Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Qinella]

I don't mean just memorizing, oh okay front means �ٿ�, over means ����, I mean a way to actually put them to use that is fun and gets the whole class participating. Draw a picture.

Yep, it's very simple. Just give them a blank sheet of paper, and tell them what shapes to draw and where. I tried it yesterday with a few classes, and even the middle schoolers, who are fairly decent in English, had a very hard time with it. It was quite challenging. They all ended up with a picture of a house, a tree, flowers, people, moon, stars, etc., some of which looked very cool.

Before doing the house exercise, though, I had them practice with something simple, like this: draw a square in the middle of the page. To the left of the square, draw a big circle. Inside the circle, on the bottom, draw another circle. Inside the circle on the left, draw a star. Under the square, draw a smaller square. To the left of the small square, draw a rectangle. Etc... It gets them warmed up.

Also, I asked that no one translate what I say to Korean. So when they didn't understand what I meant, I would point to a section of the blackboard and say "bottom of the blackboard" or "the right side of the blackboard" or whathaveyou to help them internalize prepositions. With the middle schoolers, I let them take turns in giving the next direction to the class. It was fun!

I also tried working with a map of a city that I drew, but found less success with it, although it was a good review of city vocabulary.

Cheers,
Qinella~

[Pangit]

Give them clues and have a treasure hunt once you've taught them the new vocabulary.

[SPINOZA]

[rokgryphon]

I like to play hide and go seek with my lower level students to teach them prepositions. After each game have the seekers come back and tell you where they found the hiders. If they didn't find someone have them say where they were. i.e. in the bathroom on the toilet.

[Qinella]

[SPINOZA]

Cheers.

[ajuma]

I play a game where I put 1 classroom object (books, pencils, pencil cases, chairs, erasers....whatever) on each of 2 desks. Students come up and I give directions such as "Put the pencil in the book." "Put the chair in front of the desk." They get 1 point for being correct, plus the fastest student gets an extra point for speed. "Put the chair on the desk" seems to cause the most trouble...and "Stand up on the chair" is the most fun!

[plattwaz]

I like to get a box for each student in the class.

Sit ON the box. Get INSIDE the box. Go UNDER the box. Etc etc.

Once they've learned the words, I set up a small obstacle course for them. As they do each activity, they say the words "Jump over the pencil. Crawl under the chair. Go around the box. Stop on the carpet. Go behind the table."....etc etc

Mind you I teach little ones, so of course they find it amusing.

[EFLtrainer]

I Spy variant. Does this need explaining?

[Qinella]

Ajuma and Plattwaz, those sound like fun ideas, especially the part about the obstacle course. Wow, my younger students would love that!

[deessell]

You can also do a running dictation with the instructions first. Then give them the paper and they have to draw it onto the paper.

ie. The house is on the hill. There is a cloud above the house.......

[EFLtrainer]

Cool. So everyone remembers "I Spy." Just in case:

Place objects around the room while the students close their eyes or are sent out. The latter is preferable given that someone will always peek! Then you either can have instructed the students beforehand what target language to use OR can direct the game via questions, e.g., "Where is the ~ ?"

It is fun to put things where they cannot be seen and then either dramatically feign ignorance or give hints as to the whereabouts. A bookbag, for example.

You can play with or without points, teams or individually, for fluency or for accuracy, by hand raising or shouting out, etc.