Overview:
The process of education must be accompanied by the school activities
that help to enrich the process of teaching, presentation and learning inside
the class and outside the classroom. Students learn through their participation
in the attainment of knowledge by gathering information and processing it by
solving problems and articulating what they have discovered. Each activity
below provides students with opportunities to deepen their learning by
applying concepts and articulating new knowledge and many of these
activities also provide the instructor feedback about the students’ learning.
Definition:
Classroom activities are activities done by student inside the class as part
of applying or doing the practical part of the lesson after listening to the
theoretical part which is presented by the teacher. Activities outside class
enable learners to explore more knowledge through visiting libraries ,
responding to and using the environmental realia, using electronic programs
and accessing to the relevant sites of the internet .
The term "Classroom activities" applies to a wide range of skill-based games,
strategies and interactive activities that support students' educational
development. The goal of all activities is to enhance students' understanding,
skill or effectiveness in a specific area by engaging multiple styles of learning.
School activities also serve to infuse fun into learning as well as bolster
student confidence and the ability to think critically.
A good design of classroom activities could not only help the students handle
the relationship of “input” and “output” during their speaking process, but also
mobilize the interaction between teachers and students inside the classroom.
This design is, guided by the Task-based teaching method, based on the
correct choice of teaching content and reasonable arrangements for
classroom tasks, and with a variety of classroom activities, to stimulate the
students’ interest and successfully complete the speaking process in the oral
course classroom. It’s helpful to both the students and the teachers to make
satisfying achievements for the teaching task.
Calssification of "CCA":
Subject-Based Activities
Each discrete subject has a series of topics that can be taught or reinforced
through activities in which students directly apply knowledge and information
to discover meaning. For instance, educators may use role play in a social
studies class in which students act out opposing sides of an issue to better
understand the content. In earth science, a teacher may initiate a search and
discovery activity in which students identify real world phenomenon they have
studied.
Technology-Based Activities
There are numerous Internet and computer-based activities that allow
students to experience multimedia learning of subjects such as math and
science. These kind of activities include media literacy and software and
hardware design projects.
Career-Skills Activities
Often used in secondary education, career skills activities function as a
method to prepare students for the world of work. Typically, there is little time
for activities focusing on career skills within the normal school day, but out-ofschool time and after-school programs can provide this level of learning.
Collaboration Activities
Post high school, however, an individual's success relies largely on her ability
to work with others. Collaboration activities cultivate skills such as team work,
communication and tolerance. These activities are non academic in nature,
interactive and enjoyable.
Activities inside the class:
1-Pair Work:
The idea of pair work is to improve listening and speaking skills by requiring
students to exchange information with each other. Dialoguing with one's self
and dialoguing with others are implemented in pair work. Pair work should
always be accompanied by some sort of ‘test’ to ascertain whether or not
information really has been exchanged. Pair work strengthens the learner's
self-confidence and self-esteem. It develops critical thinking
Pair work can be seen when 2 learners do a conversation, an interview or a
debateinside the class. The 2 learners participate in exchanging personal
ideas to solve a problem. The can play the role of evaluation.
Activities which lead to pair work:


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Roll the ball
This can be used to practise any language that requires a
question/answer pattern. They can roll the ball to each other and have to
say the appropriate sentence as they roll the ball. E.g. “Hello” “Hello”
“What’s your name?”" How are you today?"....... etc. Remember the
sentences they practice should be fairly short.
Information gap
Give each pair a picture. The pictures should be nearly the same with two
or three elements missing from each picture. Without showing each other
the pictures they should describe the missing objects. They will practice
color, prepositions of place, and adjectives such as big, small… Then they
can compare their pictures.
Telephone conversations
Sitting back to back they can practice telephone language or just simple
exchanges that don’t have to be connected to the telephone itself. Sitting
back to back should arouse their interest and help train them with listening
skills. It’s a challenge, but a fun one!
Pair work benefits:
1-It enriches the skills of listening and speaking.
2- It creates fun and allows the teacher to use games, increase learners'
motivation and concentration.
3-If the whole class work in pairs, this will increase learners' attention.
4- It is used in error correction.
5- It increases language fluency.
6 - It is used as an exam practice.
7-It increases the class dynamics as it enriches communication.
