Games for large unruly classes - Ajarn Forum

BasilBrush · 30th January 2005, 10:03

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

Sheep-Goats · 31st January 2005, 15:56

Nightmare situation. I suggest you do the discipline hardass thing for a month or so before offering any games. And I mean hardass. You'll also need to simultaneously cultivate discipline allies in the farther reaches of the room -- kids who want to learn and are diplomatic enough to hush those around them appropriatly.

When that's solved, you'll need English Monitors sprinkled around the classroom for your games. Be sure to offer some kind of grade for any game or activity (on the board, and write it down in a book so that they give it at least a little effort). The English Monitors I mentioned are students chosen on a rotating basis and their grade for the activity is based soley on how much English their charges speak. I reccomend giving them an inflatable plastic hammer or bat to whack kids with.

You can maybe do a game along these lines every two weeks.

Be sure you change the location you teach from, as well as the student's seating positions, periodically. Letting them sit where they want and teaching from the front for a whole semester will spell disaster. Be sure you have them stand up and move furniture around for mixers (The "Find someone who's slept in a cave / owned a buffalo / etc etc" game works well if they're language is up to it), and to participate in the mixers yourself rather than just monitor.

Team games will apply, though the language production will be much lower per head than it usually is. Convoluted jigsaw activities can be done once you have their ducks in a row, but also require massive prep time on your part...

I had classes of up to 70 in China and after three months I'm fairly happy to say that I had most of them learning a little English each day I saw them and not howling or throwing shit.

kingwilly · 31st January 2005, 16:48

Oauy - thats crap - I'll stick to my senior class of 9 kids - they are golden!

BasilBrush · 1st February 2005, 09:21

^^ bit pointless ^^ ??

Sheep goats. I've been there six months already. I was planning to move on, but there are benefits to staying so looks like a new contract there is on the cards.

Control and influence is not what I'm asking, JUST GAMES THAT WORK WITH LARGE CLASSES.

Hangman works reasonably well.

Spelling tests, in teams.

Draw or write, something 5 letters (variable) or more that start with letter A (variable), in teams again.

I need to develop several more.

Tomm · 1st February 2005, 09:43

Here is another one for you. I play it with my american students here in the USA, but I'm sure it would translate for students in Thailand.

Write a long word on the board, for example CIVILIZATION. Then in teams or on their own they have to come up with as many words as possible using only the letters from that word.

Examples:
Civil
Violin
Cat
Oval

You can either say the one who comes up with the most words wins. Or you can assign point values. You get 6 points for a 6-letter word, 5 points for a five letter word and so on down the list.

BasilBrush · 1st February 2005, 11:36

That is a good game - it works well with the top 30% of my kids, but the rest of mine don't have a good enough grasp of the language to make it effective. At my school this game ideal for P5 and above.

hiso · 1st February 2005, 12:22

"What's the time Mr wolf" is a good one, it's really hard to explain though, I have the instructions written in Thai and Englism (p.m me if you need them)

A good one for near the end of term is "what's this? How do you spell it?" Split the class in two, and go through all the flash cards you have used for a term asking the questions....... you get the idea.... works better if the students have to put their hands up, even the most appathetic students seem to enjoy it

LDMA · 1st February 2005, 12:37

Hangman is of very dubious pedagogical value IMHO, it uses an inordinate amount of time to focus on single words.

Far better is Board Boggle in which you draw a 5x5 grid on the board with letters ellicited from students (be sure to be tactical and abitrarily stick a few vowels in there) or you can make your own up if time is short.

In 2's-3's Students have 10-15 minutes to find as many words as they can...

Words can be found in the grid by following chains in any direction vertically. horizontally or diagonally, using each letter only once per word

They score points for each word as follows:
minimum 3 letters =1
4 letters = 2
5 letters= 3
6 letters = 4
7+ = ? (bonus ie make it up as you go along)

After students swap papers shout out some answers and you write them down saying yes or no (half of them will have the same words anyway)....get them to add the scores up.

