You Win Some, You Lose Some...try it for yourself

Coffee House discussion ideas

2010-04-06T01:12:00.000-07:00

With both the Auburn and Union groups, we had one evening program wherein the theme was "coffeehouse." Now, Ukrainians don't really drink coffee, so it should possibly have been called "teahouse," but whatever. :)

Anyway, I'm going to try to put up some of the themes and activities that we used for these nights. The way we structured it was very similar to how Mystery Night worked: the Ukrainians remained stationary at the tables, and the Americans rotated around the groups so that everyone was able to interact with all of the Americans. These are designed to last for about 10 minutes, depending on the size of the group.

Fears

1. 2-minute list of things people are afraid of

2. (group question) What were things that you were afraid of as a child?

3. (group question) How do fears change as we grow older?

4. Pictionary: spiders, snakes, dark, heights, airplanes, small places, storms, crowds of people

I'll include more as I locate my prompt cards...

Spur-of-the-moment Travel lesson

2010-04-05T05:25:00.001-07:00

Through a crazy series of events, I ended up needing to craft an additional lesson while the Union team was here. We decided to go with "travel" as our theme, and this is what we did:

1. Interesting fact game.

2. Starburst game with travel-related questions (small groups). We used these: a) if you could visit any city or state in the US, where would you go/why? b) if you could visit anywhere in the world, where would you go/why? c) if you moved to another country, what would you miss most about Ukraine?

3. American landmarks activity. The Auburn team left some of their supplies with me, and I was able to put them to good use! Thanks to Rachel and Mrs. Kinard. :) The class stayed in small groups. The Americans each took a map of the USA and photocopied pictures of landmarks from around the country (the Hollywood sign, Statue of Liberty, Mt. Rushmore, etc) and discussed their locations, significance, etc.

4. World map labeling. Each group is given a map of the world. Their task is to label as many countries, oceans, continents as they can (in English).

5. Each group is assigned a vacation destination and must create a packing list (Switzerland, Jamaica, Morocco).

6. This was a BIG winner: Each group pretends that they work for a travel agency. They must create a list of 5 Russian phrases that would be helpful for American visitors to know while visiting Ukraine. Then, the students had to teach the American in their group to pronounce one of the phrases. It was really funny and enjoyed by all!

***One extremely successful element of these group projects has been small group rotation. Most of the teams coming in have about 4-5 Americans working in a classroom. So, we divide the students into small groups and 1 American goes with each group. We usually keep one "point man" to help keep an eye on the clock and to keep things moving. I usually have the Americans rotate groups after every activity. This helps to keep things interesting and gives the students more practice with different accents and speech patterns.

Quick and Useful Ideas for Student-Led Projects

2010-04-05T05:12:00.000-07:00

Here are some quick and useful ideas for English classes in colleges and universities here in Poltava:

1. Choose a basic theme and vocabulary. Example: Sports.

You can help tailor this lesson for several different ability levels fairly easily. Create a basic vocabulary list (basketball, fans, soccer, whistle, score). Then, add/take away some words to make it more advanced. You can specialize it a little by including words for equipment or verbs (swing, serve, spike, goggles, pom poms).

2. Create-a-clue/ Catchphrase

After going over the vocabulary words (either in large groups or in smaller groups- depending on how many Americans you have to work with), assign a few of the vocabulary words to each team. They must create definitions/ clues for each one. Once everyone has done this, have the teams take turns reading their clues, giving the other teams opportunities to guess which word they're describing. This is a good way to review the words.

3. Stand up if...

Create a list of statements that are agree/disagree or yes/no related. If the students agree, they stand up when you read the statement. If they don't, they remain seated. Examples: stand up if you play soccer. Stand up if you'd rather watch sports than play them.

4. Two-minute list

5. Jeopardy.

You can create your questions with two different ability levels in mind; that way, if you end up in a class with an ability level different than you'd anticipated, you'll be prepared to upgrade or downgrade.

6. Hangman

If you need to make it more complicated, you can use some of the specialized words you discussed, adjectives to describe sports, or use phrases instead of only words.

7. Starburst game. You can make the questions harder or easier, based on the class.

These are good activities that keep things from getting too stagnant and that you can tweak and modify, based on your needs. Most of them require very little prep and tend to be crowd-pleasers.

Mystery Night

2010-04-05T04:38:00.000-07:00

Because the Auburn team and the Union team were only separated by one week, I had to be very creative when coming up with themes for our evening programs. I took a risk on the theme for Union Evening Program 1 and crafted a "mystery night." My original idea had been to create a Clue-type game (like, the board game- I love it!), but the more I thought about it, the more I decided that was a bad plan. My criteria for Union's evening programs were: a) minimal prep work, b) minimal supplies needed, c) would work well with a large group (50ish people), and d) would provide a good amount of English practice.

I started scouting on the internet and found this. I started tinkering with the idea and came up with the following plan:

1. I created a "crime" that was committed in Poltava. The crime? A Lada (Soviet-esque car that no Ukrainian would bother stealing- this added an element of humor for the Ukrainian students) was stolen and 9 Americans (the number of people on the Union team) were suspects.

2. 3 Ukrainian friends served as our "witnesses." They made up hilarious little stories (which they told in Russian) about what they had seen. The Americans' alibi was that they had been at a local pizza place eating dinner while the car was being stolen. We had a "waitress," a "passerby," and a "security guard" give testimony of what they had "seen."

3. After our witnesses spoke, I sent the Americans out of the room. Two things happened simultaneously:

a) The Americans were to make up a more detailed alibi (I had only told them that their alibi was that they had been eating at a pizza place).

b) The Ukrainians (broken into groups around tables) were to make up questions intended to crack the Americans' alibis.

The way this works is that the suspects have a few minutes to craft details for their alibi (i.e. what they ordered, what the waitresses were wearing, what the restaurant looked like) so that they all have matching alibis. While they're doing this, the Ukrainians (in their groups) were creating lists of questions.

4. The Americans came back in and split up amongst the tables. I gave them about 4-5 minutes at each table before calling time and having them rotate (by the end, each table of Ukrainians had interviewed all of the Americans). The Ukrainians asked the same questions to each American, making note of whether or not their answers all matched.

