Conversation Balls
Nick Lange
| GRADE LEVEL: | SHS 1,2, or 3 |
| SKILLS: | Speaking, Reading |
| TIME: | 5-10 Minutes |
| MATERIALS: | Printed Conversation Framework(optional), paper or plastic balls |
OBJECTIVES:
1. Encouraging student awareness of the flow of conversation in English.
2. Encouraging conversational fluency by allowing the student to check their conversational style and take note of improvement opportunities.
PROCEDURE:
1. Start class
2. While gesturing, explain that in a friendly volleyball(tennis) match, the ball is always moving back and forth... back and forth... back and forth... and if one person holds onto the ball too long (unnecessarily), the process will fall apart. Explain that conversations in English are very similar (especially with four-second Americans)
3. While moving a ball gently back and forth between either a JTE or a student, have a simple conversation about the weekend. Pass the ball to the other party after you finish speaking
4. After the conversation, put the students into pairs
5. Give every pair one ball
6. Have them all pull up their conversational dialogues or, alternatively, ask them to have their own version of your conversation
7. Let the students speak for two minutes, walking around to assist breakdowns and make sure they don't get carried away trying to speak too fast
8. Repeat the activity with different partners, decreasing the amount of available conversational time each rotation
9. End the activity and take back the balls
10. Ask the students to reflect on how they felt they did
11. Answer any questions
12. Move onto the rest of the lesson, which might focus on frequent trouble spots, phrasing issues, etc.
13. At some further point down the line (maybe a month later, depending on your class), repeat the activity
14. Check to see if they are feeling any better with their performance
NOTES:
- Make sure to keep the initial conversation topic's level FAR below their actual level - a priori, we aren't worried about grammar, phrasing, or pronunciation issues.
- This should be a confidence building application, as such, make sure not to single anyone out.
- Some people naturally speak s...l...o...w...l...y. There is no such speed as "perfect." As such, there will be some variation among the students - what we are trying to head off are excessive violations of the conversation flow.
- Ideally done in a 20-student sized Team Teaching environment, although it doesn't have to be
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