[cheekiofreakio]

Hi!

I'm currently working at a Gymnasium in Berlin as a teaching assistant. I have 8 conversation classes per week; the groups are all fairly small (2 to 6 people in each group, aged 17-19). I have been told by the English teachers that I can basically do anything I want in the classes and the students all come voluntarily. The thing is, I've been doing this since September (still have about 5 months to go) and I'm running out of ideas. Not very imaginative I know! Most of the students don't want to talk about "serious" topics like politics, globalisation or whatever. They're also not too keen on reading articles.

Activities/topics I have already done with them include:
slang, bringing in photos + talking about them (of my hometown as well as theirs), music (each student brought in their favourite English song), Cranium (board game), The Office (DVD), schools in the UK, random questions (e.g. What one thing could you not live without?), taboo, moral dilemmas, a few articles about deep fried Mars Bars, Monster Raving Loony Party etc.

If anyone has any tips or ideas that would be very much appreciated The main thing is, to get the students talking as much as possible (the classes last 45 minutes). Their English is pretty fluent already but they don't get much of an opportunity to use in normal lesson time. Also the topics have to be cool and fun haha (especially as they are coming voluntarily)

Thanks, Nina.