[fishead soup]

I've done something similar to that simple give the person a keyword such as Chistmas. They have to write as many words as possible that are related to that word. This is a good short activity. I wouldn't try it for the whole period.

[Eric]

I forgot another activity I have been using lately with seccess.

I break the class into groups of 4. Each group (team) has one piece of paper.

Then I say an answer to a question and they (as a group) write the question.

For example:
Teacher says: "I ate pizza yesterday."
Students write: "What did you eat?"

I keep track of points and it becomes more interesting and competitive.

Eric

[Eric]

Quote fishead soup

I've done something similar to that simple give the person a keyword such as Chistmas. They have to write as many words as possible that are related to that word. This is a good short activity. I wouldn't try it for the whole period.

An alternative to this is a game called Crazy IQ. Basically give them a topic (ex. Christmas, action verbs, colors, etc...) and individually or in groups, write one word from the given category. Give a point to each person/team that has a word that was not said. But if a word is duplicated, those teams with the same word don't receive a point.

[chocopie]

Class surveys are a good way to get larger groups to circulate. Give the students some time (10-15 minutes, or as homework) to formulate their own questionaires related to whatever you're teaching in class. Then they all have to get up and interview X number of people in the class and record their answers. Afterwards you can talk as a class about the questions they made and some of the answers they received. This gives a little bit of structure to students who are intimidated by "free-talking", and relieves the pressure of speaking in front a large class.

Another one I did with a very large class of military officers (!!) was provide a few discussion topics on the board, such as "how did you meet your wife" and "what would you like to do when you retire" and have them work through them in pairs. You could do this at the start of each class to get them warmed up.

HTH