Greg Strandberg - English Rocks! 101 ESL Games, Activities, and Lesson Plans

English Rocks!

101 ESL Games, Activities, and Lesson Plans

Greg Strandberg

Big Sky Words, Missoula

Copyright 2013 by Big Sky Words

D2D Edition, 2016

Written in the United States of America

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

Also by Greg Strandberg

Selected Non-Fiction

English Last: True Accounts of Teaching in China

Please Say Something! 25 Proven Ways to Get Through an Hour of ESL Teaching

Teaching Abroad: Making the Move To and From ESL Teaching

Teaching English: 101 ESL PowerPoint Ideas That Get Students Talking

Teaching English: 10 Proven Ways to Make Shy Students Talk Now

Fun English: 10 Fast and Easy ESL Games

Keeping Sane: English Teaching Strategies for ESL Teachers

Connect with Greg Strandberg

www.bigskywords.com

www.esladventure.com

Deserted Island

If This Person Were

Run & Touch

Seasons Comic Blocks

25 ESL PowerPoint Ideas That Get Students Talking

Introduction

I wish I had this book when I first started teaching in China back in 2008. I knew nothing; less than nothing in fact. It took me months to figure out what I was doing, and both my students and I suffered needlessly during that time. But learn I did, although it was often difficult. I tried new games and activities, and some worked and some didnt.

Over the past 5 years Ive been learning what works and what doesnt by teaching English firsthand in China. During that time Ive had thousands of students in my classes. Not all of them have been good at English, and many dont care for it at all. But all of them like to have fun in class, and you can use that to make your English classes better.

When I first got to China I started out teaching in a public school with 50 kids in a class. I did that for two years, often with little or no materials provided to me. After that I kicked around some training centers for three years, and although they each had their own unique curriculums, I always found them lacking. All throughout that period I taught students one-one-one as VIPs as well. Tutoring kids one-on-one presents its own set of challenges, and I developed unique and interesting games to make learning that way both fun and easy.

This book is the culmination of all that experience, and its presented to you in an easy-to-read style that wont have you scratching your head wondering whats being said . You can easily flip through the different lessons with the HTML table of contents, so finding a quick game while youre already in class wont be a problem.

There are 101 lessons, and 112 pictures in this book . Several of the lessons require handouts, PowerPoints, or other supporting materials that you just cant get in an eBook. Thats why I put them on my website esladventure.com for free.

Thats right! Im not going to charge you for these simple things that you could really make yourself. What I do want to do is save you the time of making them, while also giving you a template. Use it to make your own games and activities, or just these 101 that much better.

Youll find the link to the free English Rocks! files page at the end of this book . On that page youll find free files that only you can get, and which others have to buy from the site. Theyre yours simply for buying this book.

My students loved playing games in my classes, and theyll love playing games in yours as well when you try out the ideas in this book and the supporting files on the site. When you want to move on to teaching English, therell be plenty of activities, warm-ups, and lesson plans to effectively target the vocabulary and grammar that youre using in class on a daily basis.

# On Card

O ftentimes my students will come back from a long holiday break, or perhaps a week of rigorous testing. Either way, they havent been in my English class for awhile, and theyre a bit rusty. Its never easy to get back into the swing of things, and its even more difficult when youre coming back from a long absence.

Thats why I try to make it easy on students and start off with a quick warm-up activity. The premise is simple: give each student a card from your deck of cards, or let them choose from some that youve set down out on the floor.

Each student will have a number on the card, and they will have to say that many things based on what your topic sentence is.

For instance, if the students are coming back from their holiday, your topic sentence could be During the holiday I... Students will then have to say things like, During the holiday I ate breakfast; I ate lunch; I ate dinner; I brushed by teeth; I played computer games.

That student must have drawn a 5, because he said 5 things. I encourage students to say what they didnt do, as theyll usually get stuck, especially if they have a high number. I never count the face cards, so the highest number you can get is 10.

This activity takes a while when you have a larger class, and students also tend to get bored as you go around to each student individually, so keep that in mind. Still, I pull this activity out quite often, at least once a month, and it goes over well. Probably the most enjoyable part for the students, besides when they get done speaking, is when they see another classmate get a high number.

Another great strategy that I recently found out involves Uno cards. I dont always have my deck of playing cards on me, but I almost always have a deck of Uno cards in my bag. And the great thing about Uno cards is that they have a zero. I love to put one zero down so that some lucky student doesnt have to say anything, although they earn the jealousy, and perhaps animosity, of their classmates. And you run the risk that someone might find it on the first try, which kills the suspense and make the game a bit less fun.

1 & 2 Stand in Line

T his is a great warm-up activity for ESL students of all levels. I came up with it a few years ago when I needed something for my longer summer classes. I also wanted something that would be good for when parents came and watched their kids on the last day of class.

The class I had at the time was quite low, and most of them were around 7 to 8 years old. So you can imagine that their behavior wasnt very good, really abysmal at best, and their language skills were about the same. Still, they were eager, energetic, and enticed when I told them we had a new game.

The idea is simple: Prepare some scraps of paper before class that are numbered 1, 2, 1, 2, just like you were getting counted off in gym or PE class. You can even skip the numbers entirely and just count the kids off if you wish, but I find theyll try to group together in lines of girls and boys. You know something is wrong when one line has seven students and the other has two. So I would go with the paper scraps.

Now, the students have their numbers. Tell students with a 1 to raise their hands. Good. Now tell students with a 2 to raise their hands. Good. Now tell students with a 3 to raise their hands. Now you know whos paying attention.