Using some games to teach warm ups to the 10th form students at using some games to teach warm ups to the 10th form students at

Sở Giáo Dục và Đào Tạo Nghệ an Trường THPT Quỳ Châu Sáng kiến kinh nghiệm Đề tài: “Using some games to teach warm ups to the 10 th form students at Quy Chau Upper Secondary School”

Sở Giáo Dục và Đào Tạo Nghệ an Trường THPT Quỳ Châu

Sáng kiến kinh nghiệm

Đề tài:

“Using some games to teach warm ups to the 10 th form students at

Quy Chau Upper Secondary School”

Giáo viên: Phạm Cảnh Thao

Năm học: 2020- 2021

Table of contents

Part A: Introduction

1 Reasons for the study

2 Aims of the study

3 Methods of the study

4 Scope of the study

5 Design of the study

Part B: Investigation

Chapter 1: Theoretical background

I What's a warm - up?

1 Definition

2 Aims of a warm - up

3 Different techniques of warm - ups

II What are games?

1 Definition

2 Classification of games

III Advantages of using games to warm up the classroom

IV Disadvantages of using games to warm up the classroom

V The state of using games in warming up the classroom at Upper Secondaryschool

Chapter 2: Using some games to teach warm ups to the 10 th form students at Quy Chau upper Secondary School

I Genenal procedure of playing a game

II Suggested games to teach warm - ups to the 10th form students at Quy ChauUpper Secondary School

Part C: Conclusion

Reference

Part A: Introduction

1 Reasons for the study Why warm - ups?

As far as we know, warm - up, one of the classroom activities, is only a veryshort activity in the process of the lesson, but it is a very important one Our workmay not be completed successfully if it starts with a disadvantage Similarly, alesson without a warm - up will lessen its value In other words, it's difficult for thefollowing stages of the lesson to be carried out as well as we expect if lesson doesnot have a warm - up In the rhythm of the lesson, the start is always important, itplays a vital part in making the teaching and learning processes successful andcommunicative When entering the classroom, should the teachers always callsome students to go to the board to do homework, answer the teacher's questions?should the teacher come to the lesson directly? Especially, In Quy Chau themajority of students who come from moutainous and remote areas, their awareness

of the importance of a forein language is still very low They entry the examinationwith very low scores The condition of teaching, learning foreign languages andthe foreign language learning environment has not responded to the innovation ineducation in general foreign language in particular

Why don't we have several minutes to warm up the classroom, our students?Why don't we let our students know something before they speak, read, listen,write or do any tasks? These considerations have promoted me to study warm - upactivities

Why games?

One of the most important goal of language teaching and learning is tocreate communicative competence of students Moreover, one of the best way thatcan help students reach this objective is through communicative activities Ofmany communicative activities, games are an effective way of motivating students

in a classroom Games encourages everyone to use English as far as possible, not

to give up too easily, use English naturally, and most importantly, perhaps, gamesare fun Thanks to the Communicative language teaching (CLT) teachers offoreign languages in general, teachers of English in particular have beenencouraged to use games in teaching and learning Teachers are aware of theimportance of games in teaching and learning a foreign language In fact, thisactivity is mainly designed in teachers’ lesson plans, games are not used to teachvery often except for the fact that there are some other teachers observing theclassroom Thus, I study this subject to confirm that games should have a place in

a lesson

Using games to teach warm -ups to avoid boring English class, makestudents interested in talking without being nervous, lead them in to the lessonattractively

Why the 10 th form students , especially for high school students in mountainous areas ?

