Teacher centered games

MES-Member Joined: 30 Apr 2010 Posts: 7

I have a very active 7th grade class that doesn't respond well to communicative games. Pairwork or groupwork result in an explosion of chaos that takes more time to contain than the BP oil spill. Fortunately I'm not teaching them alone, but it's my job to get them speaking and make the classes interesting. These kids make worksheets into airplanes, so I have to work pretty hard to get their attention and interest.

"Teacher-centered" games seem to work the best for practicing target phrases. That's to say, games where everyone but one or two students is sitting down, and one or two students say the target sentence while everyone else listens. I'd like to have them speak more freely in pairs or groups, but you've got to stick with what's possible, right?

Games that have worked well so far are:

Tornado -- This game is just a randomized scoring system, with a grid of cards on the blackboard and pictures/words on the axes of the grid. They say something like, "I like comics. I play soccer." to choose a card on the grid. If they're lucky they get a card with bananas on the back, or they get a gorilla, letting them switch bananas with another group. If they're not lucky a tornado blows away all their bananas. The element of surprise, the visual appeal, and the group competition make this game appealing.

Pictionary -- Another 'class-centered' game. It's fun to watch your friends trying to draw something, and the competitive nature of this game is appealing too. This went down really well, but maybe because it was a good day.

Karuta -- Alphabet karuta went pretty well, but that was at the beginning of the year. I'm not sure whether it would work now.

So blackboard based games that are competitive, have visual appeal, and require little explanation seem to work well. I need more games like this, and I'd really like some suggestions. Since many of the kids aren't able to sit down and practice writing, I also want to do games to practice writing/reading on the blackboard.

I'm looking forward to hearing people's suggestions!

MES-Addict Joined: 19 May 2009 Posts: 33

I play a version of your tornado game which always goes down well. I also add points, where they can steal points from another team which they really like.

Have you tried the whispering game. Students whisper a word or phrase down the line and the last student has to come to the front and draw/write the phrase or choose the correct flashcard. I always tell my students that it is not the fastest team that gets a point but if they are right. I might give the fastest team a bonus point if all teams are always getting it right. The biggest problem with this game is that the students tend to shout at each other when they get it wrong!

I also play a rock paper scissors game. I put a bunch of flashcards on the board in a line. There are two teams. One team starts at either end and touches the flashcard and says the expression (you need to really enforce the fact that they much speak the phrase). When the two students meet they do rock, paper, scissors and the winner keeps going while the loser goes back to the beginning and starts again. The first team to get to the end gets a point. I have also played this as a whole class game where the loser goes and sits down and the next student starts at the beginning. To do this I have 2 students from each team waiting next to the start cards.

A kind of guessing game works very well too. Pick a flashcard. Have the whole class ask the question (e.g. how's the weather). Have one student from each team stand up and answer (it's rainy, it's sunny etc.). Then show them the card. If they guessed right they get a point. I also play a variation for yes, no questions. For example, I choose a card. The students take it in turns to ask the question (can you ski? can you dance?). I answer no I can't until they guess the right answer. Then the student who guessed gets to choose the next card and answer the questions.

If you have small flashcards you can play a stand up game. Each student gets a couple of cards. Ask a question and if they have the matching card they stand up and answer and the quickest gets a point. E.g. Is this your boat? Yes it is.

These games all work pretty well in my classes of about 30 students. The games get pretty wild and take some controlling but it does result in the students using the target language.

For writing games, I usually do some kind of relay race but it depends whether your classroom can stand that. If not, have the students write something on a piece of paper and hold it up (e.g. show them an anagram and have them write the correct word). The fastest team to hold up the correct answer gets a point. If you do this, insist that each member of the team takes it in turn so that it is not always the good students that are writing.

I also play a reading flyswat game. Write the words on the blackboard (or better still have the students write them). Then one person from each team faces away from the blackboard. Call out the word and the first one to hit the correct word gets a point. I usually call out the first few words and then have the students take it in turns to call out the answers.

I hope these help. If the explanation is not clear for any of them just let me know and I will try and clarify.

MES-Member Joined: 30 Apr 2010 Posts: 7

Thanks for all your suggestions, Kiwi. Those are all good games.

In my version of the tornado game, bananas are points.

Whispering game - I do this game with my other classes, but it wouldn't work with this class, as there are too many students who don't participate.

