Learning English

Top tips for things you can do in a new class

What can you do on Day 1 with a new class? Sian and Dan talk about 3 things.

Watch the video and complete the activity

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Did you like that? Why not try these?

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3 things to do with a new class

Day 1 with a new class can be scary! It's important to help students feel comfortable. Keep things light and easy.

Break the Ice
Icebreakers, are a great way to help a new group come together. They should be things which allow everyone to participate with no embarrassment:

Lie to me – Students write three sentences on the board, two true and one a lie. Other students interrogate to work out which is the lie.

What's in your pocket – Ask students to empty their pockets, bags, wallets etc.  to find an object which is significant to them (not a mobile phone! It's too easy). Allow the group time to examine them all. Then have them guess why each object is significant. Finally, get the owner to talk about their object to the class.

Imaginary Line – Draw an imaginary line down the class and have students stand on it. Then offer two choices, one left and one right. E.g. Cats or dogs. Students move towards their preference and talk about why. Then get group A to tell group B why they are wrong and vice versa.

Need Analysis
Day 1 is the best for needs analysis. It allows you to see what your students have done, expect to do, and helps you plan for the course. Most needs analysis consist of a survey. Here are a couple of other ideas:

Cards – hand out cards with topics/ vocabulary groups/ grammar/ skills on them. Get students to rank the cards in order of what they would like to focus on.

Photocopy – If you use a student's book – and have free-reign over your curriculum - photocopy the contents page and give it to the students. Have them work in small groups to debate and choose which they would like to focus on.

Rules
Day 1 is a great time to establish class rules. Depending on your class and school, you could get students to debate some rules for the class. This gets them invested in the class, gives them some responsibility, and makes them more likely to follow them. Homework, use of first language, and lateness are a good example. They can even set rules for the teacher!

It's also a great opportunity to review modal verbs of obligation: must, should, can, etc.

To do

Try our quiz to see if you've picked up our tips.

Get involved

Well, those were just a few ideas that we here at BBC Learning English had, but we know that you teachers out there have lots of fantastic ideas too, and we'd like you to share them with us and everybody else.

If you have a great tip or technique for day 1, or anything else, please email us at learningenglish@bbc.co.uk. Your email could be posted here on this page, or may even be mentioned in our show.

We are also looking for video tips to include in the programme. In order to do this, please include whether or not you'd like to be included for video with your tip.

End of Session 4

Next up is Learners' Questions, our series where we choose one question sent in by an English language learner and provide an answer. What will this week's question be? Join us in Session 5 to find out.