Today was one of those magical classes where due to technical difficulties (DEFINITELY not own user error) I couldn’t do what I had planned.
Since the students can smell fear and panic, I had to think fast. What to do…what to do…
I believe that each teacher has a special skill set of pulling an activity out of thin air to reduce the chaos. I think it should be the first thing we mention in our CVs to be honest. So – I reached back – WAAAY BACK to my memories of summer camp to a game called Knights, Horses and Cavaliers.
Written Instructions: This is taken from Ultimate Camp Resource. It is a fantastic website with camp games on it.
Have the kids pair up.
The partners split off to opposite sides of the playing area. One side forms a circle, then their partners stand behind them in an outer circle.
The inner circle rotates clockwise, and the outer circle rotates counterclockwise. The leader yells out either “knight”, “horse”, or “cavalier”.
“Knight” means that one partner gets down on one knee and the other partner sits on his/her exposed knee. “Horse” means that one one partner gets down on all fours and the other partner sits on his/her back.
“Cavalier” means that one partner picks the other partner up in the style of a groom carrying the bride over the threshold.
When one of these positions is called out, the kids have to scramble to find their partners and assume said position. The last pair to do so is out, and so it goes until there is a winning team. It’s fun to make the kids jump and spin while they are rotating in their circles to make it harder for them to keep track of their partners
We did this for 30 minutes today – and they had a blast. It also forces them to listen as well, so TECHNICALLY I am making use their active listening skills…. I am stretching it I know… but I still say it covers one of the knowledge requirements.
The purpose with this assignment is forcing students to get outside of their own backyards and hopefully get a little inspiration. There are so many role models out there that students are not aware of.
The next step in this heroes unit is talking about present day heroes. I have four biographies I use: Malala, Aung San Sun Kyi, Mandela and Terry Fox. They are modern day badasses in my opinion. You find your own modern day badasses if you want.
I do this as a jigsaw activity. (click for explanation), and in order to differentiate for the learning levels the biographies range from easy to hard. It is a great assessment because it involves a lot of knowledge requirements. (Reading, finding information, writing and speaking).
Separate into groups and give them a hero based on their reading level. Nelson Mandela is probably the easiest, because I did a timeline for him with quotes attached. Within the groups students work together by doing various tasks that are indicated in the lesson plan.
After they are prepared I make new groups – so each person has a different hero. They present their hero to each other – I have them record their group conversation and send it to me. That’s how I judge their speaking. (Also to make sure they are actually doing something). Alternatively, you could listen to each group one at a time and judge them that way. The students also submit their written work. To add listening comprehension the others in the group could record information about one of the heroes that was presented.
Okay… that’s a crap tonne of information. Let’s break that down shall we?
They hand in the following:
Written work
Write a ½ page summary of your hero, and identify parts of the heroic journey
Do you think she/he is a hero. Why? (1 -2 sentences)
1 Famous Quote. How can you relate to this? (1 – 2 sentences)
Speaking
Presentation of their hero to group members
Listening
Information of one of the other heroes presented by another group member
Afterwards there is this great movie on Terry Fox by ESPN called “Into the Wind” – get the kleenex out.
If you have any other good examples of heroes – let me know! Good luck!
There are so many homophones and homonyms in the English language am I right (adj/adv/)? write? rite? wright?
To illustrate this point, and to get people chuckling at the beginning of the year – I usually do the “The Wright Family.”
How does it work? If you reeeeeally want to win the kiddies over, bring in candy. Instruct the class to stand in a circle, and give each person a candy (or whatever you have – erasers, pencils, garbage….). Tell them that you are going to read a story about the Wright Family, and every time they hear the word “right” they pass their candy to the right. Every time they hear the word “left” they pass their candy to the left.
You can do it several times. The first time starting and stopping – and making sure everyone only has one piece of candy. The second time you can do it faster, and watch the fun.
At the end, everyone should only have one item in their hand.
After the activity – you can talk about the different “right” and “left” meanings, and go over how many different homophones/homonyms there are in the English language.
One day the Wright family decided to take a vacation. The first thing they had to decide was who would be left at home since there was not enough room in the Wright family car for all of them. Mr. Wright decided that Aunt Linda Wright would be the one left at home. Of course this made Aunt Linda Wright so mad that she left the house immediately yelling “It will be a right cold day before I return”. The Wright family now bundled up the children, Tommy Wright, Susan Wright, Timmy Wright and Shelly Wright and got in the car and left. Unfortunately, as they turned out of the driveway someone had left a trash can in the street so they had to turn right around and stop the car. They told Tommy Wright to get out of the car and move the trash can so they could get going. Tommy took so long that they almost left him in the street. Once the Wright family got on the road, Mother Wright wondered if she had left the stove on. Father Wright told her not to worry he had checked the stove and she had not left it on. As they turned right at the corner, everyone started to think about other things that they might have left undone. No need to worry now, they were off on a right fine vacation. When they arrived at the gas station, Father Wright put gas in the car and then discovered that he had left his wallet at home. So Timmy Wright ran home to get the money that was left behind. After Timmy had left, Susan Wright started to feel sick. She left the car saying that she had to throw up. This of course got Mother Wright’s attention and she left the car in a hurry. Shelly Wright wanted to watch Susan get sick, so she left the car too. Father Wright was left with Tommy Wright who was playing a game in the backseat. With all of this going on Father Wright decided that this was not the right time to take a vacation, so he gathered up all of the family and left the gas station as quickly as he could. When he arrived home, he turned left into the driveway and said “I wish the Wright family had never left the house today! Right?”
