This year I have decided to encourage my junior high school students to speak more English outside of class by giving them a monthly challenge.
The "Challenge" explanation will be given in class at the beginning of the semester.
1st year students should do at least number one, 2nd year students should do both number one and two, and 3rd years should do all three.
Each student will be given a stamp/sticker collection sheet. This could be printed on thick paper or you could have them glue it into their English file.
If a student completes a challenge to their grade level they will receive a stamp/sticker. If they collect a stamp/sticker every month they will receive a prize at the end of the year (you could change this to after six months or at the end of each semester). If you don't want to buy a bunch of stickers you could stamp their sheet.
The "Small Talk" page is extra phrases I often use when I stop to talk to students in the hallway, so you don't need to use it.
I have included the challenges for the year. The challenges are based off of grammar and vocabulary the students should be covering in class at the given time (using the New Horizon textbooks). I have added a word document so that you can edit the challenges to suit your needs.
I laminated the "Challenge" and explanation pages, and pasted the actual monthly challenges to coloured construction paper to display them.
April- self introduction
May- weekend plans
June- ask a question
July- sharks (shark week)
August- no challenge (my students aren't in school)
September- make a recommendation
October- talk about your friend
November- talk about future plans
December- talk about something from Japan
January- talk about a country you want to visit
February- talk about something found in Japan
March- free talk
This is exactly the kind of thing I've been looking for, thank you so much for this! I've had an open ended, come ask me anything to get a sticker up on my board for a few months, but only a few students ever do it (and usually the same ones haha..) so I'm hoping having a more structured challenge like this will help increase student engagement.
This is absolutely a genius idea! Thank you!