Start by positioning the class in a semi-circle with you the teacher in the...
What... online teaching, oh online teaching...
Hi my name's Jema Perry and welcome to Mooncake, where ESL teaching is made easy.
If you're new here then you need to know that I make weekly ESL teaching tip
videos to help you improve your English teaching. So if you are teaching English
abroad make sure you subscribe below and hit that notification bell for weekly
ESL teaching tips. Also real quick if you are new here say hi in the comments
below and let me know where in the world you are teaching. So you're an
experienced ESL teacher or a new teacher teaching online for the first time and
you're having some trouble keeping your students engaged.
Well, worry not because today I'm sharing five simple games that you can
try with your online class that don't require many materials. This video is
part two of my online teaching tips series so if you haven't yet make sure
you check out part one where I go through some short teaching video ideas
for young students. You can find it linked below. And of course they tuned to the
end of this video where I'll be going through a few tips to help you manage
large groups online. So with all that out of the way let's get straight into our
first game, silly banana. Silly banana is a fun drilling game that I often use in
the classroom, in fact I've already made a video about this game and how to play
in the classroom which you can find linked below. However, we can adjust this
game to suit our online classroom and kids love it. To play this game all
you're going to need are some flashcards of the vocabulary that you'd like to
practice and one silly banana flashcard now that silly banana flashcard doesn't
have to be a silly banana, but a distinctive flashcard that is different
from the rest. Now of course if you're using an online platform such as zoom or
in class then you can use digital flashcards rather than physical ones.
Start by introducing the flashcards one by one using chants and TPR as you do. If
you don't know how to use chants and TPR in your classroom then make sure you
check out my video on TPR are linked below. Next introduce that silly banana
flashcard and explain that if students see this flashcard, they need to touch
their nose and say beep-beep. It's the silly crab. When you see the silly crab
beep-beep. Let's try, are you ready? Oh silly crap, beep-beep. Now you try, are you
ready? Silly crap beep beep. Good job
Next you're gonna shuffle those cards and then show them to your students one
by one using a target sentence structure as you do. I like apple juice, I like
apple juice, I like apple juice, good job. It's the silly crab beep beep
beep beep, good job. Once your students have seen the silly banana or in this
case the silly crab flashcard and completed the action, shuffle the cards
and go again. Keep going until all the cards have been sufficiently reviewed.
Roll the dice. For this activity all you're gonna need is a die, but don't worry if
you don't have one you can simply number some flashcards and ask students shout
stop. shouldn't shout stop I sure you just don't stop.
you can simply number some flashcards and have students shout stop as you
shuffle. I've also added a couple of links in the description below of some
dice rolling websites. Start by introducing those flashcards one by one
using chants and TPR as you do. Next you're gonna pick one
flashcard and show it to the class and ask them to roll the die.
Now if you're teaching a large number of students and you don't have access to an online die
that the whole class are able to see, then you can shuffle those number cards
and have the whole class count down from ten all the way down to zero, where
you'll stop and see which number you landed on. Let's go, ten to zero
ready ten, nine, eight, seven, oh six, five, four, three, two, one, stop Oh
number one. Now the number that you land on is the number of times that
students are gonna say that word out loud. Make sure you're saying the word
with students and using the actions that you just taught the. Grapes, three times
are you ready? grapes, grapes, grapes,
good job! Next pick another flashcard roll the die and go again. Keep going
until you've used up all the vocabulary words. Now in this example I use the game
to drill words but if your students are a higher level you can use it to
practice target sentence structures. The flash. For this activity all you're gonna
need are some flashcards of the vocabulary that you want to practice. Of course if
you have access to an online teaching platform then you can use digital ones
instead. Start by introducing those flash cards one by one using chance and TPR as
you do. Next you're gonna shuffle those flash cards and then very quickly you're
going to flash a flash card to the camera. Students need to watch very
carefully to see if they can name the card that was shown. Shuffle shuffle are
you ready? What was it? good job! Great can you
say, I like grapes? Great good job! Once students are able to identify the
flashcard have them practice the word in a sentence and then go again. Keep going
until all flashcards have been practiced. The slow reveal. Now this game is an
adaptation of the flash and all you're gonna need are some flashcards of
the vocabulary you'd like to practice. Start by introducing the flash cards one by one
of course using chance and TPR as you do. Next you're going to take one flash
card and you're going to cover it using another, and you're going to slowly start
to reveal that flash card to the students. Students need to watch
carefully and try and guess what the flashcard is. Once they've guessed
correctly they can practice using that word in a sentence. You can pick another
flashcard and go again. Okay are you ready? Okay, what can you see? What can you
see? What can you see? What can you see? Oh no, it's not a monkey. What can you
see? ah that's right bits a bowl of rice, a bowl of rice,
good job! Keep going until all the flashcards have been revealed.
Silly voices. For this activity all you're going to need are some flashcards
or the vocabulary you'd like to practice. Start by introducing those flashcards
one by one using chants and TPR as you do. Next you're going to explain to the
class that we're going to practice those words using silly voices. Start by
indicating the silly voice you would like students to use, for example a high voice.
And then pick a card use that high voice to practice that word five times and
then pick another card. Okay, dragon fruit five times hi this is are
you ready? Dragon fruit, dragon fruit, dragon fruit, dragon fruit
dragon fruit, good job! Keep going again and again until all the cards have been
practiced. Now in this game you can mix it up by using different silly voices by
changing the number of times you say a different word and you can even combine
it with the dice game to have students roll the dice to see how many times they
need to say the word in their silly voice. So there you have it five simple games
that work for online teaching. But what can we do if we're teaching large groups
online? Well if we are teaching larger groups online then it's nearly
impossible for us to interact with every student individually. Now this isn't all
true for smaller groups and one-on-one teaching where it's much easier to
interact and have students involved in the class. However when we are teaching
larger groups there are a few things that we can do to help students feel connected
and one of the most important ones is eye contact. One mistake that newer
online teachers do make is that they look at their students on their screen
thinking that they're making eye contact when in fact on the students perspective
it looks more like the teacher is looking down ,rather than at them. When
we're teaching large groups it's really important that we make every student
feel like that we're talking to them individually and eye contact is a huge
part of this. So, although it seems really unnatural make sure that you're looking
into the camera when you're talking rather than your screen. If you do need
some help getting set up with your camera you're
lighting and your sound for your online teaching then make sure you check out my
online teaching tips video linked below. Secondly we need to remember to smile,
like a lot, like all the time. If you think about children's TV presenters they are always
smiling and their facial features are over exaggerated and this is because it
helps to connect with children over a camera. It's really easy when we're busy
trying to prepare for the next activity to forget that students are still
watching us so we need to remember to smile and look at the camera as much as
possible. Lastely your planning and your
transitions become really important. If you're not sure what's coming next in
your class and you start I'm-ing and ar-ing or trying to find the right screen then
you're going to lose that connection with your students. Try to make sure you
have some fillers prepared so if you do need a second before the next activity
you can keep that connection. For example you could just have students count down
from ten all the way down to watch five four three two one good job! Are you
ready? Other ideas might be a simple finger play song or some attention
grabbers. Make sure you think about this when you're planning your class. So there
you have it some simple games that could be used for online teaching and some
tips to help you manage those larger groups. If you like this video make sure
you hit that like button and let me know by commenting with the words helpful in
the comments below. If you're looking for more ESL game ideas and you can
check out some of my other videos right here. Thats it for this video thanks so much
for watching. You can find me on Facebook Instagram and Twitter
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