It is generally known that teaching materials play a fundamental role for the teaching and leaning process in the classroom. This is why educators should be prepared to design them in effective ways and for specific purposes. Creating materials requires teachers to take a set of crucial decisions, make choices and explain the reasons behind them. This practice, in the long term, can grant teachers with autonomy, which also creates opportunities -and the need- for reflection. The aim of this entry is, therefore, to describe a teaching material that I created for a EFL classroom; I will briefly provide information about the audience, explain the reasons behind my decisions, show the empirical support that underlies those decisions, analyse the results and reflect on the outcomes obtained.
The material that I created in this occasion was a game. The fact that I was going to work with games gave me a lot of motivation, since I understand that these activities can be very engaging and meaningful for students. In fact, some experts believe that games are one of the most important elements in the EFL classroom, as they include activities that have goals, rules and, at the same time, an element of fun (Hadfield, 1990). There are even some authors that suggest that language games should be considered the center of EFL teaching rather than just a "peripheral" section of the lessons, because they can create relevant instances for learning and interaction (Silvers, 1992). In my opinion, I really like games because they create friendly atmospheres for the students, which reduces common, detrimental aspects such as anxiety in significant ways. According to Silvers (1992), when students are placed in "relaxed environments", it is more likely for them to learn meaningfully. Furthermore, when the teacher scaffolds correctly the contents and language features required in the game, there is high probability that learners will attempt to get out of their comfort zone and use language in order to play (Greenall, 1990). The latter is related to a sense of "positive competition" among the students, which serves as a fundamental and motivational factor that pushes students to get involved in language activities. Along the same lines, Lee (2000) claims that games allow students to escape from the routine and create great challenges that are likely to be confronted.
In short, it can be understood that implementing games in the EFL classroom can be quite positive, as they encourage students to interact and communicate successfully. Games create meaningful contexts in which students feel the need of using the target language, besides, their relaxed and enjoyable nature decreases affective factors that often function as threats. Having said that, it can be noted that these type of activities can be very beneficial not only for learners, but also for teachers.
The Audience:
The class in which the game was carried out was a 5th grade from the Casteliano school, Viña del Mar. That day, the class was divided into six "stations" in order to spread students around and have smaller groups to implement games and activities in a more organized and personalized way. The average number of students per station was five; and my group was formed by four students.
In relation to the curriculum, the contents the students had been working with were from Unit 4: Hot and Cold; a unit which purpose is to introduce concepts from weather and clothing. In terms of learning aims, the students were required to (1) read descriptions of what people wear for different weathers and occasions, (2) write descriptions of different people's outfits, (3) listen and understand weather reports, and (4) speak about different cities' weather and habits related to it (MINEDUC, 2018). Considering that most of the objectives were about descriptions, the game was designed with a special focus on descriptive language and vocabulary related to the unit.
It is worth mentioning that, by the time we went to the school to implement our activities, the unit was at its very end, which means that, allegedly, the students should had been familiar with most of the concepts and also had internalized important vocabulary words from the unit. Having said that, the aim of the game was not to introduce new knowledge, but to activate what was already learned.
The Game:
The game was a board game called "The Weather Challenge". This game was designed for four to six players and it consisted, as any conventional board game, on trying to arrive first to the goal.
The game was made of twenty spaces, among which four of them were "safe" spots (later to be explained). In addition to the board, there were two hand-made dices, six player pieces, and a set of 30 colorful cards containing fun challenges for the students to fulfill in order to move forward in the game. It is worth mentioning that some challenges also conveyed the possibility of winning prizes such as candies or flashcards.
Instructions:
Deciding who starts: Everyone rolls the dice once. The highest number gets to start and the lowest number goes last.
Choose your player piece and place it on the "start" spot.
- Roll the dice.
- Move the number of spaces shown in the dice.
- If your piece lands on a dot (.), you have to pick a Challenge Card from the deck.
These cards contain questions and have two formats:
1) Punishment: If your answer is correct, you remain where you are.
If your answer is incorrect, you accept the respective penalty.
2) Reward: If your answer is correct, you obtain the respective reward.
If your answer is incorrect, you remain where you are.
Check the cards' penalties, rewards and questions here.
- If your piece lands on a "safe" spot, you can remain where you are.
- The first player in arrive to the goal, wins a special prize.
Check the cards' penalties, rewards and questions here.
Observation and Comments:
As I mentioned before, this game was applied to a small group of four 5th grade students, which was one of the reasons why I decided to "keep it simple" and designed the game with such basic rules. I would say that the simplicity of the game made things much easier and fun in the classroom, because the students did not take much time processing the instructions and could start playing right away. One of my main concerns before implementing the game was the response from the students; I believe that this happened to me because I did not know them beforehand, thus, I did not know anything about their interests, skills, beliefs, among other aspects. Luckily, this was not a problem after all, since the response of the students was quite positive, and, even though they sometimes did not know certain answers, they showed themselves motivated to continue playing and trying their best to win.
What was surprising for me was that these students seemed to struggle understanding the questions a lot, but, once I clarified them, they had no trouble in answering correctly. I was not expecting that to happen though, because I though that I had made the cards very self-explanatory (as they had drawings alongside the questions), but I ended up being mistaken. Yet, here was when I detected one of my weaknesses during the implementation of this game, which was being too "soft" on the students. What I mean by this is that I tended to over help them, in the sense that I straightforward gave them the answers or the definitions they needed when they seemed to be struggling.
