Whilst sticking to whatever your brief is for that lesson - often it is to incorporate a very specific grammar point - try to make it as amusing or unusual as possible.
I very frequently use a cropped picture of my face on an obviously different person īs body, or an animal īs body, or a wel known character.
You might imagine that the novelty affect would soon wear off, but in my experience that is not so.
That in itself is not really enough though.
The dailogue through which you introduce the new language, for example, should also be absurd or amusing or something of that nature if possible.
The activity in which the Ss communicate should also include some silly options.
Ss at that age here are still very much children (from an English person īs point of view, anyway).
They like silly things, and there is no academic principle, especially in ESL cirlces, that says 2nd language learners do better when being sensible.
I presume you are given freedom to do as you please?
I am, but of course I always get the materials approved by the JTE in charge of that class/year, and always point out clearly how the language objectives will be met. That way, the Ss pay a little more attention and their JTEs continue to allow me to teach the class essentially without them. If your JTEs insist upon team-teaching, then the īsilly � idea might need to be sold to them, as they might not want to do something that is not īmajime �.
There are many other ways to get their attention, but I have found no other that works as consistently well as making an idiot of myself for their amusement.
I hope that helps.
