Best games/activities for putting students in pairs?

6 comments

1. You might want to provide some information about the situation you’re in, as ESID.

   What level are the students?

   What age are the students?

   Is this in a school or an eikaiwa?

   What’s the time limit?

   What are you trying to teach them?

2. Depends on what you want done.

   You can do flipcard quizzes, roleplaying (of course), two person competitive pictionary (show a word or phrase, drawers can see it, guessers are facing away, “script writing” (pairing to incorporate words or phrases into a sci-fi, love, historical drama,etc.), Card to head (one kid flips the vocab card to his forehead, other has to describe it until the forehead kid gets it right), battleship/bingo (say you have 20 words, put them on a bingosheet and have the partners try win by making bingo through guessing vocab words, and so on

3. It really depends on the age group and type of grammar being taught. What works for Elementary 3-4 grade won’t be the same as JHS 1-2 grade, or with HS students or adults.

   Every pair/group work must have a goal to achieve or a task to complete. I always use a print or set of cards with pair/group work. A print supports the weaker students in the class, giving them something to refer to so they can keep up with more proficient speakers. And by putting something in their hands you’ve given them a focus, something corporeal that they have to interact with. This raises attentiveness and participation, which is necessary as it can lag when the teacher has to pay attention to many groups and isn’t omnipresent during the activity.

   Most pair/group work is focused on speaking skill development and mastery of a particular grammar point, which requires repetition in some form. It’s a necessary practice stage before freely using the grammar in conversation. A print with some form of short dialog substitution drill is a good place to start, but I like to move to a set of cards with only a single question, a few key words or even simply a picture, since the cards are shuffled and random and creates the spontaneity of a normal social interaction. The number of cards depends on the size of the group and age of the group, and how much time will be spent on the task each card initiates.

   This may seem vague, and perhaps self-evident, but lacking more information (such as a class of 40 3rd Grade JHS students or 12 adult false beginners) its hard to be more specific.

4. I like getting students to make one line in alphabetical order based on some question, for example, their favorite food. Write on the board “What’s your favorite food? Line up A-Z.” Then move to one side of the classroom and say apple, one step to the left and say bread, couple more steps and say eggs, until you reach yakitori all the way on the other side. Pre-teach them phrases like “you’re in front of/behind me.” Then have everybody stand up and gently corral them to the front of class because they’ll have no idea what you want. They’ll be slow as dirt but the second or third times it’ll be much faster and can be done in 5 min or so.

   The result should be something like apples, bread, curry, curry, gyoza, etc. If there are several people with the same letter food (e.g., spaghetti, sushi, salad) make sure they’re also in the correct order based on the second or third letters of that food.
   When they’re lined up have each person say their answer, then divide them into pairs or larger groups.

   This method gets them out of their seats so it’s useful for waking people up and also they can avoid any awkwardness of having to choose a partner. You could also ask questions like favorite anime, dates of birth, a food you hate, and so on.

5. I count people off, but I expect my students to say the numbers. So e.g. a class of 18, I’d count to 9 twice. I hold up one finger, say “one” to the first student, then hold up fingers and wait for each student to count themselves.

   I change my order to randomize pairings (row by row/rank by rank, column by column/file by file, spirals, concentric circles, etc). Can also do small groups. I.e., count to 6 for groups of three. Class of 17? Count to four: 3 groups of 4, 1 group of 5.

6. Hi,

   As has been mentioned you will get a more personalised response if you clarify the student ages and learning objectives.

   If it helps, I uploaded some 365+ [Kindergarten Classroom Games](https://themagiccrayons.com/games/) I used to use in my classes, all organised by theme. Many scale up to older ages by using more age appropriate flash cards or regalia. I played many with classes from 1- 1,400 students in size.

   I may have other content if you can clarify your needs.

   Thank you