Our Resolution in 2017

It is the end of January and it is not too late to write our resolutions in the rest of the New Year of 2017. A couple of weeks a go. I read an article written by Kelli which talked about her experience in the process of teaching of creating hopes and dreams. Based on the experience, I asked my students to create and write their resolutions in this New Year as well as learning Future Tense.

Before creating and writing the resolution, yesterday, the students learnt about making simple sentences using future tense patterns, it is 'be going to + V1' and I gave them a worksheet. Students chose and numbered some resolutions available on the worksheet, such as, watch less TV , lose weight, study more hard, go travelling, read more books, spend less time of using smartphone, be patient, stay healthy, and so forth. If the students had other resolutions, they could write or add them on the list. After that, teacher prepared and printed a beautiful starburst line image, and they wrote the resolution likes 'This year I am going to ......' on the paper line image to write those resolutions. The students cut, wrote, and colored it beautifully. Later, they would post them on the wall or others. The students felt really great and excited writing their own simple resolutions and learnt grammar of future plans as well. Besides that, the students shared and compared their resolutions each other.

Wild Card Game

A classroom has already discussed about present and past simple tense. Now, it is the time for the students to have an exercise of the two tenses. When I have to ask them to practice producing simple sentences in a traditional way (writing sentences on their notebook), soon they feel lazy and bad-mood, they grumble along the activities. They think that it is really monotonous and can not encourage them to learn optimally. Knowing this fact, it is necessary to prepare a fun activity for them to practice producing simple sentences as well as drill them the use of the two tenses, present and past simple. 

To encourage students motivation in learning English, teacher prepares a fun game called 'Wild Card Game'. The goal of this activity is to practice making sentences using word cards correctly. Here, teacher prepares a set of cards consisted of 'wild card' (no words on it) and 'word card' (with words on it). The 'wild card' can be used for any words needed by the players and the 'word card' will be about nouns, verbs, to be, article, prepositions, or adverbs. The number of cards are around 100 or 150 cards.

The procedures:

1. If you have really small classroom consisted of four or five students, you can play it at once. But if you have more that that, you can play it in group and divide the students into group of five or six students. 

2. The students/players sit in a circle and determine who will be player A, B, C or D and the order can be clockwise based on the first, second, and so forth.

3. Teacher shuffles the cards and spreads the cards to each player. Each of them will get six cards only in front of them . The remaining cards are put in a pile in the middle of the players. 

4. Next, each player have to arrange a meaningful sentence using the six cards or less than those. If the cards do not work well, the player can exchange the card with another card in a pile one by one based on their turn. The players can go on to exchange the card until they can make a meaningful sentence using cards in front of them. The thing you have to notice is that in front of each player, there must be six cards only, even though they exchange them many times. (The cards thrown are put in another pile and can be used by another player)

5. If a player finds 'a wild card', he/she can use the card to help completing his/her meaningful sentence. The "wild card' can be any words needed by the players.

6. Once a player can make a sentence, he/she read the sentence aloud, and if other players say that it is correct, he/she can collect and set aside the cards.

7. Player who can firstly collect thirty cards wins the game. 

Playing Card to Review Things in the House

I think, you are really familiar with card to play poker or solitaire. They are usually consisted of Jack, Queen, King Cards, and others. In this topic of learning English, teacher would like to make them in different way (I mean they are really the simple ones and use paper material that is available around) and basically they are the same. 

To teach vocabulary for children or elementary students, we must prepare a set of fun activities to help them memorizing and identifying the words. If we give them some words in a traditional way, likes dictating the words and writing the meaning, they will soon forget the words the next day. That is why giving the children little experience of learning, I think it is better. 

Today, my students around 8-9 years old learn about the things found in the house. They learn about parts of house, such as living room, bed room, kitchen, and bath room. Teacher prepares a set/a pack of cards divided into four categories. The usual set of cards consist of hearts, spades, diamonds, and clubs. In this vocabulary game, teacher changes the four categories into kitchen, living room, bed room, and bath room. Each category is consisted of fourteen (14) things found in each room, starting from card number 1 to As card. Each number of pips on the card determines the rank of the card when they play the cards. 

The procedures:

1. First, students learn vocabulary about things in the house. In this activity, teacher may choose various activities, like worksheet or flashcard. In my classroom, I like using real objects first, then they do a worksheet. 

2. After that, students sits in a circle. If the classroom has more than six students, teacher may divide them into groups. The turn of players may be a clockwise rule or they sit based on the result of scissor-paper-rock rule. 

3. Teacher shuffles a set of cards and spreads them the for each player. He/she will hold four to five cards and teacher put a card as the 'opening '. The remaining cards are put in a pile in the middle of the players.