Unlike the 11th and 12th form students, the 10th form students are still at theage of children, especially, they come from remote areas with very lowcommunication skills, even some students who speak “ Kinh” not clear enough,because of that, thay are timid , so they are still motivated whenever beinginvolved in games Therefore, think that it's easier to use games to teach English tothe 10th form students in comparison with the 11th and the 12th form students

Moreover, for this year, the Department of Education and Training of Nghe an hasinstructed schools to self-create programs in the direction of openness, in the trend

of changing textbooks, luckily, I am assigned to teach some 10th form classes Thatgives me a lot of opportunities to apply using games in teaching warm -ups and toget feedback from students

For the reasons above, I decided to choose the subject :

"

Using some games to teach warm- ups to the 10 th form students at Quy Chau Upper Secondary School"

2 Aims of the study

The aims of this study are:

- To give a brief overview on warm -ups and games

- To discuss the best way to teach warm -ups

- To give some suggested games to teach warm - ups

- To design some warm - up activities with games applied to teach the 10th

form students

3- Methods of the study

I applied different methods to carry out the study as follows:

- Analytic method

- Collecting method

- Experimental method

- Statistical method

4- Scope of the study

Within this study, my purpose is to carry the research on using games toteach warm - ups to the 10th form students though there are many other techniquesthat can be used to teach warm - ups

5- Design of the study

The study is composed of three main parts: introduction, investigation andconclusion

Part A: Consists of five terms: reasons for the study, aims, scope, methods,

design of the study

Part B: Is divided into 2 chapters

Chapter 1 deals with theoritical background on warm - ups and games

In chapter 2, I focus on giving some games to teach warm- ups to the 10th

form students

Part C: Is the conclusion of the study.

Part B: Investigation

Chapter 1: Theoretical Background

I.What is a warm - up?

"A warm - up is a five minute activity which wakes up the students and putthem in the mood for learning English Usually, it is a fun activity like a gamewhere the students have to stand up or move around"

In each lesson, the start plays an important role in making the teaching andlearning processes effective and successful "Warm - up" is not merely a way ofrelaxation or entertainment It should be considered as a meaningful part of thelesson A warm - up with reasonable, interesting and varied active affects deeplythe result of the lesson

2 Aims of a warm - up

In real life, before you read, listen, watch, speak, write or do some tasks it isnecessary that you already know what you are going to do You have all kinds ofexpectations and predictions in your head For example, when you write a report,you might plan each section carefully before hand When you meet someone it islikely that you have anticipated some of the topics you might discuss and perhapsimagined some of the things you will say

In a classroom, if a teacher turns on a tape recorder and says "Listen to this",without having introduced the topic of the listening, it may be very difficult for thelearners to understand what is happening on the tape

Warm - up activities help students contextualize their learning or createdemands for some other activities of the lesson This may help the lessons be morecommunicative ones and students may be more successful ones

The general aim of warm - up activities is to help learners learn better Somemore specific aims are

- To create expectations about the language so that students can understandbetter what is going to happen

- To give students a reason to listen, read, speak, write of do other tasks-To motivate students to want to learn

- To interest students in a topic

- To involve learners by asking for their ideas of knowledge about a topic

- To introduce learners to the topic

- To get learners communicating about the topic

- To draw attention to something of importance

- To focus learners ( after a change in activities of if the lesson is beginning)

- To prepare learners with language to use during the activity It's obviouslyimportant to establish a good atmosphere all students In addition, warm - upactivities help students be ready for the new lesson with checking up the old one

3 Different techniques of warm - up

There are a lot of different activities which can be used to warm - up theclassroom, for example, asking usual questions to get students to talk, playing ashort game to check up old lessons, draw students attention or lead students intothe new lessons, talking something outside into the classroom to prepare for what

we are going to teach in the new lesson, telling a story related to the new language,etc

- Warm up the class to get started

Greeting, chatting, telling a funny story, observing, asking and answeringabout pictures, setting riddles, playing a game, singing, a song for fun, telling somegood or bad news on T.V or newspapers etc

- Preparing for the new lesson

+ Checking up the old lesson and relating the old lesson to the new one:giving questions, giving exercises, asking students to do homework etc

+ Setting situations for the following activities of the lesson: using visualaids, using stories, short texts, questions, brainstorming, playing a short game etc

In conclusion, different ways of warming up the classroom have variousaims It's better for the teacher to organize one activity serving different aims For

example, when coming into class, the teacher can have students play a game Byusing this game, teacher can draw attention of the students, get motivation fromthem, check up the old lesson, help students get ready for the new lesson.

II What are games ?

