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ESL forum >
Techniques and methods in Language Teaching > Games that invovle running around/physical activity
Games that invovle running around/physical activity
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RabbitWho
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Games that invovle running around/physical activity
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I have this one private lesson with a 9 year old with something like upper intermediate abilities. She �s very difficult to teach because most of the activities for students at her level are designed for older, calmer people who don �t mind sitting down and not moving for 45 minutes.
I teach her twice a week and we used to do a song every week, but now that �s gotten boring for her too. It �s very hard to get her to do the types of exercises that come with the song, after that we used to dance making actions that went along with the song, but again that �s after getting boring, and we tried drawing pictures to do with the song as we listened to it, and that was fun for a while but now it �s boring.
We do running dictation races sometimes, but they have a really limited usefulness for teaching.
So any activity you know that involves running around or some game BUT it has to teach grammar. At the moment we �re working on present perfect but I �ll take anything and use it in the future.
any grammar areas from pre-int to upper-int is fine because her grammar theory is well behind her ability to actually use it, you may think i �m crazy to want to teach her the theory but she won �t be able to pass tests in school when she gets older or do her FCE/CAE if she doesn �t get a handle on it. an A in speaking is not enough.
If you have any ideas post them here ,or links to worksheets and i �ll download them :)
Any other ideas at all for how to keep her motivated (and not walking along the table tops) would be very much appreciated.
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25 Mar 2010
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Yulia Mo
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I understand how you feel. I myself have small kids and they are private classes. With one girl i just make breaks and tell her to run or jump or we do some exs like for fingers and eyes to relax them. She enjoys it. And she always says - Now i make one sentence and jump, right? (but she �s 7, not 9 like yours) I also use cards. For instance i printed cards with verbs - so that each verb has a pair of cards - one - picture, another - word written. Kids love cards. So i made her put all the cards in pairs, but the cards were on one table and she had to arrange them on the other table. That way she moved a bit. You can ask her to do it let �s say on the floor - kids really enjoy studying on the floor.
Also i made a rule to teach her something apart from english every class. Simple things, like making snowflakes from tissues or chains from colored paper, or simple origami boats. She loves it and she �s really looking forward to each class because of this fun stuff. And during this hand activity we talk, either i explain to her step by step and she repeats after me, or she answers some of my questions.
But i have to say our class lasts for two hours, so i have more time then you do to make the activities variable.
What else? If we discuss let �s say, materials, i ask her to show me something made of glass, so she runs around the flat and points to stuff and i tell her what it is.
With grammar it �s useful to make a puzzle of sentence structure. If you want, i �ll send you a sample. For instance if you are studying Present perfect, so the subject is a blue rectangle for I, You , We, They, and red rectangle for He, She, It. HAVE is a blue circle, HAS is a red circle, then the 3rd form of the verb as an arrow. So she gets to put the parts together (on the floor again), or do different structures as you tell her the sentence or whatever.
If i remember something else, i �ll add another post.
I understand that most of the stuff is for elementary, but may be something will be useful.
Have a nice day,
Yulia
PS: are you using Power Point games? Gabitza has awesome games and you can edit them to fit your grammar. This�ll make grammar more fun.
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25 Mar 2010
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cristinasuma
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I do a very funny exercise with my students when they are learning irregular verbs. it �s called Irregular flexions.
Students have to stand up and bend for irregular verbs, so for instance, if it is run, ran run, the student will touch her feet for run, touch her hips for ran and again her feet for run. If it is buy, bought, bought, she will touch her feet first, then twice her hips. If it is drive, drove, driven, she will touch her feet for drive, her hips for drove and raise her arms for driven. It �s a bit hard to explain it here but it �s good fun for them and they learn to pronounce the words as well.
Ask me if you have any questions |
25 Mar 2010
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Mariethe House
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I honestly think the problem is beyond your teaching!! It is a behaviour problem , maybe psychological and I think you are doing too much! The more you try, themore she misbehaves! well I think she is looking for limits which she does not get from her environment!
So my advice is: stop raking your brains for teaching ideas: You have got loads already!
Ii once had a private student like that.... i would start the lesson by asking in his native language questions about his week, paying attention to his interestsand ... after 5 minutes, I would say nicely but firmly : " OK, now let �s start working!" And he did! I think she will soon tire you down and you �ll end up with nervous breakdown if you give in too much to her!
