I’ve been in charge of an after school English Club at a local high school for a year. It’s only an hour a week, but I struggle so much with this one hour. There are only 2-4 students usually and I’ve done a variety of board games, activities related to American holidays (decorating Christmas cookies, plastic eggs at Easter, etc), and scavenger hunts around the school. The students English level is beginner and they are bored high school students so it’s sometimes excruciating trying to engage them and take up the whole hour. I was hoping some of you might have some ideas for other games or activities, or have found ways to gain more of a rapport with your students. I’ve taught English here for several years and have never had this much trouble getting students engaged and appreciate any advice. Thank you!
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I was in the same position for a few years. The best thing that I did was elect a club president. They were in charge of planning every-other meeting. I would help get materials or help teach, but they had to plan the theme and lead the hour.
This helped immensely, as they better know what their peers are interested in, it relieved me of head space, and it taught the kids some responsibility.
Assuming club attendance is voluntary, maybe just ask the students what would they like to do? What are their interests, and to have material/activities that revolve around that.
For example, if they like music… talk about music… role play going to a music shop to buy the latest CD. Talk about an upcoming concert, or “describe what you would like if <ss’s favourite performer> comes to Tokyo”… “Interview that performer / write a letter to them”.
If they like anime, or a TV series… make a short summary of an episode in English… talk about a character, what are their strengths/weaknesses. Expand their vocab on the subject, and work in the various grammar aspects.
Some regular day-to-day events… going shopping with a friend. Helping out a foreigner at their favorite hangout. Directions, and/or fashion advice. Flip it around, you are on an exchange program, and want to shop at a mall… what English phrases would you need to describe what you’re looking to buy? (dresses… patterns… accessories (earrings/bracelets/etc)… materials/colors (gold/silver/platinum/etc)). You bought something, and found it was faulty… role play describing the problem, and requesting for an exchange/refund.
Sports… food… animals…
I’m club komon for our English club at a high school, meeting twice a week.
When you look at other clubs, the senior students lead, not the teacher. Every year, either a 3rd year steps up as leader or I appoint one. The leader surveys the members to find out their interests and activities they want to do. The club komon is there to support their activities.
Maybe a newspaper is too big a project for a once a week club, but the club could produce a bulletin board. To generate content, you could ask them to create questionnaires for their grade years and make posters of the results.
Our club members interview English department staff and community members for newspaper/bulletin board content. They also create an exhibit for the school festival.
I’ll go ahead and support the other comments and say – it is a student club so let a student lead. I’ve worked in several schools, with several ESS clubs and in EVERY ONE it was led by a student leader / “President.”
The club is not just the club topic but a chance for students to gently learn leadership, planning, facilitating, etc. So let your students dictate. Sure, make a list of ideas (watch English language movie and discuss, English newsletter, English games, make an English smartphone app, go watch a play in English, visit European Holiday market in our JP city, try food from overseas, penpals overseas, etc etc.) but then leave it to them. Maybe they want to do lunch broadcasts in English. Maybe have a guest come in and talk about overseas travel. Who knows?
You just provide the support on how to plan and organize, and let them do what club can help them learn.
When students are tired or bored, here’s something that works at almost every level. If you want, prepare by writing on the board some suggestions: “Run, Walk, Swim, Sleep, Eat, Jump, Turn Left, Turn Right, Spin Around. Students will be miming these activities—any running or walking will just be done “in place”.
All the students stand up, maybe in a circle.
The first person starts: “Jump” (and everyone makes a little jump).
The next student repeats what the previous student said, everyone does it, and then adds another thing: “Jump. Turn Left.”
So, the third student says “Jump, turn left, and eat.”
There’s a lot of repetition, listening, speaking, and physical response.
I generally don’t penalize mistakes, but you could do something like make someone move three people over, so they soon get another try. Under no circumstances let them sit down if they screw up—if you do, they will intentionally screw up.
1) if you can bring a laptop and play story based video game like that scifi robot one with choices, 2) simple version of DnD if your students are regular attendees
How about English movie/cartoon club? After choosing a student club president, ask him/her to do a survey among other members about what they’d like to watch. Then each club time you choose a 10 minute scene (or so) from one of movies on the list they made. Then quiz each other about the scene. If they don’t have the ability to make their own quiz, you provide the questions. After quiz time, watch the scene again and check the answers. Then keep watching.
Or make an idea box. Ask each member to write what they’d like to do on a slips of paper and add them to the box. You add some, too, so you can be sure some are possible. Then take one out once a week and do that. Pro tip: make sure that you read the suggestions first when the students aren’t around to make sure you have the materials you need and what not.
The English club in working with does debates in high schools. Perhaps if they’re English is a decent level, they could work towards participating in that.
I teach JHS but at a boys school so I’ve been in a similar situation in the past – building rapport and dealing with a small number of sometimes low level students. I currently have a group of 5 or 6 students for two hours a week which I find has lent itself well to card and board games.
Some of the games we’ve played:
Dixit, Catan (huge hit!), Cluedo, Risk, One Night Werewolf (catnip for JHS kids), Codenames, Mafia, Pandemic, Sushi Go (popular but doesn’t really require English).
Games we’re trying this year:
Munchkin, Dead of Winter, Coup, Dungeon Mayhem, The Crew, D&D.
Additional cultures from the English speaking world. New Zealand, Australia, England, Scotland, Ireland. Music, foods and Holidays
I helped organize a video exchange between my students in Spain and my former school in Japan. The first students from Japan looked like hostage videos. The Spanish students responded with videos where they talked about hobbies, interests, fashion, music, etc. The students made videos of Madrid and showed off their bedrooms. The best videos were when the Spanish students made “reaction videos” where they tried Japanese foods (including nato) and Japanese health and beauty products. The videos were outstanding. Then the Japanese students responded in kind. The Japanese students really enjoyed watching the Spanish boys versus girls chopsticks relay using kidney beans. The students had a lot to discuss relating to culture. As you can imagine, the way the students dressed in Spain versus Japan was very interesting for the students. The videos were uploaded to a site controlled by the teachers.