[simplyesl]

You could try a "true or false" game.

Get each student to write three statements about themselves. Two statements are true, while one is false.
Each student reads their three statements to the class and they (the rest of the class) guess which statement isn't true.

eg:

1. I have been to five countries.
2. I haven't driven a car.
3. I like to eat apples.

One is false.... Which one is it?

[livinginkorea]

Quote simplyesl

You could try a "true or false" game.

Get each student to write three statements about themselves. Two statements are true, while one is false.
Each student reads their three statements to the class and they (the rest of the class) guess which statement isn't true.

eg:

1. I have been to five countries.
2. I haven't driven a car.
3. I like to eat apples.

One is false.... Which one is it?

That's a good one. It could work for any age group. I'm gonna give it a try.

[simplyesl]

I just finished a one-off lesson with a student. I had a LOT of time to burn and I came up with the idea to make a cartoon. Take turns drawing and writing dialogue(Q's and A's) for a cartoon. This would only work for 1-1 or small groups, but it's quite fun and can be used in many different situations.

[musica]

Other ideas could be
My favourite memory is.
I am happy when________. I feel sad when___________

________________is a good friend because . . . . .

[musica]

What about creating a simple story using three boxes for the beginning, middle and end. If they are not advanced writers they could draw illustrations with short captions, or write more according to their ability.

[marblo]

Hi, my first time here!

One of my first day activities is to have students draw and describe themselves, then hand me their descriptions. I will read them out loud to the rest of the class, and ss have to guess who wrote each description. Then I will show the drawing.
It's fun, especially for groups with new ss since they don't know each other yet.
By the way, I liked the activity where the basics are taught through singing.
Thanks to all of you for the great teaching tips!

I am Dutch, teaching English in Mexico.

[Whistleblower]

Okay, I have 100 new students attending a "Newcomer's Night" at work and guess who the lucky fella is. Yep you guessed it, me.

So, my obvious question is what do I do. My ideas are as follows:

1. Student attends and relaxes.
2. Introduction to the school.
3. "Find someone who" activity.
4. ????
5. ????
6. Music, drink and eating time.
7. Pub and goodbyes.

What do I do during the "????" parts? The night is about 2 hours long so the "Find someone who" activity should last 20~30 minutes. What can I do to make the night span 1 hour then get the students to mingle together at the end of the night?

Any ideas would be great.

[nadyawisdom]

Hello,
I can recommend a little activity - to make a name necklace. You will need laminated squares of paper with all the necessary letters (approx. 4x4 cm, could be smaller). You can use coloured paper for the letters. It makes the necklace much nicer. At the top of the square with the letter make two holes with a hole puncture. Then use a piece of string to thread the letters through the holes, so that they make up the name of a child. You can do it during the lesson all together. Children can wear this necklace every lesson, so it is easier for you to remember their names!

[mar espinoza]

[QUOTE]little sage[/quote]
Hi, a question here.

Does anyone know a good activity for the first day of university age, very basic level composition class? I want to get a writing sample from the students to gauge their skill, but I don't want to be too boring and obvious.

What springs immediately to mind is "Write a few sentences to introduce yourself" or the very cliche "What I did on summer vacation". Can anyone either spruce up these themes or advise me on a more exciting activity?

Thanks in advance.

Karen


* Well, besides being an Elementary school english teacher, I'm still studying the B.A in ELT.
I remember that in my methodology class, the first day our teacher asked us to take out a sheet of paper. On that piece of paper we had to write very simple things such as:
- name
- hobbies
- what would you like to have in this course that you did not have in the previous one (if any).
- what are your expectations about the course.

If they are in a very basic level, they are still capable of answering these questions; However, they might need you to help them with it. Also, you can write on the board a list of the vocabulary that may be used in order to help them a little bit more.
Hope you find this useful!

cheers!

[mar espinoza]

sorry, i don't know how to quote jijiji

[Muriah]

Quote little sage

Yes, I always do name tags, even with adult classes (though I don't make the adults wear the tags).

I precut paper and fold it, teach the correct romanization of the letters (in Korea, it's the vowels that are killers) and have everyone write their name on the sheet and stand it on their desks. At the end of class for the first few lessons (OK, many lessons) I collect their tags and then use them when I call roll next lesson. I also group the tags into clusters of who sits together and that also gives me a way to remember who's who. With classes of 30+ that meet once a week, it takes some time.

For kids, I let them use colour and maybe draw something on the tag that they really like. Then I have a visual image to go with their name and their face. That helps me remember.