5. After everyone had rotated to each table, I sent the Americans back out and took a vote of the Ukrainians, determining whether or not the Americans were innocent or guilty. Of course, they were guilty. :)

6. So, we decided on "punishments." Their punishments were to sing a group song ("I'm a Little Teapot"- complete with motions) and to try to pronounce an extremely difficult Russian word.

The whole thing went over very well! The Ukrainians loved it, and it seemed to break down awkward barriers between the American and Ukrainian students. I'd say it was a hit.

It's a head-scratcher, huh, John?

Dr. Fant, telling his side of the story.

Time to pay up, Americans! They were great sports about trying to pronounce their Russian word. Thankfully, I've been practicing that word for over a year now.

Staging the heist! Yes, that's a Lada.

Guess-My-Interesting-Fact Game

2010-03-20T09:21:00.001-07:00

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. :)

Jeopardy

2010-03-19T06:01:00.001-07:00

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.

Auburn: Shopping Lesson and modified Transportation

2010-03-17T06:21:00.000-07:00

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.

Auburn: Transportation Lesson

2010-03-15T06:08:00.000-07:00

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

American Culture Moment: Volunteering

2010-03-11T01:58:00.000-08:00

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.

Building on the Student-y Type Lesson

2010-03-09T06:23:00.000-08:00

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!

All about feelings

2010-03-08T04:32:00.000-08:00

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. :)

Student-y type lesson

2010-03-02T06:12:00.000-08:00

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.

Go Fish!

2010-02-26T03:57:00.000-08:00

This is an easy game to play, but it does take some prep work.

The basic concept is the same as a regular game of Go Fish:

1. deal 5 cards to each player.

2. Players take turns, asking other players for specific cards (to match cards already in his or her hand).

3. If the asking player receives a card from the ask-ee, he or she can ask for a card from a different player.

4. If the ask-ee does not have the requested card, he or she tells the asker to "go fish," meaning "draw a card from the central deck.

5. The game ends when one player has matched up and discarded all of his or her cards OR the central stack has been used up. If that is the case, the player with the most matching sets wins!

For ESL, you can use this concept with vocabulary or grammar or phrases. For example, if you are playing with beginners, you could make a deck of cards with colors, animals, foods, family members, etc. If you're playing with more advanced students, you could make a deck with parts of speech or tenses. Here are links to other teachers who have done this activity, as well: http://www.eslcafe.com/idea/index.cgi?display:1159772723-2945.txt and http://www.eslcafe.com/idea/index.cgi?display:1084153220-91558.txt.

Draw-a-question

2010-02-24T00:47:00.000-08:00

I use this a lot as a warm-up activity; it gets students talking without having to put too much brain power into it. I usually use it more with Beginners or Intermediates, but you can most definitely adjust the questions for Advanced students or to complement a particular theme.

The basic principle is this:
1. Write questions on strips of paper and fold them up.
2. Mix them all up in a bag or hat or some other container.
3. Have students draw one.
4. Go around the circle so that everyone can answer.

Simple and effective.

Travel brochures

2010-02-22T04:54:00.000-08:00

This is an activity that I've used in a lot of different classes and situations. I live in Ukraine, and Ukrainians are VERY artistic and talented with their hands. Incredibly talented, on the whole. They really warm up to this activity.

This activity doesn't take much prep; you just need paper and markers. The assignment is for the students to create travel brochures. I usually divide the students into groups of 3 or 4. I like for them to choose a location in our city or in Ukraine to write about. Tri-fold the paper. The students decorate the front as much as they want. On the inside, I usually require that they choose at least 5 things that visitors should either see or do, describing (in one or two sentences) those activities. I also have them choose 5 phrases- in Ukrainian or Russian- that they think would be useful for visitors to know how to say (one time, I got a brochure back that had the phrase, "Could you please tell me where to find borsch?"- borsch is soup, by the way). They are also to translate those phrases into English. They really seem to warm up to that part.

This activity is usually very well-liked. Often, I'll have them write out their phrases on scratch paper first, and we'll correct them. They really enjoy presenting their brochures to the class, as well. Here are some examples. I have others, but I can't seem to find them...Some students really do a fantastic job on the insides. Hope it's as fun for you and your students as it has been for me and mine!

My mom, sister, and I participated with one class: we made a brochure about Huntsville, AL.

More with Matching Cards (I promise I'm not obsessed)

2010-02-21T03:00:00.001-08:00

Here's another activity I've done recently with my matching cards:

I divided the class into small teams and had each team draw 3 or 4 of the activity cards. Their assignment was to create clues/ definitions for their activities. After the groups finished writing their clues, they read them to the class and the other groups tried to guess which activity they were describing. They seemed to enjoy the mystery of it all.

Idea from Jaclyn!

2010-02-20T09:47:00.000-08:00

Jaclyn posted this comment and idea yesterday. I hope to try it soon!

I'm always taking from you, so here's a fun activity I did today with my Int/Adv class: We read an article on personality last lesson, so we continued the theme today by discussing several words that describe personality or character traits. Then the class helped me make a list on the board of heroes and celebrities. We agreed that heroes and celebrities are famous or well known people, but yet they are very different. Then we wrote wrote another list in "t-chart form" of words that describe heroes and words that describe celebrities. I supplemented the lesson with other vocab and questions. Fun stuff!

Thanks, Jaclyn!

Those wonderful matching cards!

2010-02-19T09:27:00.000-08:00

I wrote yesterday about the stuff I keep in my bag. One of those things were my matching cards. Just since yesterday, I've used them for a couple more activities. Here are some things I've used the cards for:

1. Matching. Clever, right?

2. Draw-a-card. Students (or teams) draw a card (or cards) and create sentences with the activity on the card. Sometimes, I give them guidelines, minimum requirements- so that they don't just write "I like soccer."

3. I have them create questions, using the activities. They can ask the questions of each other or write responses to their own questions. OR, they can switch questions and answer each other's questions.

4. Tonight, I had a lesson planned for my Beginner's class. Of course, when they showed up, I discovered that I needed to change/ adapt to the needs of the ones who showed up. They were having trouble with how to use the different forms of the verb "to be."

