Hello, there. As a college student myself, I know that managing several tasks from different subjects at the same time can be tricky and exhausting, which usually leads us to feel very stressed at times. That's why I would like to dedicate this entry to this specific topic, as I've recently experimented myself, now as a teacher, the effects that stress can have even in learners from early stages.
I am currently teaching a group of teen and pre-teen students in a private language institute and I really like to work with them because they are very participative and hardworking, which makes my work very easy and enjoyable. However, every four classes, according to the rules of the institution, we are supposed to have either a midterm or final exam, something that occasionally used to stress my students out, even though they knew they were ready to be evaluated. When I started to notice this, I'd been working with them for a while and I thought that it was just a matter of time for them to calm down when it came to an exam, but after months, they were still very anxious and did not enjoy being evaluated at all. Despite they knew I was very flexible and helpful during exams, I could notice that they were struggling a lot, especially on one occasion during an oral evaluation when, because of his nerves and fear, a student moved from the center of the classroom to the corner during his presentation. That was the moment I decided that I had to help my students to overcome this, so I came up with a small set of ludic activities that, besides helping students to loosen up a little, could also help them review some knowledge before being evaluated, which was also one of the main factors that produced anxiety of them. Here are some of them:
1. Pictionary / Hangman: Grab a word from the vocabulary recently checked or allow students to do it and have someone to draw clues on the board in order for the rest of the class to guess and learn all together. You can do the same using the Hangman format. Also, encourage students to take the lead in the activity to spice it up a little.
2. Kahoot: Create fun quizzes on your own using vocabulary and grammar structures from your book's units. You can use predetermined quizzes, but if you create your own and personalize them, in my experience, it is more effective as students will recognize almost immediately what was previously taught to them and it will result easier to integrate all that vocabulary/grammar to their general knowledge.
3. Board trivia: This is a more physical version of Kahoot that I came up with about a year ago. You'll need students to split up in two or more teams, space for the students to move freely and a few markers. First thing, the teacher will ask a question to all teams (It can be a sentence to complete or a direct question), then students (who have to be lined up in front of the board in different extremes of the classroom) will grab a marker and discuss for 10 seconds their possible answer. and finally, at the end of the 10 seconds, a representative of each team will have to run towards the board and write their answer as quickly as possible in order to score a point. This is a fun game that can help students to bond, however, take into consideration that it is a very physical game and it is not recommendable to play it in small spaces.
4. Family Feud: Finally, this game, as the previous one, includes the teacher asking all their students, placed once again in different teams, a question about either vocabulary or grammar, but this time they will have to press a button/grab an object to have the right to answer and accumulate points to win. Here is also recommendable to let the students take the lead and come up with questions on their own in order to put their classmates' knowledge to the test.
These activities have been very useful for me when my students struggle to focus before an exam and I believe that instead of letting them spin around the matter and silently flap during class, keeping them active and distracted has been been the right move. What do you think about it? Do you have another strategy to relieve stress and anxiety from your students?
Farell, this is so true!
ResponderBorrarBeing evaluated always brings the worst fears. I think that, as you suggest, it is in our hands to help students overcome this irrational emotions only assessment produce in us. Thank you for sharing! This is 100% helpful.