8-It offers intensive, realistic practice in speaking and listening.
9-It promotes a friendly classroom ambiance that is conducive to learning.
2-Group Work:
The basic teacher finishes the theoretical part of the lesson . He claps with
hands to refer to the practical part. Pupils are divided into groups. Each
group gathers according to its interest .
Group A gathers together as all its members like to do a research through
accessing to the internet.
Group B members gather to practise their design activities through using the
material available to make some designs of wood, cartoon, paper and so on.
Group C members gather to do their research through watching relevant video
films , CDS or through listening to a cassette tape
Group D members gather to hold a small meeting to arrange their agenda to
do an actual visit to the actual fiend in the environment around to gather data
abut the lesson assigned. They will come back after certain period to do an
interview with the classmates. The teacher will witness, watch and evaluate.
The classmates will become the inter viewers and 2 friends of the group will
be the interviewees.
The interviewees will be asked by the classmates about:
1- The resources of their task
2- The tools used in their task.
3- The role played by the assistant teacher for each group.
3-Co-operative learning:
It is a successful teaching strategy in which small teams, each with students
of different levels of ability, use a variety of learning activities to improve their
understanding of a subject. Each member of a team is responsible not only for
learning what is taught but also for helping team mates learn, thus creating an
atmosphere of achievement. Students work through the assignment until all
group members understand and complete it.
Electronic programs:
Learners can learn through electronic programs like:
the Hotpotatoes program. This program is used for presenting vatious
exercises of: ( j.match, J.mix, J.cross, J.puzzle and J.close.)
Co-operative learning results:
All group members:

gain from each other's efforts.

recognize that all group members share a common fate. (We all sink or
swim together here.)

know that one's performance is mutually caused by oneself and one's
team members. (We can not do it without you.)

feel proud and jointly celebrate when a group member is recognized for
achievement. (We all congratulate you on your accomplishment!).
The Role-Play Classroom Activity:
The ultimate goal of language teaching is to develop students' Verbal
Communication Competence. Verbal practice is the crucial factor of Verbal
Communication Competence construction. Communicative Classroom
Activities are important classroom forms for verbal practice which are
concerned by many language education workers. Role Play Classroom
Activity is one of the most commonly used Communicative Classroom
Activities which is an excellent way for developing students' Verbal
Communication Competence because it can create simulating real-life
situations in classroom. However, currently there are some problems with the
theoretical research and practice of Role Play Classroom Activity, which
handicaps its teaching effectiveness. This thesis makes a theoretical and
practical exploration towards the application of Role Play Classroom Activity in
Chinese Teaching. We discuss how to use Role Play Classroom Activity to
develop students' Chinese Communication Competence.
After theoretical analysis and classroom observation we find that the problems
of Role Play Classroom Activity lie mainly in design, organization and
evaluation. So our research will focus on these areas with the purpose of
resolving these problems and finding out the way to optimize the teaching
effectiveness of Role Play Classroom Activity.
4-Other activities inside class:
1- The learner can listen and answer exercises in his workbook.
2- The learner can listen to a tape and speak.
3- The learner can listen to a situation and answer questions.
4- The learner can read, think and answer and he learner can read a passage
or a topic and write a report.
5- The learner can listen, imagine and guess.
6-The learner can think, compare and evaluate.
7-The learner can correct others' mistakes through pair work.
8-The learner practices critical thinking through group work .
9-The teacher can do interaction with his learners to enable them
to participate in learning.
10-The teacher enables learners to share in actual situations
11-The teacher enables the learner to express his opinions and solutions to
the problems.
12-The learners answer puzzles, sing learning songs with jazz music and do:(
Interactive games, Card games, Classic games, Miming games and quiz
games ).
13- The learner understands, draws , paints and designs real things out of the
available teaching material.
14- The learner can consult a dictionary, an encyclopedia, listen to a tape and
watch a video tape , a CD or a power-point program.
15- The teacher gives the learners the chance to listen, see, listen and see,
watch teaching films and overhead projectors, demonstrate, act the roles,
exchange roles to illustrate the learning process and change the theoretical
tropics into real and actual situations.
16- The learner must think, pair, share, notice, observe, agree with, disagree
with,dialogue with himself and with his peers .
