[dearscotty]

Quote Eric

I'm struggling with the same thing. I have one idea that I am going to try today and I'll let you know how it goes.

Name: Back to the Board
Materials: None
Useful For: Reviewing vocabulary and producing short structures

basically divide the class into 2-3 teams. one person from each team comes to the front of the class and sit with their backs facing the board. then you write the vocab/stucture you want them to say on the board. then the teams try to get their team member to say the word on the board.

it activates everyone and is exciting. i've played it with smaller, unenthusiastic classes and they went crazy. now to test it on some older students.

other than survey style exercises i don't have any more ideas.

if you use this activity, let us know how it goes.

eric

Do you write one word on the board, or a word for each team? If there is one word that the teams share, then I assume a player might pick up on other clues from the other team. I'm also guessing that it's easier to come up with just one word or target for everyone. Let me know how you do it. thanks!

[Eric]

Quote dearscotty

Do you write one word on the board, or a word for each team? If there is one word that the teams share, then I assume a player might pick up on other clues from the other team. I'm also guessing that it's easier to come up with just one word or target for everyone. Let me know how you do it. thanks!

i guess that wasn't too clear. you just write one word on the board and both teams compete to get the same word. yes, a team ends up giving the opposing team clues. that way it's still a group effort (the whole class is yelling clues).

i've never played with 2 different words on the board but i imagine it might be cool, too.

if you play with 2 words, let me know how it goes.

later
eric

[dearscotty]

I had four first year middle school classes today. The JTE told me to create a game plan geared to review "be" verbs. For the first round I tried out the soccer game listed at MES-english.com. That game worked pretty well, I printed the game board and created two sets of cards; one set had pronouns, the 2nd set had adjectives and some were article plus noun. The students had to link the two cards together using is, am, or are. The kids had a great time with it, especially when I threw question mark cards in so kids had the opportunity to read "??" : "ugly" as "Scott is ugly".

After that lost its steam, I tried the 'no look' activity. In the first three classes students raised their hands to give the clues to the students at the front. It was pretty organized, and at first I thought this way was great because the kids' English levels weren't that great. It was nice clean fun, but maybe too easy and simple.

For the last class I told the JTE to allow all the students who are sitting to shout hints to their teammate standing at the front. This proved to be quite fun for the kids as we played the "last" round about 5 times. I was also able to tie this game into the soccer game because nobody scored a goal in the soccer game. So, the no look game became the Penalty Kick portion.

Fun was had, thanks for the tips!