Teaching Ideas

Teaching Family Relationships

This idea is useful for when you are ready to teach uncle, aunt, neice, nephew, cousin and maybe son and daughter. The students will already know father mother, brother, sister and maybe son and daughter, so all you'll need to do is identify these relationships. The students should also be familiar with the possessive, eg., John's pen.

In a column down the left side of the board list out all the types of relationships, eg., mother, father, etc. and give a quick drill. You could add in husband - wife if you wanted to. Mentally divide the rest of the board into three horizontal sections - top, middle and bottom. Oh yes, don't forget to leave a small space at the bottom for the dialogue later. In the top section draw a man and a woman. They don't have to be great pictures, just stick figures will do. These will end up being the grandparents of the family. In the center section draw two sets of men and women and space them evenly across the board, eg., ......M1W1..............M2W2....... These will be the mothers and fathers of our family. And in the lower section draw two boys and two girls under each mother and father. This allows for 'brother - brother' and 'sister - sister' later.

Now, with a different color marker start, defining the family relationships. (I like to use a different colored pens for two reasons. One is to separate different kinds of information in my graphs, tables, drawings, etc., and the other is to make the presentation more colorful and therefore more attractive.) Start from the top and work down. Identify the couple at the top as father and mother. Draw a line from this couple to woman1 and elicit the relationship from the students (mother, father - daughter). Draw another line from the top couple to man2 and again elicit response (mother, father - son). Draw a line from woman1 to man2 and elicit brother, sister. Repeat this process for levels two and three. These relationships should be lines and labled.

With another colored marker (this is new stuff and therefore requires a different color) start marking in niece, nephew, uncle, aunt and cousin. Again, these relationships should be lined and labled. Now give another short drill of the words in the left hand column.

Yes, I know, so far this all sounds very ordinary and pedestrian. We'll get to the hook now. The hook is in the naming of the people drawn on the board. With yet another colored pen name the figures on the board after the students. If you have more figures than students start naming them Bill, Bill1, etc. True, its not much of a hook but the kids seem to enjoy it.

Now its time for the practice. Begin with something simple, use a sentence like, John is Mary's (cousin). You don't even have to write this sentence on the board as its only four words and the students already know all but one of them. You should start off pointing to the figures on the board as you say the sentence, "John is Mary's (pause - hoping for a student to answer) (cousin). After you've done this a few times, hand it over to the students and let them run with it. When they're comfortable with this give them a more complex structure to have fun with.

Q: Who is Bill's cousin?
A: Tom is Bill's cousin.
Q: Who is Bill's cousin's mother?
A: Sarah is Bill's cousin's mother.

You can even make it into a circle.

Q: Who is Bill's cousin's mother's father's grandson?
A: I (Bill) am Bill's cousin's mother's father's grandson.

Board Games for English Teachers

Battleship 2
The game is played on a grid similar to a game of battleship. The size of the grid depends on the number of students and the time limits of the class. Basically the students pick a grid reference, say " A 1" and then you pick the task. There can be many tasks, you have them roll a dice and then they need to think of that many words for a letter of your choice. Then they recieve that many points, ie, what ever they rolled. You can vary it at will if you pretend you are working of a prepared plan, sometimes I have them name ten body parts, or five things from the kitchen, bathroom, etc. Thus it can be modified to suit anything you have been working on. To add a bit of spice I also have a bomb every now and then that I throw in when 1 team is running away with it, they just miss a turn with the sound and drawing of a bomb. The kids love this bit and are always wary of the bomb. I also have a missle, the drawing of a missle which can be used to blow up one of the oppositions scores. You can use all these but make sure you pretend to be working of a plan as if the kids pick up that you are making them up to suit the game they go nuts. The winner of the game is the team with the most points. Make sure you have enough time to finish as the students get pretty angry if squares are left on the board




