Creating expectation and other elements for atrezzo

The way in which you start a reading promotion session has an outstanding importance as the first impression the children get is going to have a huge impact on their attitude, attention, interest and general behaviour.

I, personally, haven't paid much attention to this in the past and I think it is one of my weakest points. However, there are a number of different things that you can use in order to create that sensation of thrill, of expectation that will give us our group's full attention, at least for a while.

For instance, one of our most famous local storytellers has a suitcase full of stories: La Maleta de Leocadio. This is a fairly simple element, but as children are used to have a storytelling session every time you use it, it fulfills its purpose really well.

Other things one might use is a decorated bag, a story box, a balloon piñata, crackers or any other similar elements. Sometimes those elements can serve you to form groups later on, like using different colours for the balloons, or placing different colour papers or numbers, or animals or whatever suits the activity in the cracker. This is an intelligent way of improving your time management.

In addition, one might use other kind of elements that, when used in a recurrent basis, allows the children to anticipate what is going to happen next. Among other elements we could go for a story hat, a story jacket, the story telling staff (as a magician cane), etc. Its strength is taken from the way you use it.

Finger puppets: They can be made with the children as a pre-activity, we can have them made ourselves or we can even paint a rudimentary one with a pen or fine marker on our fingers or thumbs. Even if you have your own, it is still a recommendable pre-activity as it allows the children to participate further later on.

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

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.

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.

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?

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.

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?