Ideas for Socially Distanced Lessons

*By Bre Bailey, Tokyo '17*  |  *Published August 20, 2020*

You had it all figured out. You had games, methods, and ideas, all tried and true—and then COVID- 19 hit. Now what? Most Japanese schools are back in session, and unlike in much of the English-speaking world, remote learning isn’t an option. You still have to make active, engaging lessons, but now with new restrictions.

Maybe your school has decided:

* Students can only work in pairs, and only for a limited time (e.g. 5 minutes).
* Students can’t speak aloud or can only speak at a whisper.
* Students can’t face each other when they speak, to avoid spreading contamination.
* Students can’t work in pairs or groups at all.

If any of the above sounds like your school’s policy, this article is for you. Here we’ll explore some ideas for creating fun and engaging activities that work with the new COVID restrictions. Not all of them will work for every class, but hopefully you’ll come away with new inspiration to match our new reality.

(This article focuses on classroom interaction rather than remote learning. As of August 2020, the internet has many more resources on remote learning than on post-COVID in-person lessons.)

(A further note for ESL teachers outside Japan: an ALT (Assistant Language Teacher) is a non-Japanese classroom assistant to a JTE (Japanese Teacher of English). These ideas are primarily for ALTs.)

## ALT-Run Presentations

Like it or not, teachers will be doing most of the talking. But that doesn’t mean you have to become a tape recorder, or that your students get to fall asleep! One silver lining to the new rules is that most students can no longer read aloud from the textbook, which gives you more time and opportunity for new listening activities.

Assuming your JTE is willing to give you the time and technology, you can create presentations related to the textbook or simply for fun (like your hometown, a trip you went on, or any special topic you want to teach). The trick is to give your students (1) time and space to process what you’re saying and (2) a reason to listen. For more advanced classes, the reason to listen is obvious: they’re interested in what you have to say, or they want the reward of understanding a lecture exclusively in English. Less advanced classes may need another incentive: a multiple-choice question they need to answer correctly, or a word, phrase, or idea they need to listen for.

Below are a few examples of ways to make listening an active part of the lesson.

### Discuss and Vote

Multiple studies demonstrate the benefits of physical activity in the classroom: it boosts motivation, improves concentration[1], and releases stress[2]. Even raising a hand counts as activity! Physical activity combined with a pause in lecturing creates a mini break, which helps students of all levels process and retain what you’re teaching them. As such, the ideas in this section focus on how to structure that break in a way that works with social distancing guidelines.

For all of these suggestions, I strongly recommend giving students a minute (no more than one or two) to discuss their answer with a partner in Japanese or English. Some students have told me they enjoy that aspect of my classes most, particularly because Japanese teachers tend not to give them processing breaks at all.

* Start your presentation with a simple true/false question to gauge students’ knowledge on the topic. Some JTEs already do this: they show a picture of the topic they’re about to cover and ask students what they see or think. Asking students to raise their hands for “true” or “false” is the option for less talkative students, or for students who aren’t allowed to speak because of COVID restrictions.
* When transitioning between parts of your presentation, insert “pop quizzes”: multiple choice or true/false questions that students can consider alone or in pairs. These questions can be comprehension-based (“which of these is not a verb?”) or opinion-based (“of all the Greek gods we’ve talked about so far, which do you think is th    e strongest?”). After one or two minutes, ask students to raise their hands according to their answer, and reveal the correct answer if it exists.

* + This is a great method for multi-level classes. More advanced students can use the question to think about what they’ve learned so far, and less advanced students can take a quick break from English and ask questions to their peers. Not to mention it gives you and your JTE a chance to check up on the lesson!
* At the beginning of your lesson and/or at random intervals, ask students to rate their mood from 1 to 10. If the overall classroom mood is less than a 5, you might be able to persuade your JTE to let students check their messages, finish a last-minute homework assignment, go to the bathroom, or do anything else that will keep them from distraction later on.[3]

      Many of these ideas assume that pair work is an option at your school. If it isn’t, you can still encourage students to use these breaks for solo reflection; the point is to give students time to stop and think. You can even make an assignment out of it: students can fill out a worksheet of your questions or a postcard (maybe with a cute illustration on the stamp) to submit at the end of the lesson. The postcard format works especially well for self introductions, since you have the option of responding to their questions individually and in writing.

### Listening Game: Class Adventure

Once your students have gotten used to expressing themselves with a raised hand, more opportunities for class-wide engagement open up. If you have a lot of time between lessons, it’s possible to make a choose-your-own-adventure presentation that the class can do together or remotely. After students take time to discuss the choices or their answers, they can choose what to do next by voting in simple majority or making decisions in turns (from student to student or pair to pair).

