5 Engaging Ideas for Online Teaching in Quarantine: [Keep Students Motivated]

Quarantine Online Teaching Tips

1. Gamification in Online Teaching

Now, if you’re a loyal reader of this blog, you’ve heard me rave and rant about online teaching games in the past (and offline ones, too!).  What better way to engage students that provide them with games?

Here are a few tried and tested online teaching games I love to use:

•  Mind Games –   This website is incredible for crossword puzzles, word searches, puzzles, kid’s board games, and more.  I especially love the vocabulary games. They allow students to have a lot of fun online, too!
•  Hangman and Word Games on Zoom –   To make it even simpler, use  Zoom‘s whiteboard feature to draw up a hangman or word game. For example, you can “find as many words as you can, using the letters of a longer word”.  So, using a word like “communication”, have students scramble the letters and make wors like “mat” or “moat”. Be sure to use Zoom’s “remote control” feature to let your students participate, too.
•  Speaking Board Game –  Of course, I often default to my trusty Speaking Board Game. This was my first printable for this site, way back a few years ago!).  All you have to do it upload the .pdf and share your screen. Then, use  Zoom’s “Annotate” feature to let students draw their “playing piece”, too.  Don’t forget to use an online dice roller to play the game!

By the way, both kids and adults love games. So don’t forget to check the links above out with your adult ESL students, too!

2. Movies & Comics for Homework

Just last week, I was chatting to one eleven-year-old I am now teaching online who seemed so stressed about his schoolwork. In fact, his mom asked me to play as many games as possible. The rest of the day, he had been overwhelmed with school meetings and homework.  Some schools here in Barcelona seem to be opting out of the “Zoom” format. Instead, they are assigning piles of work for kids to do on their own!

So, I used a few helpers to incorporate movies, cartoons, and comics into the mix!

Zoom, Netflix Party & Other Online Teaching Helpers

First of all, I’m sure a lot of you are using Netflix. I find it’s the perfect way to keep students engaged. Homework assigments like “watch this movie” or an episode of The Magic Schoolbus can be a hit.  In fact, I have my First Certificate students write movie reviews to practice for Written Essay #2!

Now, Netflix, iTunes and others seem to have gotten smarter over the last couple months, and blocked screen sharing via Zoom and Skype. So while you can’t watch a movie online with your students, you can assign it for homework and discuss it the next class.  Alternatively, check out the  Netflix Party extension to watch together (and chat about vocabulary words).

Be sure to suggest relevant and exciting movies your student is sure to love, though.  How do you know? Ask! I find the better you know them personally, the better online teaching goes.

3.Involve the Family in Online Teaching Presentations

4.Theme-based Online Teaching

One of the new ideas I’ve had for online teaching this term has been co-creating projects together with students.  Google Slides is a great way to do this effectively. It’s free, too.

Some themes you might want to consider are:

• Your student’s favourite characters from novels or films
• COVID-19 and its effect on our lives  (one of my students is currently doing a mental health and anxiety project based on this theme!)
• How To Quarantine Videos  (e.g. recipes they’ve learned, new skills they’ve learned, etc.)
• Quarantine Poetry and feelings journals (let your students express their emotions creatively)
• Many, many more  (share yours in the comments!)

5. Use Quarantine As a Learning Opportunity

• How will we exit quarantine? Will we be the same people as before?
• What’s the most important part of your life? Have your thoughts changed since school went online?
• If you could tell the world one message about what you’ve learned in quarantine, what would it be? (Do a Google Slides presentation – 5 minutes long).

Staying Strong in Quarantine Teaching

Sometimes, though, visualizing just isn’t enough.