This is a game that I've suggested to several groups, and it usually works pretty well- if there are 4 or so people in the group. This is how it works:
1. Before class, each group member chooses one interesting fact about him- or herself. Write the facts on the board, sans names.
2. After going over the names of each person leading the class, read through the facts.
3. Have the students vote on whom they think most likely to belong to the different facts. It's really funny to see their guesses and reactions.
I've had a lot of success with this game. Sometimes, however, the class is a little shy about guessing. You need to read your audience to see if they can handle it. :)
This is a definite winner in pretty much any class, and you can do it with pretty much any topic. I usually use it after I've covered a pretty good amount of vocabulary. It USUALLY takes few supplies; if you have access to a black/white board and writing implements, you can make it in no time.
1. Choose a theme (or several, if you want to use it as a major review), such as Transportation.
2. Choose the words/phrases/idioms that you want to use for the game (i.e. car, truck, gas station, bicycle, etc.). I suggest about 20 words.
3. Create definitions (it's best if you use the same definitions that you used when you first introduced the vocabulary) for each word (i.e. "a vehicle with 4 wheels that uses gasoline"- car).
4. Create categories (or just random category titles like Red, Yellow, Orange, Blue) and assign point values to the different questions.
5. My method of organizing the questions and answers is just to make a master list:
Red
100- A vehicle with 4 wheels that uses gasoline (car)
200- A large vehicle that flies through the air (plane)
6. Draw the grid on board. As the students answer questions, erase the value from the board (unless you have to MacGyver things a little...).
MacGyver-ed board.
7. Don't forget to keep score!
I have used this MANY times and all have been successful. It's super.
On the second day of Auburn classes, I went with a different group to another school in town. We started the day by using the "Shopping" lesson and ended with the "Transportation lesson. Here's the rundown on the "shopping" lesson:
1. As a kind of introduction, complete this phrase: "My name is _____ and I like to shop for _____." You fill in the first blank with your name (obviously) and the second with an item that begins with the same letter as your name.
2. "Matching" game. This game is a little different than the usual matching game. For this game, there are category cards (shopping verbs, people, merchandise, patterns) and item cards (to exchange, cashier, socks, plaid). The students are to sort all the different item cards (there are quite a few that fall into each category) into the correct category. After the smaller groups sort through all of their cards, the students divide the items from each category amongst themselves and give clues to the other team (taking turns between teams), so that the other team can guess which word is being described.
3. American-Ukrainian comparison: The Auburn team brought sale papers for this lesson and let the student peruse them, comparing products and prices to those found here in Ukraine.
4. Following up on the sale papers, the students were given paper and colored pencils, with the aim of creating their own advertisements for the product of their choosing. After they created ads, they presented them to the rest of the class.
Example of one of the advertisements.
5. As a class closer, we played Hangman, using the vocabulary words from the "matching" game.
Transportation modification:
In our third class of the day, we ran into a few obstacles that required some quick and creative thinking. Our class was very reluctant to speak out, so we introduced the transportation vocabulary (using the pictures brought from the States) in small groups. The Americans divided the pictures among themselves and discussed a few at a time in their groups. After each team had finished their small stack, they rotated the pictures until all of the groups had seen and discussed all of them.
We ran into an unfortunate incident, wherein we had no markers for the white board (excluding our options of jeopardy and hangman). While the groups discussed vocabulary and played Transportation matching, I MacGyvered a game board, using strips of paper and crayons. I discovered that I could stick the papers underneath the top ledge of the board. I then bent the tops and bottoms of the papers to form a chain. Maybe you can see it in the picture. It was ridiculous but worked pretty well.
It's that time of year again: students from Auburn are here to lead English classes for a week! They always do an excellent job, and I love having them here.
Today was day 1 in the classes, and I went with one of the groups who did a lesson on transportation. Here's a rundown of the ideas they created:
1. Pictures from home. One of the girls in the group brought some really great pictures of vehicles she sees on a regular basis (bikes on campus, semis, cars, trucks, boats), as well as unique vehicles like a cruise ship and a hot air balloon. They went through all of the pictures (including one of a gas station, a speed limit sign, bumper sticker, and a crosswalk) and discussed the vocabulary.
2. Matching game! You know I'm a fan of the matching games. :)
Action shot of Melanie working with a group of Matchers.
3. Create-your-own-bumper-sticker. This was a fun one; they brought an Auburn University bumper sticker as an example and had the students design bumper stickers for their favorite sports teams. I'm including pictures of the winning bumper stickers from each class.
"Vorskla" is the local soccer team- ALL of the groups from both classes chose to make bumper stickers for Vorskla! This one copies the font used on the scarves that fans wear to the games.
The guys that drew this one were truly talented; this is the crest (for lack of a better word) for the team. The "f" and "c" stand for "football club."
