More games in the classroom

The importance of playing in the classroom

The reason why incorporating games in our daily lessons is so important is because during games the control of learning is transfered from the teacher to the students. The protagonist is the student as his or her unique way of learning is the one that is developed.Another reason is that playing and exploration trigger the secretion of brain-derived neurotrophic factor, a substance that is essential for the growth of cells.What's more, imagination and social play support the development of attention, self control and cooperative learning skills.
In a previous post I mention some of the games I use in my classroom. Today, I'd like to share with you more games that can be beneficial to your students' learning and at the same time you can have a lot of fun! 
1. Line up according to....The game involves groups of students lining up in order, depending on the criteria you choose, whether it's their birthday, height or any number of other options. Explain that they must line up in order using only English to communicate with each other, teams caught cheating will be disqualified from that round. When a team finishes, the person at the front of the line puts their hand up and you walk down the line checking that they are  in the right order.Examples of the teacher's instructions: Line up according to.... your age,  the day they were born, the time you woke up this morning, the  number of brothers and sisters, the number of pets, etc.
2. Car Race: Arrange flash cards in a long line with a starting and a finishing point. The first student throws the dice and moves his/her counter. The student must say the word on the flashcard he/she lands on. If the student makes a mistake, he/she goes back to the his/her previuos place. 
3. Charades: the class can be divided into any number of teams depending on the amount of students the teacher has. The teacher whispers a word to the students who are going to mime the word for their teams. The team who first guesses the word is the winner.
4. Do what I say: The teacher  gives commands to the class to revise vocabulary. For instance....touch something blue....or touch your head, sit down, stand up....This typical TPR activity is a great excercise to charge batteries and get students in the right mood.
5. Musical Chairs: Line up the chairs and place a flashcard on each one. Play some music and have the students walk, hop, jump around the chairs. When the music stops, the students should sit down on a chair and shout out their flash cards. You can also remove a chair and make the student without a chair sit out until the next round. 

6. Get the word now!: Divide students into groups. Assign to each member of the group a number. Place in the middle of the classroom flashcards with the linguistic items you want to revise. The teacher says a number and one of the words in the flashcards. The students with the number assigned by the teacher are the ones who are going to run to the flashcards and get the one the teacher said. The first one to get it gets a point for his/her team.

Repeat please!

Why is repetition so important in the classroom? Just because by repeating information we are strengthening neuron connections. If this new information is not used for a certian period of time this connection deteriorates with time.
Most memories disappear within minutes but those that survive this short period strengthen with time and form part of the long term memory. Long term memories take place between the hypocampus and the cortex until the hypocampus breaks the connection and the memory is fixed in the cortex.
Our brains give us only an approximate view of reality because they mix knowledge with past memories and store them together as one. The way to make long term memory more reliable is to incorporate it gradually and repeat it in timed intervals.
Include variety; When repeating, it is important to change the pitch of your voice, speed, the use of gestures, etc so as to avoid being monotonous.
Repetition is a must when it comes to learning and it is essential for teachers to take the time to review and repeat the new concepts all over again until it is consolidated. All the same, we cannot sleep on the laurels. We should always have in mind the saying that says "If you don't use it, you lose it", that is, bringing back already learned concepts, revise, and repeat is a way to keep them alive in our memory banks.

The importance of exercise for the mind

http://vimeo.com/16335377

Making memory memorable in the classroom

Recalling information is an essential aspect of the learning process. For teachers, it is a real challenge to help students remember information. Luckily, there have been a lot of discoveries about the brain that put some light on how to boost memory.
Human beings are very good at these types of memories:

• Location: we remember where to find essential things.
• Proceedures: we remember how to do things.
• Emotional experiences: we remember these events that caused an emotional impact on us.
• Conditioned responses: we respond to a certain pattern of behaviour in response to a specific stimuli.

Unfortunately, we are not good at recalling facts, figures, words and equations. This type of memory is called Semantic Memory and it is the one we most use to recall information taught at school. The question is...why is it so difficult to recall this type of memory? The answer is just because our survival does not depend on remebering this type of information. 

Semantic memory has also limitations in capacity and time. It is said that an item in working memory usually lasts from 5 to 30 seconds before disappearing or being reactivated.
As a result, here there are some suggestions to make our students memory memorable ...

