Activity was adapated from a demoed activity at a prefectual conference and goes along with the grammar point taught in lesson 6 in the
COMET I : English Communications textbook. But this activity can be adapted to other grammar points.
Material:
-Timer (I have a 30 second bomb explosion video so the scarier the better. But I would actually recommend a longer timer maybe 45 seconds to 1 minute)
-Each student needs a pen or pencil
-print out the four corner pages
-Tape to tape the four pages to four different corners in the room
During class:
1. Review the grammar point using the textbook (if you don't have it in your textbook you'll have to find your own way to teach it). This took us about 20 minutes. I would also review the model sentences on the four corner pages too. Corner 4 "will be" confused a lot of my students.
2. Demo the activity with your JTE.
Directions:
A) Students will get into pairs and stand at the first corner. (Hang the papers high so all can see it).
B) Student 1 will hold the pen/pencil and say a that節 sentence as modeled by corner 1 paper.
C) They will pass the pen/pencil to Student 2 and they will have to make a that節 sentence. They will continue to pass the pen/pencil to one another after they finish making their sentences.
D) When the timer goes off, whoever is holding the pen/pencil is the loser and must remain at that corner. Winners will advance to corner 2.
E) This will continue till all the students make it all the way around the classroom.
Helpful Tips:
-Make sure you walk around to all the corners to help students struggling.
-If an uneven number, have groups of 3.
-Have students who understand help explain the model sentences in bigger classrooms. Some of my students are really proactive about helping each understand and I find they understand better when they teach each other.
-My JTE reassured me it was okay, but I really wanted to change "noun", "verb", and "adjective" into Japanese on the paper. So if you have any sugggestions on how to improve understanding please leave a comment! I appreciate it!
This sounds fun! What happens after one partner moves on and the other stays? Do they get a new partner? How is the new partner determind?
The losers stay in the same corner and the winners move on to the next corner. So, if say you had 20 students then 10 should move onto the next corner (so the amount that moves on will continue to get smaller and smaller. When I only have 1 student left in a corner soemtimes I'll just tell them to move on anyways if they lost). Students just need to pick a new partner in their corner (but your shy students may need some help).