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Lesson Ideas More tried and tested ideas to use in your classes. Employment 10 Tips for Landing a Teaching Job in Japan. Education News Keep up to date with all the latest education news from around the world. |
Lesson IdeasTeaching in a private language school, or eikaiwa, invariably means teaching to small groups of students which means
that activities or games designed for regular English classes either just plain don't work or need some adaptation. Feel free to scroll down through all the activities or click on a link to jump down the page Counting Game
Clench you fist, place it on the table and say one. Invite the next student to place his fist on top of yours and say two. If there is another student invite him to place his fist on top and say three (or if there is only one student place your other fist on top.) Keep going up to ten. Can also be used with a suitable noun to practice plurals e.g. one potato, two potatoes, three potatoes etc.
This is taken from a popular children's television show. The kids make a circle, around the table is fine, and you start by choosing a theme let's say colors for this example. Instructor starts with saying a color 'Green' and then everybody claps 2 times and the next student in the circle has to say another color (in English!) Continue around the table until somebody either repeats a color, can't think of another color or says it in Japanese. This game really helps the children concentrate and as they will probably know it in it's Japanese version is easy to pick up. Once the children have got the basic feel of the game you can vary the themes.
Choose two students and let each take a flashcard from the pile, taking care not to let it be seen by the other player. The two then stand backto- back holding the card face out at chest level. Direct them to walk a set number of steps and then turn around to face each other. The winner is the player who can correctly identify his opponents flashcard.
Place your chosen flashcards face up on the table, or floor, now start to give clues as to which card you have in mind. For example, 'It's round', 'It only comes out at night', 'It likes to travel high in the sky'. The students will not necessary understand all the dialogue used but by combining this with gestures and mimes can dramatically increase their powers of communication.
If you have never tried it before getting the students to listen to and produce the rhythm of English is a great tool in teaching new vocabulary, structure etc. Using a combination of handclaps and slaps to your thighs to indicate each syllable whilst pronouncing the words clearly and encouraging the students to join in with you; It's surprising how quickly they can pick up new language using this method.
Lay at least 20 or so cards on the floor around the classroom to create a course (face-up or face-down, your choice, doesn't matter if you use doubles of any card). With the students at a suitable start point choose one student to go first (use rock, paper, scissors). The first student throws a dice, (or even better two dice to practice 1 to 12) and moves the number of cards indicated on the dice. With the younger students simply get them to say the vocabulary item on the card they have landed on; older students can try to make simple sentence. Continue with the other students and play like a Big Board Game!
Say a shape and ask the student if they can find it within the classroom. Get them to look in books or at the posters and find as many examples of the shape as possible. Work through as many shapes qas you can find this way.
Take a selection of flashcards, and after holding them up and teaching the vocabulary or checking that the students know the vocab lay them face-up on the table. Choose some action music (e.g. Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes) and play encouraging the students to sing and do the actions. Pause the CD and shout out the name of a flashcard. The students then have to slap that card. Continue with the music, pausing and shouting until all the cards are claimed. Hint: Instead of shouting the name of the card directly, give clues to the identity of the card. This allows you to check the students listening and comprehension, try it you will be surprised!
Classic game for reinforcing vocabulary, for those teachers who have forgotten here are the rules. Two decks of identical cards spread face down on the table (Note: for an easier game use fewer cards and spread the two decks in distinctly different areas of the table or arrange them in two rows.) Choose a student to go first using rock, paper scissors for example. That student gets to turn two cards over, if they match he keeps the pair (and has another go?), if they don't the cards are replaced face down, in the same position, on the table. Move to the next student. Play until all the cards have been matched.
Get the students to stand up, next ask them to shake their right hand ten times, then their left hand ten times, then their right foot ten times and finally their left foot ten times. Repeat but this time only with nine shakes of each limb. Repeat with eight shakes. Repeat with seven shakes. Etc... Keep the rhythm fast so that by the time you reach one shake the students are moving like crazy!! (Don't worry if your students don't know the difference between left and right, as long as they change hands or feet that's okay. Also miss out numbers to speed the activity up, especially in the beginning as the students may get bored as they don't know the end result yet.) © 2007 www.englishpool.net |