English Club Advice

8 comments

1. Scrabble was always a big hit at my HS English Club. I have also brought / played Monopoly, chess, checkers, backgammon etc. Basically learning English through an activity seemed to go well. Sometimes show clips of movies / TV shows and ask English questions about it.

   I have also done a bit of debate practice (depending on the level) prompt them with a question, have them take different sides, and explain their position etc.

   I have also done an ECC and e-sports club as well.

2. I have a class like this with 22 students from jhs1 to hs3

   It’s so hard to strike a balance with their levels. The group is too big to play most group games like scrabble.
   Pictionary in teams worked well but I can’t do that ever week.

3. It’s always good to have some English board and card games in your back pocket for a rainy day. *but…*

   Probably most of your other school clubs have a lot of student leadership and students choosing a direction for their clubs. At most schools I’ve been at, teachers take an active role in clubs only some of the time, and almost none of them have teachers arranging and planning each club session’s activities. The teacher’s role in clubs is often to expose students to opportunities to do their thing outside the school (competitions, etc.) and chaperone them on those excursions. So be careful you don’t fall into the mindset of over-teaching an English club. You should make yourself a resource students have access to, but if you turn it into “fun eikaiwa class after school,” that sets a lot of expectations that I find drive down club engagement over the long term.

   I like the idea of students writing a school newspaper in English. You can assign one motivated student to be the editor and then it’s their job to wrangle the other members into getting the job done.

4. My old English club used http://m.fanmail.biz and wrote to celebrities every year. They used their own stationery to compose a letter to any actor/sports star/singer/etc and wrote them fan letters. Then, we compiled any doubles, as well as separated the single ones, put them in a bigger envelope that included a self-addressed A4 envelope and a sort of cover letter explaining that “we’re a school not so much money want to encourage kids to use English for real communication we’d be so very happy for a reply with a picture can’t pay for postage poor school please🥹”, and every year, they got a few responses! They used to use it as part of the English Clubs display for the school festival, so get that out EARLY if you wanna do the same. Just an idea😋

5. Depends on what the English club does. The one in my school participates in debates in English. So it’s preparing for that every time.

6. Ask them what they expect of the ESS club and what their level and desired level of English is.

   In an anonymous survey/Google Form, of course.

   Forging out with your own ideas isn’t bad, but you’ll be hitting more of the right notes if you ask the kids what they want.

7. I’m one of two advisors for my J/Sr HS English club, if you’re solo this workload might be unreasonable and this schedule is something even we had to build up to but I’ll share in case it generates ideas for you.

   Our yearly schedule follows 3 events: An in-school speech contest in Spring, An English play as the main event of the schools cultural festival through to fall, and an in-school recitation contest just before winter break. This is capped off during winter break with a club trip to a 3-day English camp that’s focused on club member interaction and enjoying using their English ability outside of school.

   Throughout the year we send students to speech and recitation contests outside of the school, usually lining up with when we’re practicing for our own contests.

   This is a lot even for the two of us running and supporting the club, and it’s only possible because of the club culture and reputation we’ve built over the years. I myself have a background in drama, stage combat, and public speaking from high school/undergrad/grad school and my partner has a background in debate, English contests, and was a member of their college’s ESS, so we really leaned into our strengths to make all that possible. I suggest that for you as well, start small and try to weave in something you have personal experience and expertise with and build from there. Having a yearly schedule of events really helps with advertisement, recruitment, and establishing club culture as well.

   Good luck.

8. You should support the club more than lead the club.