Author Topic: After-School English club ideas? (meets daily) (Read 33630 times)

GreenFloyd · « **on:** September 08, 2010, 09:38:06 PM »

Hello! I'm very new to EFL, teaching, and Korea, and I've been thrown in to planning new lessons every day entirely on my own! It's a crazy time, and I want to say first: THANK YOU WAYGOOK for being an awesome resource! Anyway, I wanted to ask you guys if you had any suggestions for after-school class that meets daily for a bunch of middle school boys? I did introductions, rules, and icebreakers and such the first two days, now I'm on to planning every other day. Suggestions?

Maybe you can point me in the direction of some resources if you don't have anything in particular to add. I was hoping to do some projects eventually, but maybe not for a few weeks. THANK YOU!

sheila · « **Reply #1 on:** September 08, 2010, 10:01:21 PM »

Try "Tell Me More" by Dr. Andrew Finch.

Students' material: http://www.finchpark.com/books/tmms/
Teacher guide: http://www.finchpark.com/books/tmm/index.htm

I've taken a look through here and used it with some of my other students. There are all kinds of activities that you can do. It's also about 200 pages long so you'll have some stuff to last you for awhile. It also has some really good group speaking activities in there where you have to survey your classmates. I think it's got some good stuff in there. And it's totally free. Enjoy~!

jdniii · « **Reply #2 on:** September 09, 2010, 07:51:29 AM »

Woah :o! That booklet is great! Thanks a ton for passing it along.

PsychoGemini · « **Reply #3 on:** September 09, 2010, 08:35:14 AM »

I'm going to use that book. I've been dying to find something decent to do for afterschool classes as I struggled to get through them last semester when I first started teaching. Thank you for sharing!

J.Perrari · « **Reply #4 on:** September 09, 2010, 10:22:17 AM »

This will be my second semester teaching 3rd grade middle-schoolers and I really need to improve the afterschool lessons as well.

I would like to have them watch some sort of TV show then test comprehension and have them discuss. Can anybody recommend a good show for their age group? I guess something for a High School Musical sort of crowd.

fudoose · « **Reply #5 on:** September 09, 2010, 10:57:18 AM »

ASC can be a real pain.. this term I'm gonna do a series of projects that take 4 or more lessons each to complete.. that way, students just get on with their work, in the classes, it takes the pressure off being constantly creative. Plus everyone thinks your great when the class is suddenly filled with huge attractive a2 posters and comic strips.

GreenFloyd · « **Reply #6 on:** September 09, 2010, 12:47:28 PM »

fudoose, would you mind sharing what sort of projects you are going to do with your students?

Thanks for that book link, too! It looks good!

cocoinkorea · « **Reply #7 on:** September 09, 2010, 02:05:16 PM »

yes thank you so much for posting!

lisadream · « **Reply #8 on:** September 09, 2010, 02:59:18 PM »

I can also suggest treating the after school class as a book club. This will take some of the stress out of lesson planning. Choose a book on a topic the boys will like (Maybe the first Harry Potter?) and go through it alittle bit at a time. Give them reading assignments with comprehension questions or read it together and talk about what it means. I did Twilight with my HS girls over the summer and they seemed to really enjoy it. You can build in topics like Plot, setting, Characters, Conflict etc into your lessons, and it will give continuity to your after school class.

GreenFloyd · « **Reply #9 on:** September 13, 2010, 08:28:43 AM »

lisa, I really like the book club idea, but how do you deal with students having drastically different levels of English? There are students from grade 1, 2, and 3 in my class, some with a decent level of English, others can hardly write the alphabet :(. This fact alone is making my planning very difficult!

cassie · « **Reply #10 on:** September 29, 2010, 10:46:57 PM »

You might try a book that is better adaptable to multiple levels. Harry Potter seems difficult for low levels, especially with all of the nonsense words. You could try one of the "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" books. My students read it for an English competition. It is easy enough for some low levels and has funny pictures that they can discuss, and has idioms and broader ideas (bullying, school life, parents, siblings, etc.) for higher levels to expand upon.

AnthonyTeacher · « **Reply #11 on:** September 30, 2010, 11:08:52 AM »

TV Show: "Unnatural History". It's for kids AND adults, and I love it. Very engaging content.

rmariel7 · « **Reply #12 on:** September 30, 2010, 02:40:50 PM »

http://www.englishcentral.com/en/videos

This is a really good tool I found on EFl 2.0
it shows videos and tests the students on certain episodes. And you actually choose the clips you want them to watch.

jwoon · « **Reply #13 on:** November 05, 2010, 02:09:01 PM »

Right now I am teaching an ASC with 3rd graders. For each week I pick a theme or topic and each day I have something I do every week with them. For example one week was on Halloween.

