Classroom English page

Like we have said before, classroom management is very important in order to perform a successful session with your class. Previously we have given a few tips and techniques which might be really useful to maintain silence and attention, to form groups quickly etc. However, as an EFL teachers we have to know the proper expressions for those actions and for other situations which might happen in your class. That's why today I'm showing you a very useful link which includes vocabulary and phrases related with the school/class environment.

http://www.finchpark.com/courses/links/classroom.htm

Sounds that the animals make

These are the sounds that the animals make

The Cat goes meow
The Cow goes moo
The Pig goes oink
The Rooster goes Cocka doodle doo

These are the sounds that the animals make

The Hen goes cackle
The Dog goes woof
The Turkey goes gobble
The Monkey goes whoop

These are the sounds that the animals make

The Mouse goes squeak
The Sheep goes baa
The Eagle screams eeeee
The Hyena laughs Ha-ha

These are the sounds that the animals make

The Rabbit goes drum
The Pigeon goes coo
The Elephant goes trump
The Wolf howls Awooooo

These are the sounds that the animals make

The Donkey goes He-haw
The Parrot goes talk Helloooo
The Crow goes Kaw
The Owl goes hoot

These are the sounds that the animals make

The Bear growls grr
The Snake goes hiss
The Horse goes neigh
The Bee goes buzz

These are the sounds that the animals make

The Tiger goes roar
The Sparrow goes chirp
The Frog goes ribbit
And the boy down the street goes buuurp

The song can be introduced verse by verse and some extra context may be provided with pictures or flashcards, although, as usual, there is a video that may be used for this purpose.

The runaway train

T'was in the year of '89 on that old Great Western line,
When the winter wind was blowin' shrill,
The rails were froze, the wheels were cold, then the air brakes wouldn't hold,
And Number 9 came roaring down the hill -- oh!

The runaway train came down the track and she blew,
The runaway train came down the track and she blew,
The runaway train came down the track, her whistle wide and her throttle back,
And she blew, blew, blew, blew, blew.

The engineer said the train must halt and she blew,
The engineer said the train must halt and she blew,
The engineer said the train must halt -- he said it was all the fireman's fault,
And she blew, blew, blew, blew, blew.

The fireman said he rang the bell and she blew,
The fireman said he rang the bell and she blew,
The fireman said he rang the bell -- the engineer said "You did like h***!"
And she blew, blew, blew, blew, blew.

The porter got an awful fright and she blew,
The porter got an awful fright and she blew,
The porter got an awful fright -- he got so scared he near turned white,
And she blew, blew, blew, blew, blew.

A donkey was standing in the way and she blew,
A donkey was standing in the way and she blew,
A donkey was standing in the way and all they found was just his bray,
And she blew, blew, blew, blew, blew.

The conductor said there'd be a wreck and she blew,
The conductor said there'd be a wreck and she blew,
The conductor said there'd be a wreck and he felt the chills run up his neck,
And she blew, blew, blew, blew, blew.

The runaway train went over the hill and she blew,
The runaway train went over the hill and she blew,
The runaway train went over the hill and the last we heard she was going still,
And she blew, blew, blew, blew, blew.

This song is far more difficult than the previous ones so we can either save it for high grades or learn it verse-by-verse (one a month or so, depending of the age and the level of the children). Besides that, it would be a good idea to tell the children what does the first verse mean in order to provide them with an adequate context. On top of that, pictures, videos or mimics can be used to provide further context.

The big ship sails on the alley, alley O

The big ship sails on the alley, alley O,

 The alley, alley O, the alley, alley O.

 The big ship sails on the alley, alley O,

 On the last day of September.

The captain said " It will never, never do”

 never, never do; never, never do 

The captain said " It will never, never do”

 On the last day of September.

 The big ship sank to the bottom of the sea

 the bottom of the sea the bottom of the sea 

The big ship sank to the bottom of the sea 

On the last day of September.

