Grades

All

Interaction

Mill > group

Preparation

On the board, draw a floor plan of the seating arrangement in the class. Draw a square to represent each desk, so for example, you might draw 7 × 7 grid ( 7 rows and 7 students in each row ). 

Procedure

1. Tell students they should walk around and try to remember as many names of their classmates as they can without writing anything! Set a time limit of 5-10 minutes.

2. Students go back to their seats and make groups of 4. One of member of each group should quickly copy the grid from the board. Students work together to write the name of each student in the appropriate place in the grid. They are not allowed to talk to anyone in other groups. The conversation might go like this :

S1 : OK, what is the name of the boy sitting in the front row, on the left? Did anyone speak to him?

S3 : I did.

S 4 : I did too!

S1 : Can you remember his name?

S3 : I think his name is Hao.

S4 : Mmm, no, I'm, sure his name is Lin.

S3 : Oh yes, I remember now – I agree, his name is Lin

S1 ( writes Lin in the appropriate square )

S4 : You spoke to someone called Hao, where is he siiting?

etc.

3. When you see that most groups have written all the names they can remember, give them one more chance to complete their grid. Students walk around and find out the names of the people they don't know, again without writing anything.

4. Students return to their same groups and try to complete the gird with the names

5. Check by asking each student to say their name, groups should listen and tick off the names they remembered correctly. The group which has remembered the most names correctly is the winner. 

Rationale

This activity encourages group-co-operation. Students not only learn the names of their classmates, but they also get practice in working as a group.

Grades

All

Interaction

Groups of 6-7

Preparation

A ball for each group!

Procedure

1. Tell students this activity will help them remember each other's names. Students stand or sit in a circle. The student holding the ball says his / her name and throws the ball to someone else. The person who catches it says their name and then throws the ball to the next person who does the same.

2. Let this phase go on longer than the students feel is necessary so that they really do have time to memorize a good number of the names.

3. Next is the "testing" phase – the student holding the ball is not allowed to say their own name. Instead, they have to throw it to another student and say the name of that student. If the throwing student says the wrong name, the catching student should say his / her name and throw the ball back. The first student then throws the ball back, this time saying the correct name!

4. This activity could be continued by asking students to change groups.

Variation 1

Do the same exercise as above, but throwing an imaginary ball. This forces much more concentration and eye contact.

Variation 2

To make it more challenging, students say more than their name. For example, "My name is Howe and I like spicy food."

Grades

All

Interaction

Class > mill

Preparation

Before the class, prepare 3 simple statements about yourself. Some should be true, while others should be false.

e.g.

• I love hot, spicy food
• I come to school by bicycle.
• My father is very tall.

Language Focus

Any

Procedure

1. Tell students you will read some sentences about yourself and that some sentences are true, while others are false. After each sentence they should guess.

2. Reveal the correct answer after each sentence. Students give themselves 1 point if they guessed correctly. For the false statements, tell them what the true answer is ( e.g. I come to school by motorbike, not by bicycle! ).

3. When students have guessed all your sentences tell them to write 3 sentences about themselves, including some true and false ones, just like in your example. At lower levels, give the students the structure(s) or sentence stems you want them to use in their sentences.

4. Students walk around the class reading their statements to other students who have to decide whether each one is true or false. If they guess correctly, they get a point. To make it more interesting give out fake money, which students can win for correct guesses.

5. At the end, students should count up their points, and the student wit the most is the winner.

Variation 1

For higher levels, encourage students to ask follow-up questions. For example : "How tall is your father?" or "What is your favourite spicy food?"

Grades

8,9

Interaction

Groups of 4

Preparation

If possible, bring in 1 or 2 photos of yourself that you don't mind showing students. Stick these on the door of the classroom before they enter the class. Students will naturally look at them and be curious! This is also a good way of allowing everyone to see the photos. In class, let them ask you questions about the photos in English.

At the end of the lesson, tell students to bring 1 photo next class. The photo must include themselves, but can include other people.

Procedure

1. Set a time limit for this activity (e.g. 3 minutes for each photo ). One student shows his / her photo to the rest of the group. The other students ask as many questions as they can related to the photo within the time limit. For example :

• Where was this photo taken? ( on the beach in Dalian)
• Who is the person on your left? ( my friend )
• What's your friend's name? ( Yuo )
• How old is Yuo? ( 14 )

            etc.

When the time limit is finished. another student shows their photo and the group asks more questions. This continues until every student in the groups has shown their photo.

Follow up

Each student puts their photo on the table. Students work with a student from another group. The first student brings the second student to table where his / her group was sitting and shows the pictures, explaining about each one. For example, this is Huo sitting on the beach in Dalian last year. Next to him is his best friend You, who is 14. etc.

Afterwards, the second student takes the first student to his / her group's tables and does the same.

Rationale

Photos are one of the most motivating ways to get to know other people. Photos always generate many questions and can lead to a lot of discussion.

Grades

8,9

Interaction

Mill

Preparation

None

Procedure

1. Write "Tell me something I don't know" on the board, and give students time to think about something they are happy to reveal about themselves which they think no one knows.

2. Students walk around and tell as many people as they can within the time limit set by the teacher. Each time a student says their sentence ( e.g. My grandfather is 95 ), the person they're talking to should ask 1 or 2 follow-up questions ( e.g. is he still healthy? When did you last see him? ).

3. They then swap roles, and then finally change partners

4. Conduct some feedback. Choose 4-5 students to tell you the most interesting thing they learnt about one of their classmates.

Grades

8,9

Interaction

Mill

Preparation

None

Procedure

1. Students they must walk around and find 2 things in common with as many people as they can within the time limit set by the teacher. Each time they find something in common, they should write a short sentence ( e.g. Xia and I both like tennis, Xia and I both have a bicycle.

2. When they have found 2 things in common, they should change partners, but they are not allowed to ask the same questions ( e.g. Do you like tennis? Do you have a bicycle? )

3. Feedback - ask 3-4 students for the most interesting things they found out.

Grades

8, 9

Interaction

Groups of 5-6

Preparation

None

Procedure

1. Students write one true statement about themselves ( e.g. I collect stamps ).

2. Groups stand up. One student sits down and reads his / her sentence. The others members of the group ask that student one question ( e.g. How long have you collected stamps for? ). Once a student has asked a question, they can sit down.

3. When all students have sat down, a different student reads out his / her sentence, and the process is repeated until all students have read out their sentences.

Rationale

This method encourages students to ask questions as few want to be the last student remaining standing!

Grades

For grade 7, these questions could be ion Chinese, but at grades 8 & 9, the questions should be in English.

Interaction

Pairs

Preparation

Design several questions about the units that the students are going to study. Questions can relate to the whole book or specific units.

For example :

1. How many units are there?
2. How many review units are there?
3. In which unit can you find the word “zoo”?
4. In which unit(s) are we going to study the present progressive?

( detailed sample questions for each book will be added soon )

Procedure

1. Write the questions on the board, and set a time limit for pairs to find the answers.

2. Go through the answers, making sure students where the answers can be found.

Follow up

For higher level classes, put them in groups and ask them to write their own questions. When finished, they swap their questions with another group. Finally, they check to see if the other group answered the questions correctly.

Rationale

This activity is an ideal one to introduce students to the book at the start of term. However, it can be done at any time, provided the questions relate to pages that the students are going to cover.