First, we made a chart

I: am/ was

You: are/ were

He, She, It: is/ was

We: are/ were

You: are/ were

They: are/ were

Then, I gave them prompts.

1. I am hungry. I will ___________.

I had them sort through the matching cards and find the ones that could be used to complete the thought (like, "get ice cream," "go to McDonald's").

2. I am bored. I will ___________. ("play soccer," "go for a walk")

This worked really well and gave them a lot of opportunity to practice making sentences. I seemed to give them a lot of confidence to have prompts. After a while, they began to create their own sentences!

Valentine's Day

2010-02-19T06:12:00.000-08:00

For Valentine's Day, I didn't do a whole lesson on Valentine's Day, but we did dedicate part of the lesson to it. Before class, I found a copy of the first Valentine's story and then cut/reworded so that it wasn't too difficult for intermediates. I printed it and cut the story into strips, by sentence. The students' task was to try to put the story in the correct order. After that, we read through and translated it. By the time that we finished it, it was almost time to end class, but we did ask/ answer/ discuss several questions. Here's the version I used:

Valentine was a priest who lived in ancient Rome.

He refused to obey a law by the emperor that ordered young men to remain single.

The emperor supposedly did this to grow his army.

He believed that married men did not make good soldiers.

The priest, Valentine, however, secretly performed marriage ceremonies for young men.

When the emperor found out about this, he had Valentine arrested and thrown in jail.

On the evening before Valentine was to be executed, he wrote the first "valentine" himself.

It was to a young girl that he had become friends with.

It was a note that said, "From your Valentine."

Mary Poppins bag

2010-02-18T01:13:00.000-08:00

Mrs. Linda was here with me this week, and she went with me to several of my classes. She suggested that I do a blog post about my ESL bag.

I have a bag that I take to all of my ESL classes. Whenever I plan for a class, I keep my plan book and any supplies for the lesson into my bag. I also keep extra supplies in there at all times. I don't know if this happens to everyone, but it happens to me ALL the time: I plan a lesson, targeting it toward one ability level, only to have students of a vastly different level show up. This drives my planning nature insane. So, in my bag, I keep supplies/games/activities that can be adapted for a lot of different lessons. This helps me keep my sanity.

Here's a list of things I almost always have in there:
1. scissors
2. tape
3. extra dry-erase markers
4. several sets of "Scrabble" tiles: I use the letter to play either Speed Scrabble or the spelling game

If you want to make your own set, click here to find a rubric.

5. a ziplock full of Starburst candy
6. a few sets of word searches or crossword puzzles

7. a few sets of matching cards: I use these for lots of activities. Sometimes, the students actually match the cards, sometimes play "Memory", sometimes use the activities as sentence or question prompts.

8. blank paper: these can be used for the interesting fact game, Hannah's letter game, or tons of other games that you may create in a moment of desperation.
9. extra pens
10. cards that have words written on them to play Charades or Pictionary
11. candy- to be used as a) prizes or b) bribes (kidding...sort of...)

I trade other things in and out periodically, but these are the staples. My Mary Poppins bag has saved my life...er...lesson (and attitude) on many occasions.

Time BINGO cards

2010-02-16T00:59:00.000-08:00

Thought I'd include a picture of the time BINGO cards. This is just one card, but I have four different varieties- just make 4 prototypes and then photocopy them.

It's about Time

2010-02-14T11:07:00.000-08:00

The Beginners and I worked on time this week. We had a really fun class! Last week, we had gone over telling the time. This included going over phrases like "a quarter after/'til," "half past," "midnight," "noon," etc. Just like 2nd grade, I drew times on a clock, and they told me what time it was.

This week, we reviewed that briefly and moved on to a review of months and days. After we'd successfully gotten a list of the months (in the correct order), we went back through and listed events that happen in each month (holidays mostly) and our birthdays. I asked them questions like, "What holiday is on February 14th?" We also went over the different seasons and categorized the months by season.

Following month review, we reviewed days of the week and created a "schedule" of things to do. One gal said, "SLEEP!" on each day. I'm guessing she doesn't get enough of that in her life...

At the end of the lesson, we play time BINGO. Hannah, Rachel, and I used this last year, and they loved it. Guess what- they still love it. We made BINGO grids (about 4 different varieties). There are 25 spaces (5x5 grid), and we filled them up with time words. Some of the squares have words like "January," "fall", "May 11." Some have pictures of clocks with times drawn in (1:45, 10:30, 6:15). In order to create "midnight," "half past," "a quarter after," the clocks are drawn without numbers- just the hands pointing to the correct positions. We also included numbers like 24 (hours), 365 (days), 366, 52 (weeks). We played about 3 or 4 rounds because they liked it so much!

When the semi-Beginners show up on Intermediate night...

2010-02-11T05:41:00.000-08:00

Wednesday is usually Intermediate English Club night...this week, however, it apparently became high-Beginner night. Needless to say, the lesson plan that I had carefully crafted immediately became null and void. Thankfully, I had my Mary Poppins bag of supplies and my trusty Ira (now, unfortunately, most of you do not have a trusty Ukrainian friend at-the-ready...which is why I'll share her ideas here.).

I had some word searches in my bag. There are about a bazillion free websites where you can create your own word searches and crossword puzzles. I make fairly liberal use of those sites, and students really seem to enjoy the puzzles. The puzzle we used last night was an "Activities and Sports" puzzle. After giving them several minutes to go through and find as many as they could, we went around the table and defined/ described the activities listed. They did a really good job trying to describe how to play different sports, etc. At that point, Ira suggested that we do an activity that she does with her students (she's an English teacher in a public middle school). We taught these phrases:

1. I enjoy...

2. I am interested in...

3. I don't mind...

4. I can't stand...(if I were going to do it again, I'd probably change this one to "I don't like...")

5. I hate...

We gave each student a slip of paper. They wrote the sentences and filled in the blanks with activities. We told them not to write their names on them, had them fold up the papers, and we each drew someone else's. After reading through the list, everyone guessed whose paper they had. It went really well and opened up opportunities to correct word order or tense.

After we officially ended English club, we ended up sitting around for a while and just talking about things we like or don't like. It was really fun.

