The book is a bit out-dated in the sense that it doesn't incorporate any use of IT as we do today (it still mentions chalk on the blackboard!), however overall the activities are very clearly outlined, and great for getting students actively learning together.
Recently I tried the "Guess Who: Mystery Classmate" activity with my year 7s (who are on the whole truly enthusiastic students). We have been doing description and body parts this term, and I must say, it was an excellent consolidation activity.
1. Did you like the lesson? What did you like about it? Would you like more group activities like this?
- "I liked that you have to use your skills to find out who the person is and if you are good with your team you can get a prize!."
- "I though the lesson was really fun and better then just doing work sheets. I liked how they said it in Indonesian and you had to work out what they said. i would love to do more activities like this to make the lessons more exciting and getting involved."
- "I liked it but i wish that I could chose my team an i would love to do it again" (This particular student has generally felt disengaged with the learning for a while, so it was good to know that she was a more hands-on learner.)
- "I liked the games it was a fun can and it was good because it was hard and fun when your got it right. i would like to this again."
- "Yes, I would because we where not with our friend but with other people. But i would like to be with 2 boys and 1 girl to make it more exiting."
2. Do you think it helped you remember things we have learned? What is something that you still remember?
- "Rambut means hair"
- "It did help me remember and i remember how to describe myself because i heard 2 groups describe me."
- "I think it helped remember just some things. I remeber mata is eyes."
(This was to help students consider their own behaviour and whether or not they were participating with the best of their ability.)
4. What could YOU do to improve the activity? For example, be more encouraging to your team members, focus on the task at hand, sit closer to your team mates.
- "get everyone involved."
- "Learn what the words meant before the activity so I wouldn't have to look in my book and i would know the word and write that down and focus on what they were saying next."
- "maybe less teams so more team members"
- "Help groups that need it." (Students did not need any help. All the students were able to work together to develop answers.)
- "Put in more words to help us to remember."
- "make sure the groups are set evenly with girls and boys"
There were a number of benefits that I had not considered, despite it being very obvious was class bonding. Students were interested to work with others that they had never worked with before, and it kept them on their toes, thinking it was them being described!
It can be a bit difficult to undertake this kind of task every lesson (can be draining to be "on" as the teacher the whole lesson), however I will definitely be incorporating more of these activities as we go on.