Here it is a video to provide context to the song.

The wheels on the bus

The wheels on the bus go round and round,
Round and round, round and round.
The wheels on the bus go round and round,
All day long.

The people on the bus go up and down,
Up and down, up and down.
The people on the bus go up and down,
All day long.

The horn on the bus goes toot toot toot,
Toot toot toot, toot toot toot.
The horn on the bus goes toot toot toot,
All day long

The bell on the bus goes ding ding ding,
Ding ding ding, ding ding ding.
The bell on the bus goes ding ding ding,
All day long.

The wiper on the bus goes swish swish swish,
Swish swish swish, swish swish swish.
The wiper on the bus goes swish swish swish,
All day long.

The doors on the bus go open and shut,
Open and shut, open and shut.
The doors on the bus go open and shut,
All day long.

The mummies on the bus go chatter chatter chatter,
Chatter chatter chatter, chatter chatter chatter.
The mummies on the bus go chatter chatter chatter,
All day long.

This song can be sang together with mimics just as we did with I'm driving on my car. This is a good example on how to use it.





In case we want to provide with further context there are several videos you can use. Be careful, as the lyrics might change from one cover to the other.

Here you have an example.

I´m driving in my car:

I'm driving in my car, I'm driving in my car,

Beep! beep! toot! toot! I'm driving in my car.

I'm driving very fast, I'm driving very fast,

Beep! beep! toot! toot! I'm driving very fast.

I'm driving very slow, I'm driving very slow,

Beep! beep! toot! toot! I'm driving very slow.

The light is turning red. I must stop my car,

Beep! beep! toot! toot! I must stop my car.

The light is turning green. I can go again,

Beep! beep! toot! toot! I can go again.

The song can be easily combined with some mimics while we sing it. I do not think it needs further explanation, nonetheless, here is a video in which they use the song.

Now you know how to sing it. What do you think?

Paper bags/secret object.

As well as the previous activity, this one is adequate either for groups where people know each other for years. Alternatively, it can suit groups that having met that very same year, have been doing a few presentation activities for the last few days and know a little bit about each other.

Everyone has to choose a personal object (or put a previously agreed number of them in a paper bag) and place it into the common box (not allowing anyone to see whose object/bag is it). Subsequently, we will pick them one-by-one and, altogether we will try to guess who the owner is.

Who is this?

Everybody (including the teacher) has to write three things about him or herself on a piece of paper. After that, we will pick the papers one-by-one, read them, and try to guess who wrote it. This activity is suitable for groups that already know each other.

True and false.

Everybody has to write three things about oneself, two of them have to be true and one them false. Once it is done, each person will be standing in front of everybody else and read them (or simply tell them). The others have to decide which things are true and which ones are false. I think it is a pretty good dynamic to help socializing and learning things about each other. On the other hand, I think it is an interesting activity for a second language class, as it encourages real communication between the students.

Hello my name is _____ and my ______ itches.

This is a nice dynamic that helps people introducing to each other as well as it helps socialization through physical contact. To start, everybody has to be standing up in a circle. Then, in turns, each person will be saying his or her name plus a part of their bodies that itches (e.g. hello, my name is Diego and my ear itches). After one round, each one will say the name of the person next to them, the part of the body that itches and scratch it (e.g. his name is Diego and his ear itches [while scratching it]). It might seem a bit dumb, but I found out (being one of the participants) that it really helps to break the barrier we all have towards people that we do not know, opening the gates to other kind of dynamics, activities or games that imply physical contact (besides being a good way to learn each other names).

SNOWBALLS

Using a paper ball (it can be made with something we have already used for a previous activity) we are going to engage on a presentation dynamic. Basically one person is going to ask a question previously arranged (e.g. could you tell us your name and where are you from?) and throw the ball to somebody else who will have to answer the questions and repeat the whole process asking somebody else. It is a good start, as it usually involves people standing, and moving a little bit which helps to create and active mood (in opposition to the one created by passive activities sitting on the desk from the first minute) that might be very helpful for the subsequent activities.