ALSO: I just added a new link to the sidebar. It's a site full of ESL games, contributed to by ESL teachers around the world. Some are not so exciting and some are SUPER! I'll list my top favorites in another post, but go ahead and have a look. Maybe you'll find some inspiration!

Beginner "Activities" continued...

2010-02-01T03:57:00.000-08:00

We continued with the basic activities that we worked with last week. We used the same matching cards that we did last week; I had the students re-match them as a review. After we read through them and defined them again, I divided the students into pairs and gave each group five of the activity cards. They worked to create some simple sentences with the phrases, and then we discussed and corrected. After that, I introduced some new activities:

1. go to the bathroom (clarification: the picture on the card is of the stick man/woman figures from a bathroom sign.) I chose to do this one, because it has been an issue of confusion: in Ukraine, you do not ask where the bathroom is but rather where the toilet is. Most of the time (especially in houses), the toilet is in a separate room from the sink and the toilet. If you ask where the bathroom is, you will be taken to the sink room. Personal experience.

2. brush your teeth

3. take a shower

4. wake up

5. go to bed

6. take out the trash

7. take a bus

8. cook a meal

9. buy groceries

10. go for a run

This actually took up the whole class, even if it doesn't seem like a lot. Next week, we're going to start working on a story from the New Testament.

Last week's beginner club...I forgot to post this one

2010-01-29T03:22:00.000-08:00

Last week, I pulled out some old matching cards that I had leftover from a volunteer team that came last March. Half of the cards have phrases on them and half have pictures (clip art) that correspond to those phrases. They made them by printing out the phrases and clip art pictures and attaching them to index cards. The students then work to match the correct phrase with the picture. Here are the phrases that they used:

1. Ride bikes

2. Get ice cream

3. Go for coffee

4. Order a pizza

5. Go to McDonald's

6. Go to church

7. Study together

8. Take a walk or a hike

9. Go to the park

10. Go shopping

11. Take a camping trip

12. Go to the movies

13. Ice skating

14. Play soccer

15. Bowling

16. Play video games

17. Listen to music

We started by each person drawing a card (we ended up doing this a couple of times because there were more cards than people). We then went around and let everyone practice reading the phrases/words and discussing what they meant (as well as any discrepancies between American English and British English). Then, I divided them into groups to match the cards.

After matching the cards, I paired them up and gave each pair a role-play to read through. They aren't very advanced beginners at all, so it took a little while and a lot of practice.

Role-play 1:

1: What did you do last weekend?

2: My family took a camping trip.

1: What did you do on your camping trip?

2: We slept in the forest and went for a hike.

Role-play 2:

1: What will you do today?

2: I am going shopping.

1: What are you shopping for?

2: I am going to buy a new hat.

Role-play 3:

1: What did you do for lunch today?

2: I ate at McDonald's for lunch.

1: What did you eat?

2: I had a hamburger and french fries.

Role-play 4:

1: What did you do today?

2: I spent time with my friends.

1: What did you do with your friends?

2: We went ice skating!

Each pair read their own role-play, and then we kept swapping until each group had been able to read each of the role-plays.

Continued Airport Stuff

2010-01-29T03:12:00.001-08:00

We spent part of this week reviewing the airport/airplane stuff from last week. For the class opener, we did a two-minute list of countries. We started with countries of Europe, but they liked it so much that we did two more: Asia and states (of the US).

I took the same matching game (airport terms) from last week, and two teams raced against each other to see who could match them correctly first. They liked that, too. They love a good race around here... We then discussed/reviewed the terms.

I created a worksheet of sentences with fill-in-the-blanks for them to correctly use the terms in context (unfortunately, I cannot find an electronic copy of the worksheet on my computer...can't think of where I saved it...).

After the worksheet, I assigned each group a country. Their assignment was to create a packing list for a trip to that country. One team had Jamaica and the other had Switzerland. The first thing on both lists was "money." Ha.

Our "theme" for this week's quotations was "direction."

1. "Efforts and courage are not enough without purpose and direction." -John F. Kennedy

2. "The direction in which education starts a man will determine his future in life." -Plato

3. "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not trust your own wisdom. In everything you do, acknowledge Him, and He will give you direction." -Proverbs 3:5-6 (Bible).

Great discussions followed these quotes. They really got into discussing them and figuring out how they would apply to life.

Airplanes and Security

2010-01-21T09:21:00.000-08:00

Last night was the first night back to English club after all the holidays. I borrowed some of my friend Wendy's ideas for one of her classes and then put my own twist on things. Since traveling is so popular, this lesson focused on airports and airplanes and all that entails.

We started out by making paper airplanes in small groups. Each student in the group wrote his or her name and dream destination on the plane. We then went around the group for introductions. For fun, we tested the planes to see whose would fly the farthest. The all-girl group actually won that contest.

Next item on the agenda was a matching game. I made a few sets of matching game cards and each team got one. Cards with the words written in blue were the vocabulary cards and cards written in red were the definitions. The task was to match the correct vocabulary word with the correct definition. The students were familiar with some of the terms and then had to deduce the remaining ones. After they matched what they could, we discussed and defined the words.

Here are some of the words that we discussed:

terminal

check-in counter

security

baggage claim

boarding pass

overhead compartment

passport control

customs

pilot

flight attendants

gate

passengers

After discussing these vocabulary words, you can introduce phrases/ actions:

to go through customs

to land

to go through security

to wait at the gate

to get bags from baggage claim

to go through passport control

to board a plane

to check bags

to check in

For kicks, you can play charades with some of these phrases (to get bags from baggage claim, to go through passport control, etc).

For our discussion part of class, we read, translated, and discussed the following quotes, focusing our discussion on airport security measures and security/safety in life:

1. Happiness has many roots but none more important than security. - E. R. Stettinius

2. There can be no security where there is fear. - Felix Frankfurter

3. The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid? - Psalm 27:1

Christmas, week 2

2009-12-16T04:26:00.000-08:00

This lesson is a continuation of the first part of the Christmas story. We started the lesson with a warm-up: Starburst game. The questions we used were: 1) What is your favorite holiday and why? 2) What is your favorite holiday tradition and why? 3) What is your favorite part about winter? and 4) What is your favorite holiday memory?

