Games

Hot Potato: Form a large circle and start passing around flashcards, numbers, letters, colored cubes, etc.  When the music stops or when you clap your hands, ask who has a certain object (for ex: the color blue).  Whoever has that piece is then out and steps out of the circle while the game continues.

Object Chase: Make at least two lines of students and opposite them line up target objects (colored cubes, foods, clothes, etc.) and for the first two students in each line call out, in English, an object to retrieve.  The two students race to find and bring back the correct object.  You can keep track of which line receives the most points.    

Body Part Dance: Have a stack of cards with different body parts on them.  Someone comes to the front of the class and looks at one card and has to only dance with that part of the body while the class has to guess the body part in English.  For example, someone might rapidly blink for ‘eyes’ or wiggle or their nose.

Around the World: Usable with any set of flashcards, students form a large circle and two students attempt to give the English word for the picture first.  The winner of the two moves on to the next spot in the circle to go against someone else, and the game continues as someone tries to make their way around the circle.

Find Your Partner: I give half the class a flashcard with the English word on it and I give the other half of the class a card with the image on it.  I then have them walk around and try and find their partner and link arms.  This is an easy way to get them moving and helps them put a spelled word with the pronunciation we have been practicing.  

Headbands: This is modeled off the American party game "Headbandz" or "Heads Up" and is one of my favorite ways to teach verbs.  Divide students into teams and when it is one team's turn they choose one team member to wear the soft headband around their head.  Then, I set the timer for 1 minute and put various verb flashcards in the headband so that the wearer cannot see the image and has to guess the word in English just by watching the charade movements of the team members.  

BINGO: This is a class favorite (probably because of the lollipop prizes!) and is a good reward/motivation to use at the end of class.  I have made BINGO cards based on vocab that we have pretty much mastered (body parts, colors, clothes) and so it is an easy way to review and make sure nothing is forgotten.  Depending on the age level I either just say the word in English or I also show the flashcard while saying the word.  Just like normal BINGO, someone wins when he or she has a line in any direction.

Teaching Style

Teams

Dividing the class into basic teams is an easy way to have a little bit more one-on-one time with each student.  You can easily assign each team a word to write, a color to use, an article of clothing to draw, etc. on the little chalkboards which are ubiquitous among Senegalese students.  Then, while the students are working, you can walk between groups to hear pronunciation and individual understanding.  After a couple minutes one student from each group comes up and presents the team answer.  Group work is great for building life skills such as communication and leadership while adding a spirit of competition.  However, I have to be patient because I quickly found that it is not a teaching tool used very often here.  This is ironic to me because while American culture emphasizes individualism, the Senegalese culture focuses on community so the national values lend themselves well to communal work.  After a couple rounds though, the students seem to take to it quite quickly! 

Order & Silence

When trying to teach a language, proper comprehension is key so lots of miscellaneous chatter can distract and confuse.  Keeping the room calm and silent is a big help.  I have noticed that there is a habit here for children to start snapping and shouting ‘Madam!  Madam!’ when a student says something wrong in order to correct them.  However this always provides a lot of extra noise.   Instead, after a student shares an answer, I have all the students either give thumbs up in agreement, thumbs to the side in undecided and thumbs down in disagreement.  This is a much easier way to make sure everyone is paying attention to the speaker and remaining quiet. 

Show Don’t Tell

As much as possible try and avoid direct translations.  This is especially important with younger students who do not have as advanced phonetic skills because just writing that a certain word in French equals a certain word in English is not very clear.  But even for older students that method of vocab introduction is not great for retention.  When making flashcards, try and always draw the image instead of writing the word, and try and find ways to show by pointing out a color or doing a certain movement. 

Cultural Snapshots

To keep things fun and provide some cultural literacy I introduce certain ‘American’ things as part of the classroom routine.  This is an easy way to introduce slang phrases (“What’s up?”) or cultural actions such as high-fives and fist bumps.  Coming from another culture, I have certain things that might not be special in an American classroom but are new and different here in Senegal. 

Teaching Younger Children 

While of course younger children are some of the fastest language learners, if you only have class once a week you have to choose carefully what you teach.  While songs are a popular choice, and while they can be fun, I think you have to be careful that the students are not just memorizing jibberish sounds but actually understand what they are saying.  I like going through the basics at a young age so that you then don't have to teach them when the students are older (colors, clothes, etc.).  Also, I think the most important thing is that you are teaching vocabulary that students can clearly see or do since reading a translation is not a possibility.      

Here are some pictures of small-group color-matching BINGO and Throw-a-Ball color game.  Each student comes to the four  colored squares and throws the ball to whichever color I say in English (and then repeat in French).  I also like this picture because it is an example of what it means to teach in super hot Nioro!  I have made sure the children can sit and that all the chairs are in the shade...without that little adjustement I think everyone would melt.