Rock paper scissors game (aka leapfrog) - I've done this game in elementary school many times, but I don't think it would work with this junior high class. Maybe I'm being too timid, though. I'll suggest it to my TT.

Guessing game w/ flashcards - I think this would work pretty well, if I use a fun scoring system. I'll give it a try!

Flashcard standup - Some kids might throw the cards around. But I like the idea, and I'll try it with my other classes.

Anagrams - This should work, although it might be hard to get everyone involved. I do this with my other classes, so I'll try it with this class, too.

Reading flyswat - This could work. I'm thinking of doing writing races, too--having the s.s. race to write a sentence on the blackboard, like the whisper game but without the whispering.

I'll let you know how the games go. Next lesson I'm planning on trying a sort of blackboard version of Mark's spiders and candy, but with treasure, tornados, and ninjas as the point system. I have high hopes.

Thanks again for the great suggestions!

MES-Addict Joined: 19 May 2009 Posts: 33

You're welcome. I teach elementary and all these games work well for me. However, they do take some effort to control the students as they get super excited. I usually use a bunch of penalty points to keep some control (e.g. -2 points for talking too much, -5 points for screaming). Generally I give a warning by putting the minus points next to the team the first time and tell them it will get taken off next time they do it. I have only very occasionally had to actually deduct the points.

One other game that might work is a hot envelope game. The students pass the envelope while the music plays and when the music stops they take a card from the envelope and read or say the expression. The difficulty with this is that sometimes the students tend to throw the envelope instead of passing it. You can extend it by passing 2 items (e.g. a ball and bag). When the music stops the student with the bag takes a card and asks a question and the student with the ball answers the question.

In your version of the tornado game maybe you could add a monkey or something similar. If you get the monkey you get to steal bananas from the next team.

Good luck! I hope your spiders and candy game works well.

MES-Member Joined: 30 Apr 2010 Posts: 7

Hi kiwii,

Thanks again. The hot envelope game might work well. I haven't played music in class yet, and they'll probably enjoy it.

I can't implement any disciplinary measures, since discipline is supposed to be the Japanese teacher's job. (I'd love to send them to the principle's office when they're out of control, but that's not in the teacher's book of punishments here in Japan.) They wouldn't take a point penalty system seriously.

They've ben responding very well to the games I've been doing--it's like they suddenly transform from beasts to angels when I tell them it's time to play a game. I think they like having order and something to focus on, and that's why pairwork doesn't work. Showing a flashcard (or word card) gradually or flashing a flashcard and having them guess what it is works great. So does showing them scrambled words, and saying sentences with one word left out (e.g., "I ______ to school every day"--the s.s. who says "come" gets a point for their team).

There are gorillas in my tornado game, and the gorillas steal bananas. I probably play it the same way as you, Kiwi. It's gotten a little old though, and I feel like I always need to do new things to keep their attention.

I use laminated pictures of comic book characters (from a comic about pirates called 'One Piece') as pieces to keep track of how many points each team has. The characters can race or collect treasure. They love this, and I give the pictures as prizes sometimes, too, which is a good positive motivator. I need to think of more team/point based activities, though.

Thanks again, I'm still desperate to hear some more ideas from everyone!

Posted: Thu Jul 01, 2010 9:45 pm

Michael.G wrote:

It's gotten a little old though, and I feel like I always need to do new things to keep their attention.

If you've found something they like and it keeps them engaged, you don't need to offer variety. Kids will do the same thing/game over and over and over and over as long as they enjoy it. They don't care that they just played that game.

It's generally us (adults) that get tired of doing the same thing over and over again. We want variety, but kids just like to do what they like to do.

One way to mix it up is to just change the content. You can also add little things here and there to make it interesting, like changing the point system, adding a wild card that does something, rolling a die for points instead of assigning certain point values, ...

MES-Member Joined: 30 Apr 2010 Posts: 7

Thanks for your words of wisdom, Mark. That's very true, I get bored more easily than my students of doing the same things. I'll keep that in mind when I plan my next class.

MES-Member Joined: 24 Feb 2010 Posts: 4 Location: Japan

I agree with Mark that the students can play the same game many times, what I've done is have different "decorations" on a game that works, like I have a basic board game but there's a school version, a soccer version, a bee to honey version etc. So they get a bit of variety while still playing a game that they have shown they like.

Also, if you occasionally offer the students a choice of which version they want to play they can get very excited! I was surprised!