Greetings ITA-ISers!

As we near the end of a long, busy semester, I find that keeping my students motivated is becoming more of a challenge in almost every class period. Their frantic rush toward finals and the end of the semester has left them little space in their heads for language learning. They sit, faces impassive, do the exercises I give them thoroughly, but with little joy or excitement, then leap up at the end of class to run off for their next session or to their labs, taking much less of the lesson along with them than I would like. Those kinds of classes are not fun for anyone, so I started to pull out some tried and true tricks to get people excited and on track for the rest of the class session.

Question of the Day

A small-talk activity designed to excite students during the first 5 or 10 minutes of class, which can set the tone for the rest of the session. I give them questions like “If you could be anywhere else in the world right now, where would you be and why?”, and “What gets you excited to come to work every day?” A question they loved was “What does your name mean in your language? Who gave it to you, and do you think it suits you?” I had to cut them off after 10 minutes! And the rest of the class session was very lively.

In-Class Audio Journaling

When students bring in homework, before we discuss it, I sometimes have them pull out their cell phones and record themselves talking about the assignment. An example of how I make this work: I asked the students to watch a TED video of their choice, write down a short summary of the video, and then write down some of the organizing techniques the speaker used. In class, I ask the students to summarize the video again, but this time as a spoken task, which they record on their phones. They listen to the recording and many of them break down in giggles listening to themselves talking. They then feel more ready to talk about the videos with each other. This is good speaking practice, it gets them on track for the lesson, and it loosens things up, and all it takes is a few minutes of class time.

Definitions Tic-Tac-Toe

This old ESL standby is a great way to warm up the class when you’re working on making clear definitions. It can be a quick 10-minute warm-up if the students work in small groups, or it can become a longer exercise with teams if you make it a whole class activity. Crossword puzzle exercises are a great way to warm up with definitions as well.

What kinds of activities do you use to get your students going when their energy drops? Click at the comment button at the bottom of this page to add to the discussion!