What did I Learn from the Training Sessions (Fatin)

Assalamualaikum and hello gamers, 

      From the training sessions, I’ve learnt that the most important element is clear instruction. The success of any activity depends on the instructions. Without clear instruction, there will be a lot of confusion for students. They will have trouble in figuring out what they are supposed to do. Because of this, the lesson will be less effective and the objectives could not be achieved. For example, during my training session with Aliya which is “Guess the Idiom”, students were supposed to draw for their friends to guess the idiom. Yet, some of them, instead of drawing, they used gestures to give hints. At that time, we’ve realized that our instruction was not clear as we did not explain the rules in details to them. We didn’t inform them that they were only allowed to draw and gestures were not allowed. And another thing that we overlooked is that we didn’t stress on the rules, instead if any of the students break the rules we just let it go. As a future, we should be firm with the rules so that the activity would be fair and effective for all students.

Firstly, it is crucial to inform students about the objectives of the activity. Informing objectives is like informing the students what they will learn and achieve from that lesson. Moreover, a clear instruction should be precise and brief. A teacher should first explain the activity and inform a step by step outline. Besides that, a short demo session would help students to gain more understanding towards the process and rules of the activity. Additionally, at the end of the activity, a teacher should debrief the activity. For example, ask students what they have learnt or acquired from the activity. Apart from that, we need to adjust the activity to suit with the students’ level and interest as well as the environment. For instance, if constructing five sentences would be hard for the students, then maybe it could be reduces to constructing three sentences. All this elements are crucial in making the activity more effective and interesting.

Apart from that, through others’ training sessions, I was able to see many different kinds of interesting and interactive games for mu future students. Thank you. 

What Do I Learn From the Training Session (Intan)

Assalamualaikum and Hello everyone!

From the training session, we have known a total of nine games. There are sure a lot of things to learn from the training session. Each of the game has its own style and different things to be explored and learned.

I had my training session with two friends of mine which were Aliya and Arifah. Aliya had her own game but as I needed her help, she was willing to help me. Thank you Aliya!

For the game, I have realized that there are several weaknesses from my game, the Spin Zone Sentence. Firstly, I have problems with the setting of the classroom. Technically, my game is suitable to be played outside of the classroom because it requires lots of space for the students to spin. But I could not do that because the chairs are not portable. Therefore, to make it safe for the students to spin, the gap between the table and the path where the students were supposed to walk was shorten. My initial attention was I wanted to create a path where my students would have to walk and show their dizziness from the spins.  Unfortunately, I failed to do that.

 Next, I believe that I was not able to show to the other students the sentences that their friends have created. This was because I asked my students to arrange the sentences on top of the table instead of asking my students to paste it on the whiteboard. As Mr.G has suggested, it is crucial that other students also learn something from their friends' sentences. I have overlooked this part which is rather disappointing. But I hope I would be able to conduct this game successfully if I were to conduct it again.

From the other training sessions, I have found that all of us have varieties of ideas that are very different from one another. There are a lot of things that I have learned from my friends. One of the lessons is a clear and effective instruction is needed so that the students would understand the game clearly. Aside from that, it is important that the game is demonstrated first, before the students play the game. This is to help the students to gain better understanding on how to play the game.

It is undeniable that the training session is very helpful for me. Thank you everyone for giving great lessons and to my partners, Aliya and Arifah, who helped me throughout my game.

Thank you.

One day before the language camp. (Wong)

One day before the negotiation camp, we have last meeting to make sure our camp successful. We prepare the entire thing that need for the camp and double check so that we will not miss something. Before this, we practice all the games by our own so that everyone know the games and can using those games to train the participants in the camp. We want the participants learn English through games.  Everyone takes their part and discusses the problems that they faced and we discuss the solutions and prepare backup plan to make sure everything is done well.  I want thank to my course mates and our lecture to give chance for me to involve in this program.   We are prepare and hope everything done well for tomorrow. Have sweet dreams and do our best for tomorrow.  

