5 Activities To Do With Your Students As An English Teacher
Whether you’re an online English tutor or teaching in a schoolroom setting, one of the most challenging parts of being an English teacher, or any teacher for that matter, is keeping your students engaged. Finding different techniques and ways to deliver a lesson plan can be challenging, especially with already long hours of work and responsibilities.
A subject can get old fast for students, and the attention needed can almost vanish the longer a boring lesson is stretched out. Activities that allow the more talkative students to exercise their listening skills and the more quiet students to exercise their speaking abilities.
Most learn better by doing, and games and activities are an excellent way to achieve that. Games are fun and make what has already been taught more practical. It helps keep everyone engaged and relieves some stress that textbook studies might have brought. So, here are some activities you can have in class and how to use them.
1. Charades and Pictionary
Charades and Pictionary are similar group games but with slightly different ways of giving out hints for each. They both help improve students’ vocabulary and English.
Charades is a great game to get your students to move after a long school day of sitting at their desks. First, you’ll write down some words your students have already learned on a piece of paper. Then separate the class into two groups. In turn, one student from each group will come up in front, take one piece of paper and act out what’s written on the paper. Now it’s up to the rest of their teammates to discuss among themselves. They are to guess what word was written on the piece of paper. If guessed correctly, that team gets the point. Then it’ll be the other team’s turn to act out a word.
Pictionary is like charades, but instead of a selected teammate acting out a word, that teammate has to draw it on the board. Rules like no writing any words down, no saying the word, and no acting out the word when playing Pictionary.
2. Board race
Board race is a fun way to teach and learn English while revising ongoing vocabulary. This game is suitable for classes with more than six students. Here’s how to play:
Divide the class into two teams and give each team a colored marker. If you have a larger class, the teams can be further divided into three or four groups. Draw a line(s) on the board to section it for scoring and write a topic on the top. Now each team must send one member to stand in front of the board, and when the game begins, each team will write down as many words as they can on a turn basis and come up with a topic. Each team gets a point for each correct word, and the team with the most points wins.
3. Crowdsource a truly unique monster
Most of us will be familiar with monsters, but unlike the ones we’ve believed to be under the beds or hiding in the closets, you will draw this monster on a board. At the same time, students will learn descriptions and improve their vocabulary. Here’s how:
Divide the class into two groups and have one student from each team come up to the board. Now you will start asking questions like; what shape is the monster’s body? How big is its head? Does it have hair? What color hair? The students have to direct their answers to the teammates on the board one by one. The students at the board have to draw the monster as described to the best of their ability. This will help improve their vocabulary and descriptive skills.
4. Two truths, one lie
This is another fun game you can play that can improve students’ listening and speech in English. For younger students, you might want to write the truth and lies about yourself on the board and ask them which one they think is true and which ones they believe are lies.
If the students are a bit older and have a good grasp of English, the game can be divided into groups. It’s a fun way to communicate and for the students to learn about each other.
5. Researching interests
Everyone has something they enjoy and have their own set of interests they like to know more about. Have the students research and write about whatever they like and then present it to the class the next day. People love talking about things that interest them, and researching more about them will not only make the student want to do their homework but won’t be so reluctant to talk about it. Further improving upon their reading, writing, and communication skills.
Being an English teacher can be challenging, especially when students tend to get bored by long, drawn-out lessons. This is where activities can help pique their interest and help change things up. You can do various activities, but it is not always obvious which can help improve lessons. We have looked at five activities in this article that can help make your English classes fun while improving many aspects of your students’ English. We implore you to integrate these activities and improve your lessons. Thank you for reading!