1 Definition

According to "Longman Dictionary of language teaching and appliedlinguistics [ 1992: 153), 'a game, in language teaching, is an organized activity thatusually has the following properties:

a A particular task or objective

b A set of rules

c Competition between players

d Communication between players by spoken or written language As forHadfield [ 1990: 3], "a game is an activity with rules, a goal and an element of fun"

Different linguists have their own definitions of games However, theirdefinitions all show the following features of games

1 A particular object of goal

2 A set of rules

3 Competition between players

4 Communication between players

5 Fun

2 Classification of games

Games can be used to check up the old lesson, get students to talk, setatmosphere or lead students in to the new lesson These are some of the populargames

Pelmanism, slap the board, guessing game ( guessing sentences, guessingwords, guessing objects, guessing pictures etc…), memory game (observe andremember, Kim's game), noughts and crosses, Lucky numbers, networks, wordsquare, Hangman, shark attack, chain game, bingo, brainstorming, Jumbled words,

question and answer game, odd one out, what colour, sentence starters, who am I?etc

III Advantages of using games to warm up the classroom

If we start our lesson by checking up the old lesson or introducing the newone directly, the students will feel bored and tired Thus, the result of this stagewill be less effective They are always under pressure of being called to go to theboard and getting bad mark if why do not we make students feel comfortable andself confident to do the task and be ready for the new lesson? Communicativeactivities such as games can help to solve this problem Students are often excitedabout games If the teacher uses well - prepared games to warm up the students,the students will take part in the lesson without being nervous and they can learnbetter

This can be the most important advantage that students can acquire

Games can create enjoyment, relaxation or motivation and stimulate studentsinterest for the following stages of the lesson We should not think that playinglanguage games is a waste of time because it is one of the best and most popularway that helps students access a foreign language easily In addition, games canprovide meaningful practice of language, students may use language naturally andthey will be in the want of communication

Last but not least, games create warmth, cooperation and friendship amongstudents

In a word, using games can bring many advantages for the lesson Gamesshould be used in language teaching and learning and be sure that they are wellprepared before the class

IV Disadvantages of using games to warm up the classroom.

Besides the advantages, games also have some disadvantages Firstly, gamesare noisy activities Thus, some students take advantage of chatting or shouting andthis may affect classes around Sometimes, it's difficult for the class Some

students do not play the game seriously, they think games are only as a way ofentertainment, not for studies As for some games, it takes the teacher too muchtime to prepare so they will feel tired and bored Some learners do not like gamesbecause they think games are only for children.

V The state of using games in warming up the classroom at upper secondary schools.

In fact, it is easier for teachers to use games in teaching English at primaryand secondary schools The reason is not that the programmes for the pupils atthese schools are easy It is that the pupils are still children They are very activeand curious and they like activities

Mean while, they are in between childhood and adulthood They alwayswant to be considered as adults, not children If the teachers do not know how toinvolve them in playing games, students will not be ready to play Thus, someteachers do not want to prepare games for warm - ups They touch the lessondirectly Besides, many teachers do not like games because they make noise orbecause it takes too much time to carry out

However, many teachers, especially young teachers use games to teachEnglish very often Moreover, after doing teaching training at a high school andteaching for nearly one year, I see that the lessons, particularly warm - ups inwhich games are used are more exciting, interesting and motivating A lot ofstudents like games and focus their attention on their lessons They feel excited andlearn better Step by step, the students are interested in learning English

Chapter 2 Using some games to teach warm - ups to the 10 th form students at Quy Chau

Upper Secondary School

I General procedure of playing a game

A game can be played as below

- Asking students for interest ( Are you sleepy? Are you cold? Do you want

to warm you up? Do you want to play a game? etc)

- Introducing the game

- Telling types of activities ( pairs, groupwork, individual, teamwork of thewhole class)

- Giving instructions and setting the rules

- Modeling

- Checking understanding to get feedback from students

- Shouting "start''

- Monitoring the game

- Evaluating and declaring the winner of the game

II Suggested some games to teach warm - ups the 10 th form students at Quy Chau Upper Secondary School

Within this study, the author does not have much ambition to suggest gamesfor all lesson in English syllabus for the 10th form students the author only suggestssome typical ones