Sometimes , just sometimes...you may get one of those students who can't focus for more than 2 seconds. Sometimes you get a whole class of them :) If you find yourself in either of these situations, I have a neat little activity that will bring your students into the "right here and now".
5 Things is a grounding exercise that works well in a number of situations...if a student (or class) is upset, panicky, worried and anxious, not focusing, just needs to calm down or maybe settle before an exam or test, this activity is very useful. It is also a great class exercise to make your students more aware. Sound cool? I think it is and often use it for myself as well as my class :)
Just an extra note- This also doubles as a great vocabulary/speech exercise for lower grade or ESL students.
If you are working one on one with a student or a very small group of students you can get them to do this activity verbally. If you are doing it with a large class of students all at once, you may need to get them to write their answers.
Step One : Get the student to think of 5 things that they can see...right now (remember this is to center them in the here and now) and state (or write) them
Step Two: Get your students to think of 5 things they can currently hear. and state (or write) them
Step Three: Now get your students to think of 5 things they can feel (like the jeans on their legs, the desk under their hand, their heart beating etc) and state (or write) them.
After this first round you move down to 4 things they can see, hear and feel.
Then 3 things, 2 things and finally 1 thing.
The whole exercise doesn't really take very long but it is quite successful at settling students and bringing them into the present moment to focus.
Make sure you elicit the answers as you go along.
For a free copy of these instructions and a printable answer worksheet (if you do not do this verbally) that you can give the students, you can download it all free at my TpT store.
No comments:
Post a Comment