Written by Matt
@Worlda
Want to make your ESL
teaching even more effective than they are today? Last week, we have shared Integrated
Teaching for ESL Teachers and in this post, we are going to introduce you two very effective ways on how to make
your class organized and how to keep your students motivated.
S
Point System and Grouping
Adaptability: for
students from primary school to high school, adapted accordingly.
Scenario 1: Class of 20 in a spacious classroom
Point system is always related with
grouping, to ensure the competiveness among students. Students can be grouped
into three or four, according to the size of the actual class. In any activity
during the class, they are rewarded with points of a consistent system. First
of all, if a group finishes a teaching-related task, they will be rewarded with
1 or 2 points, dependent on whether they answer with hint or independently.
Next, for any follow-up game or activity, groups are given points in the
Activity row. Lastly, for any misbehavior, minus point will be given in the
behavior sector rather than directly deducted from the previous two sectors. An
illustrative table is as below:
|
Sections
|
Group A
|
Group B
|
Group C
|
Group D
|
|
English
|
|
|
|
|
|
Activity (Game)
|
|
|
|
|
|
Behavior
|
|
|
|
|
|
Total
|
|
|
|
|
Note: method acquired from
a Scottish teacher, Derek.
Of
course, last but not least, always sum up the points and declare winners of
today. No students want their 40 minutes’ efforts to end up in vain.
Note 1: Rounded-Based Point System
In practical application of this table, at
times, point scale can be frustrating. Do I give 1, 2, 3, 4 points, or 5, 10,
15, 20 points. With the rounded-based point system you can literally give one
group like a million or a trillion point and still make it balanced. For
example,
|
Sections
|
Group A
|
Group B
|
Group C
|
Group D
|
|
Activity (Game)
|
1 million
|
2 billion
|
10
|
1000
|
|
3
|
4
|
1
|
4
|
|
20
|
8
|
2
|
5
|
|
4
|
3
|
1
|
2
|
the grey number in the table above is the
raw point, and the blue one is the rounded one. In the sense, all points are
rounded into the same scale so that no group will take obvious advantages over
the other ones in one round of activity (Winner takes something but not all).
This makes the temporarily losing team as competitive as the temporarily
winning one. Consequently, both confidence and motivation of the students
remains at an adequate level.
Scenario 2: Class of 40 with rigid seating plan
Five students around in a group will be
ideal, but in real-class scenario, you could end up having like 40 students or
so with a fixed, immobilized seating plan in a crowded classroom. Table below
is an illustration of a good example of the point-grouping system to address
the situation.
|
Team A (10 Ss)
|
Team B (10 Ss)
|
Team C (10 Ss)
|
Team D (10 Ss)
|
|
A1: (5 Ss)
|
B1: (5 Ss)
|
C1: (5 Ss)
|
D1: (5 Ss)
|
|
A2: (5 Ss)
|
B2: (5 Ss)
|
C2: (5 Ss)
|
D2: (5 Ss)
|
Note: Ss stands for
students.
40 students sitting in four
columns, with 10 in each line. Vertically, the class is divided into four teams
according to the seating plan in the classroom. Horizontally, the class is
separated into two sections, so that we have 8 small groups now. It gives us
great flexibility to organize the class and give points to each little group
and four teams. For instance, if a teaching task requires competition among team
with the goal of training language fluency and accuracy, four teams can compete
with each other and be rewarded as teams. In another case, if the task requires
discussion amongst small groups, 8 small groups can work independently. At the
end of the class, instead of having one group winner, we can have winners of
two levels, team winner and group winner.
Note 2: Group Name Autonomy
For new classes, or classes with students
of poor language proficiency, certain level of “autocracy” of giving the groups
names may come handy. But for students with adequate language proficiency, they
can have their own group names. Winners can have the right to change other
groups’ names with non-vulgar terms as rewards. Besides, naming groups is not
the only thing you can explore with to boost the incentive of the students. Be
creative and anything can be utilized to keep your students motivated.
S
Board Games
Adaptability: for
students from 3rd grade to 12th grade.
Non-Target-Related games:
Games can be fun and necessary for all age
group. As said by Fred Rogers, “Play is often talked about as if it were a
relief from serious learning. But for children, play is serious learning. Play
is really the work of childhood.”, I don’t think I have to emphasize too much
on its importance, but I will explain what is non-target-related games.
Meaning, the game is not designed to directly related to the teaching contents,
but as a rewarding incentive to motivate students to be involving and attentive
in the class. More specifically, students are given the opportunity to play the
game when they echo to the teaching sessions. Points are given for consistency
with the point-grouping mechanism above. Also it gives confidence to those
students who have poor academic performance in linguistic classes. They can
still contribute to their group and make a difference.
