Quick and Useful Ideas for Student-Led Projects

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.

Jeopardy

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.

All about feelings

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. :)

Go Fish!

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

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.

Those wonderful matching cards!

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!

It's about Time

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!

Beginner "Activities" continued...

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

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.

Christmas, week 1

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.

Swine flu! Week 2

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...

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!