This is a collection of activities I either read about, or had suggested to me, during winter break. They are all self-contained (though some have the potential to flower into something bigger and wilder), and they should all be doable in an hour or less.
25-word stories
I got this from Will Ferriter's Tempered Radical blog, of which I am a big fan. It really needs no explanation beyond the title. I particularly like it because 25-word stories are something of a "thing" (they've even been blogged about on the New Yorker, which is my personal guarantor of significance - not a view my students share, mind). But this means that students can read other peoples' stories, and see websites devoted to the genre. Incidentally, a cursory web search revealed that these are sometimes called espresso stories.
If you want to try this yourself, Ferriter provides a handout (it's a word doc).
Structured Academic Controversies ("Debate-and-switch")
I learned about these from Tina Chavez, but they appear to come from the "cooperative learning movement" (again, I got this from a cursory google search, and I don't know very much about it). You give students a controversial topic and some information, and have them craft arguments. They take notes on the other side's arguments, and then (this is the key thing) switch sides and each debate the opposite side, using their notes from the other team's arguments. You can read more about doing Structured Academic Controversies here.
Writing Prompts
Not just any writing prompts, but the "28 most tried-and-true" writing prompts on this tumblr. They are pretty awesome (and beautifully presented) (thanks to Dan Wise for the link).
The Alibi Game
This is one of several activities suggested by Helen Cox, who teaches in England and edits the New Empress Film Magazine in her spare time (and evidently owns that watch that Hermione used in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkabhan).
You announce that the school was broken into last night. In pairs, everyone in the class must come up with their alibi. One "suspect" leaves the room, while the other gets questioned by the teacher and the rest of the calss. If their stories dont' match, their nicked.
The Adverb Game
I'll quote Helen directly for this one:
Write adverbs (eg "angrily") on slips of paper (or whisper into student's ear) . Student has to act in that manner and the rest of the class has to guess which adverb it is.If you want you can give the students a long list of adverbs and they can choose which one they think it is - this helps for kids with poor vocab / weak emotional intelligence.
The Aphorism Game
In groups of 3-5, students construct aphorisms by going around the circle with each person saying a word. The only requirement is that the words need to connect grammatically. At a certain point, the group realizes that they have an aphorism.
At this point “wisdom has been born” so everyone in the group
strokes their chins and says “mmmmmmmm”.
At this point the group writes their aphorism on the whiteboard. To extend the activity, groups can explain the meanings of each other's aphorisms (it's generally funnier if they explain the meaning's of each other's than if they explain their own).
Action stuff
I love activities that are heavy on movement and light on language - and (to be crude and reductive for a moment) neuroscience backs me up on this.
- Clapping call-and-response (leader claps a rhythm, the class repeats it - but everyone does it with their eyes closed (from Helen Cox)
- Counting to 5 in pairs, alternating numbers and gradually replacing numbers with actions (from Helen Cox)
"Who's Line is it Anyway?"
This is a treasure trove (recommended by Jo Pugh)
Little Greetings at the start of class
- The most obvious of these is the simple but effective "High-low" - that is, high point and low point of the weekend.
- I also like "recognitions", in which you single out someone who helped you out in some way during the previous week for recognitions.
- Another one I just found in my notes is "My name is _____ and I feel like ______ color today."