As we move into the end of January with 2023 well under way, it’s time to ask ourselves whether we have started the year with a bang and if we have managed to instil a sense of good practice into our classes and our personal and professional development. This is part two in our blog – read part one here.
- Class Diary – Invent an invisible student (i.e., create a name that is not on the class register) tell the students that ‘Joe’ (or whatever name you’ve come up with) isn’t here today and that they should write a diary entry for him, explaining what he has been doing instead – the students can come up with this diary entry in pairs but they have to use language that has been taught in that particular class. The entries are then read out and the best one is selected for the class diary (which all the students write down). If there isn’t enough time left in class, you can give it as homework task and review it next lesson – at the end of the semester you have a quirky yet valid account of what you’ve been doing each lesson, which the students can use as a revision aid.
- A blast from the past – recycle listening texts from previous lessons, Play a bit of text for the students (it doesn’t matter if it’s only a partial extract and it certainly shouldn’t include the beginning of the text where the exercise is referenced) and have the students work in pairs to see if they can remember where they heard the text and what the learning aim was – you can make it a race where they can turn to the page in their coursebooks and the first ones to get there are the winners and then they can review and revise the language or grammar from the text – this allows you to seamlessly add it in some distributive recycling in a fun way.
If you don’t fancy trying out the activities above, I still think you should consider adding in a new class routine – any activity that is new and you repeat in class can create engagement and mix up the ordinary by adding in an extra element, so if none of the above excite you, try something different – this could be by doing a physical activity at the beginning of the class (I knew one teacher who would just get the students to stand up and do some exercises for 30 seconds or so – another who would do some intense drilling or ‘vocal’ exercises as she would call them to get the students ready to speak English). Have the students choose a class song every month (make sure it is in English) and then play this at low volume when the students are working together in pairs or groups, this can help fill the silence and it sometimes encourages the students to speak in English rather than using Mother tongue. Have the students select a word of the day from the new lexis that has been introduced. Put up a stairway to heaven with rewards at the top and homework at the bottom, move a marker up or down the stairway during the lesson indicating whether you are pleased with your students’ performance or not, so they can get some feedback on how they are doing.
Phil first started working at Embassy when there was just one school in Hastings, back in 1990 – during his time there he has worked in many roles, from teacher to head of vacation education to teacher trainer and then finally over to Embassy Summer, where he has Academic Coordinator for UK schools since 2007.