Another aspect that caught my attention was that, even though this game involved competition, in several times the students tried to help each other when someone did not know an answer. This made me really happy because they were creating interactions in English without being asked to.
Finally, in terms of time, when I finished creating the game, I looked at it and thought that it was going to be too short. I thought that the students were going to finish it in just a couple of minutes and it would not fulfill the time requirements (20 min). However, the students took much more time than expected and that made the perfect environment for the game, because we had opportunities for offering feedback, clarifying doubts, reading along the questions, among many other things. At last, the game fitted the intended time perfectly.
What was surprising for me was that these students seemed to struggle understanding the questions a lot, but, once I clarified them, they had no trouble in answering correctly. I was not expecting that to happen though, because I though that I had made the cards very self-explanatory (as they had drawings alongside the questions), but I ended up being mistaken. Yet, here was when I detected one of my weaknesses during the implementation of this game, which was being too "soft" on the students. What I mean by this is that I tended to over help them, in the sense that I straightforward gave them the answers or the definitions they needed when they seemed to be struggling.
Finally, in terms of time, when I finished creating the game, I looked at it and thought that it was going to be too short. I thought that the students were going to finish it in just a couple of minutes and it would not fulfill the time requirements (20 min). However, the students took much more time than expected and that made the perfect environment for the game, because we had opportunities for offering feedback, clarifying doubts, reading along the questions, among many other things. At last, the game fitted the intended time perfectly.
Reflection:
I think that this activity was very effective for including every single student and achieving the principles of the UDL guidelines (CAST, 2018), because it offered the students several pathways to demonstrating their abilities, different ways of perceiving the information, and it was quite engaging. For example, the cards that I prepared for them had challenges that asked them to pronounce words, do gestures, work together, etc (multiple means of expression). Besides, the texts that I wrote in the cards were accompanied with colorful drawings in order to generate more meaning (multiple ways of representation). And, of course, it was a game involving competition and prizes, so it was quite fun for everyone (engagement). This made the activity very effective and also I could tell that the students were having a great time while participating on it. Besides, the competitive nature of the activity made the students try their best to answer the questions in order to win, which was an extra motivation for them to learn.
This sense of motivation is an important factor that should be taken into account, because I could tell thanks to my experience that, when participating in games, students show many more signs of desire for learning. McCallum (1980) claims that this type of activities automatically stimulate the students' interests, provoking them to get "absorbed" in the competitive aspects of the games. The latter has a strong connection with promoting positive psychology factors in the students. For example, the fact that games redirect the focus of the class on mainly "having fun" has a great impact on the learners, as they release common, stressful energies caused by nervousness or anxiety. In fact, Csikszentmihalyi (2008) describes positive psychology as "the state in which people are so involved in an activity that nothing else seems to matter"; this happens because the experience itself is so pleasant and enjoyable that people do it, even though there might be risks.
To close up, I would like to express my absolute contentment for having participated in such fun activity with this group of students. I realized that the energy they put into the activities is crucial for creating a good classroom environment for working effectively and efficiently. I could tell that, when playing games, the flow of the lesson occurred more naturally. I see games as great alternatives for the EFL classroom that can contribute significantly to the learners' desire for learning and will leave them wanting more.
Check the students' feedback here.
This sense of motivation is an important factor that should be taken into account, because I could tell thanks to my experience that, when participating in games, students show many more signs of desire for learning. McCallum (1980) claims that this type of activities automatically stimulate the students' interests, provoking them to get "absorbed" in the competitive aspects of the games. The latter has a strong connection with promoting positive psychology factors in the students. For example, the fact that games redirect the focus of the class on mainly "having fun" has a great impact on the learners, as they release common, stressful energies caused by nervousness or anxiety. In fact, Csikszentmihalyi (2008) describes positive psychology as "the state in which people are so involved in an activity that nothing else seems to matter"; this happens because the experience itself is so pleasant and enjoyable that people do it, even though there might be risks.
To close up, I would like to express my absolute contentment for having participated in such fun activity with this group of students. I realized that the energy they put into the activities is crucial for creating a good classroom environment for working effectively and efficiently. I could tell that, when playing games, the flow of the lesson occurred more naturally. I see games as great alternatives for the EFL classroom that can contribute significantly to the learners' desire for learning and will leave them wanting more.
Check the students' feedback here.
CAST (2018). Universal Design for Learning Guidelines version 2.2. Retrieved from http://udlguidelines.cast.org
Csikszentmihalyi, M. (2008). Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience. HarperCollins.
Greenall, S. (1990). Language games and activities. Hulton Educational Publications Ltd.
Hadfield, J. (1990). A Collection of Games and Activities for Low to Mid- Intermediate students of English Intermediate Communication Games. Thomus and Nelson and Sons Ltd.
Lee, W.R. (2000). Language teaching games and contests. Oxford University Press.
McCallum, G. P. (1980). 101 word games: For students of English as a second or foreign language. Oxford University Press.
MINEDUC (2018). Planes y Programas. Programa de Estudio Quinto Básico. Santiago de Chile.
MINEDUC (2018). Planes y Programas. Programa de Estudio Quinto Básico. Santiago de Chile.
Silvers, S. M. (1992). Games for the classroom and English speaking club. English teaching forum.
Participation:Alexis Inostroza 100%
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