Number yourselves.

It is a very usual way of forming groups. We can start by pointing at the students giving them a number (up to the amount of groups we want to create) and following some sort of order (to the right or to the left when working in circles or row by row when sitting in columns), later on we will ask the students to continue with it (1-2-3-4;1-2-3-4...) till they all have a number. At the end we will ask each number to gather at a different place of the class. This technique might suffer from the subsequent uses problem, just as the previous one. That is why it seem s to be a good idea to introduce different variations (e.g. the first 1-4 are group number one, the second 1-4 are group number two etc.) so it is harder for the children to predict the result.

Given the interest that you show for the topic I assume that you don't need any further explanation on the matter...

This is a technique used by one of my high school teachers when her class had been out of control too many times on a row. I have personally used it once with a 12 years old child and it has worked out very well. I am aware that it is an extreme technique that shouldn't be used but in certain situations and being aware that it might be counterproductive when used wrongly. It basically means that you reckon a certain unit or topic as finished (there might be an exam or not) given the interest the class is showing for it. For instance, my teacher use to start reading the paper at her desk and when there was a deep and tense silence all around she would state:; “Don't worry lads, you can keep on talking. We have plenty of time since it is not necessary to explain anything else on this unit”. What I think it makes it interesting is that makes people realize that it is nobody but themselves who is missing something. In case there is an exam (or even if there is no exam) it is important to make clear that this is no punishment of any kind but only the natural consequences of rejecting your teacher's help with a certain topic.

SHUT UP OR LOWER YOUR VOICE

It seems to be a good technique regardless of the age. However, there might be certain groups, especially of teenagers or people who are in the class against their will, in which it can fail. Fort those kind of groups it may be wiser to use a slightly more aggressive technique.

THE WOLF AND THE VILLAGE

This is an amazing dynamic to practice arguing within an intermediate or an advanced group. It allows people to argue with each other, as they have to decide who is the wolf (or the witch, or the killer… just name it) in order to try and execute it.

How it does work:

The roles are decided randomly, for instance using deck cards. The most important role is the wolf (or however you want to call it) and the villagers (who are basically there either to die or to become a mob), and the director (that is you I’m afraid). Once everyone has their card the director (or god, or the mayor, or whatever you want to call it) will call everybody to sleep, so everyone will look down. Subsequently, the director will call the wolf to wake up, kill (by means of pointing or looking to its victim), and get back to sleep. Then the village will wake up and the director will inform the victim of his or her death. Immediately after, people will speak against each other for a few minutes- For instance Pedro may say: “I think that Manolo is the wolf because I saw him moving a little when the wolf was killing”. And Pedro might reply: “I think the wolf is Pedro because he accused first”. After a while there will be a vote. Whoever is voted wolf will be executed, and therefore will turn his or her card facing up. If it is the wolf (the real one,)the round is over and we shall assign new roles. If the person chosen is a villager, the whole process will start again.

We can adapt the background of the dynamic to whatever text we are working with. The characters can be animals, villagers, courtier, or whatever suits us; in the same way as the wolf can be any antagonist that appears in our story. In addition, once the game has become too easy and predictable, we can add up other characters. For instance we can have a hunter (or a cop, a guard…) who will have the chance to ask the director (silently, of course) if a certain person is the wolf after it has killed. The director will answer yes or know and the hunter is free to share the information with everyone else although they can believe him or not as he doesn’t necessary has to be the hunter. Another character that might be added to the game is the fairy (or the healer, the sorcerer…) whose ability is to bring back to life one person each turn (or try to, depending on the rules and the number of wolf/killers that are playing). We will normally use a character like the healer when there is more than one wolf/killer.

Try it and tell us what happened!!

