INTRODUCTION GAMES: Identity cards: Ss are put in pairs and must ask questions of their partner in order to fill

out an identity card, which can be designed with questions of varying difficulty for different classes. Here are some variations: -Ss must find out give things about their partner that they think are important or interesting -They must find out five things that you cant tell just by looking -Include reasons for learning English or goals for the class Trademark: Show Ss some images of trademarks so they understand what it is, i.e. Harry Potters lighting bolt, Katniss mockingbird, etc. Then have each of them draw their own trademark. Ss must guess who each trademark belongs to, or must explain the design of their own trademark. Four Corners: Good for adults. Hang up four pieces of paper, one in each corner of the room, with a word from the same category on it (i.e. all colors, authors, movies, foods, etc.). Have Ss go to the corner that they feel best suits/describes them and let them talk about why they chose it. Then hang up new words and start over. At the end give students a chance to maybe talk to anyone they never encountered.

GROUPING/PAIRING ACTIVITIES: Matching: Put Ss in pairs or groups with word matching, i.e. each gets half a song title, half a name, half a proverb, capitals and flags, etc. You could then make them work together to write down everything they know about their word/phrase. You could also give pictures or words from the same topic or lexical group. This could be done with almost any vocabulary list: professions and their tools, furniture and their rooms, etc. Here are some examples: -HIGH NOON -AMERICAN GRAFFITI -WEST SIDE STORY -WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE -ICE CREAM -BIRTH DAY

INTERVIEWS:

Opinion Polls: Put Ss into groups of equal size (4-5) and give them each a different topic. Have them agree on a question for that topic (for example, for the topic breakfast Ss could ask what do you eat for breakfast? or how often do you eat breakfast?). They should then rearrange themselves into new groups that contain one person from each of the original groups. They should ask everyone their poll question, collect data, and return to their original groups where they can draw a graph together.

Reverse Interview: Give Ss (in pairs or groups) the answers in an interview and have them come up with potential questions. This will get their brains working and help them practice forming questions. Their questions should be coherent and related; in other words, they should be able to talk about/tell the story of the person who is being interviewed. The answers should also be ambiguous enough to allow for very different answers amongst the groups. For example: 1. Yes, I did. 2. This is quite true. 3. No. Gardening. 4. I can do either, but I prefer the first. 5. I cant answer that question. 6. Frogs and snakes. 7. New Zealand, Iceland, or Malta. 8. As often as possible, but Im not very good at it yet. I need to find someone to practice with. 9. I dont care which. 10. I wouldnt be able to tell one from the other. 11. Never. 12. That was the nicest thing that ever happened to me. Hypothetical Interview: Give Ss a list of famous figures on the WB and have them pick three people from the list that they would like to meet and talk to. Discuss the most popular options and have each Ss pick one person to write potential interview questions for. As homework, have Ss research the person at home and see if they can find the answers to their interview questions online.

GUESSING GAMES: A day in the life: One Ss leaves the room and the rest of the class makes up a story about what the other student did yesterday. You can write a blank block schedule on the WB so that Ss dont make it too complicated. The student reenters the room and must guess

what he/she did using only yes or no questions. The more outlandish the day the more fun and difficult it will be to guess. Good for past tense practice. Definitions: One Ss leaves the room and the class picks an unknown word from the dictionary (faster if teacher had a pre-chosen list). One Ss memorizes the real definition (from learners dictionary is better) and other Ss make up definitions. Ss re-enters the room and must guess which is the correct definition. Ss must be creative with their false definitions, but also be good liars/actors! Hidden Sentence: Class is divided into two teams and one Ss from each team gets a secret sentence. Then, the teacher gives these two Ss a topic (known to the class) and they must discuss the topic, attempting to steer the conversation in such a way that allows them to use their sentence logically. The teams must listen closely to try to guess the opposing teams hidden sentence. Teams get points if they guess a hidden sentence, and if they keep their sentence hidden. Miming Adverbs: Each Ss receives two pieces of paper. On one he/she writes a simple verb (eating a banana, reading a book, driving a car) and on the other an adverb. Ss come up one by one and pick on piece of paper from each pile. They must mime the action with the adverb until their team can guess. Messages: Ss get into pairs and each person is given a secret message on a slip of paper. Then, Ss stand against the wall around the classroom so that they are as far from their partner as possible. When the teacher says go, Ss have 1 minute to mime their message to their partner, who has to write it down. After 1 minute they switch, and afterwards they share what each thought their partners message was.

JIGSAW/PUZZLE ACTIVITIES: Comics: Give Ss comics cut into pieces with no words. They should work in pairs to order the images and create a dialogue. Same or different: Divide Ss into pairs and give each pair two sets of images, which they should not show to their partner. Some images in the two sets are the same and some are different. Ss must describe their pictures and work with their partner to figure out what images are the same and what are different. Strip Story:

Each Ss is given a strip of paper with one sentence of a story written on it. They have two minutes to memorize their sentence before the teacher collects the papers. Then, only talking, they must work together to reconstruct the story in order. Advertisements: In pairs, give Ss an advertisement with the names and images of the product being advertised cut out. Have them speculate about what they think the advertisement is for, then switch with another pair. Afterwards reveal the answers and see if the pairs agreed or disagreed.

DISCUSSIONS/DEBATES: Mad Discussion: Break Ss into two teams and have one member of each team come forward and draw a word/topic out of a hat. The two Ss have 2 minutes each to argue why their topic is more important for the world than the other. Word Wizard: Tell Ss that a wizard is taking language away from the world and each of us is only allowed to keep 4 words. Ss should write down their words and then find a partner that they must communicate with only using those four words. After one minute they can share their words with each other, so that they each have eight, then switch and repeat with another partner so they each have 16. Ss should then sit down and try to write a poem or a story with only these 16 words and perform it to the class. Magic Shop: Each Ss receives 3 slips of paper each with a positive human quality. They have 5-10 minutes to walk around the class and try to trade their qualities with classmates so that they end up with the 3 qualities that they think are most important or that they would most like to keep. At the end they should share their qualities with the class, say why they are important, or say if they didnt end up with the qualities they wanted. CLASSICS: -Two Truths and a Lie -Party and Co. -Debates -Spot the differences -Who am I? -Battleship (vocabulary) -Draw a partners description of an image -Thumper -Orchestra

-Gives questions to the answers -Skirt races -Jeopardy -Pyramid discussions with points for those who convince others -Desert Island (with strange items so Ss must be creative) -Dice and penny game with questions -Brainstorms: solutions and consequences