4. The first player must take one card out that suits to the 'opening' card, for example if the first card is 'doll' (thing in the bedroom), the players must take a card (in their hand) about things in the bedroom. If he/she does not have the card corresponded, he/she must take another/other cards in the pile. 

5. The player, with the highest rank of card for each round, has a chance to take his/her card out in the middle. 

5. The turn goes on clockwise, and the player who gets rid of his/her cards first will be the winner of the game. 

Shopping Game to Learn Vocabulary

Children like going to the supermarket. They are excited to choose and buy things sold in the supermarket. They want snacks, chocolate, candies, drinks, ice cream, toys, and so forth. Everything in the supermarket is nice for them.

In my classroom of elementary students, they learn about the vocabulary related to the supermarket, exactly the things can be found in the supermarket. The classroom consisted of 12 students and they work in group of three. First, teacher introduce some vocabularies or things that might be found in the supermarket, such as snacks, chocolate, drinks, fruit, vegetable, books, writing utensils, clothes, etc. Teacher prepares a set of picture flashcards and a set of shopping list cards. The students practice the words or things in the supermarket using flashcard. Teacher may drill them how to pronounce and what the meaning of the words.

After having drilling activities, teacher asks the students to work in group and each group will get a  set of shopping list. They have to shop in the supermarket based on their shopping list.

The procedures are:

1. Each group is given shopping lists, one students one shopping list. Teacher tells them that they have 3 minutes only to shop in the supermarket.

2. Teacher prepares 'the supermarket' (on table, it is put many small pictures flashcards about the things in the supermarket).

3. Each group determines who will be the first, second, and third buyer and they will compete with other groups.

4. Teacher asks the students to read first their shopping list and gives them a basket to put the things in.

5. The first buyer/player of each group is ready on the start line, and when the teacher says "GO", they have to run to the 'supermarket' and buy the things written in the shopping list.

6. In three minutes, the players take in turn, and the group who gets the most things will be the winner of this game.

Through this fun activity, hopefully, my students can enjoy the process of learning and achieve better result in learning English, particularly learning English vocabulary. 

3 Fun Activities for Reading Comprehension

My secondary students usually get bored and lazy when I told them that we will have a reading task. In their mind, they think that they have to read long and long paragraphs, answer ten (10) questions based on the text, and it is finished. The students consider that those are really boring activities. They are afraid of being sleepy and having awful lesson, moreover it is an English text. Honestly, as an English teacher, I sometimes feel the same as them when I have to teach reading. But, I have to fight against this feeling. I read many resources of teaching reading and try to find the appropriate ones for my classroom. Here, we have done some fun reading comprehension activities that might be applied to your class. 

1. Broken Text with Pictures

In this activity, students work in a group or pair based on the number of students in the classroom. For each group, teacher distributes a worksheet to learn about some vocabularies related to the topic of the text. After that, teacher hands out each group a worksheet consisted of a series of pictures without text and a set of paragraph cards. With their partner/friends they have to find a paragraph card matches to its picture. The first group which can do this task firstly will get a score. For the following activity, the groups must present their discussion in front of the classroom for having feed back.

2. Broken Paragraph

In this activity, students are divided into group of 6 or 7 if it is a big class. First, teacher may drill vocabularies related to a text/paragraph using search word or another game. Then, each group is handed out a set of card sentences, broken down from a paragraph, based on a number of members of each group. Teacher asks for each group to arrange in order all the card sentences and they have to stand in line based on the right order of the paragraph. Each member must call out his/her card sentence. Group with the right order will get a score. 

3. Question-Answer Partner

In this activity, students work in pair. Each pair will have a student A and student B. Teacher gives As a question card consisted of 5 questions and Bs a short paragraph card. Each pair will have 5 minutes to read their own card. After that, As must call out a question to his/her partner, then Bs have to answer the question based on the text. Ass also write answer given by Bss on his/her card. Pair with the most right answer will get a score. (Here, teacher considers the type, length, and level of text difficulty based on students' background knowledge)

5 Fun Activities Using Real Objects

Children at my classroom like to learn English while playing or having fun activities. They are exactly absolute beginners, mean that they have poor knowledge about English. That is why, I prefer to use real objects (realia) when we are learning English vocabulary. Here, I would like to share some activities that I have done at my own class using real objects. Outside there, you may do the same, but I think the condition is not always the same. 

1. Circle Word

In this activity, students usually practice how to pronounce the words in English and drill the words as well. Students sit in a circle, then teacher passes a real object (e.g spoon) to the first student. Teacher says the word 'spoon', and she/he repeats the word 'spoon'. After that, the first student passes the object to the student sitting next to her/him and says 'spoon'. The second student repeats the word and passes the object to the third. So, it goes on until the last student. If you have finished for the first real object, you can continue for the next real objects. 

