Teaching English Through English Made Easy: Fun with Imperatives

 

 

To help promote 'Teaching English Through English,' an English teaching approach highly recommended and strongly supported by the Ministry of Education, I've created some plug-and-play materials and resources for fellow junior high teachers to use in either an open class or a demo class, with an invitation from one of the major English textbook publishers, Hanlin.

 

"An open class or a demo class taught by me? Quite a daunting scenario, right? No worries. These ready-made, intriguing activity ideas come complete with appealing presentation slides, activity instruction scripts, and demo videos, providing a surefire recipe for a successful open or demo class that keeps your students engaged and actively using English. The following activities center around the theme of 'imperatives' from B1U3 and are structured according to the ABCD Learning Objectives format:

 

1. Sign Matching

A rule of thumb for making grammar or sentence pattern learning fun and relatable, as opposed to the mechanical drills in textbooks, is for our students to use it in a more meaningful context. Signs are ubiquitous; they tell people what to do or what not to do. By observing signs commonly found in a school or classroom, students can learn to identify them and understand their meanings in English.

ABCD 1: "Using 8 signs and 3 places provided, students can accurately match each sign with its corresponding location."

ABCD 2: "With 6 sign icons and descriptions, students collaborate to match each sign icon with its corresponding description on Jamboard."

 

2. Truth or Dare

This homemade printable board game engages our students in actively using imperatives in a fun way. Simply print out the game board for each group and have one die and some tokens ready. Then, students might act like a monkey for 5 seconds or share 3 things they love to do in your English class.

ABCD: With the provided game board and imperative commands, students can roll the die and perform the tasks accordingly.

 

3. Who’s Got What

This is my most frequently used fun activity for practicing imperatives and improving listening comprehension. It works well for workshop attendees and students in a classroom setting, and serves as a surefire ice-breaking activity.

ABCD: With the audio file and four objects on the desk, students can comprehend the commands and perform the tasks collaboratively and correctly.

 

4. Making a Class Rule Poster

At the end of this demo class, I'd like my students to apply what they've learned by creating a class rule poster and delivering an oral presentation in simple English. With this in mind, students will work on their own class rules in group work, following the provided structure, and present them in English. I'd like to call this part the 'End Product,' which serves as a showcase for my students to demonstrate what they've learned under my instruction.

ABCD: With the provided structure for creating a class rule poster, students can collaborate on the poster and then present it in simple English.

 

I completed the above materials and resources last September but completely forgot to blog about them due to being overwhelmed with numerous other tasks at that time. With this post, I have been able to elaborate on my work, hoping to inspire and benefit more fellow junior high teachers.   EMI