Teaching

High School Speaking Activities

(However, many of the activities listed on here can be adapted for other age groups)

Board Games: You can use vocabulary and content questions from the textbook. You can use templates at the following web sites: http://people.uncw.edu/ertzbergerj/word_games.html http://bogglesworldesl.com/esl_games.htm Who am I?? Level: Any Level You can use use this with any subject.

Write the names of famous people (mixed nationalities) on small pieces of paper.

Tape a name on the forehead of each student. The individual student should not see his or her paper, but the others should.

Then, like with 20 questions, only yes or no questions should be asked. Perhaps start with yourself and ask "Am I am man?" If the answer is yes, I can ask again, but if the answer is no, it's the next person's turn.

Play until everyone has guessed who he or she is! This can be played with nationalities, countries, household objects, anything and it's a gas, especially for adult students!!

Find Your Partner

Prepare a small slip of paper for each student in your class. Each paper should have one word on it that goes with a word on another slip of paper. For example, matching pairs might be fork and spoon, day and night, bat and ball, or table and chairs.

Fold the papers and put them into a hat. Each person then draws one slip of paper. On your word, students must circulate and talk to one another trying to find their partner.

Once two people think they are a match, they come to you to see if they are right. If they are, they sit down. Play until everyone has found their partner.

Then have those partners work together to create a new pair of words that go together. Repeat the game with the students giving examples.

Four Corners Activity (presented at TESOL 2013)

Level: Intermediate-Advanced Size: Whole class Use: Expressing and defending an opinion Time: 15 minutes Materials: Four signs labeled “Strongly Agree,” “Agree,” “Strongly Disagree,” and “Disagree”

Instructions: Place signs with “Strongly Agree,” “Agree,” “Strongly Disagree,” and “Disagree” in each corner.

Give students a statement that requires some evaluation of opinion (Example: “Soda should be banned in school cafeterias.”).

Students go to the corner that matches their opinion.

The students in the same corner discuss why they chose that corner and then report it to the rest of the class. After each corner has explained their opinion you can ask students from the different corners to politely refute another corner’s opinion and see if any of the students may now want to switch to another corner

Read and Run

Level-Intermediate to advanced
 * In Japan I use this as a sentence order/listening/writing/ speaking activity. I didn’t make it as challenging as the instructions below suggest.  Instead, I didn’t make the students use totally correct sentences (such as spelling, punct., etc..)  It was mainly to get them to talk to each other, listen, and then to work together to figure out sentence order for either basic paragraphs or little riddles.

Teacher Prep

1. Use paragraph from textbook or just basic paragraph that you want students to put into the correct order 2. Type up sentences and cut them into strips 3. Make a worksheet using 2 columns and as many rows as your paragraph has sentences. 4. Put the cut up sentences around the room in easy to see locations, but make sure that the paragraph is out of order

Students will… 1. Form groups of 5 2. They will choose one person to be the “writer”-all others will be “readers” 3. When the teacher says “go” the readers will take turns one at a time going to the various sentences. 4. The readers will have to tell the writer exactly how to write the sentence correctly. (You can be flexible with how correct the sentences are depending on the level of students.) 5. After the students have all of the sentences down correctly the team must put them in the correct order to make a proper paragraph 6. The team with the paragraph in the correct order the fastest wins!

Variations: -You could purposely make errors in the sentences and see if the students can correct the sentences. -You could ask students to identify which type of paragraph it is.

Snowball Fight An activity for students to use basic conversation questions as a review and to see how they could answer spontaneous questions from their peers without the embarrassment of having to ask someone face to face.

Materials needed: -textbook/story being studied -Slips of recycled paper

Students will… 1. Give each student a slip of paper 2. Allow the students 5 minutes or so to come up with a question about the story you have just read or a question from the current chapter they are studying. You can also have them make basic conversation questions, etc… 3. When they have written their question on their paper-they should wad it up and make their “snowball” 4. When the teacher says “go”-give the students 30 sec.-1 minute to throw their snowballs around the room thereby mixing up all of the questions 5. When you say “stop” the students will pick up any snowball off of the floor-this will be their question 6. You can have each student answer their question orally or just write their answer on their paper slip and turn it in (either will work) 7. Have the students then ask each other the questions that they picked up.