2. Circle Sentence

This activity is the same as the circle word, but students, here, will practice how to pronounce a sentence to drill vocabulary. Teacher, for example, says a sentence 'it is a spoon', then the first students have to repeat the sentence and passes the object to the next students while saying a sentence. 

3. Repeat and Spell

Teacher puts the paper of 'SPELL PLEASE' and 'REPEAT PLEASE' on the wall. First teacher asks students to practice word pronunciation, such as spoon, plate, glass, and fork. When teacher points to 'REPEAT PLEASE', they have to repeat the word pronunciation, then, if teacher points to the 'SPELL PLEASE', they have to spell the word. Student who can correctly repeat and spell will have a score. 

4. What is in the box?

For students of 7-8 years old, guessing game is very favorite activity. Teacher puts some real objects in a big box. Teacher, then, asks a student to come forward and takes an object out and asks 'what is it?', other students who can name it correctly will get a score. Student coming forward can take in turn. 

5. Drawing

Children like drawing and coloring so much. Teacher prepares a sheet of blank paper for each child. Then, teacher asks them to draw and color four or five real objects they chosen without label underneath. If they have finished, they exchange their picture each other and others have to label what pictures they are. Student with correct answers will get a score. 

My Bathroom-Real Objects

Using 'Realia'

Learning Vocabulary

Students of 7 years old, at my classroom, sometimes are getting frustrated when they learn English. Yesterday, my students learnt vocabulary about things in the bathroom. Teacher used 'realia' or real objects of things in the bathroom, such as:

toothbrush (sikat gigi), 

toothpaste (pasta gigi), 

soap (sabun mandi), 

shampoo (sampo), 

dipper (gayung), 

detergent (sabun cuci),

bucket (timba/ember) and so forth. 

Students repeated all the things, how to pronounce and spell them. They practiced speaking and writing. From this activity, it can be inferred that using the real objects helps much my students to understand more about English. The most important thing is that not how many vocabularies we give to the students, but how far the English words can be acquired by them. 

Degree of Comparison Card Game

'Grammar is fun'. That is the quote must be given for my students when they have to learn about English grammar. Grammar usually is full of pattern and order, and my students are easy for being forgetful of them. Today, I would like to ask them to learn about degree of comparison, the patterns and characteristics, in a simple way to remember, at least they have fun in English learning. In this activity, teacher prepares two sets of cards, one consists of adjective/adverb card and one consists of prefix and suffix of comparison card. then, students will work in pair or group work. They have to match the adjective cards and the prefix or suffix of types of degree comparison. Before doing this activity, teacher presents types and pattern of degree comparison (comparative and superlative). 

The goal of this activity is to identify the pattern of comparative and superlative degree of comparison. They identify the right suffix and prefix for the adjective or adverb used in a sentence of comparison. For the following activity, students can learn how to produce comparison sentences using worksheet or another card game. 

Here is the example of the card. Teacher cuts the cards and distributes to the students/group work.

SLOW	FAST	BIG	SMALL
FAT	THIN	LONG	SHORT
TALL	HIGH	HAPPY	SAD
ANGRY	PATIENT	BEAUTIFUL	UGLY
STRONG	WEAK	CLEAN	DIRTY
HANDSOME	PRETTY	EXPENSICE	CHEAP
CAREFUL	CARELESS	CLEVER	STUPID
DILIGENT	LAZY	EASY	DIFFICULT
HARD	SOFT	INTERESTING	COMFORTABLE
BAD	GOOD	BRIGHT	DARK
HEALTHY	CUTE	FUNNY	CHEERFUL
AFRAID	BRAVE	HOT	COLD
JEALOUS	FAMOUS	DANGEROUS	SAFE

MORE-	MORE-	MORE-	MORE-
MORE-	MORE-	MORE-	MORE-
MORE-	MORE-	MORE-	MORE-
-ER	-ER	-ER	-ER
-ER	-ER	-ER	-ER
-ER	-ER	-ER	-ER
-ER	-ER	-ER	-ER
THE MOST-	THE MOST-	THE MOST-	THE MOST-
THE MOST-	THE MOST-	THE MOST-	THE MOST-
THE MOST-	THE MOST-	THE MOST-	THE MOST-
-EST	-EST	-EST	-EST
-EST	-EST	-EST	-EST
-EST	-EST	-EST	-EST
-EST	-EST	-EST	-EST
-EST	-EST	-EST	-EST
BETTER	TH BEST	WORSE	THE WORST