For my eleventh session of classes my C1.1 level focused on the theme of Art and Culture while my B2.2 level focused on Family Roles.
C1.1 - It's Time for Jeopardy!
When speaking on the theme of Art and Culture in the United States I couldn't think of a better way to engage my students than a good ol' fashioned game of Jeopardy! This format of the famous gameshow has captured the competitive side of my students in the past and it acts as a avenue to teach a few cultural nuances of the US along the way. For this session -- focusing on Art & Culture -- I decided to create a variety of categories for my students to choose from. Those being:
Sports
Music Artists
Traditions & Holidays
American Food
Famous Americans
Not only are games like this a good break for me as a teacher, but my students and I tend to learn from one another during the process. Between questions and answers I love it when my students ask furthering questions or explanations -- my favorite being "what in God's name is a S'more!"
B2.2 - Family Feud
This session's theme of family roles, while seemingly a dry topic at first glance, actually spurred many conversations and debates within my classes. I began by giving an example of a typical American family -- and which better to talk about than my own! Having given some background on the roles each member in my family takes on to support each other and the structure of our home, I then went more in depth to describe the many different types of families there are around the world. Subsequently, I then defined the very traditional roles a typical nuclear family which lead to a small discussion between table groups. I was fascinated to see that out of more than half of my classes I was not able to begin my activity for the day as these small discussions reached bigger claims, ideas, and large-group participation. To me, that is more than what I could have hoped for! If we had extra time during the class period I then described the current statistics of the many differing types of American families and then compared those to life here in Spain.
Furthermore, to finish off the hour my class played the -- very fitting -- game of Family Feud! Having easily split my classes into two "families", one student from each family would come to the front of the room at a time to answer a question. Whomever could answer the quickest -- and correctly -- would be awarded a point! Again, competition rules all!
This teaching session was full of games, interesting discussion, and many laughs. I couldn't have asked for a better way to kick off the beginning of my last month!
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