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When things go wrong…
By Jeremy Schaar
“OK, everybody, open your books to page 72. It’s Unit 3, Lesson 2 …”
“But Teacher, we did that already.”
“We what? Well, hmm …”
Sometimes things don’t go right for teachers. You prepare a lesson, but your students have already done it in a previous class. You forget the copies you made. The Wi-Fi is down. There are no markers (in the whole building!). Your lesson needs at least four students, but only one shows up. Now you need to think fast!
Things will go wrong, so it’s best to get ready. Here are seven activities you can do when your plans don’t work out.
Talking Time
This 30-minute activity has a 10-minute setup, a 15-minute discussion, and a 5-minute conclusion. Start by choosing a topic. It can be a theme you’d like to review or just something the students will enjoy discussing. In the setup, ask your students to suggest discussion questions for the topic. Write all their discussion questions on the board. (If you have a yes/no question, always make sure to add why? after it.) Then, in pairs, the students should ask each other the questions for 5 to 10 minutes. Switch pairs once or twice. Finally, discuss the questions as a whole class.
Find the Best Picture
Choose a vocab word you’ve studied recently. All the students should search for an image of that word on their phone or tablet. Some words will be easy, but the students will have to be creative for others. They each show the class the image they found and say something about why they chose it. Then the class votes on who found the best image of the word. Repeat as many times as you’d like, with the winner for one word choosing the next target word.
Simple Reading
Do you have a favorite reading you’ve done with students? A perfect news article or a poem that gets everyone talking? Whatever it is, if it worked well once, it’ll work well again. So, make a bunch of copies of it and always carry them around with you. If you want to beef it up, write ten pre-reading discussion questions, ten comprehension questions, and ten questions for a follow-up discussion. Doing a little preparation work now will ensure you’re ready to save the day later.
Tell Your Best Story
Everyone has a few stories they love to tell. (My favorite is the time a police officer stopped me for taking pictures in the Moscow subway …). We repeat these stories for new friends and new classes so many times that it’s almost like we’re performing. You can lean into this idea by developing an activity around your best anecdote.
Save your best story for the day you need it. Then tell your students that you’re going to tell them a story, and that they should listen carefully. After you tell your story, ask your students to: (1) ask you one follow-up question each, (2) retell the story to their partners, and (3) think of a good story to tell their partners.
Tell a Riddle
Learn a few riddles. Then tell your students the riddles and have them discuss in pairs. Here’s a good one:
There’s one light in the attic and three light switches in the basement. You’re in the basement. You can only go up to the attic one time. How can you know which switch turns the light on?
(See the end of this post for the answer.)
Write a Sentence, Change Something
Write a theme at the top of the board or on a piece of paper. Ask a student to write a sentence about that theme. Then ask another student to change something in the sentence. For example, if the theme is “work” and the first student writes I work every day., then the next student might write I work every day but Sunday. or He works every day. Students can change or add anything they like. Then ask another student to come to the board and change something.
Once the class gets the hang of the activity, each student can write a sentence on a piece of paper and pass it around the class.
Note: If you have just one student, take turns changing something in the sentence. First the student changes something, then you change something, and so on.
Take a Walk, Have a Talk
This works best when just one student shows up and you’re not sure what to do. It can be tough to fill the time, but there’s something about walking that makes conversations flow. Rather than trying to fight through a lesson that was meant for a class, suggest to your student that you stroll around the area. From a practical point of view, your student will get valuable practice with small talk in a memorable setting.
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(Answer to the riddle: Turn on the first switch. Wait 5 minutes. Turn it off. Then turn on the second switch and go upstairs. If the light is off but hot to the touch, it’s the first switch. If the light is on, it’s the second switch. If the light is off and cool, it’s the third switch.)
Jeremy Schaar is an English teacher who has bounced around the globe teaching and learning. He has taught in Russia, the United States, and South Korea. He has also developed content for colleges, websites, and textbook publishers. He is passionate about education in general and especially Business English, writing skills, and online learning. Follow Jeremy on Twitter @jeremyschaar