Next, we checked to see who could retell the first part of the Christmas story from the previous week. This is GREAT for checking comprehension and triggering active thinking. I brought candy for the student who was brave enough to tell the whole thing. Everyone was rather sad that they hadn't tried. :)

We continued with more vocabulary and the spelling game:
1. Angels
2. to appear
3. Shepherds
4. (to be) afraid
5. Flocks
6. Savior
7. Nearby
8. a sign
9. Peace
10. Company
11. Terrified
12. Glory

Some of these they knew, others they didn't. We translated all of them and created sample sentences. After going over the vocabulary, we read through the story.

There were shepherds out in the fields nearby, watching over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord was around them. They were terrified. But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all people. Today in Bethlehem a Savior has been born; he is the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger." Suddenly, a great company of angels appeared, praising God and saying, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men."

We read, translated, discussed, etc. After going through this part of the story, we retold the first part and then added this part. They did a great job!

As a grammar section (I know, so fun!), we did a secondary activity of preposition fill-in-the-blank:

There were shepherds out ___the fields nearby, watching____their flocks___ night. An
angel of the Lord appeared___them, and the glory___the Lord was around them. They
were terrified. But the angel said___them, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of
great joy that will be for all people. Today__Bethlehem a Savior has been born; he is the
Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped___cloths and lying in a
manger." Suddenly, a great company___angels appeared, praising God and saying,
"Glory to God in the highest, and___earth peace to men."

To finish up, we played a rousing game of Hangman. They love it. :)

Christmas, week 1

2009-12-14T06:14:00.000-08:00

I started teaching Christmas lessons a few weeks ago, but I forgot to update about them! I've been doing the Christmas story in parts, so as not to overwhelm everyone with vocabulary. Here's the first part of the story that I used with the Intermediates:

In those days Caesar Augustus ordered that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world, and everyone went to his own town to register. So Joseph also went from the town of Nazareth to the town of Bethlehem, because his family came from King David. He went there to register with Mary, his fiancée, who was expecting a child. While they were there, it was time for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.

Here's some vocabulary that we went over:
1. Census
2. to order
3. to register
4. fiancee
5. to expect a child
6. to wrap
7. cloths
8. Manger
9. inn

You can play the spelling game, have students create sentences or a role-play, play Charades, or play Pictionary. After going through the story, we discussed comprehension questions, practiced reading aloud. After discussing it for a while, I got the students to try to retell it. Based on my own language-learning experience, this is pretty effective.

Here's the story for the Beginners (you can adapt it as needed):

In those days Caesar Augustus ordered that citizens should be counted. Everyone went to his own town. Joseph went to Bethlehem. He went there with Mary, who was expecting a child. While they were there, the baby was born. It was a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger. There was no room in the inn.

Thanksgiving lesson

2009-11-18T12:37:00.000-08:00

Because I'm going to be out of town next week, I went ahead and did a lesson on Thanksgiving tonight. I think their favorite part was the pumpkin bread that I took, but I'm not above bribing students with pumpkin bread. :)

1. Vocabulary introduction with the spelling game: pilgrims, Indians, crops, to die/died, to bless/blessed, plenty, winter, thanksgiving, feast, to provide/providing
2. I read a story about Thanksgiving to the class, allowing them to listen and see what they could understand:

The pilgrims had a hard first year in America. The crops did not grow well, and many people died. During the second year, God blessed the crops. The Indians that lived in the area helped the pilgrims with the crops. There were fruits, vegetables, fish, and meat. They had plenty of food to save for the winter. In 1621, the pilgrims and Indians met together for a feast. They thanked God for providing for them.

3. After reading through once, I read through again and had the students take turns translating, line by line.
4. I gave each team/group a fill-in-the-blank copy of the story to work on together. After they completed their stories, we read it aloud, checking their answers and practicing pronunciation.
5. I passed out pumpkin bread to the students to snack on while I talked about different Thanksgiving traditions. In keeping with a tradition my family has, we went around the room and listed things we were thankful for.
6. I took a moment to talk about many things in my life that I'm thankful for, sharing my story.
7. We then discussed our verse for the week: “I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart; I will remember all of your wonderful deeds.” Psalm 9:1
8. We read in English, translated, discussed meaning, and re-read several times.

I am thankful for my wonderful ESL students!

Swine flu! Week 2

2009-11-14T01:42:00.000-08:00

I promise that I'm not obsessed with the Swine flu; I've just learned that it's often a really good idea to reiterate previous lessons. I did this for both the Intermediates and Beginners.

Intermediates
1. Review last week's terms by doing a "worksheet race." I divided the class into two groups and gave each a worksheet to complete, based on what we covered the previous week.

1. I have such a terrible _____________! My head has been hurting all day.

2. I need another tissue. I have a _____________ nose.

3. My throat hurts because of my _____________.

4. I’m very hot; I think I have a _____________.

5. Let me take your ______________ to see if you have a ______________.

6. I’m so _____________ today. All of my muscles are hurting and sore.

7. I hope the doctor doesn’t give me a ______________. I’m so afraid of needles!

8. I think I have a ______________. These are my symptoms: my nose is ___________, I have a ______________ (very hot), and a ____________ (throat).

9. I can’t breathe through my nose. I’m _____________.

10. In America, people say, “Bless you!” when you ______________.

11. Most children don’t like to take their ______________ when they are sick.

12. My mother always reminds me to take my _______________ to prevent becoming sick.

Word bank:
Sneeze

Congested

Temperature

Runny

Fever

Vitamins

Symptoms

Headache

Cough

Achy

Shot

Cold

Medicine

2. Check together and correct.
3. I reused the role-plays from the previous week's Beginners' class. The Intermediates read through them and translated them. THEN, I gave them the assignment of writing their own role-plays. For this, I divided them into 3 groups and assigned them topics for their role-plays: a) a student who feels sick with a fever and aches at school b) a patient with congestion and a cough at the doctor's office and c) a small child with a runny nose and a fever who wants to go outside (and his mother won't let him). They did a great job!
4. We reviewed the quotes from last week, focusing on the Bible verse. I had the students translate it again, and we discussed how this can be a part of our lives.

