head and shoulders may be too childish for middle school students. they are at that age where they can be highly competitive. try to pick a competitive game where they are focusing their energy on the game and not so much on english. if they are that old yet are low in english, they know it and im sure have probably given up. try what mark said and pick a game and then pick the target language to go with it.
this one
The SLAM Game (OR my favorite game ever!!!) always works for me and can be applied to so many structures and target languages.