games are not really part of the learning process, rather a distraction from them to supposedly make the repetition more interesting. You can concentrate on connecting four squares OR you concentrate on making correct sentences, you don't necessarily need to combine both.

[YoshaMazov]

I played Battleship with my students a few weeks ago. The hardest part was explaning how to set up the boats. You have to move incredibly slowly and repeat youself countless times (just like every other lesson, I guess). If the kids are having trouble understanding it, here are a few tips.

You'll want to explain that there are 6 ships: two big ships, two medium ships, and two small ships (after saying this ask how many ships there are). Then make a grid on a chalkboard/white board and proceed to draw two of each ship (for extra emphasis, I would ask the kids "How many big ships should I draw...how many squares are the big ships?). I would make two grids, one for me and one for my "enemy." Then have them draw the ships on the worksheet. When you draw the ships on the board it's also important to explain that you draw them wherever you want, say that it's random.
After the kids draw the ships on their worksheet, explain how to play the game. Make a few right and wrong guesses.

If they think the actual English portion is too difficult, there are different worksheets on the page that are all present tense, too.

The activity works great for kids who generally put forth some effort. But, of course, there is always a contingent of students who never try at anything.

[VanIslander]

They are too old. I gave up enjoying Battleship when I was 12.

I might play it with my grade 6 high-level class of 8 students today and see. Or my grade four class might be better.

I've played a silimar idea: Guess where it is, with a coordinate grid of "top left" "top right" "middle left" etcetera, nine square board to practice left/right, top/bottom/centre terminology and my grade 3 elementary school class loved it! especially when the winner got to hide the next thing (the thing was a color, and once they guessed the right space, they had to then guess the right color, the stage when excitement really heated up). Students love guessing games if designed for their level and interest.

[bosintang]

If I pass out a pair of worksheets like below, model a dialogue with my co-teacher or a student, the kids seem to do them. If I try to introduce a game with them like connect-4 or bombs away, it just seems to muddle and overly-complicate things.



---------------
Worksheet A

.....................................................Me ...........|....... My partner
eaten spaghetti?
played basketball?
given Mr.bosintang a hug?
..
------------

------------
Worksheet B:
.....................................................Me ...........|....... Partner

Have you ever...
ridden on a rollercoaster?
...
---------

[ddeubel]

Look at the back of my teaching folder. There are all sorts of modified and ready to go versions of this battleship game. On all kinds of themes/target grammar.

http://www.esnips.com/doc/d8639242-5263-4126-bf61-0cc67b88e367/Battleship-time2

Also see my powerpoint battleship game. Helps introduce the concept and this is in my powerpoint games folder.

http://www.esnips.com/doc/f6918d24-2865-4b4d-8fdc-52de0ab776e8/Whole-Class-Battleship

The key is 2 things in particular.

1) Play the first game whole class, teams against each other. Draw the grid on the board along with the sentence and response structure. ex. Does John have (subject) on (monday)? Yes, he does. / No, he doesn't.
Each team can guess and as they guess draw an 0 for a hit and an X for a miss in the boxes. each hit is a point. The team continues to guess if they answer correctly. If they sink a whole ship they get a point for the hit AND the value of the whole ship (3,4 or 5 points) but they must then stop guessing. Turn over. Play until all ships are sunk and then count up the score.

2) Then students get the handout and first, mark/draw their ships 2 of each (3 squares, 4 squares, 5 squares). No diagonals allowed! Then when they have this done they ask and draw in the hits and misses in the grid below. They count points the same way or just play to first to sink each others ships.

Once they know how to play, it is off to the races with this game! I even have had classes make their own card holders. Get cardboard, bend the bottom to make a stand and they clip their sheets to each side and play -- so it is impossible to see each others sheets. Store these for play whenever you need them.....

DD

[lowpo]

[mrsquirrel]

I find that most games don't work. They do try but they just miss the idea.

I also find that any sort of gap fill role play doesn't work unless they are talked through each step bit by bit by bit. If I'm not meticulous in the presentation they will miss it.

Any sort of gap fill that requires their own input is a no no as well. They just can't think of anything, it's not their fault though just the way they have been taught.

We have tried gap fills where I have numbered the gaps and we make a list on the board of possible things to say. Great idea sadly it takes so long to get them to actually fill four gaps that it's time to finish the lesson.

They do like information gap exercises though. Particularly crosswords. I have had great success with a sports crossword where they had to mime the activity for their partner and a food one where they had to describe the food to them.

I am sure that if my co-teachers had a bit more input then the lessons would go a lot smoother.

[bosintang]

[mrsquirrel]

I think one of my biggest problems is I am still getting used to the lower level of English as compared to my last students who were in a private English program.

They had the ability to think on their own, some of them were able to make jokes and make fun of you in English. Sadly I haven't seen that here yet. There are a few students who are good but none who are outstanding.

[VanIslander]

To reiterate: