Classroom Community Builders (Teacher Tools) - Softcover

Burns, Walton

Softcover

ISBN 10: 099776287X ISBN 13: 9780997762877

Publisher: Alphabet Publishing, 2017

Synopsis

This is an indispensable book, for novice and experienced teachers, for teachers of young learners or adults, or in the ESL or EFL context. — Scott Thornbury

With solid pedagogical explanations for the exercises rendered in these pages, Burns offers a worthy professional tool for fellow teachers. — Kirkus Reviews

Tired of doing the same old icebreaker on the first day of class? Sick of choosing between doing a fun activity or getting down to work?

Classroom Community Builders solves the problem. This collection of almost 100 activities energizing do both! Each activity is designed to build community in the classroom, but also help students practice language work!

And let's not forget that nothing builds classroom community better than working together as a team toward a clear objective, so most of these activities work as group projects. In fact all the activities are highly adaptable and are described with variations so you can fit them into your class with your students!

A good mix of classroom favorites and more creative activities such as:

• Culture Shock: Students talk about how they do different things in their culture such as greet a person or give a gift. A great way for students to share their culture and create a space that is respectful of difference and diversity.
• Good Teacher / Good Student: Discuss what makes a good teacher and what makes a good student. A great way to set class expectations for everyone, develop self-reflection and encourage good study skills.
• Syllabus Scavenger Hunt: An interactive way to teach the syllabus and build community!
• Sentence Auction: Evaluate language knowledge while community building. Students bid on sentences, trying to "buy" correct ones and avoid wrong ones.
• Different Thoughts: Brainstorm different ways to do a simple task, while showing students why working as a team is better than working alone.
• Plane Crash Survival: A classic survival task that teaches students the importance of a diverse range of voices in a community. After a plane crash, students debate the usefulness of various objects.
• Sorting Line: A line-up activity. Students sort themselves into lines by age, height, years studying English or more. It's a great classroom community builder than also has students practicing communication skills.
• Picture Flashing: Students are given 3 seconds to look at a picture, then describe it to a partner. Strong descriptive skills and teamwork required!

There are also roleplays, logic puzzles, tasks, ideas for getting-to-know-you activities, and even ways to help the students get to know you, the teacher! A great resource for the new teacher, the CELTA graduate, or even an experienced educator looking for some new ideas!

About this title

About the Author

The senior editor at Alphabet Publishing, Walton Burns began teaching English in Vanuatu in the South Pacific. He has taught Russian oil executives,middle-school children, and Kazakh scholarship recipients.

Burns began selling lesson plans and classroom activities in 2007. After placing third in the BESIG business lesson plan content and winning the monthly OneStop Lesson Share contest, he began working for the Nick Robinson Agency as well as independently.

Since 2014, Burns has served on the leadership team of the Materials Writing Interest Section of the TESOL Association. He continues to publish his own lesson plans. His clients have included Oxford University Press, Macmillan, Pearson, Compass Publishing, 2LTI Testing, and New Horizons Language Schools. He is the author of 50 Activities for the First Day of School.

Edition details

• Publisher: Alphabet Publishing
• Publication date: 2017
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 099776287X
• ISBN 13: 9780997762877
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 170