You know the feeling. You have nothing planned for the class. We all do it (don’t act like you don’t you goody-two-shoes teacher). Everyone is guilty at one time or another. 7:55am hits – and you make the dreaded walk from the office to the classroom…frantically searching your brain for something…. anything to do with the little darlings…
Thus we have the five step lesson plan. Five steps before you hit the classroom chaos, you have somewhat figured out what to do… and pray to God it works.
Well. Here are some five step lesson plans to help you when the “Shit – I have nothing planned” hits.
Photo Scavenger Hunt
Simple enough – every student (unfortunately) has a phone these days. Let them put it to good use for once with a photo scavenger hunt. Heck! Give them points. Why not? If you don’t have a bag of goodies on hand for the winner… tell them they win glory and fame… they love that.
Easie peasie. This is a listening comprehension/think on your feet game. Good as a ticket in activity too
Have very short phrases/questions written out on strips of paper. For example: Ouch! or Oh my god! It’s Justin Beiber! or What’s that smell? Or Why is Trump President? It could also be grammar points you have taught, irregular verbs… the sky is the limit. You pull out a strip of paper, read it… and the first student who jumps up and replies back to the statement wins. You could set rules: No one word answers, no repetitions etc.
This is fun to do with Grade 9. This is a speaking interaction game, as well as listening. Let them create their own speed dating profile – (make sure it’s appropriate). I think I gave them 30 minutes. Set the classroom up like a speed dating room – if you aren’t familiar how speed dating works – look it up on Youtube. Or watch the New Girl — Table 34 episode. The students have 2-3 minutes to speak to their “date.” Sometimes it gets pretty hilarious – I had one guy whose profile was a gamer who lived in his parent’s basement. Another girl was obsessed with Justin Beiber. You can make it into some sort of contest if you want – but mostly it is just for fun.
Ahhh… the fishbowl assignment. I saw an English teacher do this with her class once a long time ago, and was immediately hooked.
Why is this is my absolute, most favourite assignment to give students?
It covers an insane amount of knowledge requirements – understanding, showing understanding, using strategies for listening and reading, choosing text and spoken language from different media and using it in their own production… the list goes on
Authentic speech – It makes students think on their feet and interact with each other
Evidence – students have to prove their point with evidence and sources
News – the students read the news, and use facts to back up their arguments
Critical thinking skills – students move away from just memorizing facts (rote learning), and move towards using higher level thinking
How does this work? Watch the video below for a good example of how the fishbowl (or in this case – socratic seminar) should look.
How to prepare the students:
I present a PPT to the students (attached). I give them some practice videos and questions so they can sit in small groups and discuss. If you follow the lesson plan (attached) it should give you a guideline on how to structure the lesson. Usually I let them practice in small groups with the video. I want them to learn what sort of questions to ask each other and how to back up their opinion with facts. We’re living in a day and age where “alternate facts” and “fake news” are everyday occurrences – and so I believe it is important to show our students how important facts are.
I do my fishbowl on the bullying problem. I give them two different news articles that have different opinions on how to handle the bullying argument. I have been toying with the idea that social media might also be a good topic for them to discuss. Maybe next year!
Depends on your class – I gave mine six lessons to prepare (40min – 1 hour lessons) and then three lessons to actually do the fishbowl
What are the jobs?
The Moderators
Choose one or two students to be the moderators – these should be stronger students who you can count on to be prepared, to think on their feet and ask the others questions. They are essentially the teachers in the situation – so it is ESSENTIAL that they read the articles and come up with questions to ask if there is silence.
The Teacher
During the day of the fishbowl – your job is to watch and listen. Try and stay out of the conversation! I can type pretty fast, so I usually sit and type everything the students say – and whether or not they ask questions, are fluent, back up their opinions etc. If you aren’t a fast typer, you could record them so you can play it back later on.
After it is done – I look at what each person said… if they only said one thing, that isn’t enough. They have to say at least three statements and questions.
What do they hand in?
The students hand in their preparation notes from the articles and the listening notes from the outer circle. This is really interesting to see actually – did they listen? Did they have any opinions on what the others said?
What do you think would be some interesting discussions to have fishbowls on?
Let me know if you have any questions in the comments below! Good luck fishbowling!!
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