Korean Job Discussion Forums

[skim234]

hi,

i teach mainly 1st-4th graders at a hagwon. apparently, they complain that my teaching is too boring. there's not much extra time in class to entertain them with jokes or side conversation.

what are good ways to engage young students into the class? i maybe have 5-10 mins at most to spare.

any suggestions would be appreciated. thanks!

[nfld_chingu]

Ever think about playing some educational games?

[skim234]

[lithium]

[soomin]

I like to play "Simon Says," and usually at least one student knows this game and can explain it to the others if need be.

For the younger ones, I like to play "Body ABC." This is where you go through the letters of the alphabet and try to make the shape of the letter with your body. You can start off going alphabetically (especially when determining their level) and then can advance up to random letters. They really like to play this game and it lets you and them be goofy and fun~ (And they're proud of themselves, as well). Once they have gone through the letters once, I do a race where I call out random letters and the first student to make the shape gets a point. Most points is the winner (and can get candy or stickers or whatever prize you/your school does).

For classes that are a little too old for ABCs, I play "Airplane Questions"~ I put values on parts of the wall, blackboard, etc, and have everyone make their own airplane. Then I ask English questions (very easy, like "how old are you" or "what color is the sky?") and whoever raises their hand and answers correctly first gets a chance to throw their airplane. Then they get the points for what they hit...

I also like to do origami sometimes~ It helps them to focus and they are proud of their finished origami structures~ I especially like making origami horses, because they take a bit of time, and they can do back flips ^.^ Kids LOVE them~ (http://www.origami-fun.com/origami-horse.html)

If you have room in your classroom, you can do the "whisper game." You divide the class into two (or more) teams and have them line up. The teams turn and face the back wall, and the last member stands at the very end of the classroom. You then have the first members come to you and tell them an English word (you can choose ones from their work that day). Then they have to whisper it to the next teammate and so on (like telephone) and the first team to have the end student shout the correct word gets a point~

You can also play team charades, or team word-guess... Break the students into teams. Have one student sit in the front while you write an English word behind them. Their teammates have to make them guess the word without saying it (or using Korean). Once they guess it, (or give up), the next student comes to be the person in the chair (or the guesser) and so on. Points for words, and then the next team tries to beat their score.

Good luck!

[YTMND]

I have the same problem. Students don't like to play games in my classes though, lol. They never stay within their teams. So, activities are more successful for me. I combine them with drills to give them more time in class doing the activity while still studying something useful.

You could also ask the student who is complaining, "What do you want to do?"

Adapt what they want to a lesson you want to teach.

Sometimes a good student will "become" bored when another student learns and is now competition. They will say it is boring so they can do something else and stay "the best".

[Hokie21]

If it's only 10-15 minutes then two good vocabulary games are pictionary or charades. Split the class into two teams, or just play it as individuals and try to work in some vocabulary words from that days lesson. Have a student come up, give them a word and either draw on the board or act it out.

Sometimes if I have 5 minutes to spare at the end of my class I'll allow my well behaved classes to do it. They know they must raise their hands though to answer. Shouting out answers costs them a point.

If you have 20 minutes you can play a type of Jeopardy game, asking questions which relate to material you went over from class or to review material from previous classes.

[Zackback]

Word search or crossword puzzle would do just fine.
Or break out the hip hop moves you know. They'll love ya for it.

[nfld_chingu]

OP, it's been a while since I've actually had to use any games in the classroom, so it's hard to remember a lot of the games, but here's one that might be helpful ...
I played a type of Scattergories with my classes that one of my co-workers taught me. Well, you can divide the class into two teams and you make up the categories, depending on your students' English ability level (animals, types of food, articles of clothing, countries, etc.). Probably 5 or 6 categories is good enough. Then pick a letter and have the students raise their hand if they can think of a word that begins with that letter for that category (for example, an animal that begins with the letter C can be cat, cow, etc.). Award each team a point every time a member of the team answers correctly. It can be tricky but try to call on each team evenly (make sure they raise hands and wait to be called on). Then move on to the next category when they don't seem to have any more ideas. You can keep switching up the letter so you can use the categories over and over again, or you can change the categories. This game can easily kill 10 minutes plus. I also sometimes played 20 questions with my higher-level elementary students, but they didn't seem to like that game as much as the Scattergories.

[alistaircandlin]

Yeah, I think that the idea of entertaining students with jokes might be taking the wrong track.

One of my colleagues said a similar thing recently - that he wants to make his classes more fun. This is a Korean teacher at a private school, not a hagwon. But my advice was to let the students generate the entertainment themselves i.e. by planning group activities in which they can make creative use of the language. You might think about how you can design activities so that they prompt silly situations or sentences, too. If you allow for creativity and imaginative use of language, that automatically makes you class more fun, so I'd recommend looking for ways students might adapt the language, pictures, or activities in your textbook creatively. (I felt from your post that you have to work through a given number of pages in your textbook, each lesson.)

I think the above posts are right that you can make good use of games. One thing I sometimes do is add forfeits to board games - so that the students have to do something ridiculous or embarrassing if they land on the forfeit square. Board games allow you to have students practice dialogs using any language point - you can download templates and insert the language or pictures you are studying. They also allow you to deliver student-centred lessons, which takes the pressure of you having to stand at the front and "teach." You can get big classes, with all the students speaking English at the same time, and obviously having a lot of fun. For higher-end students I'd encourage them to make creative use of the language, depart from the dialog structure, and improvise silly situations.

With games like pictionary, charades, or simon says, I would model it for the whole class, and then let the students play in smaller groups as soon as they are able to, perhaps with one student taking a leading role in each group. That way, all the students can be involved at once.


Theres a lot of books available on using games for ESL - I like the ones published by Cambridge University Press - Games for Language Learning, Five Minute Activities, and so on. If you are particularly interested in using humour there's a book called Laughing Matters: Humour in the language classroom, by Peter Medgyes, also from Cambridge Universtiy Press, which might be worth taking a look at.

[alistaircandlin]

By the way, Boggles World has some useful activities, and some board games, here:

http://bogglesworldesl.com/esl_games.htm


Also, ESL Galaxy:

http://www.esl-galaxy.com/board.htm


I think, esl-lounge.com has templates, but I can get onto the site right now, because my computer is freaking out.

Hope that's of some help.

Alistair

[some waygug-in]

So what do you do in places where they don't allow games?

I've worked in a few of those, and it was not fun.

[Hokie21]

Writing relay

[The Sultan of Seoul]

Give up the ghost of being an esl 'professional' in Korea and give em what everyone really, secretly wants.

Come in half drunk in a Barney costume and make everyone happy all round.

I kid, I kid...

[alistaircandlin]