First, I will mention some general ideas to keep in mind when teaching with flashcards, then I will suggest specific games that can be played. Because we are dealing with ESL kids, there are some important things to keep in mind when implementing these activities.
Teaching the activities:
- Model the activity between yourself and one or two of the students. As students attentively observe, select some of the better listeners to expand your game with.
Teaching with centers:
- If you are using centers, thoroughly model activities first to ensure that your ESL kids understand what to do! Playing these activities as a class, several times, should give them a good head start.
- Create mixed ability groups. This allows kids who easily understand game rules to teach them to peers as they play.
- Once a particular game is learned, such as memory, it can be played with any set of flashcards. As the year progresses, slowly build up your collection of games.
- Make rules for the center areas! ESL kids are visual learners, so use pictures.
- Teach the kids to put flashcards away when they are finished.
- There is a lot more than this when it comes to teaching with centers! I would definitely confer with your fellow teachers and consider ordering a book on the subject.
Activity ideas:
- Memory. Shuffle two sets of flashcards and place them face down on the table. Ideally they will be placed in the shape of a rectangle or square. One student turns a flashcard over. After turning the flashcard over they name the flashcard that they see. A necessary rule for this game is that they must speak! Silently flipping flashcards over to find the match doesn’t really server our purposes here. ESL activities should include talking whenever possible. After they have flipped the first flashcard over they are to flip over a second flashcard in hopes of finding a match. If a match has been found, they keep both flashcards. It is now the second student’s turn. They continue until all flashcards are picked up. For more advanced students, have them create sentences with the flashcards.
- More to come…