4. Transportation Jeopardy. I'll do a separate post of how to construct and conduct a simple game of Jeopardy. I use it ALL the time and canNOT believe I don't already have a post of it!
5. When a time-filler was needed, we fell back to trusty ol' Hangman! Can't go wrong with that!
Bag of supplies for this lesson: - pictures for vocabulary - 4 sets of matching cards - sample bumper sticker - strips of paper cut to bumper sticker size for groups to design on - several packs of colored pencils - small prizes for winning group - master copy of lesson plan, including the questions for Jeopardy - list of supplemental activities in case of need
I recently began including a few minutes of "American culture" as a part of Intermediate English club. Many of the students who come are interested in traveling to the States for a study or work program, so I thought it might be appropriate. Last week, our slice of culture was Volunteering. It was interesting to me when I first got here to see a large contrast between American emphasis on volunteerism and Ukraine's approach to it. In most colleges in the States, you can find any number of opportunities to volunteer or donate for some cause: natural disasters, cancer research, abuse victims. Most all American school children have participated in Thanksgiving food drives. It's just kind of a part of our lives, I guess.
We discussed these things, and I asked questions about volunteering in Ukraine. We came up with a list of things that occur here, as well as a list of things that could been done here. We discussed words like "charity", "donate", "give of your time", etc.
As an emphasis, I gave the students a "puzzle" to work out; I created a word scramble puzzle for the verse John 15:13: "No one shows greater love than when he lays down his life for his friends." The girls' team actually worked out the whole puzzle! The boys were a little bitter about it. :) Then, we discussed the meaning and importance of the verse and how we could apply it to our lives.
I had a different group of students at the University today, so I ended up recycling my "student" lesson and changing it a little.
We still did the Starburst game and the idiom matching activity, but we also added Tic-Tac-Toe and a creative activity.
Tic-Tac-Toe:
We played the game normally, but in order to place their "x" or "o", each team had to provide the correct idiom in response to a prompt I would give them. Examples:
1. I overslept! (idiom = running late)
2. I shouldn't have waited so long to study. (idioms = to cram or all-nighter)
3. Next year will be my last year in school. (vocab = junior)
They really loved it and got into the strategy behind Tic-Tac-Toe.
After playing the game for a few rounds, we did a creative activity: since they are sophomores, I had them (in groups) make lists of advice that they would now pass on to freshmen. That turned out to be very FUNNY!
This past week, we did a similar activity in both the Intermediate and Beginner clubs. I just tweaked them a little bit to accommodate the ability levels. I had some matching cards (very much like the activity matching cards) with emotions/thoughts on them. The phrase cards were things like, "I feel sleepy," "I'm so confused," "I feel very happy today," etc. The picture cards were clip art pictures of faces depicting those feelings/ thoughts.
We spent time matching them and discussing them. As we discussed them, we brainstormed reasons behind the emotions. Why do you think he's confused? Maybe he's lost and needs directions. Why is he scared? Maybe he's on top of a building and is afraid of heights. I jumped in with some personal stories of being scared when I first moved to Ukraine and was alone. I explained the different situations that made me afraid and what I did to help overcome it. My mom had packed many decorated cards for me that were covered in Bible verses to remind me that I'm never alone and that God protects me and holds me when I'm afraid. It was a good practice for the students to imagine scenarios and put their thoughts into words. I think they thought I was crazy at first, asking them to make up stories, but they secretly had fun. :)
I was in an advanced English lesson at one of the universities today. The particular group of students I was with today are actually a special group that has all of their classes (except Ukrainian history and Ukrainian language) in English. I decided to do a student-related lesson with them today.
We started off by going over names and playing the Interesting Fact game. This has always been a good ice breaker for me. It gets everyone talking and interacting with each other.
Next, I had made a set of matching cards (the cards written in purple ink were the words/idioms and the cards written in green were the definitions), using idioms (and a few vocab words) that might relate to students. Here are some of the ones that we worked with:
1. senior
2. junior
3. sophomore
4. freshman
5. skip class
6. running late
7. on time
8. ace a test
9. bomb a test
10. all-nighter
11. cram
12. a quick study
13. a know-it-all
14. a mental block
15. to catch up
16. to hit the books
There are tons more that could be used, but these are just a few. They really enjoyed racing to match them up. After discussing them, I divided them into groups and assigned each group 3 phrases to use in creating dialogues. They did an excellent job and enjoyed acting them out.
After that, we played the Starburst game. These were the questions we used:
red: What is the most important lesson that you've learned?
yellow: What is your main goal in life?
pink: Who is someone that you've learned an important lesson from? What lesson did you learn?
orange: If you could give advice to a college freshman, what would it be?
These questions sparked good discussions. Overall, it was a good lesson.
