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Engaging The Classroom With Filler Activities


S. Indira Narayan


S. Indira Narayan is an educationist with more than 35 years of rich experience in the teaching field. She has held multiple portfolios. She has been associated with St. Ann’s High School, ICSE, ISC, Secunderabad, for over three decades, teaching English language and English literature for classes 10, 11 and 12. The last portfolio she held was as Academic Coordinator, St. Ann's High School, at Kompally Hyderabad, under the same management.

Indira Narayan has conducted numerous workshops for school teachers and continues to do so. She is also interested in writing and blogs regularly on http://vinplaksha.wordpress.com/

 

The teacher looks at her watch. It tells her that she has a little over 5 minutes before the bell rings, the period ends and the class concludes. Continuing with the teaching will mean that she may have to start a new chapter/a new Lesson. The class will be only too happy if nothing is taught or nothing is done and the teacher waits for the bell to ring, so that she can leave. Brief though it may seem, 5 to 10 minutes can be long enough to engage the class in some activity.


Whenever I faced this kind of a situation, I tried some of the following activities which could be fun and educative too. I taught English Language and English Literature to senior classes.


It has been my take that spellings are one of the most important parts of correct English. For that matter, spellings are important in every subject. For example, in a biology test/exam, a candidate will lose some marks if he has misspelt a term particular to that subject. Same follows for all subjects. Words specific to a subject must be spelt correct else, marks are deducted. In English, all words have to be spelt correctly. Errors in spellings, made by students, trouble the teacher.


So, when time permits me during a class period, I read out about 15 to 20 words as a dictation. Most of the words are ones where students make mistakes frequently, especially the ‘ei’ the ‘ie’, ‘ou,’ and such words. After dictating all the words, I call one student, who is willing to write, to come and write the words on the blackboard. 


As the student writes each word, I wait for the class to respond or to point out that the spelling of a particular word is wrong. If the class accepts a wrongly spelt word, I correct it. This way, all words are written by the student. After this is done, I ask by show of hands, how many have got all the words right. It is rare that all hands are raised. Though my explanation above makes the activity sound time consuming, it takes less than 10 minutes for the entire exercise.


This activity is not limited to English only. Teachers of different subjects can conduct this in their classes. It may need a little effort where a teacher should make a list of all the subject specific and difficult words and keep it as a ready reckoner for fillers in class time. Allow all students to participate. This activity is an assessment of students learning in its own way. A creative teacher can improve upon this idea.


One-minute game is another filler. At random, ask a student to stand up, give him/her some general topic and ask him/her to speak on it for one minute. Here, a teacher can give a topic, or ask the student to look out of the window and describe for one minute, what he/she sees there, or speak on his/her hobby. The choices are as endless as the teachers can use their imagination to. On a general observation, you initially will find only few students with the ability to speak well, and with confidence. Many others will be diffident, shy or hesitant depending on their thinking ability, their being conscious of their peers in class or just resisting the exercise. Again, a subject teacher can choose topics relevant to what has been taught, maybe something that will have the student think out of the box. These games/activities are meant for fun learning; for proper utilisation of time hanging towards the end of the class and for keeping the class together. 


Please do not put any student down, encourage every effort if you want your pupil to move forward. There will always be some bright sparks in every class, who tend to come forward for every activity. Again, there is also a tendency in a teacher to give the same few students a chance to come forward, as they make it easy with quick response. Allowing a slow learner sometime to think and answer may appear futile and may slow down the interest of others. While this may be true to a certain extent, a teacher’s success lies in her ability to activate interest in all her students, the slower ones included or rather specially included. Being given a chance to answer without being put down, but with the little desired push, will bring a slow learner out of his/her limitations, give a sense of achievement both to the tutor and the taught. What better joy can a teacher get, than a participative class?


There is the guessing game, which is a good exercise in vocabulary building. The teacher can think of a word, give some hints such as the idea or the number of words and ask students to generate words. I would put small dashes as per the number of alphabets indicated. In my game, the alphabet from a certain word told by a student must be in the same position as in the word I would have in my mind. Example:


Say, I have the word ‘begin’ in my mind. It is a five letter word. If the word ‘night’ is said, only ‘g’ will be accepted as its position in both the words is the 3rd one. The position of ‘n’ does not correspond and hence not written. This is an activity that has students generate 5 letter words only (or as the chosen word may have.) Like I said earlier, this game can be organised with some subjects, if not all.


There are many more activities/games that can be worked out in the class as fillers which relax the mind and can also be de-stressors. This will be welcome by all students, provided it is participative, allowing all children to be involved. Team games are fun but, tend to become noisy with eager participants. While taking part and succeeding is a challenge for pupils; it is a greater challenge for the teacher, who has to activate her creative thinking skills and plan interesting activities. Put on your colourful thinking caps, dear friends and explore a world of creativity within you. Good Luck.


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