Memory activities
Example activity: Memory tester
- Place a selection of flash cards on the floor in a circle.
- Students have one minute to memorise the cards.
- In groups, they have two minutes to write as many of the names as they can remember.
Drilling activities
Example activity: A what?
- Students sit in a circle.
- You show a flash card to Student 1 and say 'This is a hamster.'
- Student 1 looks at the flash card and asks you, 'A what?'
- The teacher replies 'A hamster' and passes the flash card on.
- Student 1 passes the flash card on to Student 2 and says 'This is a hamster'.
- Student 2 asks Student 1 'A what?', Student 1 asks the teacher 'A what?', and the teacher replies to Student 1 'A hamster', Student 1 replies to Student 2 'A hamster,' and so it goes on until the flash card travels full circle.
- When the group has mastered it, two flash cards can go around the circle in opposite directions. They will cross over mid circle.
- When students know the game, choose one of them to play the teacher's role.
Identification activities
Example activity: Fast Finger
- Stick flash cards on the board or on the wall (for very little people who won't reach the board!) in a line.
- Give a clue to indicate which flash card you are thinking of. When presenting a new lexical set for the first time, give the whole word, e.g. 'Say stop when the fast finger is above the cat'. When revising, or with higher levels, you can just give a clue, e.g. 'It's an animal that can't fly, but it can climb trees.'
- Ask students to shout 'stop' when your finger is above the required flash card.
- Then bounce your finger along in a random fashion to a silly tune until they shout 'stop' at the right time.
- When they get the idea, ask a student to be the Fast Finger.
- You can also use word cards instead of a finger. When the word is above the corresponding picture flash card students shout 'stop'.
TPR activities
Example activity: Ladders
- Students sit in two lines facing each other with legs out and feet touching.
- Each facing pair is shown a flash card that they must remember. When you call out their card they stand up and run over the legs of the others, the ladder, around the back and back to their places.
- The first one back wins a point for their line. If the students are very lively you can do it standing up to avoid trampled legs!
Comments
I m a beginner and found…
I m a beginner and found this very interesting. I have used flash cards in training and they really wok well
Teaching using flashcards
Flashcards helps learners understand easily as they make the lesson factual. Thank you!
Thank your sharing us this strategy of flash cards
I really like the strategy of using flash cards as one of the teaching materials, "a what and a hamster" are new things that I have gained from this content. Thank you
Using flash card
Flash card can make a content more interractive , help learners to memorise the content quickly also it is learner centered.
Using flash cards
Flash cards are very useful for learners can help them to engage in active recall or process wherein students actively engage in learning by stimulating our memories and creating lasting connections to the material
Flash cards
This strategy is helpful in teaching and learning process. Active participation develops via using a variety of flash cards. Another benefit is that learners feel loved and cared for while interacting with their teacher sitting together in a circle.
Using flashcards in teaching
Very useful and helpful in teaching and learning.
Flash Cards
Flash cards help learners not only to memorise but also to have a clear picture and meaning of what is being taught. Because they accommodate more than one different learning styles. So they help many learners to learn and think critically and become innovative
Thanks for sharing this…
Thanks for sharing this estrategies, are very important.
Flash cards
Using flash cards in teaching and learning process is very interesting and this can make learners to memorize, to criticize something that they see. In Rwanda we wish this system can be included in Rwandan teaching system
Memory tester is an adaptable activity :) according to age
I think "the memory tester" is an excellent activity to work with first graders because currently we have a large group, 30 students is challenging.thanks a lot.
Flashcard ideas
I really like the game "A what?" I will definitely with use it with year 1. I think I will introduce a basic structure with year 2 to have a more practice.
Flashcard is enough for year 1
Flashcard process is very interesting for learners if teacher can make more applicable. This is only my point of view but year 2 will be better for them who want and need mainly.
I agree with you, I think it…
I agree with you, I think it is fun and makes the lesson easy to understand
Flash Cards
Flash cards pasted on subject board and let the students to find according to topic
Activities
All are good activities. They are definitely fruitful.
Four Activities to Use Flash Cards in Classrooms
1*Memory tester: It is a useful activity to help students memorize words. I will try to make it more challenging and competitive: the first group that writes all the names appropriately, will be the winner.
2*"A what?":It is a good activity to introduce the new vocabulary. It helps the students memorize the pictures and drill the words .Also, the students may use different sound pitches to say "A what?" which will be fun. I will use this activity with my classes except the overcrowded ones because of time.
3*Fast Finger: I will use this activity with my students for reviewing words in order to reinforce their understanding and to memorize them.
4*Ladders: I will try it with my students. They enjoy TPR activities which will help them learn and have fun.
Activities
Very good. I like all these activities and it is good to alternate them in order to make our students motivated and engaged in our lessons as some learners maybe helped by one activities while others may be helped by other ones.
"A what, fast finger, ladders" when apply for my classes.
What?
Advantages: Children practice speaking a lot, which helps them remember sentences and words well.
Disadvantage: the game takes a long time if organized in a large group of about 30 students. Difficult to practice with sentence structures that have both questions and answers.
Fast fingers
Advantages: helps students react quickly, practice information connection skills, develops student capacity.
Disadvantages: the game mainly applies to consolidation and review activities.
Ladders
Advantages: helps students remember, react quickly, and move quickly. Exercise both mentally and physically.
Disadvantages: when implementing the game, you should carefully instruct which direction row 1 runs and which direction row 2 runs to avoid children running in the same direction, causing collisions.
Great piece of advice
I will try "A what" and "Memory tester" in my next class with children. Thanks for this good piece of advice about flashcards.
This is fun and intriguing,…
This is fun and intriguing, would like to practice it in the class room
Flash games!
Each game is engaging and fun. Learners will easily remember the teacher's objectives.
outstanding and beneficial…
outstanding and beneficial games making use of flash cards
Matching game
I use matching game by asking students to read words in flashcards and match the with the pictures on the board.
Putting ideas into action
A 'flashcard' of light, or an insight?
While research does seem to indicate that flashcards can provide a useful strategy for learning vocabulary, there are still many teachers who favour the serendipity of learning words as and when the learner finds them interesting/attractive.
This article http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2011/06/08/33eureka.h30.html?tkn=WOZFmIfDDYS%2BU0v%2BIV%2FaFYGVXlRL3eLHXNvn&cmp=ENL-EU-NEWS2 does suggest that the 'ah ha' moment of discovery when a learner connects to a word is critical. Not sure if this applies as much to L2 as it might to L1, or the role of McMurray's fastmapping theory. Like all things, probably a balance is needed, with a definite role for corpus-informed approaches and data-driven learning, using resources like Tom Cobb's lextutor at http://lextutor.ca
A ´flashcard´ of light, or an insight?
I think you are right. Anyway, what I have noticed in the teaching of vocabulary with cards is that most of the students, especially ´adults´ love this kind of activity. They enjoy a lot and get a lot of new words looking for the meaning of them in an English-English dictionary, besides they like to check synonyms and antonyms of these words therefore they can construct new sentences to improve their L2 language.
An excellent way of introducing new words