• If students are reading a story or novel, make them prepare a summary or take down notes after reading one or two pages, otherwise they will forget most of what they've read.
• If they are listening to a lecture, taking down notes it is also important.
• Mind maps are a wonderful summary to highlight the keypoints of what students have just learnt
• Compare and contrast material or regroup material into different categories
• Group discussion
• Turn the learning into a non linguistic representation like a drawing 

 Another type of memory is called Episodic Memory which represents our memory of experiences. One thing is to learn a language and another thing is to experience the language. One thing is to read about China and another one is to actually go to China. The location and the fact of being there trigger the content. This type of memory is much easier to recall, it is used effortless and has unlimited capacity.

The problem with episodic memory is that we tend to  have too many events asociated with the same place. Some practical suggestions  when it comes to learning in the classroom would be:

• Changing classrooms
• Re arranging the furniture
• Going to the playground and do some reading
• Using learning stations inside the classroom

What is dyslexia?

http://ed.ted.com/lessons/what-is-dyslexia-kelli-sandman-hurley

Games in the classroom

The use of games is not merely a way of passing the time. Gaming in the classroom can be really useful if we know how to use it and when to use it. As an EFL teacher I consider playing an essential part of my class. I generally use games in the beginning as a warm up or revision of previous lessons and at the end so as to round up what we worked that day in class.

Why games can be so beneficial? 

Motivation:  learners love playing games, and that is because they resonate with them on an emotional level. When students are playing they link that feeling of excitment and joy to the piece of language they are learning or revising. As a result, they remember content more easily and quickly.
As gaming is an activity that ususally involves interacting with others  we can also say that playing can enhance team bonding and connecting with peers.
Games provide one way of helping the learners to experience language rather than studying it.They have to make use of the language in a meaningful way in order to interact with others.
What's more, games allow students to share, do, move, experience, visualize,  and create so they address to all types of intelligences. By playing games we are incorporating all students in our class. I once read in a book that the teacher in the classroom is like a gardener who has to take care of different plants, some plants need lots of water, others need some sunshine and others shade and pruning. If we as teachers, take care of them in the same way, most of them will die sooner or later.

Discipline

It is essential to be strict about the rules of each game so as to avoid a chaotic class with crazy students shouting and yelling. Explain them that though playing a game is fun, they are inside the classroom and so they are expected to follow rules. If you need to stop a class do it by raising your hand instead of shouting. The shouting will raise a lot of tension and it will spoil the game.

Here I mention some of the games that I use in my class. I hope you will find them useful.

• Pass the bomb Game: students sit in a circle and  pass a "bomb" (the bomb could be a ball) while some music is playing in the background. When the music stops, the person who has the ball has to answer a question. It could be a grammar rule, vocabulary, or anything you want to revise or practise.
• The jumping game: pair students with their backs one against the other. They have to jump. When the teacher says stop they have to stick out one of their legs. If  the partners show different legs they have to mention, for instance, as many animals as possible. The student who cannot mention any animal loses and the other gets a point.
• Lost in the fog: this game is great for folloing instructions. Place a number of small objects representing hazardous rocks in an imaginary sea. Students are divided into teams or pairs. One of them is the ship's pilot and the other is the coastguard. The ship pilot must be blindfolded and the coastguard must guide him or her to reach the front of the class which will be "the harbour".
• Listen and draw: the teacher describes a picture and students have to draw what they listen to. First read the description slowly so your students get an idea of what the picture is about. Then,
  read the description again, this time students should start drawing. Read the description as many times as possible. Finally, students compare their pictures with their partners' and with the one the teacher has. Display all the pictures drawn by the learners and display an enlarged copy of the text you have used to describe your picture.
• Listen and act out: the teacher reads a story in which action is involved. While students listen to the story they have to act out.
• Bingo definitions: write a set of words you want to revise on the board. Learners shoud choose four of the words written on the board. Call out definitions of the words in random order. Learners cross out the items they have on their own list.
• Spot the change: a student leaves the classroom. The rest of the class changes something, for instance, they put the bin under the teacher's desk. When the student returns he/she has to guess what has changed. 

I will post more games soon. Do you use games in your class? Which ones? Share your ideas!