Ever have one of those days where you get told you’re going to have a new lesson next year and the only recommendation for the contents is” make it fun”.
This class will be filled with students of junior high school and senior high school, about 20 students in total, ranging from nearly no English to being able to communicate perfectly.
I wish it was split in half with basic in advanced but it is what it is.
I’ve had this lesson in the past and struggled to come up with new interesting things to do every week.
Any suggestions are much appreciated.
5 comments
Is this eikaiwa?
You ought to be asking for your cut – 10,000 yen/hour.
Project based learning use older kids as the leads. Start with stuff like presentations on different topics, have them make a board game, maybe design school board or something, make a movie or play, maybe video exchange with a high school in another country if you can find someone etc. bigger the project the better. Means less week to week headaches for you and stuff can carry over. Fill in little mini lessons and games here and there if you want to break stuff up. If you need ideas steal ideas from bunkasai or something. just edit them a little. Kids are normally use to working in such groups.
Is this an after school English club thing? Surely the JTE would be responsible for teaching the regular lessons.
For English clubs, you just play games, doesn’t matter if they are not learning as long as it’s fun.
Play games that are fun for groups as is and wrap your lessons and instruction around it. For example, Werewolf, Telestrations, Apples to Apples, and Four on the Couch are fun group games in and of themselves and there are a number of ways to adapt them using level-appropriate English. Gear the level of your lessons to 中1 and 中2. The older kids will benefit from reviewing and practicing the grammar anyway.
Make team games.
But, include a rule that allows the weakest team each round to steal a member of another team for the next round.
Make sure each activity requires more than one person, or make it so a different person has to answer each round.
Have games where every team (or even every person) can score at least some points every round.