Beginners
1. We started reviewing by playing Hangman. After each word was guessed, we reviewed what they meant and used each in a sentence.
2. We, again, used the role-plays from last week. However, this week, I gave them the role-plays with some of the words removed. I divided them into two teams, and their task was to fill in the blanks with the correct words.

“I don’t feel good”
Child: I don’t______ good. I don’t think I should go to school.
Mother: What doesn’t_____ good?
Child: My_____ hurts, and I’m hot.
Mother: Let me take your______…No, you don’t have a______. You need to go to school.
Child: I don’t like school.
Mother: I know, but you’re not_____. Have a good day at school.

“Doctor”
Patient: I think I’m______.
Doctor: Tell me what is wrong.
Patient: I have a fever, a headache, and a_____ nose.
Doctor: I’m going to give you a_____ to make you feel better.
Patient: Thank you.
Doctor: I’m also going to give you some________ to take for 10 days.

3. After checking the answers, I assigned each group a few "sick" vocabulary words to create sentences with. We checked and corrected as we went along.
4. To wrap up, we reviewed the verse from last week, reviewing vocabulary from the verse, translating, and discussing what it meant. Some of the students had even taken time to memorize the verse!
5. We finished with candy. :)

Swine flu! For Beginners...

2009-11-07T03:41:00.000-08:00

I taught my beginners English club last night, and instead of creating an entirely different lesson plan, I just modified the "sick" lesson from the intermediate class. I cut down the vocabulary for the spelling game to more basic words. We discussed and translated all of the "sick" words into Russian or Ukrainian and talked about how you would use them correctly in a sentence.

We also worked on some role-plays. I was really fortunate and two girls from church who speak EXCELLENT English came to help with English club last night. I divided the class into two groups, putting Ira with one and Olya with the other. In their smaller groups, they read through each role-play, translated it, then worked on performing it. After they practiced in their groups, they performed and translated it for the whole group. Here are the role-plays they worked on:

"Doctor Visit"

Patient: I think I’m sick.

Doctor: Tell me what is wrong.

Patient: I have a fever, a headache, and a runny nose.

Doctor: I’m going to give you a shot to make you feel better.

Patient: Thank you.

Doctor: I’m also going to give you some medicine to take for 10 days.

“I don’t feel good”

Child: I don’t feel good. I don’t think I should go to school.

Mother: What doesn’t feel good?

Child: My head hurts, and I’m hot.

Mother: Let me take your temperature…No, you don’t have a fever. You need to go to school.

Child: I don’t like school.

Mother: I know, but you’re not sick. Have a good day at school.

After the role-plays, we discussed one of the "quotes" from the intermediate class:

{7} Do not be wise in your own eyes; Fear the LORD and depart from evil. {8} It will be health to your flesh, And strength to your bones. –Proverbs 3:7-8

Homework? Memorize the verse for next week!

Swine flu!

2009-11-04T10:14:00.000-08:00

At the moment, Ukraine is under a "quarantine" because of a swine flu pandemic. Many, many people are hesitant to venture out of their homes, and when they do, lots of them wear surgical masks. It's quite interesting, to say the least...

So, for English club tonight, I decided to do a class on being sick. They all got a kick out of that. Here's what we did:

1. Two-minute list of anything that has to do with doctors and/or being sick.
2. Spelling game of illness-related words:
medicine
temperature
thermometer
cough
sneeze
congested
injection
fever
achy
symptoms
3. Discuss phrases like "a runny nose", "to take a temperature", "blow your nose", etc.
4. Role-play a patient, describing symptoms with a doctor.
5. Discussion:
-Why are people so scared of getting sick?
-What are you doing to prevent getting sick?
-What advice would you give to someone to prevent getting sick?
6. Quotation discussion- I found 3 quotes and printed them up for discussion. We read through each one and then discussed what they mean. You can elaborate on each as much as you want, given what your objective is. Here are the quotes I used:

· God heals and the doctor takes the fee. –Benjamin Franklin

· The first wealth is health. –Ralph Waldo Emerson

· {7} Do not be wise in your own eyes; Fear the LORD and depart from evil. {8} It will be health to your flesh, And strength to your bones. –Proverbs 3:7-8

They liked it, and we had a really productive discussion about the quotations.

Connect 4: bottle cap-style

2009-10-06T05:47:00.000-07:00

This isn't the most challenging game ever, but it went over well when I played it with some upper beginners/ lower intermediates.

Make little cards with various verbs in different tenses (i.e. "will write", "bought", "am eating"). Lay these out in a grid; I'm pretty sure that my set is 6 x 6. I play this game using bottle caps from Coke, Fanta, Sprite bottles (mostly because that's what I had on hand) as the game pieces. The students- or groups- are each given a handful of caps. Then, you play it kind of like the game Connect Four. The goal is for each student/ team to get four in a row. To place their bottle cap/piece, they need to construct a sentence using their chosen verb correctly. Example: if they want to put their piece on the square for "am eating," they need to create a sentence like, "Right now, I am eating soup."

The first team to get four in a row wins!

More with Adjectives!

2009-09-22T05:42:00.000-07:00

Another activity to do with "travel" adjectives:

After having the students do the exercise of describing their assigned countries with their bags of adjective words, have them upgrade the activity. Ask the students to brainstorm a little about their given country. Ask them to think of famous landmarks or activities found in their assigned country (i.e. China: Great Wall, pandas, eating with chopsticks, etc.). After brainstorming, ask students to write a letter to a friend. The letter should be written as though the students are visiting their assigned country and writing about it to a friend. They should use 3 or so of their adjectives and write about some of the things they are "doing." After they write and edit their letter, have them design a postcard. They can draw pictures of their assigned country and then transfer their letter onto the postcard. Ukrainians really enjoy this activity.

Adjectives

2009-09-19T00:15:00.000-07:00

A game that I tried last week turned out to be very simple but a big hit among the students. We were covering adjectives and started by playing the spelling game, using the adjectives that would come up in the next game.

