Korean Job Discussion Forums

[ddeubel]

I just made a blog post about ways to use flashcards and some resources too.

I'd appreciate anyone replying here on the ways they use them and any tips they'd share about how to proceed.

I do a number of workshops each year on using flashcards and always gather some useful info. from teachers during them. I'm really supportive of their use because they are so student centered and focused on language production.

Cheers,

DD
http://eflclassroom.com

[Fishead soup]

I don't use flash cards although recently I've started using What's the Wordle? Great activity. I've been using the word order one. If I get to one that's a little too hard I give them a sneak spit second look at the answer.
Then I flash it back to the wordle.

[The Gipkik]

I use flashcards in many ways: On the whiteboard for various games like tic tac toe, car race, Snap!; in piles for teams to pick one to show students for relay races; as prompts to help them form a sentence; shuffled and covered up while I walk clockwise or counterclockwise around the class, slowly revealing the card. Walking around the class is a good one because they have to turn around to see the card when I am slowly revealing it and this keeps them active in a small way. I also might shuffle the cards and let them see the card for a brief second as a review. With some cards I might tape one to a student's back or use various cards as stations: the students go from station to station answering questions before moving on. The possibilities are endless.

[teachingld2004]

Have the students make them.'You can do this in lots of ways.

First, explain what they are! Give out index cards, or they will
spend all their time making them a certain size.

You can have a format, or put them in groups and have them create them, and they will have to present them to the class.

Make rules.

tell them to make them neat, but you can not take 45 minutes to make one card!
(make some yourself as examples)
You can have them use the target vocabulary, or have them make a flash card game
.
Ideas are endless.

[lifeinkorea]

I usually get a grammar point to start with. Count and non-count words seem to be an endless struggle even though there is an easy concept behind it.

In this case sort out flashcards and make sure the count ones are in fact countable. This means you need 2 or more of whatever it is (I use food or school objects like carrots, apples, books, erasers, etc...). Then with the uncountable, get cards like cake, ice cream, milk, sugar, etc...

I have a vocab list up at http://englishlessons.wikispaces.com/Vocabulary

[damn native]

Heres another one
This one is easier with a smaller group up to about 15 .
Have one student stand behind the chair of another student . You the teacher are facing both students with your flashcards hidden . On cue 1,2,3 show a flashcard , first of the two students to answer with the correct vocab or target language is the winner so they move to stand behind the chair of the next student. The object of the game is to try and get round all the chairs by responding correctly before each of your seated opponents. If a seated opponent is first on the draw they take the place of the standing player who returns to their own chair . It usually gets fast paced and competitve and can be used for basic vocab with kindie kids sitting in a circle to high school/ middle school students using sentences like present continuous etc...

[raewon]

I made five "prop" flashcards, each of which has a see through center and a wide ring of colored paper around it. The rings are concentric, with the first ring being the widest (thus having the smallest see through area) and the last ring being the narrowest. I stack them on top of each other and then hold a flashcard behind them all. The kids only see a very small portion of the picture and have to guess what it is. Then I remove the first "prop" flashcard, revealing more of the picture ... and continue this way until they guess what it is. A fun spin on simply asking "What's this?" It's also a great way to have the kids elicit lots of vocabulary words.

I got this idea at an Oxford workshop.

[lifeinkorea]

[ddeubel]

Lots of great suggestions and as mentioned repeatedly, flashcards really = active learning. Students can be up and about and using language on their feet.

One way to use flashcards that I like is to copy 5 or 6 flash cards. Give one to each person in the class. Tell them, "This is what you ........ " or "This is your favorite ....." Then, the students must wander around the class asking others about their card. If they find a match, they link arms and continue finding others who then keep linking arms, making a chain.

After, ask "Who here.....?" and that group will respond.

Fishead,

Glad you like that game. I'll be making more, got about 9 + games there now. It really gets kids thinking and the visuals attract them. Just pause the player and then you can use the arrow keys to adv. / go back. ....

Cheers ,

DD
http://eflclassroom.com

[lifeinkorea]

[ddeubel]

[Juregen]

Well I just do the following

Memory game -- well you all know that double the cards and mix and find.
But I do add a small twist.
when they turn the first card they have to ask the question, and the second card triggers the answer (pos or neg)

Circle game -- all the cards in double again, distribute the cards among the children, use a simple grammatical structure to ask questions, if the opponent has the card positive answer, if not negative answer.

running game -- for lower levels, distribute the cards all over the classroom and sit central. Here you can have 2 versions, everyone goes or one by one. If everyone goes, some kids are not going ot be verry happy, so I stick to the one by one, the faster they come back the faster they can find the cards. Use the samer sentence over and over again with only the flashcard word changing and let them look for the cards.

Running-writing game -- this is to enhance writing skills
One side of the room you stick the card on something with the words written on it. On the other side of the room the children stand with a paper with pictures resembling the flashcards. make sure it takes a few seconds for them to walk to the other side. Then let them fill in the words as fast as possible. This teaches them better strategies on remembering how to write words.

I got a couple of more but don't use them very often.