My responsibilities for the language camp ( Wong)

In the language camp 2015, I am one of the committee members in the negotiation camp. In the committee list, I involved in publicity. However, our language camp target participants change from primary students to university students so we no need to promote this camp to attract the participants because they are fixed by our lecture. Therefore, I become one of the facilitators in the negotiation camp. My responsibilities for the negotiation camp are to encourage participants to speak in English, to promote and learn English in a fun way, to guide and give instructions to the participants, to know all of the rules of every game, to give explanation in detail to the participants and make sure the participants involve the game with fun and safe.    

What do I learn from the training session (Wong)

            After played the nine different games, I had a lot of fun and learnt something new. I am involved in the game named “we are together”. It is a fun game and I think everyone enjoyed the game.

             After played the game, I found some weaknesses that we never noticed before. I think we should change the process of the game. Everyone should take a picture to avoid wasting the time. The students will feel boring and nothing to do while waiting the group to discuss their relationship. I should give the picture to everyone and they can discuss together with their partner at the same time.

After that, I should correct their grammatical mistake after the students presented. I should mention their mistake and correct the mistake so that they will notice their mistake. I think we will do better at the language camp. Those all from me, thank you.   

What Do I Learn from the Training Session (Afieda).

Salam and Hi,

Since our training session has ended, I would like to share my experience and what I learned from it.

First of all, I think it made me realized that we can be creative and comes up with a lot of fun and interesting games. We may not be confident with ourselves but as we begin the game and see our friends having fun playing it, we become more motivated.

However, there are also some flaws that can be avoided if we are more prepared. One of them is the time management. I noticed some of us may had spent too much time in explanation or giving demonstration. Thus, they were left with not much time to play the game. The other problem may be in dividing work load. Some of the students have very limited roles in constructing the games. They should carry the same amount of responsibility.

Nonetheless, I strongly believe that everyone have fun with the games we played in class. It would be so much fun if we can get together and recall on the mistakes done and discuss on how we can improve ourselves in the future.

I believe we have all learned a lot from the training session and we should make use of what we learn in the Language Camp. I hope we did well in the camp.

Thank you.

What do I learn from the training session (Aliya)

Assalamualaikum and good day, everyone!

Today marks our final day of the training session (yeay, alhamdulillah!). In total, we have played nine different games. I am very sure everyone who participated during the whole training session had a lot of fun, right? I, myself enjoyed the training session so much. Hence, in this post, I am going to share my most memorable personal experience throughout the whole training sessions.

I had to admit that the most memorable experience was when I was conducting the “Guess the Idioms” game. I conducted the game with the help of my friend, Fatin. While carrying out the game, I realized that there were weaknesses that I overlooked which include giving clear instruction or rules of the game and recapping the game to discuss the lesson learned from the game.

My game required students to draw out the idiom, not doing gestures of it, but I did not clearly mention about that at the beginning. In the end, most of the students do gestures aside from drawing. From here, I learned that an instruction need to be clear and we need to check the students’ understanding in order to play the game effectively.

I also overlooked on recapping the game, in which it was mentioned by Mr. G after I had finished carrying out the game. Yes, I agree that it is important to recap on the game for the students to know what they learned from the game. Only then, the students can feel that the game is meaningful and there is a fun way to learn English. This would trigger the students’ interest in learning thus increasing their intrinsic motivation to learn English.

All in all, conducting and participating in the training session was awesome. Thanks to my partner, Fatin for helping me and also to my classmates who participated well and prepared many interesting games.

Thank you :)

P/S: Looking forward to our next event, the negotiation camp! 

Camping Since 2001 :-)