Broken Hearts This is not only used to practice some speaking skills, but basic grammar practice.

Teacher Prep. 1. Gather a list of sentences with grammar mistakes in them. You can adapt it to be as easy or difficult as you want. You can focus on a particular grammar concept that is being studied, student work, or common errors. In Japan the list was gathered from student work by an ALT, but most were common mistakes. (ex. Agreement, etc…) 2. Type out a list of these sentences with the mistakes present (you might want to leave enough space above/below each sentence for students to have room to correct these. Make a copy for each student. 3. Make as many hearts as you have sentences 4. Cut the hearts into 2 halves 5. Write ½ of a sentence on one and the other ½ on the other peace of heart 6. Gather slips of recycled paper for the students to make sentence corrections on (or you can choose to allow them to make the corrections directly on the hearts, but I would probably want to use the same batch for every class, so I would advise laminating them in that case)

Students will… 1. Each person will draw out a peace of heart 2. Next, the students will go around the room looking for their “partner” who has the other half of their sentence 3. I had the students come up to me to check that they had the correct match 4. When the students have the correct partner-they should go sit with their partners and bring a slip of recycled paper with them 5 Then, they are to correct the grammatical errors in the sentences 6. While the students are working, pass out a copy of all of the sentences 7. When students are finished correcting their sentence they should write it up on the board. 8. While the students are getting them all up on the board, all of them should work on correcting all of the sentence errors on the handout. 9. The teacher should go to the board and correct the mistakes. Make sure the students pay attention to the board. I would advise giving a participation grade for this and maybe only giving them credit if they have all of the corrections made.
 * If the students wrote their sentence on the board correctly I would give them some sort of prize or something.

General Review Games

Sentence Race (Reviews Vocabulary) Level: Any Level A good game for large classes and for reviewing vocabulary lessons. 1.	Prepare a list of review vocabulary words. 2.	Write each word on two small pieces of paper. That means writing the word twice, once on each paper. 3.	Organize the pieces like bundles, 2 bundles, 2 sets of identical words. 4.	Divide the class into 2 teams. get them to make creative team names. 5.	Distribute each list of words to both teams. every student on each team should have a paper. Both teams have the same words. 6.	When you call a word, 2 students should stand up, one from each team. The students must then run to the blackboard and race to write a sentence using their word. The winner is the one with a correct and clearly written sentence. This is always a hit with kids. For more advanced students, use tougher words.

What's the Meaning? (need dictionary-to introduce vocabulary)

Level: Medium to Difficult You, the teacher, may need a dictionary do this activity.

Choose a word which is long, difficult, and unknown to the students, a good word to begin with is: warmonger.

Without using a dictionary, your students write down a definition. (They can work out the definition in groups of three). Allow them a few minutes to think and write.

Collect the definitions and read them aloud.

When you have finished reading, they will have to vote which of those is the correct one. (It doesn't matter if none of them is the correct one)

After they have voted and none of the groups guessed the meaning you read the correct one aloud.

The idea of this game is to let students be creative and practice writing skills. Then you can have the students to discuss their writings.

Crazy Story (can be used to both review and introduce vocabulary)

This is an activity that will make your students speak in class and be creative. •	Ask students to write a word on a piece of paper and tell them not to show anyone. This word should be a verb (or whatever you'd like to review). •	The teacher starts telling a story, then stops and chooses a student. •	That student will continue the story and must use his/her word. This student then chooses the next student to continue the story. •	The last student must end the story. •	After the story is over, the students then try to guess what words each student has written on his/her paper. The student who guesses the most words wins the game.


 * Taboo (will need to make index cards-can be used to introduce and review)

Level: Medium to Difficult This game is a simplified version of the board game "Taboo". I have used it with a full class, but it also works really well in my small English Club at my technical high school. The set-up is a lot less restrictive for English Club though.

Before class, create several index cards. On each card write one word in a large font with a circle around it, and underneath write 2-4 related words in a smaller font.

The goal is for students to get their team-mates to guess the circled word. They can say anything they like to try to make them guess, except for the words written on the card.

Divide the class into groups of two, and write each group on the board to keep track of points.

Place a desk in the front of the room facing the class, so that someone sitting it has their back to the board and can't read it. Place another desk in front of it, so the team-mates are facing each other.