17- How wonderful if the teacher transfers the outer environment into class as
real things to be used in learning.
18-The learner can learn through doing, dialoguing, discussion, debates and
conferencing.
19-The learner transmits what he learns to others through the principle of
learning through teaching.
20-The role of the teacher becomes the rol of a facilitator, a monitor, a guide
and an adviser.
Examples:
Entry/Exit Tickets
Entry & Exit tickets are short prompts that provide instructors with a quick
student diagnostic. These exercises can be collected on 3”x5” cards, small
pieces of paper, or online through a survey or course management system.
 Entry tickets focus student attention on the day’s topic or ask students to
recall background knowledge relevant to the day’s lesson: e.g., “Based on
the readings for class today, what is your understanding of
___________?”
 Exit tickets collect feedback on students’ understanding at the end of a
class and provide the students with an opportunity to reflect on what they
have learned. They can be helpful in prompting the student to begin to
synthesize and integrate the information gained during a class period. For
example, a muddiest point prompt: “What was the muddiest point in
today’s class?” or “What questions do you still have about today’s
lecture?”.
Free Writing/Minute Paper:
These are activities that prompt students to write a response to an open
question and can be done at any time during a class. Writing activities are
usually 1-2 minutes, and can focus on key questions and ideas or ask
students to make predictions. These activities give students the opportunity to
organize their own thoughts, or can be collected by the teacher to gain
feedback from the students. Advantages include developing students’ abilities
to think holistically and critically, and improving their writing skills.
Ice Breakers
Ice Breakers are low-stakes activities that get students to interact and talk to
each other, and encourage subsequent classroom interactions. They can be
useful at the beginning of the semester: for example, asking students to
introduce themselves to each other and what they would like to learn in the
course. Advantages of icebreakers include: participation of each student, the
creation of a sense of community and focusing students’ attention on material
that will be covered during the class period.
Think–Pair–Share
This type of activity first asks students to consider a question on their own,
and then provides an opportunity for students to discuss it in pairs, and finally
together with the whole class. The success of these activities depends on the
nature of the questions posed. This activity works ideally with questions to
encourage deeper thinking, problem-solving, and/or critical analysis. The
group discussions are critical as they allow students to articulate their thought
processes.
The procedure is as follows:
1. Pose a question, usually by writing it on the board or projecting it.
2. Have students consider the question on their own (1 – 2 min).
3. Then allow the students form groups of 2-3 people.
4. Next, have students discuss the question with their partner and share
their ideas and/or contrasting opinions (3 min).
5. Re-group as a whole class and solicit responses from some or all of the
pairs (3 min).
Case Studies and Problem-Based Learning
Case studies are scenarios that apply concepts learned in class to a “real-life”
situation. They are usually presented in narrative form and often involve
problem-solving, links to course readings or source materials, and discussions
by groups of students, or the entire class. Usually, case studies are most
effective if they are presented sequentially, so that students receive additional
information as the case unfolds, and can continue to analyze or critique the
situation/problem.
Guiding questions lead students through the activity. The questions should be
designed to develop student’s critical thinking by asking students to
distinguish between fact and assumptions, and critically analyze both the
process they take in solving the case study as well as the solution itself.
Example questions include:
 What is the situation? What questions do you have?
 What problem(s) need to be solved? What are some solution strategies?
Evaluate pros/cons and underlying assumptions of these strategies.
 What information do you need? Where/how could you find it?
 What criteria will you use to evaluate your solution?
There are many collections of case studies publically available in a variety of
disciplines.
Problem-based learning activities are similar to case studies but usually focus
on quantitative problems. In some cases the problems are designed to
introduce the material as well as provide students with a deeper learning
opportunity.
Debate
Engaging in collaborative discourse and argumentation enhances student’s
conceptual understandings and refines their reasoning abilities. Stage a
debate exploiting an arguable divide in the day’s materials. Give teams time to
prepare, and then put them into argument with a team focused on
representing an opposing viewpoint. Advantages include practice in using the
language of the discipline and crafting evidence-based reasoning in their
arguments.
Interview or Role Play
Members of the class take the part or perspective of historical figures,
authors, or other characters and must interact from their perspective.
Breakdown the role play into specific tasks to keep students organized and to
structure them so that the content you want to cover is addressed.
