Games for large unruly classes - Page 2 - Ajarn Forum

trep · 6th February 2005, 00:40

Just in case someone wants to try it. tuK- tong, with both syllables stressed, should do the trick.

I'm more worried about "that's correct". I know it's perfectly ok to say "that's correct" but Thai "tuktong" sounds easier, especially if you have seen it on TV. "that's right" might be a better alternative. I don't know. I find saying "pit" with a machine like voice is the best way to say "that's incorrect". Little things, but if you do a game show, they are very important.

LDMA · 11th February 2005, 12:00

Here's this weeks M3 Activity - Posers

Aim to practise body moving commands, and revise emotions and feelings vocab.

Drill the following only making the actions if no-one gets it.

Stand up
Sit down
(x3 just to annoy them)

Put your left hand up
Put your left hand down
(repeat with right)
Put both hands up

Put both hands down a little bit
Put your left hand up a little bit
(play with this concept a couple more times)

Lift your head up/down (a little bit)

Put your arms out to the front

Put your arms out to the side (watch them all smack each other - do that a few times for the sake of it.) Try 'a little bit ' as well.

Roll your eyes up, roll your eyes down, roll your eyes from side to side.

Smile
Frown
Open your mouth
Close your mouth
Open your eyes
Close your eyes.

Smile and open your mouth together (very funny)
Frown and open your mouth

Put your left/right hand on your _________ head, eyes, ears, nose, mouth, forehead, stomach, heart, hips, bottom. (Do these commands in various combinations.)

After this students should be exhausted...let them sit down.

Write the vocab up on the board or give out a hand out with it on.

Optional extra. Tell the students to command you the same way that you commanded them, just let them have a bit of fun at teachers expense for 5 minutes ast they make you walk about with you head up in the air hand on head and mouth open grinning inanely. If that's too demeaning for you I understand...my s's loved it.

Put s's in pairs and have one command the other for 5 minutes, then swap them over for another 5 minutes.

Teach the word statue and sculptor. Write 'Make a happy person' Get a volenteer to stand up and sculpt them into a happy person (put your head up a little bit, put your lefthand up a little bit, smile. ) Them make them hold it for 15 seconds.

Demonstrate one more time with "sad" on another student (put your left hand on your eyes, put your head down, frown, open your mouth)

Next get two students to stand up and the second student should command the first student with another emotion. Get it to the stage where they get it more or less.

Then write a list of emotions and feelings on the board put them into new pairs and ask them to take turns to pose their friends into the emoptions and feelings you wrote. Halfway through ask them to swap.

Monitor and pick the best ones you see to demonstrate at the front of the class.

Word ideas

happy, sad, crazy, surprised, shocked, angry, hot, cold, bored, tired etc....

trep · 12th February 2005, 23:05

Let kids pass a ball (a stuffed toy, a marker) and say something - a word, a sentence, a question and answer exchange. Two teams - who finishes first.

You can use any language item and you can extend it by asking them not to cheer for their friends but to listen to what they are saying, or to shout "Go, Spidey, go" instead of the usual "soon soon". You can ask them not to repeat themsleves (I like coffee, I like tea, I like pizza). Then you can try to eliminate cheating by timing each team separately - let the other team spot the cheats.

The general idea is to use this game (or most other games, for that matter) as a drilling tool - simply repeating phrases or substituting some words. Not much more.

For genuine interaction between students you'll need more space, firm discipline, and experienced kids, or resign to the fact that student-teacher interaction will be available only to a few lucky students while the rest of the class drifts away.

LDMA · 20th February 2005, 21:46

Here's my end of semester warmer. Worked with all ability levels of M3, and works as low as P5. I'm also told it makes a splendid drinking game.

The game is called Buzz. The basic aim is fluency in counting in English.

