Lessons & Classroom Games for Teachers
The warm up of a lesson usually receives far less attention than it should. Teachers spend a lot of time selecting grammar worksheets to introduce and practice the language. Unfortunately, when it comes time to enter the class, only a vague notion of "let's do something fun" gets reserved for the warm up.
But it's important to realize that a well-planned, effective warm up guarantees more than just ten minutes of fun. In fact, a well-planned, effective warm up is critical to the success of your ESL lessons. Here are five points.
Point 1: The warm up sets the mood of the lesson because it's the initial activity. A fun activity increases energy and enthusiasm. Students also relax and feel less negative emotions, such as fear of making mistakes. Thus, with the right ESL activity as the warm up, you create a positive and energetic learning environment in which students want to practice and experiment.
Point 2: The warm up puts students into "English mode." You want students to be focused on English, which may prove difficult if the class hasn't met for a several days or more. The classroom may be the only chance for the students to speak English.
It usually takes about ten minutes to get the wheels turning, although different classes and different levels may take less or more time. Once in English mode, students make fewer mistakes when you introduce and practice the target language. They'll also have fewer slips of the tongue with already mastered language.
As a word of caution, though, a warm up that is too long steals valuable time from the lesson. Students have less time to practice and apply the new material, and so they leave the class less able to use it.
Point 3: The warm up gets the students prepared for the target language. If the lesson focuses on past hobbies, then a few questions on hobbies will get all of the students considering the topic. The warm up taps into already held information, in this case about personal interests. There's also the chance that students may inadvertently produce some of the key language, which you can make note of and use to present the target material.
Point 4: The warm up lets you watch and assess the students' abilities. With any class, you'll catch students on good and bad days. If everyone is a bit tired and unfocused, you may have to scale back the lesson objective. Conversely, you may have to expand the scope if everyone uses the target language quite well from the beginning. Assessment lets the teacher adjust what and how you'll present the material from the start.
Point 5: Lastly, the warm up lets you also determine who will partner well together, and who won't. Stronger students may not want to work with weaker students, or an older business professional may not want to work with a younger businessperson who has better English ability. Of course you won't be able to fully determine abilities or personalities for later pair and group work in such a short amount of time, the warm up will help signal some possible problems.
The warm up begins the class, sets the atmosphere, identifies your expectations for an ESL lesson. A warm up also gives you chances to assess students, which will later decide the type of activities, who will partner with whom, and the range of the ESL lesson. You should always pay just as much attention to the warm up as to other steps of the class.