Pick a team to go first, and have them choose a card.

Have the team-mates decide who will guess and who will talk.

The guesser sits with their back to the board.

On the board, making sure the guesser can't see, write the circled word as well as the other taboo words. The talker then has to try to make their partner guess the circled word without saying it, or any of the other words.

After they guess it have another group come up.

When all the groups have gone, do it again and have the team-mates switch roles.

My students really enjoy this game, so much so that they often give the guesser clues even when it is not their team! It's a great way for students to practice forming sentences, and it forces them to use words and structures they might otherwise not use.


 * Bingo Adapted (needs bingo boards-used to review vocabulary)

Level: Any Level Use basic Bingo board (3x3 0r 5x5 with the middle crossed out) 1. Simple vocabulary bingo From the list of words the students (Ss) are required to learn they select 9 (or 24). Teacher to call Bingo 2 or three times until everyone knows their card. Can use the definitions and see if they can pick the correct words that way. 2. Teacher calls the words. Ss with those words have to shout them out. Only the first one to shout gets to cover the square. 3. Grammar point or sentence structure. Call the words. The first student to shout out their word in the the required structure gets to cover the square.

Who am I?? (to review people discussed in the story selections)

Level: Any Level

You can use use this with any subject. Write the names of famous people (mixed nationalities) on small pieces of paper. (Since I didn't necessarily know celebrities that are popular with my students I had them write people's names on them, but I gave a few examples to help them get started. I just made sure to tell them not to show anyone.)

Tape a name on the forehead/or back of each student. The individual student should not be able to see his or her paper, but the other students should be able to.

Then, like with 20 questions, only yes or no questions should be asked. Perhaps start with yourself and ask "Am I am man?" If the answer is yes, I can ask again, but if the answer is no, it's the next person's turn.

Play until everyone has guessed who he or she is! This can be played with nationalities, countries, household objects, anything and it's a gas, especially for adult students!!

Possibility One
 * The Card Match Game (needs list of vocabulary words on cards-to review or introduce vocabulary)

1.	Materials needed: One set of the same or matching cards. 2.	Give each student in the class one card. 3.	Students must walk around giving hints about their card, either verbal or non-verbal until they find their match.

Possibility Two

1.	Materials needed:  multiple sets of the same or matching cards. 2.	Divide students into groups of 2–3 and give each a set of matching cards. 3.	Students race to match each card with it’s pair. 4.	This game can be used: •	To warm up. •	To get students into pairs or partners. •	To review vocabulary or idioms. •	To practice minimal pairs. •	To practice compound and complex sentence, adjectives, verb forms, and other grammar items.


 * The Jeopardy Game (need to make Jeopardy flashcards/categories and questions-can make for individual stories and to review)

Or-here is a link to a power point template for the game http://powerpointgames.wikispaces.com/PowerPoint+Game+Templates

Materials needed: special flashcards.

Teacher prep: Before class, make a special set of jeopardy index cards. •	Use four colors for four categories. •	Write the question on one side of the card. •	Write a number from 1–4 on the other side. •	Make a special card for the topic category. •	Tape the cards so the same colors are going down the wall and the same numbers are going across the wall.

Procedure:

Divide students into 2–3 groups

Team One chooses the category and value and tries to answer the question or make the sentence.

If they succeed, they get the number of points written on the card. If they fail, the games moves to the next team.

Additional Rules:

You can impose a time limit of 10 seconds per card.

You can make it an individualized game.

You can let the other teams "steal," the points if one team can't answer in the time limit.

This game can be used: •	To prompt students to make sentences containing target language. •	To practice grammar structures. •	To go over reading strategies. •	To review vocabulary words and idioms.


 * The Relay Game (will need to make handouts to review grammar errors based on concepts covered in class)

Materials needed: copies of the worksheet with 10–15 sentences for each group.

Procedure:

Divide the class into groups of 4 or 5 and ask them to line their desks / seats up.

Give the first person in each row a handout.

Each first student must complete one sentence or find one error and then pass the paper back to the next person.

The second person must do the second sentence, but he / she can also check the first person’s work for errors before passing the paper back to the third person.

The first team to finish is the winner.

This game can be used: •	To complete handouts or book work. •	To work on error location activities. •	To practice spelling. •	To identify parts of an essay or paragraph. •	To practice reading strategies.

