Holiday party!

We had a holiday party for the Club this past week. We studied chit chat / small talk the week prior, so students were ready to party on! I felt that having the extra structure of the small talk lesson helps keep the party in focus - it's not just about having fun, although that's important too. I based my lesson these resources: http://esl.about.com/od/conversationlessonplans/a/lesson_smtalk.htm

Drawing game – this builds narrative skills.

To prepare, clip out images from magazines. Photos of people doing activities are great; I use outdoor and sports magazines often. Here's how it works:

1. Ask for a volunteer to draw the image.
2. The rest of the group describes the image to the artist.
3. Keep the group talking until the image resembles the original image.
4. Change artists per image, and keep talking!

Easy game idea using wordless books.

This is a great game when you don't have much time to prepare a longer activity, and builds narrative skills and improves vocabulary.

1. Grab a few wordless picture books and assign one to each student.
2. Spend a few minutes quietly looking through the book.
3. Have each student present the book, telling the story.

Be careful to choose books with somewhat adult graphics - avoid anything that's too simple and cute-sy. Anything by Mistumasa Anno will work well.

To find them in your library catalog, do a subject search for "stories without words".

Other good titles:

Rainstorm by Lehman: http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/70831107
Wilson's Magpie Magic: http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/37518963
Wiesner's Flotsam: http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/71000114

Potential problems and solutions...

Problem: One person talks too much.
Solution: Use a timing device and get other students to help 'police' the garrulous one.

Problem: Different langauge levels.
Solution: Group work! Split up those advanced speakers amongst different teams.

Problem: Everyone speaks Spanish so they just chat in Spanish to each other.
Solution: Make a rule that you have to use English only, even if it's difficult.

Problem: Parents come, accompanied by loud children.
Solution: Have some coloring sheets or quiet toys ready, or set them up on a computer and have them play educational games.

ESL Bingo - the bingo grid.

Here's a link to the bingo grid I use for ESL Bingo: http://docs.google.com/View?id=dct34n59_28dt7j48dw

Great icebreaker - the M&M game.

This is a fast and fun ice-breaker that may already be familiar to you.

Have a bowl of M&M chocolates and invite students to pick their favorites. Based on the color, students should say the following tidbits about themselves:

RED - Where are you from?

BLUE - What do you like to do for fun?

YELLOW - Tell us about your family.

BROWN - What is your favorite food?

ORANGE - How did you get here today?

GREEN - What color is your car? House?

Study the various parts of a computer with your ESL students.

This was a great activity - we filled out the worksheet together, while talking about each component. Here's the handout: http://docs.google.com/fileview?id=0B1NkZlvm2QTSOTI4MzU5NzgtMTFlNy00Y2VjLTgyMWQtMzA2MzUyOTkwZjgx&hl=en

A bingo story about Kuwait and its recent elections.

Here's the link: http://docs.google.com/View?id=dct34n59_33dnh8pb94

Another bingo story about dads-to-be...

Here's the link: http://docs.google.com/View?id=dct34n59_32c8nd6vcb

New bingo story - about the upcoming census.

Here's the link: http://docs.google.com/View?id=dct34n59_31hsnbrzd4

New bingo story - Michael Jackson's bio.

Here's the link: http://docs.google.com/View?id=dct34n59_30d2srzgfm
The article is taken from the Wikipedia entry. I also added some discussion questions from http://breakingnewsenglish.com/0906/090627-michael_jackson.html

ESL Book Club book choices update

These are a few of the most well-received titles that we have done in ESL Book Club recently. All of these spurred on great discussions, and were universally agreed upon to be page-turners. Fannie Flagg's book was the most popular.
A Redbird Christmas--Fannie Flagg
Hush--Jacqueline Woodson
Tuesdays with Morrie--Mitch Albom

If you think you would like to test out some of your conversation club participants to see if they might enjoy reading for pleasure in English, here is a very short ghost story by Jean Rhys called I Used to Live Here Once http://personal.bgsu.edu/~rshultz/Rhys.htm. The writing is very rich, and the meaning quite subtle, so explanation by the club facilitator will likely be required. Let them read it through once, go over vocabulary with them (there is a lot in this story), and then read it for them with feeling. Afterwards, let them try it again, and have fun getting everyone to guess at the meaning. This was very successful discussion, and the whole thing didn't take more than 20 minutes at the most.

Apples to Apples

If you have a relatively advanced group, Apples to Apples is a good game to play. The basic idea is that you have an adjective, and all players have nouns. You try to match up the "best" noun to the adjective, which of course, comes with a lot of humor and liberal licensing of choices. The dealer (who rotates) gets to vote on the best answer. This is only recommended for more advanced ESL learners, and to make sure that the competition doesn't get too fierce, and move the purpose from Conversation Club, you should make each person offer their choice up in a sentence.

Fun new states/capitals game.

This game was a hit with students this past week. You'll need a set of "Rand McNally Schoolhouse U.S. States & Capitals Flashcards And Games (Cards)", easily found at most educational resources shops, or on Amazon. Students had to choose a region and collect state cards for that region. You can also ask about each state, and learn capitals and nicknames as you go along. Or, you can have each student introduce a state. Fun!

A bingo story and lesson plan for the song, "Imagine".

Here's the original story: http://breakingnewsenglish.com/0905/090510-john_lennon.html

Here's my version: http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dct34n59_29d3nvzc6z

Document links fixed!

Sorry about the lack of access for the various documents I've been posting. Everything should be working now but please let me know if there are still broken links by emailing me at eslconversationclubs@gmail.com.

New bingo stories...

Both stories are adapted from http://breakingnewsenglish.com/

About the connection between fast food and strokes: http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dct34n59_257nth5sdj
About the recent birth of octuplets: http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dct34n59_26cxh4fpgh
About the recent spike in bedbugs: http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dct34n59_27f7dbgdrc

Asking open-ended questions.

Deploy open-ended questions when your class is reading a story to encourage and extend conversations. Here are a few ideas:

• What would happen if ... ?
• Tell me about your ...
• Where could we do that?
• What do you think will happen next?
• How do you know?
• How are you going to do that?

This week's story for ESL Bingo.

All about the perils of noise pollution. Here's a link for the original article:
http://www.breakingnewsenglish.com/0812/081205-noise_pollution.html
And here's my version:
http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dct34n59_13f3fd22dd

Break in December for the Holidays?

So, the ESLCC at MPOW was very slow in December. Particularly when we took a break from story time during the last two weeks, the parents stopped coming entirely. I think next year, we might take a break for the holidays. Otherwise, I think I should plan a large event like a party so that students stay engaged. What did you do for the holidays?