Low Effort, High Impact Ideas

"I believe it's a really good idea to get confident just with a pen, a whiteboard, and a few ideas in your head that you can pull out of the bag when you need them."

As a teacher of German, Spanish and French for 16 years and with 12 years experience as a subject leader, Claire Wilson is no stranger to having to think on her feet when it comes to creating and delivering engaging lessons for her language students.

This session isn't about providing replacements for your core curriculum or lesson plans but rather to give you a range of ideas and inspiration for when class energy is low, you might have been failed by access to computers, or when windy weather is sending students west (as Claire says, it's amazing the impact the weather can have!).

If you're keen to expand your repertoire as a language teacher, hit play on the video above as Claire shares her tried and tested activities, including:

📊 Pointless: based on the UK game show of the same name, students aim to come up with the least common vocabulary words related to a specific topic within a given time frame and the student or group with the fewest points wins

🏆 Who Dares Wins: students in pairs or small groups write as many words as they can on a given topic in a set time on a whiteboard, and team that writes the most words wins

🤫 Don't All Count at Once: students take turns counting in the target language, aiming to be the one to reach a number consecutively without others repeating it

🚌 Stop the Bus: students try to get a seat on the bus by providing correct translations before their classmates.

For those who might be welcoming brand new classes from primary school, you'll also find some creative and engaging ideas to help create cultural connections for students.

"I love active learning and getting students involved."

Thanks again to Claire for this super informative session.

You can follow Claire on Instagram here - and don't forget to let us know the responses you get when using these ideas!

Looking for more quick wins? Start your trial with This is School today to access exercises, resources and downloadable worksheets to enhance your language lessons.