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Teach English in Fenglingdu Zhen - Yuncheng Shi

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After working in Japan for over two years, I have devised multiple flashcard activities for my young learners in order to keep lessons upbeat and fun. Not only have these games proven to be conducive to each young learner’s English experience but they have also kept students entertained and focused throughout the lesson. Due to constraints, I have provided just four of my most effective activities in this Summative Task. The following structures and vocabulary will be the learning objectives of each activity that each student should be able to execute by the end of class. Question: What day is it today? Answer: Today is Sunday. Flashcards: Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday Activity One: “What’s missing?” For early learners, one of the first things that are taught are the days of the week. Once students have become accustomed to the vocabulary through drilling and repetition, all of the flashcards can be spread in front of them. Students should be seated in a formation where everyone can see the cards. The teacher will then proceed to flip all of the cards over. As the students watch, the teacher will begin to “mix” the cards randomly on a flat surface with their hands. After properly mixing the cards, the teacher will take one card and hide it from view before flipping everything over again. Students will then be asked, “What day is it today?” Students that raise their hands will answer with their best guess as to which card was taken, “Today is Sunday.” Once the students get the hang of it, the student that answers correctly will take the teachers place and mix the cards. Potential Issues: Often times, all students want to mix or flip the cards. During all the mixing, cards can get ripped or students can get hit on accident. Solution: It is in the teacher’s best interest to laminate the flashcards or to place the chosen student a slight distance away from the other students during this mixing and flipping process. Activity Two: “Duck, Duck ‘Oni’” This activity is a variation of what I used to play as a child. One difference is that I use “Oni” instead of “Goose.” “Oni” means “Ogre” in Japanese. This word can be changed depending on which country the activity is played in. First, all students must be placed in a circular formation on the ground. Second, as I place a flashcard behind each student, I will ask, “What day is it today?” and students will answer accordingly. Once all of the flashcards have been placed, all students must close their eyes. I will proceed to tap each student that I pass and say, “Today is Sunday. Today is Monday…” based on the flashcard placed behind them. Once I have chosen a student, I will say “Today is Oni!” and run around in a circle before the “Oni” gets me. If I reach the Oni’s seat in time, then I have won. Before the next student proceeds with the game, I make sure that the entire class asks, “What day is it today?” Potential Issues: Depending on the age group, I have had students use inappropriate words other than “Oni” and I have had students single out one student during the activity. Solution: Establish all of the game rules at the beginning of the game and should a student break the rules, have them sit down immediately and skip a few turns. Activity Three: “Magic Cups” This activity will require some cheap paper cups that you can get from a dollar store if your school doesn’t have any. Once your students are familiar with the vocabulary, on a flat surface you can place as many cups as you like side-by-side. In front of these cups, you can place the learned flashcards in any order. Then, have the students look away from the cups as you hide a small object within one of the cups. I usually have students count to ten in English before looking back at the cups. Then I ask them, “What day is it today?” The first student to raise their hand is chosen and needs to answer based on the flashcard and cup they think has the hidden object. The student that answers correctly is then in charge of hiding the small object. Potential Issues: Sometimes students don’t ask the full question or answer fully. Solution: Before any cups can be flipped both the question and answer need to be asked and answered in full. Activity Four: “Flashcard Hangman” This is an altered version of “Hangman” which usually involves students guessing what alphabetical letters fit into a number of blank spaces in order to spell a vocabulary word. “Flashcard Hangman” requires that students know the actual spelling of the vocabulary as well. For beginners, I usually allow them to use one open course book and one student usually yells out the spelling to the other students. If students already know the spelling then the course book is unnecessary. I split the class in two teams and students have to work together to spell the vocabulary on the floor using the flashcards. Everyone in the class is required to ask me, “What day is it today?” and I answer with a day of the week. Both teams have to work together to correctly spell the day of the week. The team that finishes first, wins. Potential Issues: There are some students that really don’t know how to spell and one student ends up dominating the game and the other team gets aggravated. Solution: I usually have the student that doesn’t know how to spell, read the letters from the course book so that they can be exposed to spelling practice. The above four games are games that are often used in my classes with young learners. Young learners are often more competitive than my adult learners and therefore really learn the flashcards quickly to win the game. A variety of games is always important in class.


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