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25 Mar 2010
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RabbitWho
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Thanks to Christina and Yulia! Some good ideas i �m going to try.
I like the idea of having actions corresponding with verbs, it can make a gap-fill type thing a lot of fun.
It �s also a good idea to do something that has nothing to do with English and just talk. We did that at Christmas and it worked okay, i don �t know what her parents would think of it though, but we don �t need to do it every day, just every now and then to break up the routine.
Mariethe: I must not have explained this properly.
The problem is not her, it �s the fact that there just doesn �t exist challenging activities for a child at that level.
If i sat down with elementary materials and an FCE class they would "misbehave" just as much, but with adults misbehaving = complaining and going to a different school.
All materials for kids are low level.
I have the same problem with her older brother, but we are using a book. He is bored out of his mind half the time aswell because everything is too easy. I try to incorporate the odd thing from English File because it �s more challenging, but most of the topics and games there just are not suitable for kids.
He reacts to boredom differently though, he accepts it as a normal part of school. The problem is not how she reacts to being bored the problem is that she is bored.
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25 Mar 2010
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bzzbea
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I agree with Mariethe. I have an 8 year old girl just like that for 2 hours a week. I found myself spending more and more time preparing her lessons as I thought I needed to do lots of different activities to keep her interested. I found as well that I was starting to dread the lessons and resent the extra prep work. Nothing was good enough, boring, boring... Of course I realised that the same activities that I was using with other children worked extremely well and that I wastrying too hard and she knew it! I spoke to her really clearly about what we needed to do and told her after half an hour that I was going to leave the class and let her think about it. I spoke to her mother and explained and she was very understanding. She suggested speaking to her teacher at school who was very happy to phone me and discuss how to help each other. She sends me notes every now and then with what she needs and it certainly did the trick with my pupil.
Good luck!
Bea |
25 Mar 2010
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Yulia Mo
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Mariethe is right in a way, the kids have to know where the fun stops and the learning starts. But some kids are just too active to sit all the class. It �s natural, so you have to make it different and let them move. Sometimes with my kids i feel like they are sitting and trying hard to concentrate, but their body doesn �t listen as it �s got so much energy. Then i just say - OK, now get up and do some jumping for me, or whatever there is to do. But then we get back to work and it moves much better.
Or sometimes, if you have really good relations with a kid, he �s bursting out to tell you some news of his (his kitten learnt to jump off the sofa, or his brother pooped on bed or he got a new toy) The class won �t go, until they take it out. So what you say is, Fine, now we have a 2-minute break and you can tell me what you want. But after two minutes he has to stop an the class has to continue.
I �m all for new ideas and all for fun with small kids. This way they enjoy more and progress faster.
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25 Mar 2010
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RabbitWho
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I know, I remember the feeling, as a child i really wanted to pay attention, but sometimes it just wasn �t possible. When you �re a kid all you want is for grown-ups to like you and pay attention to you, and she �s a good kid there �s no need to bore her and make her sit and do grammar drills for 45 minutes.
I think it �s important we try to bend with them and teach them on their own terms in a way that will benefit them.
Like you said.. they want to sit on the floor, don �t tell them to sit on a chair, sit on the floor with them and have the lesson on the floor.
This girl wants to play hang-man all the time, but until I can think of a way hangman could benefit someone at her level there �s no way we �ll be playing it! Anyone know a way?
I guess we could do it with present perfect sentences? Anyone know any similar draw-on-the-board activities?
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25 Mar 2010
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RabbitWho
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Bzzbea the girl herself is not the one saying the lessons are boring, she is acting perfectly reasonable, she just begs to do something different or she runs away and wants me to chase her (I just sit and read and wait for her to come back)
I think... okay so she likes running, i �ll find a way to make running educational.
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25 Mar 2010
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Yulia Mo
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There �s a game we used to enjoy when we were kids. You can adjust it to grammar or vocab. Let �s say you give your student a small piece of paper that has a multiple choice. And it says - if you think A is correct, then the next clue is under the sofa. If you think B is correct, search for the next clue in the curtains. Then the students finds the next paper with a next multiple choice redirecting him to new places to search for clues. He will run around the place and in the end he will find let �s say a chocolate bar (if he got all the answers right) If no, it �ll redirect him back to the questions he was wrong.
Not sure if i explained clearly. It �s a lot of preparation with all the papers and hiding them, but i remember how excited i was playing this game as a child. May be you could do it once in a while.
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25 Mar 2010
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