It’s often difficult to tread water when you’re in front of a room of people, their eyes staring at you, boring holes into you. That final 10 minutes before the end of class can seem to stretch away in front of you like a lifetime. A good trick if you just want to keep the energy in the room up, try this for size.
- Tell the students they will be working in pairs or groups of three.
- Tell them that you want them to talk in turns to for a minute on different topics you’ll give them in a moment.
- Warn them that the topics you’ll be giving them will be random and at times maybe even a little strange!
- When you’re ready, write the first topic on the board and let them go for it!
A few words of warning:
Get the students to sort out who’s going first before you start. They’ll easily waste a minute negotiating – especially the more reluctant speakers in the class.
It’s best to have a list sorted out before hand that you keep with you. I’ve been pulling this one out of the bag for so long now that I can do it on the hop, but it’s not a good idea until you’ve had a bit of practice.
Things I get them to talk about are usually very random indeed. I teach high level language learners, so they have little difficulty discussing most topics. For lower levels, I’d give them a few easier ones to start off with.
Ideas for topics I’d give my class:
- Cheese
- Tanks
- The colour blue
- Socks
- Shopping for meat
- Superheroes
- Lipstick
- Singing in public
- Endoplasmic reticulum and its relationship with the golgi body - just kidding.
As you can see, completely random. If you go with ‘pets’ or ‘holidays’, you’ll get the desired response, but it’s nice to keep them guessing as to what’s coming next!
Do you have any great little time-fillers? What happens when your material runs out and you don't want to start that 40-minute reading till next lesson?
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