Preparation work can be assigned for outside of class, so clearly
communicating your expectations is essential. Advantages include motivation
to solve a problem or to resolve a conflict for the character, providing a new
perspective through which students can explore or understand an issue and
the development of skills, such as writing, leadership, coordination,
collaboration and research.
Interactive Demonstrations
Interactive demonstrations can be used in lectures to demonstrate the
application of a concept, a skill, or to act out a process. The exercise should
not be passive; you should plan and structure your demonstration to
incorporate opportunities for students to reflect and analyze the process.
1. Introduce the goal and description of the demonstration.
2. Have students think-pair-share (see above) to discuss what they predict
may happen, or to analyze the situation at hand (“pre-demonstration”
state or situation).
3. Conduct the demonstration.
4. Students discuss and analyze the outcome (either in pairs/small groups,
or as a whole class), based on their initial predictions/interpretations.
Jigsaw
A Jigsaw is a cooperative active learning exercise where students are
grouped into teams to solve a problem or analyze a reading. These can be
done in one of two ways – either each team works on completing a different
portion of the assignment and then contributes their knowledge to the class as
a whole, or within each group, one student is assigned to a portion of the
assignment (the jigsaw comes from the bringing together the various ideas at
the end of the activity to produce a solution to the problem). In a jigsaw the
activity must be divided into several equal parts, each of which is necessary to
solving a problem, or answering a question. Example activities include
implementing experiments, small research projects, analyzing and comparing
datasets, and working with professional literature. .
de class and outside school:
learners investigate knowledge by themselves through :
1- Independent learning and answering the investigating questions starting
with question words like ( what, why, how, how come, where, when ) through
self-exploration and navigation.
2-Visiting the school library to do researches.
3-Visiting the school science laboratory to do experiments and see practical
results to find solutions to the problems.
4-Touring the internet sites to gather more knowledge.
5-Visiting the community to listen to the people in real life and see the role of
society and environment to reach the right objective.
6-Holding actual meetings with people in charge .
7- Sharing in the school broadcast, projects and exhibitions.
8-Watching teaching TV programs or data show programs.
9-Completing the process of learning through adding the personal
experiences to solve the problem in a kind of a strategy called constructivism.
10-Sharing in school parties and journeys to museums and real place of real
knowledge.
11-Having the chance to think, create and innovate to serve his society.
12- The class changes from a classroom into a place of an assembly of some
promising scientists and experts.
13- One day, Mr President, Bell Clinton called for establishing green schools
as a step to serve the whole community. This great call spreaded all over the
USA states.
5-Evaluation:
The basic teacher with the help of the assistant teachers give grades to
each work. The evaluation focuses on the efforts made, the spirit of the
collaborative work among the group members: ( Leader, organizer, timer,
writer, evaluator, dictator and a presenter ). Group B members can interview
Group A members' work or project in a form of a debate to evaluate other
groups' work in a way of critical thinking. Also, group D members can
interview group C members' work in the same way. The teacher monitors,
motivates, encourages and guides.
6-Rewards:
Each brilliant work can be rewarded through a small festival as a kind of
motivation to the learners to go on achieving more and more progress and
competition.
The benefits:
1-The learners learn about the spirit of co-operation
2-They learn about the significance of sharing.
3-This work creates a kind of competition among learners and groups.
4-They create an atmosphere of imagination
5-They create the spirit of innovation , creation and participation.
7-The Results:
This kind of education, accompanied by these classroom activities creates
a generation of scientists, inventors, writers, poets, thinkers, experts and witty
people that can give a hand in the country developmental reform.
Action Race: This is a fun game using actions. Use actions like jump, hop, clap, run
etc. Have the students split into two teams and sit in lines with a chair by each team and
one chair at the other end of the room. One S from each team stands next to their chair
and teacher calls an action, e.g. "Jump". Students must jump to the chair on the other
side of the room and back, sitting down in their chair students say "I can jump". First
one to do it gets their team a point. (Submitted by Gareth Thomas).
Adverb Action: Teacher writes on the board an activity like "brush your teeth."
S/He picks one student, they come to the front of the class. The teacher then shows the
S a card with an adverb written on it, such as "slowly". The chosen student then does
the activity in the way of the adverb. The other students have to guess the adverb. The
one who guesses right gets a point and mimes the next action which the teacher writes
on the board. To help them you can give them a list of options, if you think they need
some help. (Submitted by Libby McArthur).
