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At the
Beginning and the End
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Two
"Memorable" Activities
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A scavenger hunt can help students remember
information at the beginning of their program, and producing a yearbook can provide
students with a souvenir to help them remember their time together. I believe that
teachers in language schools or training programs can adapt both activities to fit their
particular contexts.
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The first activity, a scavenger hunt, requires
people to work in small groups to find answers to a set of questions. People have to walk
to different places within a prescribed area to discover the answers, and there is a time
limit in which to complete the activity. All answers are written on a handout that lists
the questions; there is one handout per group. An element of competition is included
because the group that gets the most correct answers wins a prize.
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Teachers can conduct a scavenger hunt with their
students to present them with information in a fun way. There is always a great deal of
information to disseminate to students enrolled in language schools or participating in
training programs, and sometimes it is hard for them to remember all the important details
when they begin their course of study. Information which is provided to students through
their participation in activities, rather than just on a handout, may have a more
memorable impact.
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The second activity is to produce a yearbook.
When a course ends and it is time to say goodbye to my students, I always feel sad.
Although I have photos of many of my students, I want something more than that to remind
me of the good times we shared together. A yearbook is exactly the memento that I want.
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In the spring of 1996, I worked with a group of
Chinese teachers of English participating in the College English Teacher Training (CETT)
Program at Nanjing University, where I first tried these activities.
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Organizing the scavenger hunt
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For the scavenger hunt, I wrote ten questions
designed to elicit information about the CETT Program, the Nanjing University campus, and
the department with which the CETT Program is affiliated. For example, I asked students to
find out the following: Where is the CETT Program office? What floor in the Main Library
is the English Language Reading Room on and when is it open? Who is Mr. Huang, and what
does he do? Find the message in Susan's mailbox and write down what it says. (It was my
apartment and telephone numbers.)
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I divided the 26 students into six groups and
told them the rules for the activity. They had 45 minutes to walk around the campus to
find the answers and return to the classroom. The members of each group had to stay
together at all times; they could not split up to find the answers. Also, the students had
to use English as much as possible while they were searching for the answers to the
questions. The first group to return with the most correct answers would win a prize. To
provide more of an incentive, I did not say what the prize would be.
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When the time was up and all the groups had come
back to the classroom, we went over the answers. I had allocated only 15 minutes, which
was not enough time to hear each group's responses. (I would suggest allowing half an hour
for ten questions. And one hour to do the activity would give students more time to find
the answers.) Then, I awarded the prize to the winning group-a watermelon. I chose
something which was inexpensive and could be shared among all the students because I
wanted to create unity, not divisiveness.
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To ensure that the students realized the
positive results of the scavenger hunt, I asked them what they had gotten out of the
activity. In addition to the specific information they learned, the class came to realize
(with some leading questions) that they had achieved the following through the activity.
First, the scavenger hunt was a good way for students to meet each other. When I divided
them into groups, I organized the class so that there was a geographical mix and that the
four men were all in different groups. The scavenger hunt also introduced the students to
small group work-an integral part of the CETT Program. The hunt fostered cooperation among
the group members since they had to work together to achieve a common goal. It also
promoted the idea that students must take responsibility for their own learning. The
students had to ask questions to find the answers, and they could not be passive learners
if they wanted to be successful. Finally, a scavenger hunt is a typical American activity
(it is often done at children's summer camps), so there was a cultural element involved as
well.
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Producing the yearbook: Preliminary steps
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Producing a yearbook is also a typical American
activity. High schools and colleges have clubs for students who want to help create
yearbooks to celebrate the passing of the school year. Under the guidance of an advisor,
students meet regularly to work on the design of the yearbook. In the U.S., high school
and college yearbooks are produced professionally and are purchased by the students. They
have hardback covers, glossy pages, color photos, and often contain advertising.
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It was not feasible to produce that kind of
yearbook for the CETT Program. Even if I had my own college yearbook with me, I would not
have shown it to the students because I would not want them to feel that what they would
create would be only a pale imitation of the real thing. We could only make photocopies
for our yearbook, which would be distributed for free, and I wanted the students to be
proud of their work. I also did not want them to think they had to follow the format in an
American yearbook-I wanted the students to create a unique CETT Program yearbook.
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The first step in the process was to organize a
yearbook committee. I explained in general terms what producing a yearbook involved and
asked for volunteers to form the yearbook committee. Six students expressed interest; for
a group of 26, that was an optimum size. Larger classes may need more people, smaller
classes fewer, but I think that any student who wants to participate should be able to.
The project should begin about six to eight weeks before completion so that the students
and teacher are not overwhelmed with work as the program draws to a close.
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I next met with the yearbook committee and
explained that I was merely an advisor; they were the ones who would make the decisions.