The Word Game (can be used to introduce and review vocabulary) Materials needed: none.

Procedure:

Divide the class into 2 or 3 equal groups.

Ask one player from the first group to come to the front of the class and sit facing his/her team with his/her back to the board.

Write a word on the board.

Tell the team that they can give the player hints about the word.

Give the player a point if he/she can guess the word within one minute (longer or shorter depending on the class level).

Additional rules: •	The team must not say any part of the word that is written on the board. •	The team can not use actions. This game can be used: •	To reinforce vocabulary. •	To practice word stress. •	To practice grammar forms. •	To practice idioms.

4-Corners Game

Maybe to talk about topics in the text-esp. controversial ones: I'm not sure if this game is on the list under a different name but I thought I'd give it a whirl-It worked well at the technical school when we were discussing things they have done before or things they like or don't like.

Procedure: The teacher divides the room into four corners: agree, somewhat agree, somewhat disagree, and disagree.

Then the teacher makes a statement like "Movie stars deserve to be paid huge sums of money for what they do."

The students move to the corner that best depicts how they feel about the statement.

The students in each corner have a few minutes to discuss why they feel this way and then their group presents.

Depending on the type of statement made by the teacher, this game can be very serious, very funny, very political etc... Cultural differences among students are highlighted in this game and debate can get intense.

*Balloon Popper Game!

Materials needed: You will need balloons and definitions of words on slips of paper-to introduce or review vocabulary

or) balloons and slips of paper with either complete words (for making sentences) or individual letters (to practice making words)

This is a great game for practicing vocabulary and making sentences.

Procedure:

Place the sentences or letters in each balloon.

Have one balloon for each group of four students. It is more fun if you allow the Ss to blow up their balloons.

When you say "Go", the Ss must pop their balloons using only their elbows and race to form sentences or words.

(One idea to adapt this to practice vocabulary might be by putting the meanings onto the slips of paper and students must match to words that they have studied in their text. (Can adapt for the first team to correctly match all of the words to their correct meanings wins! The first team to spell the word or sentence correctly wins!

I took this idea from a teacher trainer in an ELT seminar.
 * Ball and Bag Game* (needs bag and questions-used to review story/check comprehension)

Before the game, prepare a set of questions (15-20 questions- any type questions) including recently taught structures.

Write them on pieces of paper.

Then put them in a bag. Find an ordinary ball.

Procedure:

Divide your class into two groups.

Have them make two circles. Give the ball to one group and give the bag to the other group.

Play some music. As long as the students hear the music they pass the ball and the bag to the student next to themselves.

When you pause the music they stop and the student with the bag in his/her hand draw a question and ask it to the student with the ball in his/her hand in the other group.

If he/she can answer it, he/she stays in the group and the students with the bag goes out of the game.

If he/she can not answer it, he/she goes out of the game and the student with the bag stays in the group and group exchange the ball and the bag. Teacher goes on pausing the music until there are 3 or 4 students left in a group.

The group with more students win the game.

To Review Short Reading Segments (to review comprehension) This game is good for reviewing a short one page reading on a non fiction subject like a brief biography. Play the game after you have done some work on the reading with the students already and they have a general idea. (good for low intermediate students)

Procedure:

Have them write about 10 key facts from the story in groups of four.

Then have them make up questions for these facts.

Make a team for each group of four. Write a score sheet on the board.

Award one point for the question and one point for correct wording of the question. One point for the answer and one point for correct wording of the answer.

Go from one group to the other, question, answer, question, answer. The group with the greatest points wins. Students have gotten very excited about this and very competitive, but in a fun way, and it is also a very good review for understanding the reading.


 * Review Card Game (needs index cards; to check comprehension and to review material for a test)

Give each student 1 index card.

Students are to look through the material to be tested on and write down 3 questions that could be used for a test.

The questions should be simple to answer. True/False, Multiple Choice, and Vocabulary are the easiest.

Students should write down both question and answer as well as writing their name on the card.

Divide the class into 2 teams of equal students(ability,etc..). Call 2 up at a time, one from each team, and ask the question.

The first student to raise their hand gets a chance to answer.

A correct answer gets a point for the team.

If the answer is incorrect the other player has a chance to guess.