NTR Game 1: Air Battle
Almost everybody hears about battleship,
but none have heard about Air Battle. It’s similar but with more fun. It also
incorporates mathematics knowledge like practice of coordinate system. In a
10*10-grids, each team needs to draw three fighters without overlapping to each
other. And they take turns to call a coordinate to shoot down others’ fighters.
First group to eliminate all fighters of other groups wins. Only head shot
indicates a fighter gets destroyed, or otherwise only injured.
For more details of the game, to be
continued in a separate post.
NTR Game 2: Get Rich or Die Trying
It a perfect game to regroup members from
different teams to balance their competitiveness, not necessarily to even off
their strength. Besides, it helps students to build leadership, or encourages
more alpha players per se. Obviously, leader or alpha member comes naturally in
a group, and if the leader steps down, a second one will step up to be the next
leader, voluntarily or involuntarily.
How the game is played: group students as
explained above, let them take turns to draw a card from 13 cards, Ace to King,
and make choices accordingly. For example, A stands for 5 points, 2 for Kidnap
1 player from other groups, 3 for Kidnap 2 players from other groups, 4 for
Ground 1 player from other groups, 5 for Ground 2 players from other groups, 6
for Rescue 1 player from being grounded, 7 for Rescue 2 player from being
grounded, 8 for Ground 1 player from their own group, 9 for Ground 2 players
from their own group, and etc. Practically, alpha player will be grounded at
the very beginning and beta player will step up to be the next alpha.
For more details of the game, to be
continued in a separate post.
NTR Game 3: Typhoon
It’s a game by chance linked to the point-grouping system. It can be
used in any stage or step of teaching, for quick check of students’
understanding, or for progressive reward for finishing an activity. Basically,
in a 3*3 grids, candidate needs to pick a square to receive bonus or be
punished. The rule is very flexible for teachers to adapt and secretive at the
beginning.
Bomb :
damage half of the points by a group
100/200/500: reward 100/200/500 points for a group
Typhoon
：wipe out all the points of a
group
Dice
：chance to toss a die and get
points accordingly, 1 for 100, 2 for 200 and etc.
Swap：swap
points with whichever other group
Steal
：steal half of the points from
whichever other group
Cards
：pick a number and get points
accordingly, A for 100, 2 for 200 and etc.
Remark: for point inflation and balance
issue, refer to the Rounded-Based Point
System in Note 1 above.
For more details of the game, to be continued in a separate post.
Target-related games:
Target-related games are different from
their counterparts, in the way that their adaptability is relatively limited
and closely related to teaching contents and targets. Although they are not
like all-around as NTR games and usually need hours for preparation, they are
more effective, relevant and well-targeted. To put it in another way, for NTR
games, students do the task first and get rewards as playing, whereas for TR
games the task is part of the game.
TR Game 1: Jeopardy
(perfect for review)
Adapted from the famous TV show “Jeopardy”,
suitable for big class and different contents, Jeopardy is perfect for review
class or demo class for public. You can simply search Jeopardy game free
template to get the idea or watch the show to know it quicker. It is basically
that candidate makes selection and answer questions accordingly. Obviously,
different questions deserve higher points.
However, in real-class scenario, you
better hide the number or randomize the number, or otherwise students could end
up all picking the most difficult ones and get stumbled.
For more details of the game, to be
continued in a separate post.
TR Game 2: Flip ‘n Find (learning
new vocab visually)
Very simple card game as below
You can make cards of around 8 pairs and
duplicate several copies for a class. Students in a group of 4 or 5 can have
one copy and take turns to flip and find match cards.
For more details of the game, to be
continued in a separate post.
TR Game 3: Find friends (for
engaging and involving purpose, mingling)
Each student is given a table like below:
|
Name
|
Food
|
Animal
|
Color
|
|
Me
|
|
|
|
|
Friend A
|
|
|
|
|
Friend B
|
|
|
|
And they are all given five minutes to
find as many friends sharing same favorites as they can, in order to win. Not
easy to find a friend matching all three categories, so they have to keep
asking questions and practice at the same time.
For more details of the game, to be
continued in a separate post.
For more games, to
be compiled in another time.
NTR Game 4: Shield & Guns
NTR Game 5: Auction
NTR Game 6: Stock Market Prototype
TR Game 4:
TR Game 5:
TR Game 6:
Combo Game 1: Triathlon
Feel free to tell
us what you think about the games and activities.
Thank you for your
reading
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