Flash Cards
 

I'm curious how much teachers use flashcards in their lessons. Additionally, what kind of activities do you usually do with the cards?

Thank you in advanced for the answers!

Re: Flash Cards
 

When I was teaching children I used flashcards in almost every lesson. I usually had a small and large set or sets of the cards (Let's Go does a good job with that) and I'd introduce the material using them and then play games with the small cards. The slam game was always a big hit but I also had about a dozen other games that I used the flash cards with.

Re: Flash Cards
 

You didn't have an option for 'every lesson, without fail'

Re: Flash Cards
 

That just shows you what I know about flashcards!:D

Actually, I hadn't considered that option. Because I work with so many upper-level students, I don't use flashcards with those lessons. Lower-level students, I agree: without fail for them to practice through the language as a class and in pair work.

Re: Flash Cards
 

Yes, I agree with Chris. Most of the stuff I do is with higher level students and I don't tend to use flashcards. However, with the kids I use them almost every lesson.

Re: Flash Cards
 

I'm quite surprised that so many people use flashcards so much. In fact, I put some together in response to the results of the poll.

You can find flashcards at:

Irregular Verbs | Heads Up English | ESL Lessons

Present Progressive Tense | Heads Up English | ESL Lessons

Just scroll down to the bottom of each page, and download the .pdf file.

Thank you!

Re: Flash Cards
 

Cool, Chris! Those are great!

I'm quite surprised that so many people use flashcards so much.

btw, what did you expect on a forum within a website that provides flashcards and worksheets :p

Re: Flash Cards
 

With lessons for kids, flashcards are used almost everytime to introduce new vocabulary, practice or review stuff. I play flyswatting which is also called the slam game by many others.Click here to learn how to play.
Also I play the hop and say game. I have the game description here
One of the oldest flashcard games I have been using is also I-spy with my little eye. Learn how to play it here.
Flashcards can also be used as speech prompts in guessing games. First the teacher introduces the vocabulary by showing students the cards one after the other. Then later, holds the cards to the chest, making sure students can't see. Then play "what's this?" . Draw a big smiley face above and about 6 small smiley faces below. The big face represents the teacher and small faces represent all the students. Students try to guess what card the teacher is holding to his/her chest. Every time they make a wrong guess, the teacher gets a point. When they make a right guess, the students get a point and the teacher pretends to be disappointed that the students are gaining a point. Keep playing until you have exhausted the cards. The students love to beat their teacher. Lots of fun with this!

Re: Flash Cards
 

I work with children, so I use flashcards everytime I introduce a new topic. I have some pretty big classes, so some of the activities I use:

-Kim's game - put the flashcards up on the board. Ask the kids to close their eyes, and take away one or two of the cards - ask them which ones are missing

-have an envelope with some holes cut in it that fits your flashcards - put a flashcard inside. You should be able to see part of the image - ask the kids what it is.

- distribute the flashcards to different kids in the class, and have the rest point to the one you say, or have multiple copies of the flashcards and have them hold theirs up when you say the word.

After the kids have learned the vocabulary, we also play the imaginatively named 'drawing game', where someone comes up to the board and draws one line of an object. The other kids try to guess what it is, with the student adding a little to the drawing after every question.

Hope that helps!

Re: Flash Cards
 

dazedllama,

Thank you! Those are all good ideas, and ones I've never used before. After the students have learned the vocabulary, do you plug the words into sentences to use the words in real conversation?

Re: Flash Cards
 

I do. All of my flashcard sets are tied to some target language. The students learn the words to use them in the language, not just learn the words.

Re: Flash Cards
 

Thanks, Mark. I do the same, considering vocabalary presentation as only the first step of the lesson. How about other teachers out there? How do you use flash cards most of the time?

Re: Flash Cards
 

Hi Chris.
I teach children ages 7 to 9 and use flashcards to
a)introduce new vocabulary (a great site is www.esl-kids where you can print out flashcards with or without words. With the kids, I choose flashcards w/out words so as not to confuse them). Hold up the flashcard, elicit the word, chorus chant the new vocabulary.
b)review vocabulary. At the beginning of each lesson, I play a line game where I line up the class in 2 groups and go over some of the words they've learned. Hold up a flashcard, elicit the word, the student who gets it right gets to sit down, the other student goes back to the end of the line etc...
c) the slam game that Eric mentioned is ALWAYS a big hit with the kids
As to the question whether flashcards are also useful to teach sentences, you can do both. When I taught action words, I used the flashcards depicting various actions/activities to build sentences, i.e. "what are you doing?" " I am ....-ing". So instead of just learning the word, the kids learned how to make sentences.
d) when teaching shapes, I made smaller versions of the flashcards and hid them in the classroom. Each student had to find 2 different ones and describe them to the class, e.g. "I have a star and a circle". They got to keep the cards which they loved.

Re: Flash Cards
 

Thank you jellybeanenglisch! Those are great ideas and quite useful. If you can think of any others, please let me know.