My main is to write this post is to find ways to make the online classroom more like our usual face-to-face classes. I’ll add some websites and apps but I wanted to avoid the quiz-makers, game-makers, etc. Here you can find what I’ve come up with. Please add more 🙂
1. Start the day with check in questions:
This app is actually designed for Daresay’s team meetings but it can also be used in a language classroom or the questions can inspire you to develop your own check-in questions. These kinds of questions can wake the kids up, give them a chance to speak their mind. The app can also be used as a follow-up activity for Conditionals or a warm-up activity after you teach Conditionals.
2. Photos from our windows
Ask students to take a photo from their window and then upload it on a Padlet / Jamboard Classroom (without their names) Then put them in groups in breakout rooms and ask them
- to compare the views.
- choose 3 of the photos and describe what they see
- to find out whose photos they were by using modals of deduction.
3. Write a story in turns
Write the students’ names on a Random Name Picker tool. Create a Google Document, write the first sentence of your story on the document and share the link with your students. Tell them, you will spin the RNP and the person on it will add a sentence to continue the story. This can be done for the narrative tenses, linking words. You can also use the same idea to write chain stories.
4. Find 5 things in common
This ice-breaker will be useful at the beginning of a new term and will help students to get to know each other. Prepare a Jamboard with multiple pages (one page for each group). Team students in 4-5s depending on the class number. Share the Jamboard link and explain which group will write on which page. Tell them they will speak with each other and find 5-8 things in common and write them on different sticky notes.