I’ve never, never

This is a popular drinking game both in Spain and the UK, but it can be used to encourage conversation within an EFL class. One of its main advantages is that you can easily adapt it to the level of the group or even the individual person who is speaking at certain moment.

How it works:

Everybody will think of something they have never done but they think (or they know for a fact) that somebody has done. For instance, somebody might say :”I’ve never, never, been in Barcelona”. If somebody has been in BCN, he or she has to stand up. Here it is where we have to be careful to adapt it to the students’ level. Ask questions and encourage the students to talk about that particular experience, but don’t push them. Allow them to develop their communication skills (strategies) by attempting to communicate with the means that they have. Tell them an expression they might be looking for only if they ask you.

Ta very much for the idea Debbie.

Why do we use stories, songs, poems etc. for our FL class in preschool?

During the last two weeks we have been working on the advantages of using songs, stories, poems, riddles, fables, nursery rhymes, playground games etc. in the context of a FL class, both in preschool and the first years of primary school.

We've learnt that it has many advantages regarding motivation: the use of real texts, the fact that we may be promoting real interaction with some of the activities etc.

Each group has prepared a presentation with a web 2.0 tool of their choice. My groups choice is Prezi, a colaborative tool that allows you to create original presentations on your own or as a part of a group. This is our presentation (Coming soon a few tips when using Prezi).

Please, note that the presentation misses an idea we only went over verbally: the fact that many of those activities are an excellent way to promote communication strategies (as something completely separated from pure expression and/or comprehension and more focused on skills related to the interaction itself).

The most recurrent ideas among other groups have been the following:

-It helps to present new vocabulary within a context. That allows children to learn things that are more than formally correct. They are examples of a real use of a certain word, expression etc.

-It is motivating, amusing, helps creating a good working atmosphere and promotes creativity.

-Both its length, usually very short, and its structure, usually predictable and full of recurrent patterns, are ideal to work both with small children and with a second language first learners, as it helps to build up their self-confidence.

-It is an excellent way of improving children's listening skills.

-It helps improving pronunciation as when reciting or reading we don't only pay attention to the plain code, but to the intonation, rhythm, stressing etc.

-Quite often it provides us with a good excuse for working in pairs and in groups that besides being a good way of improving communication strategies, allows us to develop other cross curricular topics such as socialization, self-responsibility or a certain moral value. In addition, I honestly believe that the kind of learning that happens within a social context is usually deeper and longer lasting.

-A single text can admit a wide range of pre and post activities. Those activities might be intended for different levels as well as focused on a cross curricular approach to topics. For example a song about farm animals can be used to develop concepts which belong to science class (or get to know your social and natural environment, as we call it in Spain). As an example, here it is an audiovisual text, published on the recommended blog Mi Primer Año en Red, which may be used as a simple text with a strong context for an English class, as a text to work science concepts with or even as a text to learn English within the science class (which is what the author of the blog originally intended).

-Some of my classmates think that one of these texts' main features is that their vocabulary and structure are really accessible to children and new learners. I couldn't disagree further. Quite often the vocabulary and expressions are not precisely easy for first learners and most times includes verbal tenses, structures and words that they are not suppose to know yet. Then why do we use them? Here comes the good thing: BECAUSE THEY DON'T KNOW THAT THEY ARE NOT SUPPOSED TO KNOW THOSE THINGS.  Well, that and the fact that we provide them with a really good scaffolding when we support our texts with a good context (pictures, finger puppets, body language etc.).

What do you think?

Classroom management resources

In this web-page you can find lots of different resources for classroom management, specially for primary school. It includes several timers, countdowns and clocks for time management as well as different resources for noise control, and other behavioural issues.

 Here is a nice resource to indicate children how the class is organized today and whether they are supposed to work individually, in pairs, altogether etc.

There are many examples of class rules too, though I personally think those rules work better when the children help to set them up themselves, as they feel more obliged to follow a rule they choose themselves.What's your own experience?

Portrait of a character.

