SHARK CHASE. Games and Activities to Energise the Language Classroom for Junior High School
SHARK CHASE
Energising Language Classroom Activities for Junior High School: A Teacher’s Guide
Junior high school students often find language classes challenging, but as a language teacher, you have the power to transform these challenges into engaging learning experiences. Classroom activities are the key to achieving this transformation. These activities not only make learning enjoyable but also foster a deeper understanding of the language, leading to improved fluency and proficiency. In this blog post, we will explore a diverse range of innovative and interactive language classroom activities designed specifically for junior high school students. Whether you’re looking to enhance vocabulary retention, boost conversational skills, or make grammar lessons more enjoyable, this guide will provide you with a rich array of strategies to create a dynamic and effective learning environment for your students. Let’s embark on this journey to energize your language classroom and inspire your students to become passionate language learners.
SHARK CHASE
Target Group: All grades
Difficulty Level: Academic
Activity Objective: to practice the ‘passive’ sentence
SHARK CHASE – Procedure
Students (in teams) complete partial sentences challenge. With passives a challenge might be, ‘….. was built in….’, for example. Each team can move on a game board, by rolling a dice and moving that many spaces, after they have finished the challenge, by writing a full sentence, and had it checked by a teacher. The move order is decided by how fast they can complete the challenge. Each turn is made up of (1) the presentation of a new challenge sentence (2) teams writing their answers, having them checked by a teacher and moving (3) everybody repeats a model answer after the teachers (4) a bonus quiz where one team can earn an extra move, repetition of the bonus quiz answer. Next turn.
Materials and Preparation
A ‘race track’ is drawn on the board with equal distant starting points for each team. Each team gets a coloured ‘shark’ piece to race with on the board, and a sheet of paper for writing their answers on.
The teachers has a set of cards with the partial sentences on them which are shown to the students at the start of each turn EG ‘… was written by…’, bonus cards can also be added that require a specific answer – for example, after all the teams have made sentences based on ‘… was written by….’ a bonus card, like ‘Harry Potter’, can be added. The first student on any team to raise their hand and finish the sentence ‘Harry Potter was written by…’ wins an extra move for their team.
Each move (or bonus move) moves the teams shark 1 dice roll of places around the track clockwise.
Suggestions and Advice
When a shark is caught by another team it is removed from play until the start of the next round.
Before the start of the next round, that shark is returned to the board in the centre of the widest gap between the other sharks. This shuffles the order of who is chasing who. When preparing the board I would suggest 6 spaces on the track between each teams starting point, this means that nobody can be caught on the first turn without the extra bonus move.
Energising Language Classroom Activities for Junior High School
In the world of language teaching, fostering a love for learning and effective communication is our ultimate goal. By implementing these engaging classroom activities for junior high school students, you are not only enhancing their language skills but also creating an environment where curiosity, creativity, and enthusiasm thrive. As we wrap up our exploration of these energizing language activities, remember that your role as a teacher is invaluable, and your dedication to making language learning exciting and impactful is what sets the stage for your students’ future success.
So, continue to innovate, adapt, and personalize these activities to suit the unique needs and interests of your students. Watch as their confidence soars, their vocabulary expands, and their ability to communicate fluently grows. With your guidance and these engaging activities in your teaching toolbox, you are well on your way to inspiring a new generation of confident and capable language learners. The journey to language proficiency may be challenging, but with your passion and these activities, it is always an exciting one.
Happy teaching!
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