Junior+High+School

Information, ideas and tips for teaching junior high school.

Lunch groups (6 students per group, in a class of 36) //Materials needed:// topic cards, A3/B4 plain paper, black board, chalk, timer. In groups, students have 5 minutes to write as many words as they can about one topic on their paper. Then, one student from each group has 2 minutes to write their words on their column on the board. Teachers check spelling and total words. Team with the highest score wins, can do 3-4 rounds in a 50 minute class. Example topics: food, drink, sports, subjects, places, animals.
 * Group activities**
 * 1) Topic race:**

One column of tables is a group (6 students per group, in a class of 36) //Materials needed:// chalk, timer, letter cards. First student in each column of desks picks a letter at random. They start their first word with this letter. The next person starts a word with the last letter of the previous word. One student at a time can come to the board, and it can work like a relay race (where the come and write, then go back to their seat and pass the chalk to the person behind them.) 5 minute timer is a reasonable amount of time. When it's finished, the teachers should check spelling and total the points. Could get boring after 2 or more rounds.
 * 2) Board 'shiritori':**

Lunch groups (6 students per group, in a class of 36) //Materials needed:// Scrap paper for each student, A3/B4 plain paper per group, timer, chalk. Draw a 4x4 square on the board. Fill 4 boxes with vowels, and the other 12 with constants. (You can let the students pick the letters). Give the students 5 minutes to make as many words as they can using the 16 letters on the board, they can use each letter as many times as they want. After, let them write all their words on the board. Teachers check the spelling and total the scores. Could do two rounds with a warmup activity in a 50 minute class.
 * 3) Board boggle**