The students all stand up and count one by one. A certain number and all multiples of it is designated as "buzz" and students should substitute it for the number. Usually I'd start the game with x5 as buzz..eg 1234 buzz 6789 buzz. If a student gets it wrong, or is too slow, they have to sit down, don't be too lenient, though if everyone has lost the number make sure you throw it back if needed. When getting down to the final few make them go as quick as possible, for a roaring finish.

If you find this too easy for your students, use a different multiple as buzz or even get really sadistic and play BizzBuzz (we're moving into drinking game territory now)
In Bizzbuzz x3 is "buzz" and x7 is "bizz" and x21="bizzbuzz"...my best m3's just about managed it ok, but found it hard going...erm..as do I, but it's a laugh...

PeaceBlondie · 23rd February 2005, 12:06

We played "WhizBang" as a drinking game. See if you can figure out the pattern:
1, 2, 3, 4, whiz, 6, bang, 8, 9, whiz, 11, 12, 13, bang, whiz, 16, bang, 18, 19, whiz, bang. 35 is 'whizbang' and all the fifty's and seventies are whizzes and bangs, respectively.

LDMA · 23rd February 2005, 21:50

5=whiz 7=bang....yeah identical to bizzbuzz nearly...I wonder if there are any more drinking games that could be converted into non-alcoholic esl games.

ajarnernest · 7th March 2005, 09:51

This takes a bit of preparation but they SS love it.

Make a set of Scrabble tiles on 5"x7" card stock. Then play Scrabble where the SS have to actually hold the tiles and stand in the correct formation to spell words. This works best with 3 or more teams. Each tile also has a point value so keep track of the points to determine the winner. I like to use the square floor tiles to make game boards it's amazing what you can do with a roll of masking tape to creat a human sized game board for the SS to stand on.

ajarnernest

codger · 13th June 2005, 20:33

A good vocabulary game that I use with the lower level M-2's (equivalent to about mid level M-1's) is the "Last Letter Game." Write one word for each team on the Board and then each team must use the last letter of that word to form a new word. Same rules apply for the new word that they come up with. With more advanced students, you can then have them create sentences using as many words from each team's submissions and write them on the Board. They get one point for a correct sentence. The words that they use are then erased from the board.

banjo · 29th September 2005, 02:56

Try using picture dictations. Pic-dics are useful with big unruly classes for a couple of reasons.

1) Kids like to draw.

2) They HAVE to listen if they are going to be able to draw what you're dictating. It brings the noise level down to zip, and calms them right down. And you don't need to resort to 'discipline'.

3) You need hardly any meta language to set the activity up. It can all be done with hand movements and mime. The biggest problem with big classes of Prathom boys is that theytend to lose attention quickly, and if an activity requires a lot of instruction to set up, you lose them before the thing's got off the ground.

4) You don't have to muck around with seating or dividing them into groups or having them move around when they're crammed in like sardines in one of those non-aircon classrooms.

5) You can develop simple picture dictations effortlessly over a period of time into speaking (they tell you or each other the picture to draw) writing (they write a description of a picture) reading (they have to match a description to a picture) and so on and so forth.

If you want a couple of detailed lesson plans of how to set these things up p.m. me.

And the beauty of it all is that you need nothing but a chalkboard and their notebooks.

Two last little tips on big Prathom classes.

1)Buy a whistle and use it as a precursor to voice instructions.

2)Get them set up in semi-permanent teams with names (football clubs, whatever) and award points for good behaviour and attitude along with performance. Keep a running total on display in the classroom. At the end of the week, or however often you like, dish out a few candies as a prize. They love to compete and peer pressure not to lose points will take care of discipline.

Hope this is of help. :smile:

Regards,

robpheister · 9th October 2005, 18:08

Feel for you. Not really the smartest way to use an expensive investment of a foreign teacher's salary, since effectiveness decreases with class size. All the games and activities posted look interesting and you'll come across many more.
The problem is executing the game and not executing the class.
One way to dramatically increase success and effectiveness in a class that size is to try and get your classroom equipped with tools like microphone and speakers, maybe some AV equipment so students in the back rows can feel involved, etc etc. These things are sometimes difficult to convince a school to procure, but hopefully there is an englightened decision maker that you can present a case to. Maybe begin by comparing your total salary over twelve months compared to the cost of what you need. Good Luck.