It consists on asking the children to draw a picture of a character that has been described on a text trying to be faithful to that description. It is a good resource that can be used at different ages and levels, it just depends on the level of the text itself. Note that the important thing here is the reading comprehension rather than the drawing skills, so we have to pay more attention to whether they use the elements provided in the description or not than to whether a human head or figure looks actually like a real human head or figure.

A colourful class

We used this technique as a way of forming groups during the 09/09 class. The way we did it was by picking the colour of sheet that we wanted to make our name posters. Later on we formed groups according to the chosen colours. It is an interesting technique, specially for very young children, however, I think it might present a few problems and disadvantages: First and foremost, the groups are likely to lack balance (e.g. too many children choose red and nearly any of them brown); secondly, in case we give an equal number of sheets (or tokens, or balloons, or whatever) there might be problems because two or more of them want to pick the same one; finally, children learn very fast how does it work, so in subsequent occasions they might choose the colour thinking of who they want to team up with and discourages the socialization of the group as a whole. On the other hand, it is still and interesting technique as long as we use it with young children and we embed it within a different activity (for instance taking a token from the magic bag when the main character of the story is receiving something), using it to create atmosphere. Picking the colour blindly might be a good idea, specially once they know it might be use to create the groups.

Ring-a-ring o'roses

The use of nursery rhymes learnt by heart is a very good technique for second language teaching at an early age for several reasons. The main one is that young children enjoy them, and therefore learn them easily. Another one is that as long as you are learning them by means of reciting them many times, not reading them, the students will learn the pronunciation of the rhyme before being contaminated by its spelling.

This is a classic ring-around-the-rosey game for children in the UK and America (though there are versions in other languages such as German). It seems to me to be a good activity to start a session with small children as it involves movement and that is very good in the early morning.

Alternative endings or versions of classic stories and fairy tales.

A very nice way of maintaining the appeal of classic stories and fairy tales when people grows older is to use alternative stories or alternative endings (for instance I remember being told and alternative ending of the ugly duckling in which the duck, after growing up becomes a huge and utterly ugly duck). The fact is that if small children enjoy predictable things (once upon a time... the bad guy makes it to scene and creates a problem... the problem is solved... and they lived happy ever after) it comes a point (not that sure about what age, but probably from 9-10) when that predictability just makes things boring and it is precisely the opposite thing, the unexpected, what is amusing. As an example of this we have a compilation of stories made but a true genius on the subject, Roadl Dahl. The book is called Revolting rhymes (AKA Cuentos en verso para niños perversos in Spanish) and here there is a compilation of such stories complemented with pictures.
This is one of my favourites


Pre and post activities can be used as with any other text. Any ideas?


On top of that, we can use it as a post-activity technique itself. Just ask children to think of alternative endings and then choose a certain technique so they can tell them to you. Among other options you could do a dramatization, ask them to write it, to tell it to the class, or even use an ICT tool such as Storybird or writecomics to present their alternative endings. If you do so, it might be a good idea to share with them some of the background pictures you have been using, just in case they want to use them as a start.

Reading promotion: Interview with the vampire (or with the wolf, or the witch, or the stepmother...)

It is a nice way to bring a new life to a story character at the same time as we develop children's creativity. To start with we will form couples or groups of 3-4 people (depending on how many do we have all together). After that, and following turns, one team/couple will be the journalist and the other one will be the vampire (or wolf, witch etc.). The journalist will ask three questions to the vampire who will answer them. We will write all of them on the blackboard and we might even be able to use them to create a conversation between the two characters or even a small text (working in groups or all together, depending on the age and the amount of people).

Books, movies and albums you will carry with you in the event of going to a desert island.

It is a good dynamic that my English teacher usually uses with new students, specially those who come for conversational classes. It provides with a topic that can be used for an hour or even longer, both in one-to-one classes and small groups. It has all the advantages of other first week/first contacts techniques as it provides the teacher with a valuable information on his or her students interests. In addition, it is very easy to adapt it to different ages and levels.