Airplane competition: First, have your students make some
paper airplanes. Stand the students in a line and let them test fly their planes.
For the competition, assign different classroom objects points (e.g. table 5
points, door 10 points, trash can 20 points). Ask a S a question and if s/he
answers correctly then s/he can throw and try to hit one of the target objects
to win points. This works well as a team game.
Apple Pass: Have all students sit in a circle. Use a fake apple and toss
it to one S. But you must say one English word as you pass. The S then
throws to another S and says a different English word. If the student you threw
it to drops it, he/she is out. And the game keeps going until you have one
winner. It can be played with different categories, such as Food, Animals, Etc.
My students love it! (Submitted by Kim.S.).
Art Gallery: This is a great activity for reviewing vocab. Draw enough
squares on the board for each S to be able to draw in. Have the students write
their names above their squares. Teacher calls out a word and the students
draw it (could be simple nouns e.g. "dog, bookcase, train", verb structures e.g.
"draw a man running, eating cake, sleeping") or adjectives ("draw a big
elephant, an angry lion, an expensive diamond ring"). For each S give a score
for his/her picture, and then move on to the next picture. The S with the
highest score at the end is the winner.
Attention: Call out commands such as: Attention, salute, march in
place...stop, sit down, stand up, walk in a circle, clap your hands...stop, run in
place...stop, jumping jacks...stop, swim in place....stop, etc. At first students
will copy you but later they should be able to do the commands without you.
(Submitted by Tania Bibbo).
Backs to the Board Game: This one is good for higher level kids. Make two
teams and stand one S from each team in front of the board, facing away from
it. Write a word or draw a picture on the board (e.g. "hamburger") and the
students have to explain that word to their team member (e.g. you can buy it
in McDonalds, it's got cheese and ketchup in it). The first S out of the two
standing in front of the board to guess the word wins a point for his/her team.
Badminton: Good for reviewing target vocabulary (words or
communicative expressions). Set a "court" into the classroom by placing a
skip-rope tied up to two chairs. Make two small teams (the other students can
be the crowd and or challengers). Give each S a flyswatter ("Racket"). Inflate
a balloon (this will be the ball). Remember: the younger the students, the
bigger the balloon must be (slower). Decide who serves and for every winning
shot the team to call out the flashcard or picture card shown by the teacher to
get a point. Lots of fun! (NOTE: For very active students be careful since they
might hit the others' faces when playing). (submitted by Salvador Domingo)
Banana Race: Children just love this! It is basically a QUIZ game in which
you ask children questions (Target Vocabulary) like: "What's this? What fruit is
red and round? How many chairs are there in the classroom?" or the teacher
simply draws items on the board, makes animal noises so that they guess.
You can work with students or split the class into small groups/teams if you
have a large class. The teacher draws on the board a race track and each
team or S will be a BANANA waiting at the Starting Line. They will approach
the Goal line as they answer each question. Each right answer equals a step
towards the Goal Line. The BANANA who arrives there first, WINS!
(Submitted by Salvador Domingo).
Bang!: Materials: Small piece of paper, shoe box or coffee can.
Write words on pieces of paper and fold them in half (sight words, vocab,
blends etc.). Also add a few cards that say "BANG!". Students take turns
picking cards and if they read the word correctly they get to keep the word. If
they draw a BANG! card they yell BANG! and then return all their cards
(except the BANG! card) to the can/box. Very simple but the kids love it and
there are many variations for the game! (Submitted by Heather Gilbert).
Basketball: Students take a shot at the trash can/box/etc. First ask a
question to S1. If s/he answers correctly then s/he can have a shot at the
basket. If the S gets the ball in the basket then s/he wins 2 points. If the S hits
the basket without going inside then s/he wins 1 point. The person who gets
the most points is the winner. This can also be played in teams.
Bet you can't: This game can be played in millions and millions of
different ways, and essentially it's just this: go to the toy store and buy toy
money. Give each student the same amount of money at the start. Have the
students bet each other that they can't do something - like this: make each S
stand up and walk around. Have them say, "I bet you can't (e.g. count to 20,
run around the room 5 times, sing the ABC song. etc.)". Get the students to
bet using the toy money. You'd be surprised how much even adult students
enjoy this game.