If the 2nd player misses then the question can be used later.

Call the next 2 players up and keep repeating the process until the class is over.

You can make the index cards worth a few points, I usually give 10, and the kids can get some easy credit. This can be fun, especially if you provide some kind of prize such as bonus points on the test or candy.


 * Blackboard Dash: Warm Up/Review (need list of vocabulary words to review 20-40)

This is a fairly easy game to setup. All you need to do is clear out the front of the classroom of tables and chairs.

Usually there is a teacher’s desk right in front. Just move it to the side. Now, you need a vocabulary list. I like to use the vocabulary they most recently used and mix in some minimal pairs (light/right), opposite (hot/cold) and other assorted words.

Now here comes the time consuming part: You need to write all these word down on a blackboard or white board. I write down between 20 and 40 words each time. Sometimes I get the students to do it for me.

Now, you want to divide the class into groups. I usually base this off of their rows. However, sometimes, if it is a small class, I combine the rows, or form new groups.

Once I have those set up, I write down the team names on the board and get ready to explain the rules. I try to do this in simple English, but that gets difficult when talking to 6 graders.

Get some help from the teacher that is with you, or use whatever Japanese you can to convey the message.

The rules are simple. One person in each group gets a piece of chalk.

I will go to the back of the class and shout out　one of the words on the board.

The students now have to race up to the front to circle the correct word. One the correct word is circled, you I award the group their points and the student passes the chalk to the next student.

I usually start simple and work my way up. Here is how I set up the scoring.

Round 1 – Simple words 1 point/group Total 5 points Round 2 – 5 Short sentences containing the word – 2 points/group Total 10 points Round 3 – Hints about what the word is or opposites – 3 point/group total 15 points Round 4 – Bonus Hard hints – 5 points/group total 10 point

The group with the most points is the winner.

I warn you know that this game can be a little rough near the blackboard, but I’ve never had any injuries from it.

What I love about this game is that the kids really get into it.

Towards the end, if two teams are close in points and it comes down to a hard question, you can cut the tension with a knife. I think it is a great way to practice listening comprehension.

Source: I believe I got this from the JET resources book and expanded on it. If you are a JET programme participant and have this book, I highly recommend it.

Using themes to relate to a story Outline: Choose a short story or book which will be the basis of individual essays, or essays written in small groups.

Put a list of the main characters on the board.

Give students the handout with a number of themes that might be included in the source you are using as a basis for the essay.

Ask students to choose five of the themes from the list.

Students should then write down some ideas about how these themes affect a character of their choosing.

Get students into small groups of students who have chosen the same character.

Students should discuss their choice of themes, answers and explain their reasoning to each other.

Do a class session talking about the variety of responses, write down a broad selection of answers to later photocopy and give to the students to be used as notes when writing an essay.

Which Theme and Why? Choose five of the themes from the list that you think is important to in your story. Choose one of the main characters and write down some ideas of how your character relates to each of the themes you choose:

Misc. Teaching Resources

Resources: Sites somewhat associated with JET I Think I’m Lost *unofficial ALT Forum* http://www.ithinkimlost.com/forum.php

Teaching and Lesson Plans ideas in their “Teaching and Lesson Plans” section Jet Programme Forum-Teaching Resources

You can search for SHS lessons posted by other ALTs AkitaJet Teaching Resources

Even though this is for a different prefecture, I’ve found some good ideas from their web site as well as downloadable pre-made power point games that are adaptable. One of my favourites is the Dragon Quest game that I’ve used to review lessons.

http://akitajet.com/wiki/Teaching_resources Other helpful sites for lesson planning ideas

Boggles World ESL This site has a lot of different ESL (English as a Second Language) activity ideas for a variety of age levels.

It has really good handouts and printable board games for a variety of lesson objectives http:bogglesworldesl.com/

Web English Teacher This site has quite a few links to different ESL sites as well as some lesson plan ideas http://www.webenglishteacher.com/esl.html

Internet TESL Journal This has tons of journal articles, lesson plan ideas, as well as links for teaching English as a Second Language http://iteslj.org/

Link to make Power Point Games using your own content (ex: Jeopardy, Family Feud, etc...) http://powerpointgames.wikispaces.com/PowerPoint+Game+Templates