No, seriously, we do spelling activities, and the kids get way more into it than I ever would have predicted. Here is how it happened. I’ll warn you now that this isn’t a tips-and-tricks kind of ESS for this month; this is a whole system that will take several weeks to get implemented, but will…
There are quite a few games in my bag of tricks, but here are a few of the most successful. . . PICTIONARY (on the chalkboard) always works, for every age, for whatever words they know. CHARADES, same deal. Both of these also help them get over their shyness issues, so it’s great. I often…
This is one of the best games I played with my students in three years (I played it each year!). I call it simply: The Ainu Game. In essence, it’s a True/False game played in teams of 5 or so students. (I just tell my kids to get into “lunch groups’ and they seem to know what to do!) …
(Printouts are at the bottom of the post) A while back, one of my elementary schools requested that I read some English picture books to my sixth graders. So I ran to the nearest Junkudo (an hour away) and picked up the three most interesting (but still simple) I could find from their small selection. …
(Printouts are at the bottom of the post) Question and Answer Daily Speaking Practice One of the greatest disasters of the Japanese English education system is the lack of speaking and listening practice. Â But with the ever looming “Entrance Exams,” it’s always a question of how? Students already have too much to memorize and not…
Here’s something I wish I knew when I was an ALT, especially when I was trying to get my students to learn 16 items of Aussie lingo…
This is a great game for upper elementary school students (and possibly younger JHS students, depending on the size and personality of the class), and requires very little prep. The goal is to get the kids to hear subtle sound differences that don’t exist in Japanese…
The goal of the Omiai Speed Dating Game is to give the students a fun, real-world context in which to practice the target grammar, in this case “X is as ~ as Y,†many times in rapid succession, until they are able to do it naturally and fluidly. This game has the added bonus of provoking non-stop giggling, because it asks the students to search among their classmates for a spouse.
Students write three opinion sentences using the target grammar. In this case I asked the students to make value judgments about school and free time, American food and Japanese food, and love and money.
One day in early October, I was helping out with an English lesson since, you know, that’s my job. I’ve kind of gotten used to the fact that there is information all around me that I cannot really read. When I see English, though, I tend to gravitate towards it because I’m actually much more used to being surrounded by information I CAN read but do not actually care about (advertisements, etc.)…