Hi! I'm teaching a really low level class and it's very frustrating! Their level is lower than other middle school classes I teach. I want yo make classes relevant to their age group (16-17) but it's really hard when their English is really basic. They even struggle with self-introductions! Any tips with what to do with them will be greatly appreciated!

That's a tough situation. I assume you are not the main teacher, but just visit from time to time?

I have a junior college class that is very similar. I have to go back to self introductions and simple present tense sentences with "be" and "do".

With that group, I have had some success with the Big Town cards and also the Get 4 game. (Both are on the games page: www.mes-english.com/games.php )

I have used the High Town cards as well, but the information on the cards is a little more advanced.

Another good repetitive target language game is the board game, Knock Out. viewtopic.php?t=3111. Once you teach them how to play, you can just shuffle in new target sentence structures and it makes for a nice 10-15 minute review activity. It says to go around for 5 laps, but recently, I just have them do 2 laps. You can adjust the number of laps to fit the time frame you are working with.

Hi Mark,

Thanks for your reply! Yes, I only have this group until August 9, so very short term.

I'll have a look at those games. I actually think games may be the way to go with this group. They are great kids, but aren't very, let's say, 'academic', so I think having fun and learning that way, may work.

Thanks again.