Margo
Introduction
Our group created teaching activities around the topic „Dream Jobs“. My teaching activity started with a short round of introductions, with each student asked to state whether they have a dream job. If they felt comfortable, they were welcome to say what their dream job was. After this first round, I let the students blindly pick cards with English terms for different jobs. They were then asked to think of a single pose or movement that encapsulated what this job, in their opinion, was about. After about a minute of consideration, everyone who felt confident in their pose or movement was asked to act it out in front of their classmates. In contrast to a regular game of mime, I asked the students to not shut out what their classmate was doing. Instead, I asked them to wait until after their classmate had finished, and then started the discussion with the question: „What was he/she doing?“ and not „What job did he/she act out?“.
Depending on the time left, I followed up this activity with another group activity, in which every group member was asked to act out the pose resembling the job they liked the most at the same time. This helped less outgoing students to also take part in a dramatic activity.
Target group and Time
Target group: Grades 5 and 6; I varied the difficulty of the job terms between both grades (e.g. I only used „chef“ for the 6th graders) and focused on more straight-forward instructions with the younger kids. I was impressed by how well this approach worked; the differences in competence between the groups were smaller than I expected.
Time: I allotted 3 minutes for the first introductory time and then left as much time as needed for the main activity. This was necessary because the amount of students that felt comfortable varied greatly between the different groups and the different grades. The younger kids definitely felt more comfortable with the acting portion, usually not leaving time for the final activity without skipping a child‘s (wanted) performance.
Learning objectives
General: With my teaching activity, I aimed at helping my students understand what tasks different jobs, including their dream jobs, require, and how to describe theses tasks. „Describing“ here referred to two ways of depicting an activity: Using their bodies to express their thoughts and verbally expressing what a job entails.
Vocabulary: Every student is supposed to learn the vocabulary for 5-10 job descriptions by looking at the cards and their fellow students performances. Furthermore, they learned verbs related to the actions, e.g. „cooking“ or „performing“.
Grammar: Describing their classmates performances required the students to use forms of the progressive, which they did with varying success.
Instructions to set up the activity
Prepare cards with job terms; distribute them randomly. Prepare more cards than students so you are able to have students exchange cards that they do not feel comfortable with or go beyond their knowledge, even in German. This did not prevent students from sticking with new words, but getting a new card helped them to actually think of a pose when the former one felt too abstract.
Encourage students to open up - by talking about their dream job and/or by choosing to perform. However, make the option to not say their dream job or not act out explicit, so that no one feels pressured to put themselves into an uncomfortable situation. I felt like this helped students to not feel afraid, and in some circumstances, the students went on to discover their courage and performed after declining to do so at first.
Letting it run
Always encourage students to ask for vocabulary
Do not be rude when they ask question in German or when they use German to explain the rules to their classmates - this actually shows that they are interested and want to take part.
If the students show a lot of enthusiasm and use it in a productive way, use that - don‘t cut off the activity.
Mehmet
Introduction
Our group created teaching activities around the topic „Dream Jobs“. The activity starts with the students introducing each other to not only me but also to their own group. Even though they know each other and it might seem pointless, it allows them to act out how it could be if they met for the first time today and works as a way to make them more active when acting things out. After the short introduction I asked if they have a dream job and if they felt comfortable, they were allowed to tell the group After the introduction, the students chose a card which was faced down. Those cards contained different jobs. Once they knew what the job meant by knowing beforehand or asking if they were not sure, they were supposed to act out the job either as a mime or by using their surroundings. While they were acting it out it was important for the other students to observe what their classmate was doing and only were allowed to guess what they were doing once I gave them the OK inform of a question: „What was he/she doing?“ or „What job did he/she act out?“.
Target group and Time
Target group: Grades 5 and 6; Vocabulary and instructions need to be adjusted according to the grade one is teaching.
Time: I allotted 3 minutes for the first introductory time and then left as much time as needed for the main activity. This was necessary as the comfort of the students acting was different between each student and/or group. The younger students were more comfortable with the acting portion.
Learning objectives
General: The goal of this activity was to help the students understand what different jobs do and how they might be something they desire to do. If they were unsure of a vocabulary they also had the opportunity to learn what the job was in English.
Vocabulary: The cards used were supposed to act as a catalyst for them to learn the different jobs. Since our modern age allows them to be confronted with the English language every day some might have learned more than other students.
Grammar: Most of the time the students were required to use the forms of the progressive which were achieve with varying realization.
Instructions to set up the activity
Prepare cards with job terms; distribute them randomly. Prepare more cards than students so you can have students exchange cards that they do not feel comfortable with or are unknown even in their mother tongue. Most students would still rather try the new word out instead of immediately asking for a new one if they were unsure what the job they got meant.
Encourage students to try it out - by talking about their dream job and reaching them at a personal level. However, it is necessary to offer the option of keeping their dream job to themselves. Personally, I noticed that at least offering the option made them feel more safe since they were able to decline the task.
Letting it run
always encourage students to ask for vocabulary
if the students decide to ask questions it is important to respect their decision and help them as much as possible even if they talk in German to me or their fellow students
do not interrupt the students even if they are rambling about different jobs – this is them showing interest in the topic
Hendrikje
Introduction
The aim of this activity is to combine vocabulary and acting with each other. The students will learn new vocabulary or deepen their understanding.
Target group and Time
Classes 5 to 6 should have fun with this game.
For this activity, 12-15 minutes should be enough (for a small group).
Learning objectives
Self-confidence in language use. Learning new vocabulary through movement.
Instructions to set up the activity
At first everyone will be standing in a circle. The question "What is a dream job?" will be answered through different ideas of students. The students will then start to brainstorm different jobs. After having talked about the various jobs and what they do, the students will find gestures for each job. After they have been practiced together, the game can start.
Person A says: My name is ... and my dream job is ... (he/she does the gestures practiced before)
Person B says: Is your dream job a ...?
Person A says: Yes/No.
Person A says: What is your name and what is your dream job?
Person B says: My name is ... and my dream job is ... (Person B thereby becomes person A)
Letting it run
This game can be adapted in various ways for different stages of English learners. The vocabulary could get more advanced, topics can be changed, gestures could be more complex.This set of activities has to do with the topic of dream jobs. (Is it possible to introduce the topic generally? What are dream jobs? For whom? What does this have to do with learning English? I'm personally not sure what dream jobs as an English topic would be for kids in primary school.)