You might also make a mental note of the longer words and teach them as random vocab. (A decent English - Farrang - Thai dictionary might be an idea here)

For those unfamiliar with the classic word game a very addictive online version can be found here.

http://weboggle.shackworks.com/

blackjack · 1st February 2005, 12:58

Quote:

Spelling tests, in teams.

For writing and spelling, get team "relays" going.

As an example, 7 kids per team, time them with a stopwatch, one has to run to the blackboard and write "Monday" correctly, then run back and hand the chalk to the next team mate, who writes "Tuesday" etc.

You can make the teams larger or smaller and adapt the words to whatever you're teaching.

The kids love it and they can be as loud as they want. :smile:

Sheep-Goats · 1st February 2005, 14:25

Quote:

Originally Posted by BasilBrush

Control and influence is not what I'm asking, JUST GAMES THAT WORK WITH LARGE CLASSES.

The two are inexorably linked in my mind. If you have the right kind of control almost any "small class" game can be applied. If you disagree with that, then my games are probably too different from you games to be useful in your classes anyway.

lahpmoo · 1st February 2005, 15:03

I use a variation of "Wheel of Fortune" (the American TV show) that students really like to play. It also tricks them into saying longer sentences that they usually don't have the confidence to say. I do this with P3 through P6, but my class sizes are between 18-25...so, maybe it can work for your larger classes. Split them into teams, making sure to put the more clever kids on different teams. I award each team 10 baht per letter (not really) and they must buy vowels at 5 baht per letter. When they say the whole sentence, that team gets 20 baht.

Also, Stop the bus is always a good game, they must make a list of words starting with a given letter and for four or five categories...i.e. food, country, job...letter A, apple, Australia and actor. When a team completes its list they must shout "Stop the bus" and everyone stops. Any words that other teams wrote don't count; the idea is to reward the teams that come up with less obvious words.

GeeCee · 5th February 2005, 12:44

The old magic square is a good one.
Nine letters in a square, make as many words as you can. If the students are up to it, you can make rules such as, you can only make 3,4 or 5 letter words. You can use teams, pairs or individuals.
Write the alphabet on the board, twice. The students have to come up with an animal that starts with each letter then and adjective for each lettter.
You hopefully end up with "angry ant".

:smile:

LDMA · 5th February 2005, 21:09

Preteach Truth and Lies (jing and gorhok)

Get students to write down or prepare a handout with the following

What's your favourite ________________? (check understanding)

Give them a list of catagories (check understanding of each...an M3 class should be fine with these)
eg
Colour
Food
City
Car
Movie
Animal

Ask them to complete the initial question using the 6 catagories, but tell them that 50% should be true and 50% should be lies. If you get blank looks at this point write down a set of your own answers on the board as an example. That should get them rolling. If you have a really weak class it might be worth backing up the 50% true 50% lies bit by getting them to guess via a show of hands whether each is true or not...knocks 5 minutes off talking time but worth it in the end.

Once you're happy they're getting on with it..stick the dialogue on the board or point them to the next part of the hand-out.

The Dialogue is as follows

A : What's your favourite __________________?
B : My favourite _________________ is ________________.
A: I think that's true / I think thats a lie.
B: That's correct / That's incorrect.

Should be fairly simple for the students to get at this point, I tend to teach "thats correct" and "thats incorrect" by translating them in the style of that goddawful Thai Quiz show with the man in glasses screams "Tuton na krap!!" (thats correct) or "Pit na krap" (That's incorrect)

So finally to the talking time, get the stiudents to practise with their neighbour first for 2 minutes tops, then swap the whole class round and get them to do the task again.

Worked like a charm on ever my slowest class,

trep · 5th February 2005, 23:07

Should be "tuKtong na krap"

LDMA · 5th February 2005, 23:41

Ok...however it's transliterated... it makes "That's Correct" easy to teach them