Open Class with a twist.. HELP!!!

[Paju Leigh]

Ok this isn't my first open class. I have had many in the years I have been here.
But this the first one where we have been asked by the education office to implement self study!?  For Grade 4!? Grade 4 ( at my school) can not self study in their own language so I am mystified as to why they have to "self-study" in English class!?

So I need ideas on what activities they can do themselves with NO teacher involvement!? umm All I could come up with was word puzzles and maybe a very simple board game with the target language.
And appointing 3 of the brightist to be teachers to help each level, (as my classes English levels are split between recognising the alphabet, being able to read words and simple sentences to ones that should be in Grade 6 English classes.)

Honestly any advice or tips would be fantastic!! Help me please!!!

[htan611]

Maybe you can do some small group reading (use some easy articles, or even a summary thing that you typed up) along with those word puzzles/searches.  Then that board game with your target language. 
Have them write their own simple story given the target language and sentence structures; just add location and problem that needs to be solved on the board.

OR

there's this activity, requires a lot of reading and prep time on the teacher's part, I've been thinking about using for camp.

Using 5-10 clue/task envelopes and slips of paper with tasks/clues on them, have students complete different tasks in order to find the next clue/task. First team to finish come and show you their work. maybe wins a small prize? There wouldn't be much involvement from the teacher as the students must read and complete tasks on their own to finish.

I'm sorry it's so general, as I haven't really thought anymore about how to implement this.

Hope this helps! good luck!

[glb0b]

What is the lesson topic?

Do you have dictionaries at your school? If so, how about an activity that uses them.
Either a  crossword or something where they look up the words in the dictionary or a small reading passage and they use the dictionary to find out the words in the passage that they don't know.

Alternatively some kind of make a book activity where they draw a picture and write a sentence to go with it. This works really well for some topics but not for others. Recently I had my students make an illustrated alphabet using a dictionary. They had to write A is for apple and the draw a picture of an apple etc. That kept them busy and productive for a whole lesson (we did it during speaking tests to keep the students who weren't doing the test quiet).

A board game is also a good idea. Worksheets are also good for about 10 minutes.

[Paju Leigh]

My Grade 4 will be doing lesson 8 "What are you doing?" I think the dictionary idea is great... but not for Grade 4. And I don't think we have enough of them to go around..sigh...

I like the book idea, but wether or not that will fly with my CT is another thing. I think the attending teachers might not like the whole art class theme.. aaaah this sucks.

I will try like a running dictation or make a story and cut it up into pieces and they have to assemble like a puzzle. And the smarter kids can fill in the blanks of the story and maybe write their own cartoons? ( printed from blank comic strips...)

Thank you glb0b and htan611 for your imput!!!!

[boeta777]

get some english newspapers and ask them to do research on any topic covered in the paper,hope this is useful

[Meg Martin]

You could always make your own dictionary that the kids can choose words from