For the next game, we assigned each group a country: China, Egypt, and Greece. Then, they were given a bag of adjectives: ancient, European, dry, warm, cold, Mediterranean, rugged, mountainous, coastal, etc. The students were then to decide which adjectives described their assigned country. They really enjoyed sorting through the words. Then, they took turns describing their countries. Nothing fancy, but they enjoyed it and were able to practice reading and speaking.

Apples to Apples

2009-08-23T02:40:00.000-07:00

Many of you are probably familiar with this game. Personally, I love it. I love any game that has to do with words. My sophomore year of college, my roommates and other friends and I would play this for loooooong periods of time and not get tired of it.

For those of you not familiar with the game:
In the game that you buy from the store, there are two kinds of cards included: green ones (adjectives) and red ones (nouns- of all kinds). To play the game, each person is dealt five red cards (nouns). Each player takes a turn being the "judge". The "judge" draws a green card from the adjective stack, reads it aloud, and lays it face up on the table. Each player (other than the judge) chooses one card from his or her hand and lays it facedown in the middle of the table, making no comment about which card was played by him or her. The judge then turns over all the cards and chooses the one that he or she thinks best compliments the adjective. This becomes funny when people pick crazy cards that don't normally correlate to a particular adjective. When the judge chooses a noun as the winning card, the person who played that card collects the green adjective card (similar to getting a point). The first person to collect ten green cards wins.

I used this game just the other day when teaching adjectives. They loved it. For that particular class, though, I dealt the teams (I had them play in pairs) green adjective cards, and I put a red noun card down in the middle. It was a success.

If you don't have an Apples to Apples game, it would be pretty easy to recreate: using index cards (or something similar), make stacks of adjectives and nouns (things, places, people, even concepts like "going to grandma's").

Speed Scrabble details

2009-08-17T05:28:00.000-07:00

Dear Jaclyn,

Here's what my scrabble set looks like:
A- 9 tiles, worth 1 pt.
B- 2 tiles, worth 3 pts.
C- 2 tiles, worth 3 pts.
D- 4 tiles, worth 2 pts.
E- 10 tiles, worth 1 pt.
F- 2 tiles, worth 4 pts.
G- 3 tiles, worth 2 pts.
H- 2 tiles, worth 4 pts.
I- 9 tiles, worth 1 pt.
J- 1 tile, worth 8 pts.
K- 1 tile, worth 5 pts.
L- 4 tiles, worth 1 pt.
M- 2 tiles, worth 3 pts.
N- 6 tiles, worth 1 pt.
O- 8 tiles, worth 1 pt.
P- 2 tiles, worth 3 pts.
Q- 1 tile, worth 10 pts.
R- 6 tiles, worth 1 pt.
S- 4 tiles, worth 1 pt.
T- 6 tiles, worth 1 pt.
U- 4 tiles, worth 1 pt.
V- 2 tiles, worth 4 pts.
W- 2 tiles, worth 4 pts.
X- 1 tile, worth 8 pts.
Y- 2 tiles, worth 4 pts.
Z- 1 tile, worth 10 pts.
4 blank tiles

Maybe that will help you. It's based off of a real set of Scrabble tiles.

Love,
Erin

Speed Scrabble

2009-08-06T00:50:00.000-07:00

Some call it Speed Scrabble. Some call it Take 2. Either way, it's a pretty good game to play with advanced students.

Supplies:
Set of Scrabble tiles. If you don't have a set of real tiles, you can make them. Paper and pen is the most basic form, of course. A volunteer team that came to work with me made me several sets on those craft, foam sheets.

Rules:
1. Each team starts out with five tiles- facedown.
2. When the game starts, each team turns over their tiles and begins making words with the tiles they have. The first team to use all five tiles says, "Take 2."
3. All teams- whether or not they have used all of their original 5- take 2 more tiles from the pile in the middle.
4. Team now try to use up the tiles they have. They can take apart their original tiles to form different words, if they wish.
5. The game continues until there are no tiles left in the middle.
6. Keep score by counting the points of all the tiles that were used to form words. If teams have tiles leftover, the points on those tiles are subtracted from the score.

Have fun!

Agree to Disagree

2009-08-06T00:44:00.000-07:00

This game is good for upper-intermediate to advanced students.

Supplies:
5 signs- Strongly Agree, Somewhat Agree, Neutral, Somewhat Disagree, Strongly Disagree
Arrange chairs into a semi-circle and spread the signs out around the semi-circle.

Be sure that everyone understands what each category means. Explain that you are going to read a statement and that each person should move and stand next to the category that best describes his or her feelings about that statement.

Example statements:
1. Ukraine is the best country to live in.
2. Students should be required to wear uniforms to school.
3. Europeans are better-looking that Americans.

As always, be sensitive to the cultural that you're teaching to. I avoid political statements at all costs. :)

Mad Libs

2009-05-26T06:53:00.001-07:00

If you're working with intermediate or advanced students, you can play Mad Libs with them. I used to do these when I was younger and then revisited them in senior year Advanced Grammar at Union. Who knew, right? What you can do is Google "Mad Libs" and sift through the sites to find ones you want. This has been really entertaining for the students we've worked with and gives them a chance to practice their parts of speech!

Scenarios

2009-05-13T02:03:00.000-07:00

An activity that we've used a couple of times now is one that we just call 'scenarios.' We've used two, but I'm sure you could use others, as well.

Scenario #1:
If you and your teammates were stranded on an island but could have 5 (real, not magical) items, what five items would you choose?

Scenario #2:
If you and your teammates were moving to a new planet (a planet that you know NOTHING about), and you could take 10 items with you to keep you alive, what would those items be?

Explain that each team should agree on the choices and that they should have reasons for choosing those items.

Pictionary!

2009-04-23T06:14:00.000-07:00

Recently, we have used Pictionary to our advantage at almost every school/club at which we teach. For beginning students, we use basic nouns from the vocabulary they've been learning (shirt, pants, glasses, etc.). For more proficient students, we use other words, like "yesterday," "Easter," "walk," and "scared." We've found that the students tended to be a little timid at the offset of the game, but after the first brave souls ventured out, everybody got really into it!

We play this on teams. We often use teams for activities because it allows weaker students to work with stronger students, thus limiting the direct discouragement from personally failing at a task.

