Let the kids think!

 I'm a firm believer in teachers waiting for students to actually ask for support. If you're playing a game, and really want to take your turn & progress, then the motivation is high...but teacher, don't jump in to facilitate. Instead, wait for the language to percolate, language attempted, missing word isolated.

And wait for an actual request (weaker learners who are unable to verbally ask for help will indicate no-verbally they need a boost - watch carefully). Other students might be able to help - if not, then chances are they'll all need to use this same 'unknown' word again soon and will listen/practice/rehearse before their turn comes around.

Similarly, let students self-correct. Accept what they are trying to say, and let them reflect on their output/pronunciation/accuracy. Maybe teacher indicates that something was not quite right, or it needed to be faster or more fluently delivered? Not teacher driven, but students striving to 'get it right' on their own.

Teacher's role in any game, for my money, is to facilitate as much English with as little active participation as possible. Encourage, keep the focus, make sure we're playing nicely and having fun. For sure, allow books open to glance at key structures, question or sentence structures...but let the players do all the work. Can't see any English here? Because it's all been absorbed already :)

Where are all the words?!

Flipping boardgames for remote teaching - going on a safari!

Keeping it simple and familiar is a mantra I've been trying to apply as more & more of Luna's students are joining us remotely. There are enough 'new things' to have to learn on the hop right now, an overload of advice and a fair avalanche of problems usually at the last minute or as classes are starting/students arriving...

Animal Safari is a simple board game from Orchard Toys, which I like to use to reinforce learning of (low) numbers + animals, and the target language to differentiate singular/plurals...

• "What can you see?" "I can see a parrot" or "I can see three alligators" etc

But how to play when the mice are all at home?!

Solution: looks messy (my end) but worked a treat for the end users, (9-10 y.o.) on iPhones.

Game set up on the floor, counters flat on the board. Bird's Eye view of the game & pieces by balancing an iPhone above it (plastic train track cellotaped to a box overhanging the table edge = avoids a shadow. Share that screen in Zoom, with your camera app open, making sure everything is "the right way up".

Floored - analog game play!

Teacher shakes dice for the students. Hold dice up to the iPhone camera so they can count for their turn. Teacher moves the relevant counter forward (make a note of player/colour counter in game play order!). If there is extra action eg take a card etc, then hold that card also up to the camera and let the game play happen - as much as possible get the participants to do all the talking (establish turns eg A plays, B asks the questions...B's turn, C asks the questions & so on).

Teacher meantime on video as Zoom host, giving feedback & correcting if necessary, keeping the action going & everyone involved. Not easy - juggling a number of roles! I got so confused I couldn't remember "Meerkat" when asked!

I think this set up will work with most simple & familiar board games out of the cupboard...going to try a few more! Avoids downloading apps and all the hassle there with extra screen time etc and also clearly not digital ie I, the teacher, need to be 'in the room' so I'm not going to making myself unemployed...

Give it a go - what analog game & set up works well with your YLE class?

Twister in the classroom? - Not just for parties!

A blast from the past

Most of you will be very familiar with the game Twister, but have you ever considered it as a fun and interactive teaching tool? My students (and I'm sure yours do too!)  love to play games, just a mention of the word "game" during lessons perks everyone's interest.

Twister is a great activity for in many ways, first of all it gets the students out of their seats and moving around. Always great for shaking off those undesired yawns. The game also focuses on recognising colours, alongside interpreting and following simple instructions whilst also making sure not fall over with limbs flailing everywhere.

Head on red, bums to the sky!

You can adapt this classic game by using your own instructions, catered to the needs and curriculum of each class, in place of the rather boring and limiting Twister spinner. You can use the different body parts you have studied in textbooks or come across in songs, even get the students to stand or sit on the colours instead. I have to admit it's, quite the sight when you call out "Head on red!". Lots of falling over and plenty of laughter.

