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.
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-of-school 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.
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.
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.
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.
Activities inside the class:
1-Pair Work:
Activities which lead to pair work:
Roll the ball This
can be used to practice 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!
Activities inside the class:
1-Pair Work:
Activities which lead to pair work:
Roll the ball This
can be used to practice 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!
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.
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 Hot-potatoes program. This program is used for presenting vatious
exercises of: ( j.match, J.mix, J.cross, J.puzzle and J.close.)
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.
The Role-Play Classroom Activity:
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
Introduce the goal and description of the demonstration.
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).
Conduct the demonstration.
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 l
