From Class to Community -‐ A collection of cooperative activities for language teachers “I have learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” Maya Angelou Introduction If I asked you to define what a class is, what would you say? How would you like your class to function and how do you perceive your role in it as a teacher? Dictionaries define ‘class’ along the lines of “A group of students who meet regularly to be taught a subject or activity” (http://www.merriam-‐webster.com/dictionary/class). Notice the passive structure of “to be taught”. It best reminds us of a conveyor belt, with students being transported into the classroom, knowledge being poured into their heads, and the students then being shipped off. Is that our idea of our class and of ourselves as teachers? My idea of a class comes much closer to the concept and definition of ‘community’. Here the phrasing varies, but certain words are commonly used, such as unified, sharing, interest, together, social, participation, similarity, attitudes, identity, interdependent, common, responsibilities, ownership. This time the picture we get is an active one; that of students interacting with each other, working consciously towards a common goal, and taking responsibility and ownership of their actions. And yet, too often classes resemble the first scenario more than the second one. What is our role in this? We say we want to ‘prepare our students for life’ and then we teach them the Present Perfect. We say we want to develop their communicative skills, and then we teach them the WH-‐questions. Which is all very important, but aren’t we missing the point? How do we expect our students to become successful communicators in international contexts when they are unwilling to cooperate with their own classmates? How can we talk about ‘preparing them for life’, when we implicitly teach them not to put effort into learning unless they are tested on it? How do we expect them to become world citizens and be open to other cultures when they keep excluding and taunting classmates just because they happen to be plump or shy? The way I see it, a great deal of responsibility befalls us, teachers -‐ and I don’t mean the danger that our students may say womans instead of women. We are responsible for more than ‘just’ their English skills. For better or worse, we are given the opportunity to shape our students’ social skills. To teach them how to cooperate and solve problems together. To make sure that every single student is involved in the activity. To make sure that students are participating equally. To teach them to respect and value each other. To ensure that no one will ever be bullied again in our class. In short, we are given the chance to turn our class into a community.
What this book is This book is a collection of activities that I have been using in my lessons in the Netherlands with my international group of students. The activities are my own variation on Cooperative Learning structures, commonly known drama games, and activities that have by now become part of ELT folklore. The book presents the activities step-‐by-‐step, alongside relevant, classroom-‐tested tips on how to best implement them, as well as follow-‐up ideas. Most importantly, this book is meant to encourage teachers across the globe to use these activities often and consciously, in order to make the transition from classes to communities. How to use this book Most activities described in the book help your students connect and bond in multiple ways. In the course of the activities, students are encouraged to share personal information with each other, to listen to each other, to cooperate, to offer support, to practice mutual respect, to form group identity and to be open-‐minded. Needless to say, these skills and attitudes are interconnected: open-‐mindedness leads to better cooperation, and vice versa. Yet, certain trends can be established concerning the primary aim of the activities. Some activities are more suitable for helping your students focus and pay attention to each other, others will encourage your students to share and be more open-‐minded, and again others are designed to help your students cooperate. Therefore, the activities are grouped into three categories to make it easier for you to pick and choose: Focus, Share and Cooperate. To make browsing through the book even easier, each activity starts with a short summary and a listing of highlighted features. This is intended to give you an idea of the activity without having to read through it all. For example, an activity description might begin with: Our Story Students work in small groups, finding similarities amongst themselves, with the help of a Cooperative Learning structure. They prepare a graph showing their similarities, then take turns in presenting this to their peers. Community factors: sharing, cooperation, equal participation, group identity Minimum number of students: 6 Formation: groups of 3 or 4 Tools: A3 sheets of paper, markers of different colors for each group Preparation: none needed
Finally, remember that neither the aim nor the form of the activities are set in stone. Please feel free to change them to meet your needs!
Who this book is for This book derives from an international context, but most of its content is relevant for any classroom setting where diversity is present. And diversity is present everywhere. Even if your students do not come from twelve different countries, you will always have fast learners and slow learners, extroverts and introverts. As for the age group, feel free to use the activities with any group of students the age of seven and up, and adjust them where needed. By saying “and up” I’m not just being vague. I have always found that playful activities work with adults as much as they do with children. For example, I came up with the idea of “Mixed-‐up sentences” while preparing for a lesson focusing on the Passive voice, with a group of adults. They loved it. I have also tested them on teenagers. The group I’m currently using these activities with is a mixed-‐age, mixed-‐ability international group of 11-‐17-‐year olds. The most involved I have ever seen them was while they were playing “Sherlock, Dr. Watson and the Postman”. In using these games, I find age to be less of a restrictive factor than attitude, for example. The good news is that attitudes can change in the course of your language classes. Don’t let attitude or age stop you from trying! Having said that, this book may not be everyone’s cup of tea. If you are not too keen on the idea of students jumping up from their chairs and shouting out in excitement, or if you are dreading what your colleagues might think when the noise level rises, you might want to leave this book alone. However, if you are willing to take these risks, and have some fun together with your students, please join me on this journey towards a vibrant, student-‐ centered and cooperative community.