Confusion in the ranks

Another idea I have been meaning to try out is writing the alphabet over the coloured circles, or maybe even attach vocabulary flashcards. I still haven't quite worked out a creative and reliable way of keeping the flashcards in place during gameplay. I don't think trusty old blu-tak is going to be able to stand up to the challenge and come to my rescue this time. It's always inevitable that in the heat of the game that the flashcards will go flying everywhere when students are rushing to be the first player to reach the coloured circle. So any ideas or recommendations for attaching flashcards to the Twister board, without damaging the board for future use, will be greatly appreciated.

So why not expand your horizons and give Twister a try, not only as a fun game to play when you're bored but a teaching tool to aid your students' learning.

All smiles :)

"Play dead"

Scrabble with six year olds?!

Absolutely! And do you know what, it cured a bad case of the "mummy mummies" this afternoon - which was a pleasant surprise!

Our first time to play, and with six players Jim-Sensei had to be fast & loose with the rules (including not keeping a score!)

Main aim was to recognise/match lower case letters ("sensible" font a big bonus!) & to be able to say what the letters they were matching were. Big group = plenty of thinking time (big ABC chain on the wall) & time to locate matches on the board.

Each child took a fistful of tiles (four!) and took it in turns to put two on the board; lots of mutual support, as we were not trying to win. Pick up two more. Play ended when we'd filled the board & run out of letters. Achievement ;)

On the way, incidental game playing/turn taking language (repeated every turn!) as well as letter revision, getting them the right way up & distinguishing especially between p/q/d/b. 

And we sat & played very nicely for over half an hour; that "change activities every 5 minutes with YLs" myth debunked again!

Next time we play, we will win points for putting the last letter in a word to complete it, and for reading it/saying what the picture is ;) And everyone will still be a winner! 

What's your favourite YL board game?

We're engaged!

There's a really nice review game towards the end of "Sounds Fun 1" which our young learners have a lot of fun playing - nothing scary like words involved (to read).

In a digital era (and I am a big fan of web 2.0 and plugged in classrooms) it is nice to get retro with dice & erasers for counters! A personal philosophy is to get out of the way as much as possible - set up the activity and retreat, help out if necessary (and when asked properly!) and monitor.

Another thing I think is very important (and often missing) in kids' classes is the questioning role. Kids are asking questions incessantly in their native tongue, aren't they?! Just as important to be able to do so in English - and of their peers as much as of their teacher. In this case, asking teacher was a last resort. And as a last resort, I got to find out which vocab had gone in, and what hadn't. The nice aspect to this game is the likelihood of repetition, so players get the chance to remember for themselves/prompt each other/slag each other off if they have forgotten the same word three times over!

As you can see, the students are fully engaged with each other (actually demanding each other to hurry up & ask the question do they can answer 'their turn') and having a lot of learning fun. Student centred, loads of interaction, meaningful...

Use the same game template with your vocab, I am sure your students will enjoy!

Board readers! A graded playing field.

As a follow up to last week's posting about using graded readers with this homemade board, I realised that it is a very good "last minute" or "emergency" option for any class, and works with mixed ability classes.

One class we have at Luna is a family group, so it is often quite contrived to make sure the younger daughter can win a game or be as successful as her big sister etc.

Making sure she could see the board ( and aunt couldn't!) I was able to sneak hints/prompts onto the board to give her a head start. This was really motivating/rewarding for her, as she notched up a cricket score & thrashed her aunt!

Days of the Week

It's not easy finding a way for students to practice using the names of the days of the week, especially if they are not very strong or insist on working in their mother tongue/count on fingers or have to start at Sunday with the popular chant - rather slow ways to get to a high frequency word. Problem with teaching English is...you always have your class on the same day! You will only ever get one answer to "What day is it today?" and you'd look a bit daft if you kept asking the same question every week.

I have no idea where we inherited this old "Days of the Week" boardgame from, but it does a job. I wanted my lot to sight read the days as the moved around the board, collecting seven pieces of a jigsaw puzzle to win. With the days 'in order' it is still possible to drill from a common starting point, but I really prefer not to do that as soon as we can move away from rote into random access. Much more useful memory file!