On Saturday morning I attended my first ever ELT lesson jam.
I had never heard of the phrase before, but it was like a group of musicians coming together, improvise, make music, and share what they’ve been doing. The only difference is instead of musicians we were teachers.
The session started with a teacher sharing some things that he does to help students practice pronunciation, specifically with connected speech. After that, we were put into breakout rooms with three teachers per room. The idea then was for one of us to share a lesson we’re working on, then the other two teachers give suggestions and talk about it. We then then repeated the process for the other two teachers. In order to make things visual and to think through our feedback, the organizers created a Google Jamboard that we used in conjunction with sticky notes to share our feedback. It was great because we were able to download it afterwards to have it as a reference. At the end we all chatted, and it was a really nice event.
In my breakout room I shared how I’m working on a playing guide for the popular game Among Us. In case you’re not familiar with it, it’s a social deduction game that you play online. You are on a space ship with the other players, and you are called crewmates. Your ship has encountered some problems, and you have to work as a group to complete a set of tasks to repair the ship.
The problem is that there are either 1, 2, or 3 impostors in the group. Their goal is to kill the crewmates and sabotage the repairs to the ship. They have the ability to cause a nuclear meltdown in the reactor, cut off the oxygen supply, turn off the lights, lock doors, and travel from room to room using vents that the crewmates can’t use. The crewmates can fix the problems in the reactor, with oxygen, and turn on the lights, but doing so will distract them from completing their tasks.
If you’re a crewmate, you want to either complete all of your tasks or vote out the impostors. If you’re an impostor, you want to kill the crewmates or get them voted out.
When someone finds a dead body, they can report it, and that brings everyone to a meeting. They can then chat about what they were doing, who they saw, and who they think the impostor is. They can then vote for someone to eject from the ship or they can skip the vote.
It’s a great game of social deduction, deception, and strategy. It’s also a perfect game that a good number of my students enjoy playing, and with the right practice and support they can play in English.
I’ve been practicing bit by bit with students in class, but the time has come to create an organized and comprehensive playing guide. Here are some photos of what I have so far:
I still have more work to do, but I got some great feedback from the ELT jam session. The other teachers in my room made the point that I will need to ensure that students continue to speak in English and not revert to Spanish, so I’m thinking of implementing a point system which is in addition to the actual game.
The other teachers had really great lesson ideas too. One teacher in Thailand shared a text he uses that give students 33 ways to practice English outside of class, and the other teacher in the group shared a lesson she does that includes superstitions from around the world in conjunction with an interactive world map.
Here is a screenshot of the feedback that we gave each other using Google Jamboard:
I was connected for the jam session for an hour and a half, but the time flew by. I really enjoyed connecting with other teachers and the concrete structure that was in place. We were required to bring a lesson with us and give feedback, and everyone meeting those expectations made for such a productive experience.
If you’d like to read more about the ELT jam sessions, see free materials that teachers are sharing or join a future session, you can find out more at www.freeed.com. As the name suggests, it’s a free community that brings teachers together by sharing lesson plans and ideas.
I’m already looking forward to the next session in two weeks!
