Fifth Hour - ESL Teacher Helps Teachers

I'm sure that we all have played a game of Uno at least once in our life! So why don't we bring it into the ESL/EFL classroom? Play Uno with a twist with your students and make them talk! The only difference from the original game is that when you want to play a card, you have to ask someone a question! How to conduct a successful conversation class? We all know that students talking is the most important part of an ESL/EFL lesson. However, not all students are as talkative as we would wish.  In my opinion, the key to conducting a successful lesson based on conversation is to prepare interesting questions which flow quite nicely. You have to move through the questions smoothly, ask for details and be responsive. Nonetheless, there is nothing worse than a dead silence between the questions. Therefore, let me introduce you to UNO conversation cards! How to play UNO? Start with shuffling the deck. Give everyone 7 cards and put the rest of them aside in a pile. Draw the first card ...

 Board games are not only a fun way to spend time with friends, but also a fantastic tool for your classroom! Students love them, so why wouldn't we use them? However, if you're familiar with this concept, you might be bored with the games you own. So how about making a brand new one? And possibly engaging your students into this process? Let me guide you through it step by step! There are various types of board games with reliable rules that never let us down. So, why wouldn't we use some of them? Of course, I'm not saying that you should copy the existing game, but you can use some of it's features. With such multitude of games on the market, it is almost impossible to come up with something totally original anyway.  So think about the games you know and love and decise which features would work in your project. You may invite your students to brainstorm some ideas as well. Is it: a Monopoly-style game with a trading system? a card-based game? something simple lik...