Our Camps:
2001 Sek. Keb. Bandar Tenggara
2-3 January 2002 Sek. Keb. Air Manis, Kulai. Johor.
2-4 August 2002 Felda Pasir Raja, Kulai. Johor.
9-11 August 2002 Felda Tenggaroh 3, Kota Tinggi. Johor.
17-19 January.2003 Felda Tenggaroh 4, Kota Tinggi. Johor.
24-26 January 2003 Felda Bukit Aping Barat, Kota Tinggi. Johor.
11-13 July 2003 Kaizen Camp, Gunung Pulai. Johor.
15-17 August 2003 Sekakap, Mersing. Johor.
22-24 August 2003 Sekakap, Mersing. Johor.
6-8 February 2004 Felda Tenggaroh 6, Mersing. Johor.
13-15 February 2004 Felda Adela, Kota Tinggi. Johor.
23-24 May 2005 Kolej Komuniti Ledang, Johor
10-12 Mar. 2006 Tg. Bidara Resort. Melaka(For KTF/K9 Colleges) (Director: Bae)
23-24 February 2007 Kolej 9, UTM. Gunung Lambak Resort, Kluang (Director: Fatin)
24-25 March 2007 Sek. Tunku Abdul Rahman Putra, Kulai (Director: Sulia)
28 June 2008 Sek. Men. Keb. Pengkalan Rinting (Director: Atiqah Nasir)
08 December 2012 Kolej Tun Ghafar Baba, UTM (For selected UHB1112 Students)
10 March 2013 SK Masai (For selected Year 6 Students from SK Masai, SK (C) Masai, SK (T) Masai)
12 April 2014 SK Kota Masai (Director: Meia)
27 September 2014 SK Kota Masai 2
12 December 2015 Negotiation Camp. Kolej Rahman Putra, UTM

Traits of a Camp Facilitator

1. Dedicated
2. Passionate
3. Proficient
4. Responsible
5. Flexible
6. Enthusiastic
7. Skillful
8. Team Player

The Four-letter-word Game

Title: The Four-Letter Words

Skills: Vocabulary mastery (Environment Theme)

Control: Free

Level: Any level

Time: 30 minutes

Preparation:

You may like to prepare chocolates or candies like M&M’s, NIPS or Mentos and a list of 4-letter vocabulary of different genres (verbs, adjectives, and nouns).

Procedure:

Group work.

The students will be divided into groups of 4 or 5. Each member will be given some amount of chocolates/candies (random mixed colours). You will give code to every colour of the chocolates/candies for a word class.

For example:

Blue – Verb

Red – Adjectives

Yellow - Nouns

Every group will be given a word consists of four letters (related to environment) by drawing lots (from the list of four-letter words you have prepared). Each member in the group will take turn to generate a new word by replacing one letter. Only one letter can be changed at a time but not at the same place consecutively.

For example;  

Teacher: ROPE

Student 1: COPE (blue)

Student 2: COPY (blue/yellow)

Every word generated by the student will get one candy/chocolate based on the colour coded word. Students should make a word with the colours of chocolates/candies they have so that they can have them. Students who are able to make words related to the theme of environment will be awarded triple candies/chocolates instead.

Variation:

The time has to be set for 30-45 seconds for each member so that the member who can make the most words will be chosen as a winner after 5-10 minutes of the game. Also, if the student takes more than the time given, he will lose his turn. Students can change the group and start over using different four-letter words after 10 minutes.

References

Juarez, P. O. (2001). ‘Four-Letter Words’. The Internet TESL Journal:http://iteslj.org/games/9928.html

Comments:

I chose the 4-letter word game because it is flexible to be played regardless of the students' level. Also, I believe that it's important for the students to realize that a word can be changed endlessly by just one letter different. This might make them think again when they thought English is hard. Of course, the candies and chocolates are to motivate them to gain more after every achievement.

Prepared by:
Siti Nur Fadhilah binti Zulkaply
A11PP0034

Guess the Idioms

Hi. I'm Aliya Khairuddin. Each of us has been assigned to prepare a lesson plan for a language game of our own choice. While choosing the games, I recalled the games that have been carried out during my teaching practical and during micro-teaching sessions in UTM. I considered doing Bingo, but since that have been carried out once, and most of my friends are familiar with it, I thought of getting other alternative. I googled for some language games on the internet and found several games on idioms. This reminds me of my school days, where we played a lot of language games in during Language Month. Therefore, I had the idea to adapt one language game from one of the game sessions in my English language class.