Colorful sentences Students in small groups take turns in writing words to form sentences together. They are not allowed to correct each others’ words, but they can help each other find the mistake. Community factors: cooperation, equal participation, mutual respect and support Minimum number of students: 3 Formation: groups of 3 or 4 Tools: paper, markers of different colors for each group member, scissors (optional) Preparation: Mentally divide your class into mixed-‐ability groups of 3 or 4. Procedure: 1. Sort your students into mixed-‐ability groups of 3 or 4. Give each group one sheet of paper, and each group member a different color marker. 2. Tell your students that they are going to write sentences together, as a group. Tell them that they can only write with their own marker, and that they need to take turns writing words. They are not allowed to touch each other’s writing, so if they see that their fellow group members make mistakes, they cannot correct it. They are allowed to point out the mistake and explain to their partner how to correct it, though. 3. Check if everyone understands the rules. Then tell the students what kind of sentences you would like them to write. This could be a moment to ask them to review structures they have been learning. However, make sure that your students are familiar with the feature in question. This is not an activity for feeding in new grammar. 4. Tell the students that the fastest group with perfectly correct sentences will win the game. Make a try-‐out turn, starting at the count of 3. Walk around to check if everyone is playing by the rules. When the first group shouts “Ready!” walk over to them, and check if their sentences are correct. If they are not, tell them to look for the mistake(s), or give them a hint, and let the other groups keep on working. 5. After the try-‐out round, repeat some of the rules, if necessary, or just go on to the next round, this time competing for real. You can change the type of sentences you ask them to write before each round. 6. Repeat a couple of times, and then wrap it up. If your students’ language level is high enough, you could start a discussion on how it felt that they could not correct each other, and that they could only solve the task if they worked together as a team. Ask them to recall how they could help each other/how they were helped, how it felt, and if they think they could have been even more supportive. 7. If you would rather keep on focusing on the grammar feature, take some of their sentences as examples, ask them to write them down on big chunks of papers, one word per paper, and move on to playing Mixed-‐up sentences. NOTE: This activity is a great way of introducing equal participation and cooperation in mixed ability groups. Stronger students cannot overrule weaker students. The only way to solve the activity correctly is by close cooperation and support.
Same, same, but different Students stand in two concentric circles, forming pairs, and find similarities and differences amongst themselves. They keep rotating to form new pairs. Community factors: sharing, cooperation, equal participation, similarities, differences Useful language: Me too. So do I. Me neither. Not me. I’m not. Minimum number of students: 6 Formation: two concentric circles with equal number of students in each Tools: none needed Preparation: none needed Procedure: 1. Ask your students to form two concentric circles of equal numbers. If the circles are not even, make them even by joining one of them. 2. Ask the inner circle students to turn towards the outer circle students and pair up. 3. Tell the students that each pair will need to find two similarities and one difference amongst themselves. 4. Ask them to take turns in saying statements about themselves, and replying in grammatically correct sentences. Urge them to be creative and open. Give an example, such as: “I don’t like criticism.” “Me neither.” or “I’m afraid of dogs.” “I’m not. But I’m afraid of getting bad grades.” 5. Tell the students that they will start on the count of three, and that when they hear you clap (or blow a whistle, if you have one), the inner circle students need to move one to the right, and start over again, with a new partner. 6. If you are not one of the pairs, walk around while the students are looking for their similarities and differences, and make sure that they are taking the exercise seriously. If you hear students all the time sticking to the “I like...” structure, prompt them to use more creative solutions. Make sure that most pairs are finished before clapping/blowing the whistle, but don’t let your students get bored. Keep the rhythm. 7. After a couple of rounds, when you feel that the enthusiasm is starting to fade, stop the game. Ask for a few examples of similarities and differences, and write these down on the board, or ask the students to write them down. Use the structures “Louisa and Gaby both...” for the similarities and “Louisa..... but Gaby .....” for the differences. You could also try putting this into a table. Important: Don’t let anyone make fun of other students! 8. As a follow-‐up, move on to the “Our story” activity to establish group identity based on the same concept. NOTE: You can use this activity when you want to improve group cohesion in your class. This could be especially helpful after incidents where somebody was made fun of or bullied for being different.
Our story Students work in small groups, finding similarities amongst themselves, with the help of a Cooperative Learning structure. They prepare a graph showing their similarities, then take turns in presenting this to their peers. Community factors: cooperation, equal participation, sharing, similarities, group identity Useful language: All of us... We all... Some of us... Others... Minimum number of students: 6 Formation: groups of 3 or 4 Tools: A3 sheets of paper, markers of different colors for each group Preparation: none needed Procedure: 1. Ask your students to form groups of 4 (some groups can have 3 students) and give each group an A3 sheet of paper and markers of different colors. Each student should have their own color within their group. 2. Ask your students to draw a big circle on the paper, divide it into 4 equal parts (3 if there are only 3 students in the group) and to number each part:1,2,3,4. If you want, you can ask them to draw the circle together, each with their own color marker. 3. Now ask the students to take turns in saying statements about themselves. One student begins by saying a statement: I like mornings. The student on their right is the writer. The writer needs to write the statement into one of the circle segments. To decide which segment to write into, each student needs to say whether the statement I like mornings is true for them. So if two students agree with the statement, the writer puts it in segment 3, and if no one but the first student agrees with it, he/she puts it in segment 1. 4. Ask your students to repeat this for two-‐three rounds, or until none of the chunks is left empty. In the end each group has a story of their own: a group profile. 5. Now the students can share their story with the other groups. Explain: two students from each group stay at their table, and the other two walk over to the next table. The students that stayed at their table will present their group story to the other groups. 6. Draw the presenters’ attention to using different structures, such as “All of us/We all...” “Some of us...” “Others...”. Ask the visiting students to visit each table and listen to all the presentations. 7. After a whole round, ask the presenting and the visiting students from each group to switch roles, and make another round. Wrap up the activity by asking the students whether they found similarities between their story and the other groups’ stories. NOTE: This activity employs a Cooperative Learning structure, presented by Ferenc Arató.