In case anyone thought I was republishing my MET articles to show off that I’d been published there, here is the beginning of a series I wrote for the very slightly less famous Shane Japan Teachers’ Newsletter:
Introducing new games to class can be a great way of keeping students (and teachers) on their toes and interested in the classroom. Sources for games you can adapt for your classes include: playground games, TV quiz show games, and games from teaching websites. All of these can give you and your classes a real boost, but they can demand time, energy and imagination to adapt and introduce for the first time. Luckily, there is also a lot to be said for repeating the same old favourite games. Good reasons include:
-The students know the rules, so it cuts down on explanation and leaves more time to practice the language
-Incidental language (e.g. ‘Pass the card’ or ‘Throw the dice’) is repeated every time you play the same game, helping students to really learn this language
-The teacher can concentrate on other aspects of the class, for example adapting the games to individual classes, introducing incidental language, or monitoring student progress
-It cuts down on preparation.
-Kids, especially young kids, enjoying repeating things.
Obviously, there are also dangers in repeating games. The main one is students getting bored, but equally as serious is teachers automatically using a game even when it is not good for that language point or group of students. Never fear, here are enough variations to mean you can really justify using your favourites all the time!
Variations on Classic Games Part One – Stations
The ‘classic’ version: Students listen and run and touch the ‘station’ (e.g. wall) that represents the sound or structure that is used. For example, the students all run and touch the wall with an ‘s’ on it when the teacher says a plural (e.g. ‘They are apples’), and then rush over to the other wall (with a crossed out ‘s’ on it) when the teacher says a singular (e.g. ‘There is a whiteboard’). The last student to reach the correct wall is eliminated and sits down, until only one winning student remains.
This game can also be used for: Grammar (e.g. countable and uncountable nouns), pronunciation (e.g. minimal pairs such as r/l or b/v), punctuation (e.g. touch the capital letters wall if it a day, month or city), spelling (e.g. touch the oa wall or o_e wall depending on the spelling of the O sound in road and whole), etc.
With so many possible language points, it’s as well to have as many variations as possible under your belt. Here are a few:
Variation A: Weighed-down stations
In most classes, the students who have already been eliminated are happy to cheer on the students remaining in the game, especially if the class have been divided into teams and someone from their team is still in the running. If students in your class are likely to completely switch off once they aren’t playing themselves, however, there are ways of keeping all the students in the game for longer.
One way of not eliminating students just for being last once is making the slowest student pick up and carry something for the rest of the game rather than sitting down. After 5 minutes of this amusing variation, the students may be running carrying two bags, a beach ball and two board erasers. When any student drops anything, all the students can put their objects down and the game starts again.
A similar game is to do the opposite – give the objects as points to award the first student to arrive at the correct station, taking away any ‘points’ they drop during the game. You can use this tactic to slow up the better students by giving them chairs etc. to carry. This variation is also good for incidental language, e.g. ‘Please carry Manami’s bag’.
Variation B – British bulldog stations/ Dodge ball stations
If you need to add a little spice after you’ve played Stations a few times, these variations should help. In Dodge Ball Stations, the person shouting out the language tries to throw a ball at the students running between the walls. Students are ‘safe’ while they are touching either of the walls. Other students then take over the shouting out and ball throwing duties as they are eliminated.
In British Bulldog Stations, all the students out so far try to eliminate the others by touching them as they run between the walls, making it a cross between Stations and Tag. You can make it more challenging by nominating what to touch- e.g. ‘Touch their shoes/ their left hands’.
Variation C: Nominated stations/ Chair stations
Stations is a great energy-raiser, but can get a bit rowdy. Another problem is less academic students just following the other students rather than listening. Both of these can be solved by splitting the class into two teams and sitting them down in two rows of chairs along the middle of the room. Give each student a number that matches with the person sitting opposite them in the other team, so that the two ‘number 1’s etc. are facing each other. The teacher then shouts out the prompt and a student number, and the two students with that number rush to touch the correct wall. For example, the teacher shouts out ‘Washing machine’ or ‘Postman’ and ‘Five’ and the two student number fives rush to touch the ‘two words’ wall or the ‘one word’ wall.
You can also play Chair Stations, where the nominated students rush to sit in one of two chairs set at either end of the classroom rather than touching walls, to much hilarity when they sit on each other’s laps in their keenness.
Variation D: Simple stations
The ultimate cure for classes who are too rowdy to play this game is not having them running round the class at all. They can still play a similar game with the same prompts, however, but having one thing close to them to touch for each station. For example, if they hear a negative sentence they should touch their heads, and if they head a positive sentence they should touch their toes. You can also have different actions for each station, e.g. waving for a word that needs ‘an’ and clapping their hands for a word that needs the article ‘a’.
These variations are also suitable for classrooms with too little room to run around.
An earlier version of this article was first published in the Shane Japan teachers’ newsletter. Republished with the permission of the publisher and author (me!)
