6 Exciting Online Classroom Activities
Throughout this course, I have set my sight on becoming an online teacher for young learners. I have done extensive research on different classroom activities for teaching online and have found six different ones that I like. This summative is based solely on teaching online meaning both the teacher and student are doing 100% of the work online.
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This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Danielle C. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT.
1. My window, my world
The first activity I plan to use while teaching online is called my window, my world. This is great for the engaging phase of any lesson or the beginning of the very first class with the students. This activity is a getting-to-know-you game and starts with the teacher taking a photo of their daily work-space (making sure to include the nearest window and your view out of the window that you may be looking at when not looking at the computer). Following the picture, the teacher would then write a short description of it and post that and picture into the online forum so the student can see. Once this is complete, ask for the student to do the same. This allows the student and teacher to get a window glimpse of the other person and familiarize themselves. This is a great activity to start with because it can be manipulated in several different ways and utilized during any class.
2. Five clicks away
There is a great reading activity that can be done online that is called five clicks away, the name is subject to change based on the teacher's preference. This activity starts with the teacher finding a website that has several links on it, preferably all in one location. I would use a newspaper or magazine website, make sure to choose something that interests the students or are related to current topics. Once an appropriate website has been found, instruct the students to read through it starting with whatever interests them. They can navigate through the page but, they are only allowed five clicks away from the starting website. At the end of their clicks, they should take a snip of what page they are on and write a description of it including how they got there and the steps they took. The students can post this to the class forum or send it to the teacher, this is interesting and fun and allows the students to work on reading and writing while getting comfortable working through websites.
Also Read: 37 Key English Teaching Terms Explained
3. Extensive News Reading
Another great reading activity that is lengthy and more involved than five clicks is to follow that story. The teacher should find a website that's in English and covers news-worthy stories such as big sporting events. The teacher would then give the list of news stories to the students with the URLs and tell them to pick a story and stay following it for a week and write a description of everything that has happened within their news story. This activity keeps the students involved and helps the teacher with grading because she gets to review many different stories.
4. That's my line
A listening activity that would be great for online students is based on using movie trailers. This activity is called what's my line. They should pick about three or four movies that are coming out of tin theaters or are in theaters and watch their trailers. From this, the teacher should write down two phrases that she hears from each trailer and then one that she does not hear from the trailer. The teacher can then give the students the title of the trailer and the list of phrases. The students will then have to watch the trailers and pick out the phrase that was not in it. This helps the student with their listening and reading and can be very fun.
5. Binomials
A more inclusive activity that can be used online is binomials. This would be a more synchronous activity because it would involve the teacher and student being online at the same time. The teacher, for this activity, should first ensure that all her students are online and can type the answers in real-time. Next, the teacher can start typing half of a binomial and the students would then type the answer that they come up with as quickly as possible. This can continue with both sides of the binomial and continually get more advanced. This is a good warm-up activity.
Also Read: Materials for Teaching English Online
6. Parting gifts
The last activity is a closing activity that can be implemented however the teacher sees fit, it's called parting gifts. The teacher can invite the students to partake in a gift exchange that involves exchanging virtual gifts. This is a way to kickoff goodbyes, the students can choose any free online gifts they can find, some come up with very funny ideas such as funny YouTube videos or even recipes.
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These are a half dozen activities that online teachers can do while teaching online. There are so many more options out there, the teacher just has to be willing to get a little creative.
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