The committee had to decide what to include, how to divide the tasks among themselves, how
to organize the layout of material, and what the deadlines should be for completing the
tasks. I gave the students suggestions on what they could include and after much
discussion among committee members and with the whole group of CETT participants, they
came up with a format for their yearbook. Some of my suggestions were adopted and others
were not, and some ideas proposed by students were included instead.
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The sections of the yearbook
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All the students wanted individual photos of
themselves in the yearbook. They also wanted photos of their instructors. One committee
member was in charge of collecting photos from the students. I collected the instructors'
photos. Black and white photos are better for photocopying, but some students had color
photos only. They decided not to take pictures of each other especially for the yearbook,
although I think that doing so would have ensured better quality photos. Blank spaces were
left around each photo so people could write personal messages next to their picture.
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I suggested that all the students write
something about their time in the CETT Program, and several students took responsibility
for this section. They distributed small, blank pieces of paper, about the size of 3"
x 5" index cards, and told people to write or draw on one side only. This guaranteed
that all submissions took up the same amount of space in the yearbook, and it also helped
the students focus on what to write by giving them a limited amount of space to write in.
Students could write a paragraph or a poem or draw a picture to describe what the CETT
Program meant to them. About half the students wrote entirely in English and half wrote
entirely in Chinese, while a few used both languages. Instructors in the CETT Program were
asked to write something too.
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I had mixed feelings about the use of Chinese.
While it meant that I could not read a lot of what the students wrote, many students
indicated that they could not express their sentiments well enough in English. Since the
yearbook was a souvenir for them as well as for me, I did not insist on using only
English. Next time, though, I think I will insist they use English only for these
submissions because they will have the chance to write in Chinese in the photo section of
the yearbook.
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Another of my suggestions that the students
liked was to include a page of "amazing adjectives." The yearbook committee
member in charge of this section wrote the names of all the students on slips of paper,
and then had each student choose a name. That person had to think of three adjectives to
describe the student whose name was on the slip of paper. But all the adjectives had to
begin with the first letter of the student's English name. The committee member collected
all the descriptions and then wrote them in list form on one page.
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After all the material had been collected, the
yearbook committee met to decide upon the layout of the yearbook. They had to decide not
only the order of the sections but also how to arrange the photos and the written
submissions on the pages. I made some recommendations but left the final design to the
students. All the material was glued to standard-sized sheets of paper for photocopying.
The committee decided to put the instructors' pictures first and then include their own
photos; three or four photos were put on each page in various positions. Lines were drawn
dividing each page into thirds or quarters so students could easily see where to write
their comments. The page of adjectives was placed next. The written submissions followed.
Three or four were glued to a page, and they all faced the same direction so it would be
easy to read them. On my own, and without telling the yearbook committee in advance, I
inserted one page at the end on which I had drawn a picture and had written a message
thanking the committee members for all their work. There were 23 pages and a cover
designed by one of the students.
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Finally the yearbook was ready to be
photocopied. Since it was a class project, I was able to use the copy machine in our
department. I made one copy for each student and instructor, plus a few extra copies. In
fact, two students lost theirs, so I was glad to have the extras available. The yearbook
committee collated and stapled each copy together. Then the yearbooks were distributed to
the students and instructors.
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Producing the yearbook was just the first part
of the activity. In the week that followed, every spare moment was spent signing them-all
the students wanted all their classmates and instructors to write something in their
yearbooks. It worked like this: One person would take her yearbook to another person and
ask that person to sign it. The person who was asked would find his/her photo in the
requester's yearbook and then write something in the space provided. Each person's photo
had blank space demarcated around it. In this way, everyone could obtain comments from
every other person involved in the CETT Program. Since each comment was written near the
picture of the writer, the reader would have a visual reminder of the writer as well.
Comments were written in both English and Chinese.
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It was easy for my students to use their spare
time to sign yearbooks because most of them lived in a dormitory on campus and saw each
other out of class. Teachers of students who do not live together may want to arrange a
specific time to sign yearbooks. They could have a yearbook- signing party or set aside
time in class.
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There were many benefits of this activity.
Besides producing a nice souvenir, students learned something about U.S. culture. Students
also got practice in writing and in expressing their feelings. Some students learned new
vocabulary words from the page of adjectives. Yearbook committee members practiced their
oral communication, cooperation, and decision-making skills. Artistically- inclined
students had the chance to demonstrate their talent. And by the end of the project,
everyone knew how to produce a yearbook.
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Both the scavenger hunt and the yearbook
activities promote group spirit. Both activities offer students the opportunity to use
English for real communication purposes and include an element of U.S. culture as well.
Conducting a scavenger hunt and producing a yearbook are two "memorable"
activities which many EFL teachers can adapt and use with their own students.
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Susan
L. Schwartz is a teacher trainer at the College Teacher Training Program at
Nanjing University. She also taught EFL at universities in China and Indonesia. |
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