After playing several rounds of words that we provide, we have the teams come up with 3-5 of their own words. We then take each team's words and give them to the opposing team. The opposing team is given one of the words, two minutes are put on the clock, and the drawing/guessing begins. If the drawing team is able to correctly guess, they get a point. If they don't, the other team (the one that created the word) receives the point.

It's a hit so far.

Easter lesson

2009-04-21T07:22:00.000-07:00

For our Easter lesson with our English club, we tried something a little adventurous. We wanted to make the lesson fun and meaningful at the same time, so we set up a scavenger hunt. It wasn't terribly difficult to set up, considering that most every aspect of life is more difficult than I ever expect!

Supplies:
1. colored balloons- preferably, a different color for each team. Be sure to get enough for all the clues, plus a couple extras just in case.
2. Strips of paper with location clues written on them
3. A print out of the Easter story for each group. Divide the story into paragraphs/ sections and cut those into strips.

Before blowing up the balloons, fold a clue and a portion of the story up for each balloon and stick them inside the balloon. Blow up the balloons and put them in the locations. Our last balloons led the students back to our classroom where they had to put their stories in order. They really liked this part!

Then, we had an activity sheet prepared for them. We interspersed comprehension questions with "language-y" questions. Comprehension questions: why did the people want Jesus to die? What was rolled in front of the tomb? "Language-y" questions: how many times is 'Jesus' written in this story? Count how many words start with the letter 'p.' Find a word with 4 vowels.

After they finished this activity, we asked deeper questions: what did you think was the most interesting part of the story? Why did Jesus choose to die? Why was it important for him to die?

After we finished this portion of the lesson, I told my story. I focused on how the Lord proved faithful and real to me, particularly when the tornado came through during my senior year of college and destroyed everything. Things went really well.

To finish up, we played a 2 minute list game. Theme? Easter.

Old idea...newish twist

2009-04-16T12:24:00.001-07:00

This past week, we stumbled upon a great idea: Create-your-own-Charades.

We use our pre-determined (by us, whenever we think of them) charades ideas to get the ball rolling. We divide students into 3 groups (ideally). We go through a few rounds of those Charades. Then, each group writes their own scenario. We then switch the new scenarios around, and the students act out each other's scenes. Such a hit!

Zaccheus

2009-04-05T08:37:00.000-07:00

Here's a favorite. This is a great one to use with kids but is also great with adults. It's a good opportunity to talk about how Jesus accepted and even sought out those who are different or who have never felt that they could belong.

Zacchaeus lived in a town called Jericho a long time ago. Nobody liked Zacchaeus very much mostly because he got rich taking money from other people and giving it to the Romans. Some of the money he gave to the Romans - but lots of it he kept for himself.

One bright, sunny day, Zacchaeus looked down the dirt road that came into Jericho and he saw a crowd of people coming his way. Everywhere Jesus went, people who were sick got better, people who couldn’t walk could walk again, people who were blind could see again. Everybody wanted to see Jesus, including Zacchaeus.

Zacchaeus ran up to the edge of the crowd and stood on his tiptoes to see what was happening. But he could not see anything. He tried to push his way through the crowd, but everyone wanted to see Jesus, and they wouldn’t let him through.

Then Zacchaeus turned around and saw a sycamore tree growing right beside the road Jesus was walking along. He ran on ahead and climbed up the Sycamore tree. Jesus stopped right under the sycamore tree and looked up, and there was Zacchaeus. “Zacchaeus!” Jesus said to him, “Hurry down from there! I must stay at your house today!”

But the people in the crowd were not so happy. They had spent all day in the hot sun following Jesus, and now he was going to stay at the house of Zacchaeus, a rich, cheating tax collector. “This man is a sinner!” one woman said. “He cheats and steals from his own people!” said an old man. “He isn’t good enough for Jesus to come and stay at his house!”

Zacchaeus heard what the people were saying about him, and he must have known that they were right. He wanted to make things right for Jesus and change. He no longer wanted to cheat people. So he said, “Listen! I will give half of everything I have to the poor! And if I cheated anyone, I will pay them back four times as much!”

Jesus said to Zacchaeus, “Today salvation has come to this house! Your life was all wrong, but now it is all right. You were lost, but now you have been saved!

That is why I am here. I came to find and save the lost!”

Vocabulary:

1. Romans –

2. Jericho –

3. crowd –

4. tiptoes –

5. Sycamore –

6. to cheat -

7. Tax collector –

8. salvation -

With kids, this is a good one to act out.

Two-Minute Lists

2009-04-03T04:25:00.001-07:00

Confession: this game is a fall-back filler game. However, students tend to LOVE it. It doesn't matter what level speaker, they seem to really like this one.

Basic idea: students have 2 minutes to make a list of as many items as they can.

This is how we do it: divide the students into groups. You can do this individually, too, but in our experience, students are far more comfortable when working in groups. They will need a pen and piece of paper for each group. They will have 2 minutes to list as many items as they can that pertain to the topic you give them. Here are some of the topics we have used:
1. family words
2. animals
3. American movies
4. countries
5. Jobs that begin with the letter 'd' (you'd be surprised at what we've had students come up with!)
6. Vocabulary review- they list as many vocabulary words that they can remember from your class

We often do several of these listing games in a row. If the class likes competition, after each two-minute segment, have each team read off all of their words. Count how many they got and keep score. This seems to be quite motivational. :)

Stop the Bus

2009-04-02T10:06:00.001-07:00

I'm not sure why this game has this name, but we use the concept pretty frequently. It doesn't require prep, so it's great to use on the fly.

Explain to the students that you will put several categories on the board (I usually use 4). Divide the students into groups. I often use the following categories: Adjective, Food, Animal, Place. Explain that you will write one letter on the board. Each team is to work as quickly as they can to come up with a word for each category. The words must start with the letter you have chosen.

Example: "B"
Adjective...beautiful
Food...bananas
Animal...bear
Place...Berlin

The first team to finish wins that round. Write their answers on the board. With groups that have a little more skill, once we have several letters and their accompanying words on the board, we ask the students to write a story of 3-5 sentences, using 5 or 6 of the words on the board. They usually enjoy that.