Here is the lesson plan of the game that have been adapted:

Guess the Idiom

Language: Idioms, Vocabulary
Skills: Speaking
Control: Free
Level: Beginner (Year 5 and Year 6)
Time: 30 minutes
Materials: Paper strips with idioms written, five (5) small boxes, whiteboard/sketch book   and marker
Theme: Nature

Preparation:
A list of 50 idioms is prepared. Each idioms are written in a paper strip. The idioms are then put into boxes, with 10 paper strips for each boxes. The boxes will be given to each groups.
Before the game started, the students will be given a list of idioms with its meaning. They can read the idioms first to familiarize themselves with the idiom, to help them guess the idiom better.

Procedure: 
Group work
The game is played in two rounds. For both rounds, each groups are given 2 minutes. When it is a group’s turn, one member of the group will have to draw one paper strip from the box, read the idiom silently and illustrate the idiom on the whiteboard. The member may illustrate the idiom word by word. Then, the other members need to guess what the idiom is. If the idiom is correctly guessed, the paper strip will be taken out of the box. If it’s wrongly guessed, the paper will have to be put inside the box again.
This procedure will be repeated for other paper strips of idiom until the 2 minutes have ended. Then, the next group will do the same. After the first round have ended, the first group will start the second round again, followed by the other groups. For the second round, the game will only be played for 1 minute and 30 seconds for all groups. At the end of the second round, each groups will count how many paper strips are put outside of the box. The group with the most paper strip out wins.

-----------------------------------------------------------------

Basically, in this games, the students need to draw out the idioms. In the original game, the students need to act out the words from the idiom. There is one important thing to do before playing this game in class, which is to expose the students to the idioms in previous classes. This is because idioms are difficult to remember, hence using unfamiliar idioms in this game will make this game difficult.

That is all from me. Thank you :)

Sentence Relay

Good evening everyone, this is Chang Jia Jen.  This is my game lesson plan. Basically about constructing sentences. 

Title: Sentence Relay

 Language: Constructing sentences related to environment verbally based on students’ vocabulary and grammar knowledge

Skills: Speaking

Control: Free

Level: Intermediate and Advanced

Time: 30 minutes

Materials: Projector, LCD and PowerPoint slides

Preparation: Write a word using PowerPoint. Every words should be separately typed in each of the slides.

Procedure:

Arrange the students into several groups. Each group should consist of eight to ten students. Every group is required to form a circle. In each circle, assign a student randomly to be the captain of the group. Display a word to all students by using projector. The captain in each group will build a sentence by using the word given as the first word of the sentence. The sentence must be constructed using at least four words. Then, the next student will start a new sentence using the last word of the previous sentence constructed by the captain as the first word of the new sentence. The steps will be repeated until the last person of the group. The turns taking sequence will be in a clockwise pattern in the circles. The first group that complete the round is the winner. On the next round, another student will be selected as the new captain in every group.

Example: The word given is “clean”

First Person (Captain): Clean the aquarium now to save the fish!

Second Person: Fish lives under water.

Third Person: Water in the river is dirty because it is polluted.

Fourth Person: (continue)…………….

Note: Some words that end a sentence cannot be used to start a sentence. It has to be replace with another word that has the same definition to ensure that the sentence is grammatically correct.

Example: Provided that if the last word of the sentence is ‘him’. The next person will have to start the sentence using the word ‘he’ because starting the sentence with the word ‘him’ is grammatically incorrect.

Variation: None

Acknowledgement/references: None

Comment:

This game is selected primarily to enhance students’ vocabulary and grammar knowledge. To enhance vocabulary knowledge, students will be asked to use the last word in the previous sentence to start a new sentence. Through constructing the sentence, students are able to understand more on the definition of the particular word used because they can use the word to construct a sentence which is relevant to the context of the word. Thus, it enhances students’ knowledge on vocabulary. As for the grammar, students are required to construct sentences with at least four words. Therefore, students can polish their skills on SVO structure. The reason that I chose this game is because I find this game quite challenging and interesting. First, it require students to understand the meaning of the word, only then, they can construct a sentence using the word given. The most challenging part is the word has to be the first word of the sentence. And also, it is suitable for their age because this is their right time to learn constructing sentences.

