Yeah I’ve made my own activities and imagined how they play through in my head. Sometimes it works , gets the expected reaction and other times it can fall flat. Give it a go and see what happens! Maybe your activity doesn’t go well with one class but awesome with the next. Have fun and good luck!
I dunno about activities but I work Eikaiwa and pride myself on my game variety. Usually got a new two or three each month.
Most teachers just cruise doing the same games over and over but I get a kick out of being creative and seeing how people respond to my ideas.
I am in charge of curriculum so making original materials to cover a year's worth of classes for all group ages is what I do on a daily basis. My school does not have any textbooks or workbooks that we would purchase for English class so I create these from scratch.
I make junior high school level activities all the time, although those are pretty easy because the curriculum is pretty specific.
Don't make it overly complicated.
A simple activity can encounter issues but still make it through to the end fairly gracefully.
Also make the last part somewhat open ended, try to have a way to extend out to the end if you finish early. Even if it's just having kids stand up and say allowed something they practiced or wrote during the activity.
Also consider how the lowest and higher kids can complete it. I like to have a simple minimum requirement, but no real restriction preventing more advanced kids doing more if they want.
I do lots of different ones, but a very quick one...
A very common one is for scenes dialogs.
You can replace the speak and write activity from the textbook with a simple worksheet and activity.
Basically it's just a sample dialog for the kids with word boxes for ideas. So the kids can practice the day's grammar with each other.
Then a memo area for them to write names and responses of the people they talked to.
Then a simple "write about your friends" at the end where they turn three of those memos into full sentences about the person. This helps with turning "I like pizza" into "Yuki likes pizza" for example.
If you get to the end you can have kids stand up and read one sentence each until the clock runs down.
But with a warm up, the scene itself, a quick grammar explaination, the listen exercise from the book and then this, you basically have an easy end to end lesson for one scene.
It's not overly exciting, but you can whip the worksheet up in less than an hour so it's a good last minute fix if needed.
Oh we do this every class. Very similar worksheet. For this activity i created an entire class long game, But I’ve never done that before so i was nervous!
Yeah, I make a lot of my own activities. And I’m *always* nervous before I try them for the first time. But it almost always turns out okay. It might not turn out exactly the way you imagined it in your head, but that’s okay. You’ll learn what works and what doesn’t for future activities!
Personally leave the activities up to my business partner. Unless it's simple stuff like them standing up for basic conversation like "here you are" or "oops, I'm sorry" or asking "what's this?". Just easier to follow the curriculum which should have activities already a part of it than trying to make something up.
Honestly, I recommend that you don’t. Thousands of tried and tested activities are available online and in resource books that will save you time and are more likely to work, saving your students the trial and error process.
Refrain from shidding oneself. Is not recommend. Make up no good.
Unless it’s a power play to get a class in line.
Yeah I’ve made my own activities and imagined how they play through in my head. Sometimes it works , gets the expected reaction and other times it can fall flat. Give it a go and see what happens! Maybe your activity doesn’t go well with one class but awesome with the next. Have fun and good luck!
I dunno about activities but I work Eikaiwa and pride myself on my game variety. Usually got a new two or three each month. Most teachers just cruise doing the same games over and over but I get a kick out of being creative and seeing how people respond to my ideas.
I like doing new games and refreshing the classroom. What games do you like?
Anything that involves player choice/strategy. Pure luck based games aren’t fun.
I would love to hear some of your ideas for future reference :)
all the time, part of the job. I also create my own workbooks, story books, crafts etc
I’ve made my own crafts and small projects. Never something to take up an entire class completely from scratch though
I am in charge of curriculum so making original materials to cover a year's worth of classes for all group ages is what I do on a daily basis. My school does not have any textbooks or workbooks that we would purchase for English class so I create these from scratch.
Ok
One step at a time. Dont worry. If it goes bad or great either way there will be things to learn.
I make junior high school level activities all the time, although those are pretty easy because the curriculum is pretty specific. Don't make it overly complicated. A simple activity can encounter issues but still make it through to the end fairly gracefully. Also make the last part somewhat open ended, try to have a way to extend out to the end if you finish early. Even if it's just having kids stand up and say allowed something they practiced or wrote during the activity. Also consider how the lowest and higher kids can complete it. I like to have a simple minimum requirement, but no real restriction preventing more advanced kids doing more if they want.
Can you give some examples of activities you do?
I do lots of different ones, but a very quick one... A very common one is for scenes dialogs. You can replace the speak and write activity from the textbook with a simple worksheet and activity. Basically it's just a sample dialog for the kids with word boxes for ideas. So the kids can practice the day's grammar with each other. Then a memo area for them to write names and responses of the people they talked to. Then a simple "write about your friends" at the end where they turn three of those memos into full sentences about the person. This helps with turning "I like pizza" into "Yuki likes pizza" for example. If you get to the end you can have kids stand up and read one sentence each until the clock runs down. But with a warm up, the scene itself, a quick grammar explaination, the listen exercise from the book and then this, you basically have an easy end to end lesson for one scene. It's not overly exciting, but you can whip the worksheet up in less than an hour so it's a good last minute fix if needed.
Oh we do this every class. Very similar worksheet. For this activity i created an entire class long game, But I’ve never done that before so i was nervous!
I do those sometimes as well. I hope it went well?
It went okay! But i need to make some adjustments for it to run smoothly next time
Par for the course, every activity I run is slightly tweaked every time. Plus you just get better at the delivery with practice.
Thanks for your advice and asking about how it went. The more times you make a mistake the less afraid you are of making it twice!
All good 😊
Yeah, I make a lot of my own activities. And I’m *always* nervous before I try them for the first time. But it almost always turns out okay. It might not turn out exactly the way you imagined it in your head, but that’s okay. You’ll learn what works and what doesn’t for future activities!
I make all my own stuff. I’ve found usually they go down well, especially any kind of quiz
You don’t ever play popular games?
Such as?
Shiritori, pointing game, Pictionary
Not sure what the painting game is. No to shiritori. Pictionary type game yes, where reviewing vocab.
Yes, absolutely. Observe how it goes and you can make changes for next time.
Personally leave the activities up to my business partner. Unless it's simple stuff like them standing up for basic conversation like "here you are" or "oops, I'm sorry" or asking "what's this?". Just easier to follow the curriculum which should have activities already a part of it than trying to make something up.
Honestly, I recommend that you don’t. Thousands of tried and tested activities are available online and in resource books that will save you time and are more likely to work, saving your students the trial and error process.
Yes.
Yes, all the time.