How does it work:
Ask each student to think of the three films, books and records that they will be carrying with them in the event of going to a desert island. For advanced students it will offer you a framework for conversation (either one-to-one with the teacher or working in pairs). If you have a beginners class it is a good chance to practice real communication in pairs. Just adapt the amount of information they have to transfer to their level and provide them with a little scaffolding for the beginning.

Poster with your name on it.

It is a classic resource, but when we used it in our class we did it adding further information (our favourite classic story, when we did it for ourselves) making it far more interesting. However, I believe it could be made even more interesting by adding even more items. For example, using a folded sheet's four corners, we could write (for children between 6 and 10 years of age): a game I like a lot, a game I don't like very much, a character (from books, stories, movies, TV, cartoons etc.) that I like a lot and a song I like. This way, not only do we help them to socialize with each other by showing each other their interest and personal likes and hobbies, but we find out about them ourselves (and have them right in front of our eyes to remind us of them).

Ring a little bell or similar instrument

This is a technique one of my primary school teachers used to use in her class to demand silence and attention without wasting her voice. In my opinion it is less aggressive than a verbal warning, although at the end of the day it is pretty much the same thing. That is the reason why, after seen the previous technique I thought of some changes that might improve it: using the ring a signal for a previously arrange (and rehearsed if necessary) action such as saying ohmmmmmmmmmmmmmm all together while the bell is ringing just to bring everybody back to the thread of the class, or reciting a brief rhyme or even a multiplication table that we are trying to learn by heart.

I know from a friend who used to lecture at the university that those sudden changes work out very well with adults (specially when it involves some sort of joke or prank), as they create some expectation and therefore rise the attention levels. However, it might be a bit risky to do it with children without planning it very well as it might be difficult to have them focused back to the topic. What do YOU think?

Give me five!

Another usuful way of having silence and attention during your class. 

How does it work:

When there is too much noise the teacher says “give me five”, children rise their hands and everybody recites together “one, two, three, four, five” while they keep rising their fingers. And alternative way of doing it is calling “high five” and doing a countdown while we lower our fingers. Hopefully, you will have complete silence and attention at the end. 

It seems tome that this might be a  good resource for nursery school as well as for years 1 and 2 and even years 3 and 4. I don't think it could work out with older children, but I'm not completely sure about that. What do you think?

Clap (once, twice, three times ...) if you can hear me

This is a resource our teacher uses in order to have silence when her 4th year university students behave like primary school children.

How does it work:

When there is too much noise and chitchat in your class you say:

-Clap once if you can hear me.

-Clap twice if you can hear me.

-Clap three times if you can hear me.

-Etc.

Usually after three or four times you will have every children's attention. 

I like it because it makes people who are not paying enough attention feel like they are actually missing something and focus back onto group activities. In addition, it has to be said that its character is proactive and does not imply any punishment or authoritarian behaviour. What do you think?

Welcome

Welcome!!

The purpose of this blog is to host a compilation of different texts and activities which can be used for an EFL class, as well as general resources. During the following weeks I'll post regularly different resources learnt at uni as well as other things I’ve seen as a student or within less formal environments, and hopefully I’ll do it both in Spanish and in English.  In addition there will be useful links to other blogs and compilations.

I want this blog to be much more than a university assignment. I'd like it to be a useful compilation of ideas both for myself and for others. So please, if you have any feedback, don’t remain silent. If you like something, say so (I’ll probably be delighted to hear it). If you have tried something with your own group, share the results with us all. If you have thought of a variation or a way to improve a certain activity, don’t keep it for yourself. On the other hand, if you think a certain activity is crap for whatever reason, think that my writing is terrible not to talk about my spelling, think that the blog organisation is terrible… The only thing I ask you is to share with us a constructive critic, as given the lack of resources we cannot afford to feed trolls.

Enjoy.