2Pac · 30th January 2006, 10:01

In my special classes I usually do a version of PARTS OF SPEECH BINGO...

They can enter in teams and they can compete by themselves... It is very fun and you can adjust it to any level...

Example... They find the word "VERB" and they make up "EAT", then one team (the fastest) have to make a sentence where they use the word "EAT" "I WILL EAT AN APPLE" and so on... If you need more details and this sounds interesting... just PM me...

Also for the fun of it... Copy 4 sets of the alphabet and divide in to two teams... Say a word and let them spell it... Now the hard part is that the students holding a letter can not say anyting.. they will have to choose a leader who have to direct them without touching them...

I have used these games from P1 to M6 and they will work, but you know your students and you have to change the level for them...

Good luck.

Added after 36 seconds:

In my special classes I usually do a version of PARTS OF SPEECH BINGO...

They can enter in teams and they can compete by themselves... It is very fun and you can adjust it to any level...

Example... They find the word "VERB" and they make up "EAT", then one team (the fastest) have to make a sentence where they use the word "EAT" "I WILL EAT AN APPLE" and so on... If you need more details and this sounds interesting... just PM me...

Also for the fun of it... Copy 4 sets of the alphabet and divide in to two teams... Say a word and let them spell it... Now the hard part is that the students holding a letter can not say anyting.. they will have to choose a leader who have to direct them without touching them...

I have used these games from P1 to M6 and they will work, but you know your students and you have to change the level for them...

Good luck.

MrMarcus · 15th March 2006, 13:12

Very Good blog, LDMA. Interesting reads.

bcqcboy · 12th April 2006, 08:59

Some good ideas here. I find that trivia games work really well, and there are so many varieties one can do. Another I like is one I made up called sentence bingo. I draw a 6x6 or 7x7 bingo grid on the board. Across the top I write six places:

the restaurant / the library / church / my house / school / the park

Down the side I write six times:

tomorrow
this afternoon
next week
next month
in May
next year
some day

Then to get a square they have to make a sentence using a verb in a certain tense, in this case the simple future. E.g. I will go to school next week. I divide the class into three teams and make each team recite the sentence to get the square. To get a point they have to get four squares in a row. One can do many varieties of this, such as weather (e.g. it is rainy in Russia, it is snowy in China, etc.) It can last for about 10-15 minutes and is a good way to reward a class that has worked hard on their lesson.

jonny danger · 28th May 2006, 18:51

I don't mind noisy classes. The pictionary game (without buying it) has given me years of service. Make two teams (have them think of a name for their team). Take two Ss out side and give them a noun or adjective or both. Start with easy ones and have them become more difficult, up to two and three word combinations. rabbit -- Barbie Doll -- divorce --dead cat -- train station, etc. They draw and the team guesses.

Clue (hot seat) is a winner too.

Buy two bandanas at the market. Kids love to be blindfolded. There are endless activities you can do with blindfolds: pictionary, giving directions, treasure hunt, etc.

Nemo. · 12th July 2006, 11:33

Quote:

Originally Posted by BasilBrush

I would like to get some new ideas for games and activities for large classes. My classes are P3 and P4, 50 kids in each class. Many classes have short attention and can be difficult to control.

Any new ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Si

50 small! thats a luxery in state rural schools. We have upto 75 (60-70 typical) especially for M1-3. Try games with them!

75 M1 students who cant write A,B,C........

One tactic we tried was half the class do a word search and half the class play a game - then swap. But works with better classes only.

Or pick the best from each group (eg "Simon Says") and play at the front.

Or go to a private school with max class size of 25 and get paid more :chug: