ESL in Taiwan
Wow, it’s the end of July, and I really don’t know what to tell you.
The site’s last post was on June 28, so about a month ago. I just don’t know what other advice I can give you that’s not already on the site or in one of my many ESL books.
But I can’t go a month without a post, so let’s try to come up with something, huh?
The site’s last post was on June 28, so about a month ago. I just don’t know what other advice I can give you that’s not already on the site or in one of my many ESL books.
But I can’t go a month without a post, so let’s try to come up with something, huh?
Flashcards
You can do so much with flashcards that it’s not even funny. A good place to start is the floor. Just throw a bunch down, and then spread them out, face-down. Now have students grab one and go back to their desk.
Know what happens next? Hey...neither do I!
Usually after that I’ll try to put the class in teams, realizing that it would have been better to do that beforehand. That saves me time, since I don’t know where this activity is going.
After that I’ll usually have one student get up, then another from the other team. Having them read their flashcard or say what it does is a good idea. Then…how about superlatives?
Which is bigger, faster, dumber?
Do something for comparison, or where one student can somehow “win” by saying more or something better. That team gets a point.
Word Searches
Alright, finally – it’s the last 10 minutes of a 2-hour class, the last class of the long day. Time to hand out a word search.
“Ah, teacher!”
Yeah, you’ve done this a million times and students are sick of it. So what can you do?
How about a word search war?
What is that? I have no idea – I’m making this up as I write this.
The point is, you just killed some serious time, the students had fun, and word searches are no longer boring. That deserves a beer, huh? (for you, not the students).
You can do so much with flashcards that it’s not even funny. A good place to start is the floor. Just throw a bunch down, and then spread them out, face-down. Now have students grab one and go back to their desk.
Know what happens next? Hey...neither do I!
Usually after that I’ll try to put the class in teams, realizing that it would have been better to do that beforehand. That saves me time, since I don’t know where this activity is going.
After that I’ll usually have one student get up, then another from the other team. Having them read their flashcard or say what it does is a good idea. Then…how about superlatives?
Which is bigger, faster, dumber?
Do something for comparison, or where one student can somehow “win” by saying more or something better. That team gets a point.
Word Searches
Alright, finally – it’s the last 10 minutes of a 2-hour class, the last class of the long day. Time to hand out a word search.
“Ah, teacher!”
Yeah, you’ve done this a million times and students are sick of it. So what can you do?
How about a word search war?
What is that? I have no idea – I’m making this up as I write this.
- Maybe it’s when you have two teams, yeah…that always works.
- After that you can put the alphabet on the board real fast, or better yet, have students race to do that.
- Then it’s time to divide up that alphabet, giving some in the group the A-H words, others the I-M words, and so on, depending on how many you have.
- Next you can let them at it in their small groups, letting them find words.
- Finally, when all the groups have found all the words, they can circle them all on one main group paper and race to the board to…do something, which probably isn’t much, because you only had ten minutes to begin with.
The point is, you just killed some serious time, the students had fun, and word searches are no longer boring. That deserves a beer, huh? (for you, not the students).