Karen

I used to have the kids write their names, but I found that especially with the little ones I couldn't read the card from the front of the classroom. I know it sacrifices the chance to have them practice the romanization, but I think it's more important to be able to reliably call them all by name. I print labels of their names off of the computer and let the kids decorate around it. And it works! I have over 400 regular students and I can call almost all of them by name even without the cards, now.

Since I've been at the same school for so long, the only new classes I ever have are incoming first years. I usually do simple games that they know already, like Janken Train, and a circle introduction activity where everyone says "My name is ..."

[EngliPatrick]

Quote mar espinoza

sorry, i don't know how to quote jijiji

Under each person's post and to the right is a "Quote" button. Click it and your golden!

[mar espinoza]

Quote EngliPatrick

Under each person's post and to the right is a "Quote" button. Click it and your golden!

it worked!
hahaha
thanks!

[rans]

Hello Karen
What about working in pairs?..everyone of the couple try to guess some details about his partner...the more you you could guess...the cleverer you are...they read each others piece of writing after they finish...a little discussion will be nice.
Reema

[Micro67]

Learner training is important. Even though sometimes things can get a little repetative, students need to know what to expect. I have a lot of activities that I do 3 or 4 times in the course of a 6 or 8 week class. Knots and crosses seems over simplified, but if you play a a quick game of that before each break for the first few weeks, students will know to expect it. I also like games with a nerf ball. When the student catches the ball they have to come up with an anser quickly, this is good during vocab expansion - 'Name an animal that starts with a .... b ... c ...' etc. It seems simple, but they need to learn that game so that each time it comes up they know what to be thinking about.

Knowing names is hard for teachers, using this to get through the, 'My name is .... what's your name?' is good for learner training and getting me aquainted with the students.

[Vickiii_NZ]

Hey people - some great ideas. I would like to add my own which has been super successful with 12 year olds and up.

Truth or Lies (I found this on the internet and used it as an introduction game).

Split the class into 3 teams.

You start by giving the class a personal example:

Say your name.
2 statements that are true, 1 that is a lie.

The children have to figure out which statement is a lie.

Which ever team guesses correctly gets 1 point and starts the game.

Each team takes a turn with one person giving 2 true statements and 1 false. The team next to them has the first chance of guessing the lie.

If they guess correctly they get 1 point.
If they are wrong the next team gets to guess. If they are wrong the team that made up the statements gets 2 points.
Keep going round to ensure everyone gets a chance to make up 2 true and 1 untrue statement.

The kids really enjoy it and you will find that the statements get more complex as the game progresses.

[Micro67]

I use a variation of that game that I think is as much fun for me as the students sometimes. I have several objects that I don't think the students will be familiar with (a hockey puck, the face mask from a football helmet, a plum line, etc.) and I break the students into small groups of 6/2. Each student gets a card that has 3 things written on it. Lie, lie and the truth. For the ones that they need to lie on they get 1 point for their team if they can convince the other team that it is not what it really is.

I don't really suggest this for a first day activity (per the thread) but it's good for practicing when to use (for and to) and a few other lessons.

[schmilly]

I work with an after school group of english as a second language learners, k-2nd. One of the first day of afterschool activities I like to do is best and worst about school. I do this a couple of time a month actually (sometimes about school sometimes just in general), the answers change as they kids feel more comfortable with me and their peers. Alot of my children have never been asked what they do and don't like, this gives them a voice and helps them feel valued. I can also learn how they feel about things, which helps me understand the best ways to respond to them with their homework. I can also try different approaches to things that they don't like to try to change the way they view them.

[isleepwhenican]

Hi. I just wanted to thank you for a great idea. I am a Purdue University student majoring in elementary special education. I am currently working with deaf education students who have difficulties understanding question words. I thought this would be a great activity for this class. It did not go as well as planned because I did not realize the students did not even understand when to use who instead of where for a question. I would do it differently than I had planned and actually did if I would do this lesson again with these same students. I then took this activity and turned it into a formal lesson plan for another class. Thanks for the great idea. If you or anyone would like to see the lesson plan please e-mail me at isleepwhenican@verizon.net

[CMarine]

Quote stanley

I am very keen to learn the children's names as fast as possible, but will only see each class once or twice a week. Any ideas for fun ways to learn names quickly? In England, I get children to wear name labels for the first few classes until I know them. I thought I might get my children here to make their own labels - anyone do this? I will also try the soft ball idea - say your own name, then the name of the person you're about to throw the ball to - this can be extended in many ways, eg, say your name and favourite food/country of origin before throwing the ball/toy.

Something you might try is taking pictures of everyone the first day, and attaching them to a folders that you use everyday in class and at home (dialouge journal for example) then on the second day, have the students find the folder with their picture an write their names on them. Now, everytime you pass out the folders, or read the journals (or what ever) you get a refresher.