Teachers and students alike cannot escape today’s stressful lifestyle. As a teacher of English as a foreign language I always try to look for activities and resources that give my students, and me, a break from the routine. I started looking for something innovative to do in my classes, and I learned about brain breaks and their purpose in education. Brain breaks help students reenergize and regain focus, especially after engaging in what might be considered a long period of academic activity in the foreign/second language. In addition, brain breaks contribute to increasing productivity and learning improvement.
 
Brain Break Basics

Brain breaks are short activities that involve using the body and/or the mind and, in our case, also expose language learners to meaningful and authentic target language. If we choose to do brain breaks in pairs or small groups, students are also using language to socialize. Some brain break basics:

• These breaks should not last longer than 1–5 minutes, even if students want to repeat them.
• It is important to remind students of the aim of brain breaks so they know why these activities are beneficial to their learning process.
• Use brain breaks whenever students have become restless or unproductive, or when you have two back-to-back periods with the same group.
• Before conducting a brain break, announce and explain it to your students. You can demonstrate while giving instructions.
• If the weather permits, consider taking the break outdoors.

Examples of Brain Breaks

I have used many different brain breaks, but I started with simple ones. I suggest varying brain breaks to cater to different preferences and personalities. For example, I did several “guided dancing” brain breaks but not all students are comfortable dancing in front of their peers and, thus, being on the spotlight. My piece of advice: Let them be. If they do not want to dance, do not insist. As it happened in one of my classes, shier students may eventually engage without you even telling them.

Following are two brain breaks I created.

Reach for the Stars and Shake It

1. Stand up and make sure you have enough room around you.
2. Breathe in and as you do lift your arms toward the sky.
3. Breathe out and stretch as much as you can upward as if trying to reach out for the stars.
4. Repeat three times.
5. Shake your hands, then your arms, legs and feet. Allow a few seconds for each.

Just Go With the Song

1. Stand up and make sure you have enough room around you.
2. Play a song that you or your students like or have previously chosen.
3. I did this brain break playing the song “Waves,” by Mr. Probz.
4. As I played the song I modeled the movements I wanted students to make. I started with motions as if I were swimming, for example. Because the song chosen had to do with waves, all the movements we made were in connection to water sports.  I allowed each movement to take a few seconds. This is a freer brain break. You can even ask a student or several to take turns guiding the rest of the class.

Here is one more brain break I like to use. this one is from Refocus and Recharge!: 50 Brain Breaks for Middle Schoolers (Center for Responsive Schools, Inc., 2016):

Mirrors

1. Students stand, face a partner, and decide who will lead first and who will follow.
2. The leader begins by making slow and steady motions—without speaking—while the follower mirrors the movements.
3. After 15–30 seconds, ring the chime (or use some soothing sound). Students switch roles. Repeat as time allows.

Conclusion

In the beginning, I had my doubts about using brain breaks. I thought they were not going to be taken seriously by students or that I was going to waste class time originally allotted to teach the lexico-grammatical structures that were part of the yearly syllabus. I was proved wrong, fortunately, and they were both popular with and beneficial for my ELLs.

If you’re interested in brain breaks, you can find more of them by surfing the web, using Pinterest, and on—my recent favorite site—GoNoodle.

Reference

Center for Responsive Schools, Inc. (2016). Refocus and recharge!: 50 brain breaks for middle schoolers. Turner Falls, MA: Author.

Laura Giacomini is from Buenos Aires, Argentina. She is a graduate teacher from IES en Lenguas Vivas Juán Ramón Fernández. She was a Language IV teaching assistant at her alma mater and a Fulbright Scholar in the United States. She has been teaching English in the private and public sectors since 2005 in a variety of contexts, including primary and secondary school and college.