* Assuming you have internet in the classroom, you can make an escape room or choose-your-own-adventure     narrative using Google Forms. For ideas, check out this Harry Potter-themed escape room made by a librarian in McMurray, Pennsylvania. Even Oprah recommends it![4]
* Another fantastic option is this Dragon Quest PowerPoint game made by a former JET in Akita prefecture. The class moves together through the game, but individuals or teams can answer questions to move the class forward. You can also download the file and adjust the questions or graphics to create your own theme. I did something similar to make my own Game of Life.

### Listening Game: The Original Game

This is an activity I’ve used for presentations that are hard to gamify, like when I showed pictures of my childhood in France, or when my students reviewed a chapter on Charlie Chaplin. The idea is relatively simple: the ALT makes a presentation and students write notes on what they hear. Then, in pairs or small groups, they have five minutes to combine and rewrite their notes on a sheet of paper the ALT or JTE gives them.

Once each team has their sheet of notes, the ALT comes to each team and asks them to share something they heard in the presentation. For each one fact or detail, that team gets a point. Here’s the competitive aspect: if one team shares a detail that another team has also written on their sheet, both teams get equal points. After one or two rounds, students learn very quickly to share details that no one else would think of, hence the (ironically unoriginal) title of the game.

A caveat: the success of this lesson really depends on the class’s attitude. It goes over a lot better with energetic students who act out what they mean to say, or creative students who write details that other teams think are too mundane (e.g. “Charlie Chaplin has a mustache”). One time, my students were so desperate to convey “Little Red Riding Hood” without knowing the English term that they threw a red blanket on their friend’s head. The point is: this game will bring the best out of good students, but quieter ones may struggle.

### Listening Game: Secret Sentence

One of my go-to activities, and one I’ve discussed on the Tokyo JET Wikia before, is Secret Sentence. Since you can adjust the level of the questions and since students get a tangible reward—first random letters for completing each question, and then a hidden word or phrase found by unscrambling those letters—it works at almost every level. But this activity works best in groups, which have been discouraged due to COVID-19.

Students’ worksheet (answers are, in descending order: ham, pork, cheese, mustard, pickles)A sample PowerPoint slide with an underlined “am” and “ee” (part of the words “ham” and “cheese”)
It turns out that you can apply the same principles (hidden letters that need to be unscrambled) to a presentation. I did this for a lesson about Cuba: I underlined certain letters in my PowerPoint presentation about daily Cuban life, and in class I handed out worksheets to students and asked them to write down the underlined letters as they see them. Once they collected all the letters at the end of the presentation, they unscrambled the letters to find the ingredients to a Cuban sandwich. They didn’t need to speak, but they still had incentive to pay attention to the presentation and could even compete with their classmates for the fastest time solving the puzzle.

[1] https://www.cdc.gov/healthyschools/physicalactivity/pdf/Classroom\_PA\_Data\_Brief\_CDC-Logo\_FINAL\_191106.pdf

[2] https://www.edweek.org/tm/articles/2017/08/08/learning-in-motion-bring-movement-back-to.html

[3] This recommendation comes from *No Hard Feelings* by Liz Fosselin and Mollie West Duffy

[4] https://www.oprahmag.com/entertainment/books/a32462960/hogwarts-digital-escape-room/

## Games and Review Activities

If you’re like me, the first thing you thought when you heard “no groups” was “no games”. It seems almost impossible to manage as many as forty players (the average size of a Japanese homeroom class) without grouping some of them together. Fortunately, there are several games that can be played as a class or adjusted to meet social distancing standards. I’ve outlined a few below.

### Criss-Cross

This game is probably the most famous among ALTs and JTEs. Also called *tate-yoko* in Japanese, this game relies on a grid-like desk arrangement where all students stand up and answer questions to sit down. When the teacher asks a question, one student volunteers or is chosen to answer, answers the question, and chooses “criss” / *tate* (all the students to their left and right) or “cross” / *yoko* (all the students in front of and behind them) to sit down with them.

If you start to rely on this game too heavily, you can spice it up with a few extra rules: students can only choose “criss” or “cross” three times in a row, for example, or they can ask you questions instead of you asking them. My favorite rule is to tell students that if they choose “criss” or “cross” and someone in the affected row is already sitting, the sitting person (or people) has to stand up again. It’s possible for the whole class to sit down even with this addition—challenge them to figure it out!

