Your
ideas for first classes
Here are some of your activities for first classes.
Virginia Espinosa, a teacher in Madrid, has sent us these ideas for first classes.
What can you guess about each other?
This is a guessing activity where students who do not know each other at all (in pairs) guess some information about their partners. Some guessing suggestions are the following:
- My partner is very good at...
- My partner´s favourite subject is...
- My partner´s favourite colour is...
- My partner´s favourite band/singer is...
- My partner´s hobbies are...
Then, students A and B exchange their guessings and check if they were right or wrong.
This activity can also be put into practice with the teacher: What can you guess about your teacher?
Draw your life
Students are given a piece of paper where they draw three things they like. The teacher collects all the drawings, shuffles them and gives them out to the students randomly. Students then talk about the drawings they are given, describing the person's likes and dislikes. Can they identify the person who did the drawings? You are what you draw!
My English Suitcase
This is a writing activity. The teacher designs a suitcase (A-4 paper
with a suitcase that is divided into four parts: two columns, two rows).
In one of the parts, students write their previous experience with English;
in the second one, the problems they have come across with the language;
in number three, their expectations for the course; in number four,
their ideas, suggestions...for the teacher to take into account. It's
a nice way of having an idea (at a glance) of each student in the group.
Beginning-of-course questionnaire
This is a good way for the teacher to get to know something about the
students´ language background. The questionnaire has got 7 yes/no
questions. Students only have to tick YES/NO and add any comments if
they want. These are the questions:
Did you start learning English before beginning primary school?
Have you ever been to an English speaking country?
Does anybody in your family speak English?
Do you often use the Internet to talk or write to someone in English?
Are you also learning English at an academy or language school?
Do you have an English certificate or diploma?
Do you speak any other foreign languages?
Classroom posters
Encourage students to design posters and help you decorate the classroom.
The idea for one of the posters could be to set up some rules from the
beginning of the course. These are five examples of "golden rules":
BE PUNCTUAL
DO NOT INTERRUPT
BE RESPECTFUL
SPEAK IN ENGLISH
DON'T FORGET TO BRING YOUR BOOKS
Questionnaires
The teacher designs a series of questions (around 10) about a topic
that he/she considers the students like either because the teacher knows
the students or according to their age. Examples could be music, sports,
TV, Internet... There should be different questions for STUDENT A and
for STUDENT B. The students take it in turns to ask questions to his/her
partner. It is a way of breaking the ice and practising question forming
and tenses. At the end, the teacher can lead a group debate where all
students talk about their partners´ answers, not their own.
Do you have a favourite activity for first classes? If you do, send us your idea and we'll try to add it to this page.