Comment

Basically, this game enables the students to brainstorm some ideas in order to answer the different category given to them. Perhaps, students just need to recall what they had learnt in their previous class or they might also experience it in their daily routine. Since the students are arranged in several groups, they may able to share and exchange their ideas with each other. Thus, the teamwork spirit can be promoted among the group members which is important in making the game become successful. Besides that, while the students perform the game, they can seek for the clues from the surrounding of the environment in order to answers the given category. Hence, teacher’s role is to assist the students when they face the difficulties in answering the questions. Moreover, the different example of the category prepared in this game is suitable for all level of the students where all of the students by hook and by crook should take the opportunity answers the questions bravely.  

Lesson plan:

                              BRAINSTORMERS

Language	Practicing the words based on the category given
Skills	Speaking, Listening and Writing
Control	Free
Level	Any Level
Time	20-30 minutes
Materials	A4 Paper/Drawing Paper/Pencil/Pens/Markers/Stopwatch
Preparation	Write different categories to brainstorm on the drawing paper

Procedure:

Group work.

Students are divided into several group. Each group will sit in a circle. Each group choose one student to be the runner. The runner go to the teacher’s drawing paper and read the category. The runners go back to their group and discuss the category with their group members. Group members will have to brainstorm the answers for the category. Once they finish the task, they will shouts “STOP”. The group will call out their answers and teacher will give one mark for each of the points under the category. Meanwhile, if there are two or more groups that shout at the same time, teacher will mark for both of the group, however, the winning group will be decided based on the highest points achieved by the group member.

Students will proceed with the next category and so on. At the same time, students may also brainstorm the category by writing their answers based on what they see, feel, touch, listen or think/experience about the surrounding environment. For example, the category “If you had an animal as a pet, which animal would it be? Their answers could be a wild creature such as the squirrel, worm, or insect.

The game will proceed with the next category and so on.

Examples of the Category:

1. Five wild animal that you wish as your pet.
2. Seven things to do on holiday.
3. Five words that start with alphabet letter “P” in the pollution.
4. Five ways to reduce pollution in our country.
5. Three ways to keep fit.
6. Five reasons for being late to class.
7. Seven things you do before you go to bed.
8. Three activities you can do in the jungle.

References

7 Great Outdoor Activities for your ESL Students: How to have Fun in the Sun and Teach English. Retrieved 2015, November 28 from http://busyteacher.org/19874-7-outdoor-activities-teach-english-esl.html

BRAINSTORMERS

 PREPARED BY: Dolly Anak Johnicol 

Comment

Through this game, students are given the opportunity to brainstorm on the knowledge regarding the nature. Students can seek for the clues from the surrounding of the environment in order to answers the questions given by the facilitator. Hence, teacher’s role is to assist the students when they face the difficulties in answering the questions. Apart from that, the different example of the category prepared in this game is suitable for all level of the students where all of the students by hook and crook should take the opportunity answers the questions bravely. BRAINSTORMERS also promote the teamwork spirit among the team members which students able to work as a team in order to make the game successful. BRAINSTORMERS also allow the participant to share and exchange the information together. 

Below are the game that are included in my lesson plan:

Language	Practicing the words based on the category given
Skills	Speaking, Listening and Writing
Control	Free
Level	Any Level
Time	20-30 minutes
Materials	A4 Paper/Drawing Paper/Pencil/Pens/Markers/Stopwatch
Preparation	Write different categories to brainstorm on the drawing paper

Procedure

Group work.

Students are divided into several group. Each group will sit in a circle. Each group choose one student to be the runner. The runner go to the teacher’s drawing paper and read the category. The runners go back to their group and discuss the category with their group members. Group members will have to brainstorm the answers for the category. Once they finish the task, they will shouts “STOP”. The group will call out their answers and teacher will give one mark for each of the points under the category. Meanwhile, if there are two or more groups that shout at the same time, teacher will mark for both of the group, however, the winning group will be decided based on the highest points achieved by the group member.

Students will proceed with the next category and so on. At the same time, students may also brainstorm the category by writing their answers based on what they see, feel, touch, listen or think/experience about the surrounding environment. For example, the category “If you had an animal as a pet, which animal would it be? Their answers could be a wild creature such as the squirrel, worm, or insect.