### Card Games

Ah, cards. They take a while to print out, cut, and group together, but if you finish that, you have a class set that can be used in multiple classrooms. Keep in mind: since the coronavirus lasts on printing paper for up to three hours[1], you may need to make extra sets if you have back-to-back classes. Don’t worry too much if you can’t, though—with proper hand hygiene, cards are some of the least dangerous resources you have[2].

Card games are a good way for students to work in groups while still adhering to social distance rules; since the cards have to be set on the table so everyone can see, students can interact with a meter or two of space between them. Try these variations:

* Play the Memory Game: print two sets of picture cards (or verbs, or nouns, or adjectives…) and ask students to collect matching pairs. Students can only turn over two cards at a time and then have to turn them face-down again, so they have to remember what and where each card is so they can collect a pair on their next turn.

* + A variation of the Memory Game: print two sets of cards, one with new vocabulary words and one with definitions, and tell students to collect both the word and its definition. This version is ideal for vocabulary introductions and reviews.
* Use cards for grammar drills using these resources from teach-this.com:

* + -ed and -ing adjectives;
	+ Modal verbs of necessity: must
	+ Modal verbs of possibility and certainty: may/might
	+ Conjunctions and linking verbs
	+ Articles: a, the, some
* Play *karuta*: students lay out a set of picture cards, and the ALT describes one of the cards’ words in easy English (for example, when describing the word “ball”, “it’s a round thing you can play with”). Students have to be the first to grab the card from the table, and the student who has collected the most cards at the end wins within their group.

* + This activity risks students touching hands, so make sure to get your JTE’s permission and follow all hand hygiene protocol.
	+ I personally recommend Katakana Karuta, which I posted on the Tokyo JET Wikia previously.

### Bingo

Bingo can be used for cultural activities, to learn new words, or—yes—to review new material. The easiest method is to have students make their own Bingo cards: give them a sheet with a word bank and an empty Bingo grid and encourage them to fill in the blanks from the word bank at random.

Recently I used Bingo to review a textbook chapter. I created twenty questions and answers from the material, and then I copy/pasted the answers into the word bank. I asked individual students my questions, and when the student said the answer, everyone crossed it off on their Bingo cards. I instated an extra rule: instead of getting four terms in a row (too easy!), students needed to cross off a two-by-four rectangle (i.e. eight terms) to win. If I had to do it again, though, I would have inserted some fake answers, so there would be more possible answers than spaces on the bingo card. Then they’d really be kept guessing!

### Chalkboard Games

Some ALTs have only the chalkboard to work with; I was never one of them. It should be clear by now that I work best with a PowerPoint, but with COVID shaking everything up, I’ve had to come back to my roots. The chalkboard is more than a place to record points: with the right ideas, it can host the game itself.

* Post-It Votes: put students in pairs or have them work alone, give each person or pair a sticky note, and ask them to write their name(s) on it. Divide the board into zones for each possible answer (“A / B / C / D” or “True / False” or “Real / Fake”, etc.). Read aloud a question, give students a moment to think, and then let them come to the board and place their sticky note in the zone that marks their answer. Reveal the answer and write a tally mark on the sticky notes in the correct zone; the tally mark counts as a point.

* + This game enhances the benefits of physical movement in learning, even more than voting by raising a hand. It’s much easier to see where the class stands by looking at the board than at a sea of hands, and the notes also make points more visible.
	+ If you want to avoid a crowd at the board (which nullifies the social distancing benefits), you can ask players to stand up row by row to place their sticky notes on the board. Since that’s what some Japanese movie theaters have decided to do, I call it the “theater” approach.
	+ Bring some spare tape, especially on humid days or for dusty chalkboards. There’s nothing worse than a sticky note falling in the middle of the game!
* The Flyswatter Game: divide the class into two or three teams and ask them to stand in a (socially distanced!) line in the aisles. On the board, write one set of possible answers in front of each team—for example, new vocabulary words, “true”/“false”, or “adjective”/”noun”/ “verb”. Every team should have the same set of answers in front of them. The students at the front of each team’s line steps forward; when you read aloud a question, the students compete to touch the correct answer on the board first.