Bingo: Can be played with numbers, letters, pictures or even words.
The winner is the first to either get a line or full house.
Blind Toss: Have students sit down in a circle. Place a mat on the
floor with numbers and a flashcard (target vocabulary) on each number.
Taking turns, each S gets blindfolded and tosses a beanbag so as to hit a
number. S/he must call out that word the same number of times as the
number indicates. For example: 4-dog, then "Dog, Dog, Dog, Dog! and the S
gets the equal points (4). At the end, the S with the most points wins! Good for
memorizing vocabulary since they are repeating words. (Submitted by
Salvador Domingo).
Blindfold Course: Make an obstacle course in your classroom (use
desks, chairs, etc.), put a blindfold on a student and help guide him/her
through the course by giving instructions (e.g. walk forward 2 steps, turn left,
take on small step, etc.). This is a good pair game.
Blindfold Guess: Blindfold a student and give him/her an object to feel. The
student must guess what the object is. This works well with plastic animals as
they are a little challenging to guess (I always throw in a dinosaur to spice
things up!).
Blindfold Questions: Put students in a circle, with one student,
blindfolded standing in the middle. Turn the S around a few times. Tell the S
to point at the person in front of him/her and ask a question (e.g. "How old are
you?", "What's your favorite food?, etc.). After the reply the blindfolded S must
guess the name of the S s/he is talking to.
Board Scramble: Teacher puts the whole alphabet on the blackboard in
a scramble of letters here and there, but low enough that the students can
reach. Have two teams and call out a letter. The person that is able to find and
circle it first wins a point for their team. To make things harder have capital
and small letters. Even more challenging- have four teams all looking for the
same letter. The kids just love it. You can do it with numbers and also words.
(Submitted by Susie).
Buzz: A counting game. Have the students sit in a circle. The students
pass the ball around while counting (1, 2, 3, etc.). When the number reaches
7 the S must say buzz. Any number with a 7 in it must be buzz (7, 17, 27, 37,
etc.) and any multiple of 7 must be buzz (14, 21, 28, 35, etc.).
Follow the leader: Students line up behind the teacher and follows him/her
around the classroom. The teacher does an action and shouts out the word
for that action. The students copy the action and repeat the word. Good
actions include: wave hello/goodbye, it's cold/hot, stop, go, run, hop, skip,
crawl, walk backwards, jump, sit down, stand up.
Stop the Bus: All students need a pencil and paper to play this game. The
teacher writes a letter on the board, and shouts, "Start the bus." The students
then write down as many words beginning with this letter as they can think of.
When one S shouts out, "Stop the bus!" everyone has to stop writing. The
students all get one point for each word. The S who has the most words wins
an extra 2 point. This may or may not be the one who shouted, "Stop the
bus." (Submitted by Katie McArthur)
Story Pass: Put up a picture or a first sentence as a writing prompt.
Divide students into small groups and have them create a story from that
prompt. Each student takes a turn writing one sentence to add to the story
and passes it on to the next student. Keep it going around in the group until
they have finished it (it may be helpful to have a length limit or time limit so the
stories don't get too out of control!). Vote on the best story, based on creativity
and flow. (Submitted by Christina Deverall)
Line True or False: Put a line of tape on the floor and designate one side
"True" and the other "False". Hold up an object or flashcard and say its word.
If students think that you have said the correct word they jump on the True
side, if not they jump on the False side. Incorrect students sit out until the
next game.
Hot potato
This fun classroom game encourages students to think on their feet and draw on
a range of subject knowledge.
Resources: a soft toy, object or item for each group to pass round e.g. bear
or ball, plus a list of subject-specific themes e.g. numbers – prime,
composite, rational, fractions, decimals etc.
Game: Divide your class into small groups and hand out an object/soft
toy to each group. The person with the object in each group will start.
You name a title or theme, e.g. prime numbers, and it is then a race
against time for the student to give 5 correct responses, e.g. 2, 3, 5, 7, 11,
before the item/soft toy has been passed round everyone in their small
group and returned to them.
Alternative: With small classes you could play in one large group, however
shy students may find this intimidating because of the the pressure to
give correct answers.
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