The game will proceed with the next category and so on.

Examples of the Category:

1. Five wild animal that you wish as your pet.
2. Seven things to do on holiday.
3. Five words that start with alphabet letter “P” in the pollution.
4. Five ways to reduce pollution in our country.
5. Three ways to keep fit.
6. Five reasons for being late to class.
7. Seven things you do before you go to bed.
8. Three activities you can do in the jungle.

ACTION FABLES

Prepared By: Nurul Ain Binti Abdullah (inspired from https://www.ecu.edu/cs-hhp/exss/upload/MSE%20Language%20Arts.pdf )

Skills            : Speaking skills, Grammar

Controls       : Free

Level            : Intermediate

Time             : 15-20 minutes

Materials       : A Mahjong paper/white board

PREPARATION:

Various sentence parts along with the corresponding physical activities for each sentences should be listed earlier on a mahjong paper or whiteboard.

Procedure

 The teacher reviews various sentence parts.

The teacher lists various sentence parts on the chalk board, along with corresponding physical activities for each sentence part:

a.       Article – clap their hand 3 times

b.      Noun – hold their friends’ hand

c.       Verb – hold their nose and said ‘krik krik’ 2 times

d.      Adverb – show ‘peace’ symbol and say ‘cheese’

e.       Adjective – lift up both of their hands

f.       Pronoun – clap both of their cheeks 3 times

g.      Preposition – do a star jump

h.      Conjunction – stand up and sit down simultaneously (3 times)

      The student who sits in the first seat on the first row of desks says one word to begin a sentence (i.e., “The”).

       All students complete the corresponding activity for that sentence part.

      The 2nd student in that row then adds another word (i.e., “green”) and students complete the corresponding activity for that sentence part.

      This continues going down each row so that the class creates their own silly story, each student adding one word at a time to form a sentence.

      

      COMMENT:

       This game is actually build to enhance students creative thinking skills and students knowledge on part of speech. I choose this game because it is not just a sit-and-think game, instead they have to do some gestures while thinking. It was aimed to make the students being active and at the same time learn something. 

We Go Together!

Objectives:      -To enhance students’ thinking skill

-To pair the students up based on the objects they pick up and have them say why they are together

Skills: Speaking

Control: Free

Level: Basic and above

Materials: Picture of objects or things that related to nature and environment.

Preparation:

Prepare as many pictures of things that related to nature and environment. Choose the pairs of things that have connection with each other.

For examples: water, fish, soil, worm, tree, sun, flowers, bees, cat, dog, etc.

Procedure:

Demostration: 5 minutes

1.      Facilitators explains the rules of the games

2.      Facilitators show the examples and practice it with the students

Playing the game : 20 minutes

1.      Display the pictures on the desk/wall.

2.      Each students need to choose one of them and hold it.

3.      When all the students have the pictures, they need to show to the group.

4.      The students need to form pairs based on the connection existing between their objects.

5.      After form a pair, students need to tell the group why they are together and why they need each other. They may create their own story or situation in order to strengthen their reasons why they need each other.

6.      The pairs that come up with the most creative reasons will be the winner.  

Debriefing : 5 minutes

1.      Students are asked on what they have learnt from the game.

Variation:

To make this activity more challenging, come up with the concept of the recycling. For example, pen and  empty mineral bottle. Students will come up with the ideas to use the bottle to make pencil case. Other than the concept of recycling, ask the students to come up with an unsual purpose for the object. For example, horse and house. So, they can say, in order to save the environment, they will use the horse to ride home.

Comment:

This is just a simple game. Actually this game is suitable for the warm up activity that will also pairs the students up for what will come next. However, this game will train the students to think creatively and to think outside the box in order to create a reason on why the need should be together and need each other. Other than that, this game also create students’ awareness on our real life situation that is sometimes we need to depend to others in order to make our life more comfortable.

Reference/Acknowledgement:

Thelma Peres and Elton Carvalho from www.gamesinclass.blogspot.my