Korean Job Discussion Forums

[jst]

Usually the grade 6 classes are difficult to deal with during the school year (they get worse as the school year goes on), so I'm anticipating that they will be VERY difficult to deal with next week.

Any ideas for grade 6 classes during the last week of school?

[yoja]

A couple of ideas that have worked well for me in the past:

Pop songs--anything by the Beatles or Justin Bieber, as long as hearing Justin Bieber's music 200 times in one day won't make your ears bleed. Write up the lyrics and edit out a few words so they have to listen carefully and fill in the blanks. Have a contest to see which group can remember the lyrics the best. If they're too embarrassed to sing in front of everyone, get them in groups and let them perform/recite it very solemly, Shakespeare-style, like they are fire-n-brimstone preachers, or giving the eulogy at a funeral. Deduct points for laughing, smiling, and not being super-serious. Like, Baby, Baby, oooooh. Baby, Baby, Nooooo. They love this.

Scrabble tournament, boys vs. girls. Give them at least 10 letters and a time limit of 2-3 minutes per turn so they don't take all day only to throw down "CAT." This works best if you have a couple of scrabble games, but can be done with only one. Also works best with at least one higher-level kid per group, but you'll still probably need to help them. If you can scrounge up a couple of different board or card games that they are already familiar with (or have someone explain the rules in Korean), you can have game day. Teach them how to say things like "who is next?" and "it's your turn" and whatever else depending on the games you have.

Google "funny commercials" AND BE SURE TO PRE-SCREEN for appropriateness. Let the kids watch each commercial a couple of times and then working in pairs, have them write 3 sentences to describe what happens in each one. Try to get them to discuss why they liked it, what part was funny, why, etc. 4-6 commercials will take 40 minutes.

Have them make and decorate "memory books" out of colored paper, and then let them sign their friends' books IN ENGLISH. Remember in middle school how everyone would sign each others' yearbooks at the end of the year? Yeah, that. It was like facebook before the internet. Brainstorm as a class and provide them with some examples of APPROPRIATE things to write to their friends before you turn them loose. A couple of gems from my personal past: "2 good + 2 be = 4gotten" "Stay sweet! Don't ever change!" "Best Friends Forever" "See you next year!" Ah, mindless drivel...so heartwarming.

I'm sure there's plenty more. The first key is to give them *structured activities* that allow them to have fun and be creative, as long as they do it in ENGLISH. The second key is to give them stuff to do with each other so that they don't spend all period annoying YOU.

You're welcome.

[ddeubel]

This is used very successfully. http://bit.ly/hpTs7K

But if not doable - try some games. Lots of BAAM, Jeopardy, Battleship stuff available. http://bit.ly/fBNU2Y

DD
http://eflclassroom.com[/url]

[jst]

Nice ideas yoja and ddeubel. Thank you.

[Lastrova]

A couple of activities that go well together:
1. Play the song Pyromania by Cascade. Give them fill-in-the-blank lyric sheets. Play this version or the official video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vh34LP5TJo4

I'd cover some essential vocab before playing the song, like pyromania, pyromaniac, ow, etc.

2. Play Hot-Cold as a good review of prepositions. Give all students a little card with key classroom vocab--or you can elicit the vocabulary and write them on the board. Key words could be shelf, cupboard, window, desk, chair, window sill, door, whiteboard, drawer, garbage can, computer, top, bottom, left, right, middle, etc.

3. Put students into teams (at least 4 teams works well). Send one from each team student out into the hall. Hide one or more objects in the class (more objects for advanced classes). Four students come back in and either ask questions or write questions down on a paper/whiteboard. I give the writing option as we have a lot of very shy students.

4. The students now respond with the following:
a. You're cold
b. You're getting warm
c. You're getting hot
d. You're burning up!

Use this question format for the students at the front:
"Is it ___________ to the door?"

Oh, and before the students come in, make sure you establish the winning question. That is, the question a student needs to say or write to win the points for his/her team. I might also make a hands on desk rule for the students because they will definitely want to stand up, point, etc. and this limits the potential for cheating. And students that help could get a minus point for their team or get disqualified.

[soyoungmikey]

Put on a movie with K-subtitles. Relax you've earned it.