Memory Motel
Target Language: Cardinal and ordinal numbers. Draw a multi-storied hotel on the whiteboard, and give it a name. Number each floor, (for ordinal numbers, I usually use 1-31, but it can be varied depending on the level and number of students).
Review ordinal numbers and then teach the students the structure, 'Are you staying on the ___ floor?' Also teach them 'higher' and 'lower'. On a piece of paper write down the number of a floor (eg, the 12th floor).
A student begins by asking, for example, 'Are you staying on the 15th floor?' To which you reply, 'No, I'm lower.' I usually keep everyone involved, and alert, by going from student to student rather than a hands up basis. This continues until a student, by deduction or through sheer luck, identifies which floor you are staying on. It is then that students turn to come to the front and secretly write down the number of the floor they are 'staying on'.
For students who don't yet know ordinal numbers, you can use the exponent, 'Are you on floor number _ ?' etc.
I have found this to be a very useful game for both speaking practice and listening, as students are compelled to listen to other students questions and replies.


Hangman Not very original, but kids love to play it. Firstly, pick a word the children know and draw a dash for each letter on the whiteboard. Divide the class into two teams and have each team call out a letter in turn. If the letter the students choose is in the word, write that letter above the appropriate dash on the board. If the letter is not in the word, write that letter at a different location on the board, and draw one line of the gallows. Continue this process until either one of the teams determines the word or until a team is "executed" (ie. when you have completed the drawing of the gallows, including the hanging stick man). Award points to the winning team.

Bingo Good for the end of the lesson for practising numbers (or general vocab.). 
Preparation:Make a different grid of sixteen random numbers for each class member. Write a number list for yourself.
Play:Explain that the students must mark off the numbers in their grids as you call them out, and that if they finish the grid, shout
"BINGO!"
Call out the list:When a student shouts "BINGO", ask them to read out their numbers, and check them off on your list.
The winner gets a pencil sharpener or rubber, which they will treasure.
Variation:Draw vocabulary objects in the grids (eg. cabbage, tall man, short man, computer etc.), then call them out or (for artists) write in the grids and draw them on the board.


Tic Tac Toe 4 Alternative Tic Tac Toe (for paper or whiteboard)
Draw the usual # but instead of using a pen, use only 3 items per student (instead of the normal 4). Three blue paper pieces, 3 red etc (use tape on the back for white board). The game does not end until there is a winner. In otherwords, the children keep moving the pieces in turn until there is a winner.
If you want to use vocabulary lists, they need to take a new word each time.


Back to the Board
A volunteer stands with her/his back to the board. Teacher writes a previously taught word/phrase/verb on the board. The rest of the class has to explain the meaning of the word so that the volunteer can guess what is written.


Tic-Tac-Toe for remedial practice!
After a test/written work I select 9 sentences with mistakes and number them. Students select a square from 1 to 9 to place their x or 0 and I read out the wrong sentence. To claim the x or o they have to correct the sentence. This game has worked for me as students become aware of their mistakes. Hope it helps .


Wheel of Fortune!
Materials: White/Blackboard and writing utensils
Play: Create a Person, Place, Thing, Saying, Movie, Song etc - any category which will appeal to students. They must choose a letter and allocate points if the letter they choose is in the puzzle.



The Lion Game
Materials: 4 lions, each a different colour, an explorer, a jeep, two special dice and a playing area. I usually draw a grid on my whiteboard to make the playing area. By varying the size of the grid I can control the game length.
Set up: place one lion in each corner of the playing area. Place the jeep and the explorer anywhere, preferably as far apart as possible.
Method of play: give a student a simple task. If the student succeeds give the student the 'explorer' dice. If the student makes a mistake give the student the 'lion dice'. The explorer can escape the lions by getting to the jeep and then driving the jeep off the playing area. The lions always move towards the explorer. If a lion lands on the explorer, the explorer is eaten. If the jeep is rolled move it away from the explorer. When the explorer has reached the jeep only move the explorer when the jeep is rolled (i.e. ignore explorer rolls).
Comments: The above description assumes that the students want to save the explorer. One alternative is to let the students choose which dice to throw which may create competition if some students want to save the explorer and others want to get the explorer eaten. Another possibility is to ask the students where a playing piece should be moved. With very young students it is possible to play the game without them realising that there are actually two dice.