Any ideas for "instruction free" lessons

[con's fly is open]

Alexis, I forgot to ask: how many kids in your class? That determines what you can do for lesson activities.

[woza17]

You could try the flyswatter game. It is brilliant. Here is how it goes . Buy 2 flyswatters. Write the answers to 30 questions on the board suited to the student's level of English. You have the questions in your note book or have the student's ask the questions that you have written in your notebook. If I get the student's to ask the questions I put them on strips of paper.
Now divide the class into 2 teams. One member of each team comes to the board. The question is asked the first student to hit the write answer gets a point.

I like this came the whole class gets involved reading the board encouraging their team. They listen read and speak. That will get you through one week. I play a quiz game as well.
Good luck

[Nickel]

I like to have them draw. They tend to have better word-picture association if they have to make their own flashcards. Then later in the unit I make them do a word search or criss-cross puzzle with the same words. The puzzles are a bit like a test because they have to draw the picture that goes with the word without looking in their books. I also make them write a lot. I make up work sheets that force them to create questions and answers using the vocabulary of the unit. My kids are in the grade, too.

Unfortunately, my school frowns on using dvds at the primary level. Some of the others teachers were using them too much. It sucks because my kids are lucky to get a dvd every two months, if that, so it is a big reward to watch a dvd. Now we can only show them for 20 minutes, once in a while, which barely gets you into the fun part of most dvds. I think a parent complained, so now everyone is punished. I'm just glad I'm not a Chinese teacher here. A couple of parents complained they couldn't read the teachers' comments in their kids' report books. Now the Chinese teachers have to complete handwriting excercises everyday, and take drawing and English classes twice a week. All of this is required along with their other duites. Still I have heard of worse situations, so I'll stick with my school.

[Nickel]

"I will stand quietly at the front of the room and wait for them to notice that I'm no longer conducting class. In summary: THIS APPROACH DOES NOT WORK IN CHINA."

Actually, this approach can work depending on class size. I have about forty students in each class. They know if I stop more than once it's very likely the "Bu Hao" list is going on the board. If they get "Bu Hao-ed" their Chinese teacher will yell at them for me. I have one class where the class leader takes care of the list for me. If I have to "Bu Hao" too many students then we move on to "5 Minutes," which means no talking, no books, and standing for five minutes with me nailing them for even the slightest sound and no leaning allowed. If they keep talking it goes to ten. I have stood classes for twenty minutes before. Unless it's a particularly obnoxious day, the threat of "5 Minutes" is usually enough to get them to police themselves. The reward for no punishments and class participation is their favorite game, "hangman," which is rigged to let them 'beat' teacher.

"You have to literally guide the students through every aspect of the class. Here in the Land of the Red Sun, students younger than Senior Middle School aren't given any responsibility and have no sense of appropriateness when it comes to behaviour during class time. If you've ever watched the students when they have class with their regular Chinese teachers - the teachers keep the students well under their thumb."

The students at my school have a lot of responsibility. They are in charge of keeping the classrooms clean, doing the Monday 'good luck' cleaning of the school and grounds, cleaning the cafeteria after every meal, and keeping their dorms clean. Some of the leadership program students even check on the teachers to make sure they are keeping their offices clean. All the students here are from grades one to six. In the spring and fall there are contests between the classrooms to see who is the best at doing laundry, making the bed, and cleaning up trash. Within the classroom, the class leaders are expected to keep control and assist the Chinese teacher. Once again this depends on class size and/or school policy. If you're at one of the many "token English" schools none of this is likely to work since it's doubtful the school will back you up.

[Raoul Duke]

Nickel,
welcome aboard at last. Nice posts and nice to have you with us.

Couple a pointers...if you use color text try yellow or maybe red. Purple will make people's eyes bleed against the black or grey backgrounds and we want to be able to see what you have to say.

If you use the "quote" function rather than hitting "reply" it will automatically make clear the difference between the referenced text and your own.

Again, welcome. If you have any questions please let me know.

What ya doing May Day?