Monday: Is song day. I have them listen and fill in the blanks or pick the correct word. I go over some of the words they don't know usually with powerpoint. Sometimes I have them listen to the song and have them draw a scene they might have in the music video. Then at the end of class I show the music video. Dreams I chose "Thriller by Michael Jackson. The objective for Mondays are always to practice listening skills and on culture

Tuesday: Is article day where I just have them read an article and answer the questions. "The legend of the Jack-O-Lantern. The objective for Tuesdays is to have them practice their reading and comprehension

Weds: is Dialogue day where I find or create a dialogue for them to practice. Then have them create their own and then do it in front of the class. Have them talk about Halloween. The objective here is to have students practice speaking and listening

Thursday is activity day. I made them create their own monster. The objective is to have the students practice writing and using their creativity.

Friday is always review day where we play a review game covering mostly that week's topic and some on past weeks.

I do this every week pick a topic and do the same type of activities. So far the students enjoy this. Also since it's themed student hear and use a lot of the same vocabulary and types of speech which is useful for them for remembering the information.

cepctheworld · « **Reply #14 on:** November 08, 2010, 05:36:25 PM »

I am also teach at an all boys middle school and a I just found a fun for everyone kind of lesson that I am happy to pass along. It gave my voice a break too!

I used the video Lifted by Pixar. It is a Pixar short film with no speaking which is great because my students didn't feel overwhelmed. I simply opened class with an easy hangman using the word Alien. Then we watched the video. The video is funny and cute and there are a lot of ways you can swing it. For my advanced third graders I introduced some complex vocabulary before we watched the video and made them write a few short sentences. They came up with some really funny stuff.

For the rest of the school, I was able to use the same worksheet. Not everyone could do all of it but most of them could do some of it and everyone was really excited which I find is half the battle with some of my classes.

After you go over the answers, read it aloud with your best narrative voice while the movie is playing, stopping to explain unknown vocabulary.

I am going to do this format again with another Pixar short because they are perfect for middle schoolers and interesting for everyone. Even my co-teachers were impressed and it took such a small effort.

GreenFloyd · « **Reply #15 on:** November 09, 2010, 07:45:51 AM »

I like your ideas, jwoon! I am starting to do themed-weeks as well. Two weeks ago I did Halloween (create a monster, survive a zombie attack, and trick-or-treating review game). Last week I did travel week with some basic expressions and speaking games, a presentation on U.S. Cities and famous world landmarks, and a review game on Friday. This week I wanted to try to do a week focused on American culture. I'm not quite sure what sort of activities to do for it yet though.

Just out of curiosity, where do you get your articles that you use every week and do you have worksheets for them to answer that are attached or do you talk about them in a group?

jwoon · « **Reply #16 on:** November 09, 2010, 10:16:13 AM »

I get my articles all over the place. My school has some books that have articles written with vocab and questions. Sometimes I use them but usually I have to find them online. Some of the time I have to copy and paste and edit it to make it easier for my students to understand. Then I usually write my own questions. Here are some of my themes that I've already used.

Halloween
Dreaming
Money
Space
Music

1/2 weeks
-Poker
-Glee (let them watch the first show) Found a torrent with Korean subtitles.

Next week I plan on doing it on dance and teaching them the "Cupid shuffle"
Monday-Listen and learn the song.
Tuesday-An article on Cupid or dancing moves.
Weds- We will listen and do the cupid shuffle and start project
Thursday- Have pick a song and have them write the directions to their own dance.
Friday-present their dances and review dance terms.

thedsr · « **Reply #17 on:** December 03, 2010, 01:25:42 PM »

I use this news website pretty often, it is for my teachers class though. They seem to like it and it includes many different ways for them to comprehend the articles.
http://www.newsenglishlessons.com/1011/101124-north_south_korea.html

salabbe · « **Reply #18 on:** December 03, 2010, 02:13:59 PM »

Quote from: sheila on September 08, 2010, 10:01:21 PM

Try "Tell Me More" by Dr. Andrew Finch.

Students' material: http://www.finchpark.com/books/tmms/
Teacher guide: http://www.finchpark.com/books/tmm/index.htm

I've taken a look through here and used it with some of my other students. There are all kinds of activities that you can do. It's also about 200 pages long so you'll have some stuff to last you for awhile. It also has some really good group speaking activities in there where you have to survey your classmates. I think it's got some good stuff in there. And it's totally free. Enjoy~!

Hi Sheila. This looks like a great resource. Do you know how you can download the entire book at once instead of having to save each file as a seperate pdf? I'm kind of an idiot when it comes to this stuff.

cheers!

salabbe · « **Reply #19 on:** December 03, 2010, 02:15:56 PM »

Let's try this again. Hi Sheila! The online book looks great. Any idea how to download the entire thing without having to save each pdf as a seperate file?

cheers!