* + It’s helpful to have the JTE keep watch; often a student may strike while you’re still reading the question aloud.
	+ There is a minor risk of contracting COVID-19 by touching the blackboard. If this is a concern, try making your own “flyswatters” from rolled-up pieces of paper that students can touch the board with. Be warned: those papers will probably end up swatting their classmates more than the board.
* The Around the World Game: pin up or project a large world map on the board. Put students in small groups or teams and give each team a small distinct-looking magnet. Announce a fact about a country, but don’t say the country’s name; the students’ job is to come to the board and place their magnet on the country they think you’re talking about. If their magnet is on or near the country, they can score a point. This game works particularly well for discussing holidays (Valentine’s Day, Christmas, New Year) and daily life (school, music, popular foods) in various countries. You can show pictures as hints.

* + Again, to avoid crowds at the board, try the “theater” approach.
	+ Students should only be touching their own magnet.

The question and picture that are projected on the board (note that the country's name is not written)The blank map that's protected onto the board - students must put their team's magnet on the country that represents their guessThe answer - any magnet within the circle wins a point
* The Typhoon Game: prepare questions ahead of time and assign points to each. Draw a grid of questions on the board with labels at the top (A, B, C, D…) and side (1, 2, 3, 4…). Draw a corresponding grid (for teachers’ eyes only!) on a spare piece of paper, assign questions to each space randomly, and mark two or three questions as “typhoon” questions. Individually or in teams, students choose one square on the grid (e.g. D3), you ask the corresponding question, and the team that answers correctly gets the points associated with that question. However, if students choose a typhoon question, a “typhoon” arrives and wipes the class scoreboard clean.

* + If your school has relaxed the rules on group work, the above method works fine. If groups or pairs are impossible, try it as a full-class game: if the class can finish the game with their points above a certain threshold (e.g. 100), the whole class wins. It’s also possible to split the class in half and have each half compete against the other.
	+ This game can get loud, especially when the class loses its points to a typhoon. Just like at the amusement park, encourage them to “scream inside their hearts.”

### Kahoot

Kahoot (stylized as Kahoot!) is an educational gaming platform designed by the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. Teachers can use the Kahoot website or a downloadable Excel sheet to create questions—multiple choice and true/false for free, or other question styles with a paid subscription—and project the questions on the board. To connect, students only need a smartphone or computer and the game code for their class; since the game works on browser, they don’t need to download any apps. As a bonus for remote learning, teachers can also assign a game to be played for homework.

    Of all the possible review games, Kahoot is by far the highest-tech option. Students love it for the design (including theme music), the ability to use their smartphone, and the live leaderboard that appears after every question. Even better, since the questions and answers are displayed only on the board, the game requires students to constantly look up and engage with the class.

However, teachers will need a computer, a projector, and an internet connection to host the game on their computers. Some ALTs have successfully hosted a game using a smartphone, but others may not have cell service or a proper adapter. If you want to use Kahoot, test the game with a coworker well before you use it in class.

[1] https://www.businessinsider.com/coronavirus-lifespan-on-surfaces-graphic-2020-3

[2] https://www.cbc.ca/news/health/safe-cards-covid-questions-answered-1.5628417

## Games for English Clubs

At most schools, English clubs were probably the first to go and—as restrictions relaxed—the last to come back. Clubs are smaller, but their constant close exposure to other members makes protecting them as challenging as managing a post-COVID classroom. Fortunately, these tried-and-true games (some focused on speaking and some on listening) excited students well before COVID-19, and their lack of need for physical touch makes them ideal even today.

### Slapzi

For anyone who wants to invest in something a little more professional, the card game Slapzi is excellent for Japanese students (and since the cards are laminated, they’re easier to clean!). The objective is simple: the game leader presents a black-and-white card with a descriptor—e.g. “can fit five in your pocket”, or “bigger than you”—and players compete to "slap" down a card that best matches the description. The concept is similar to *karuta* in that you have to be the fastest to put your card on the table, but it’s better for English education because in the event of a tie, you have to explain why the card you chose is the best card.

My English club enjoys this game so much that I need to buy a new set. My students bent a few cards in their haste to slap them down!

Image credit: Ebay.com.au
### Mafia

Also known as *jin-rou ge-mu* (“werewolf game”) in Japanese, this game requires no touching whatsoever. You only need a gamemaster (probably the ALT, or else an experienced student) and a deck of regular playing cards. In this game, students pretend to be members of a village who must find and execute the “killers” who choose one person to murder each night.

Count out as many cards as there are people in the game, but make sure you have the following:

* One to three Kings: the people who receive these cards will be the “killers”
* One to three Queens: the people who receive these cards will be the “doctors”
* One to three Jacks: the people who receive these cards will be the “police”
* Any other card indicates that this person is a normal villager

Students sit in a circle so that everyone can see everyone else. Each person receives one card and can’t show their card to anyone else. Once everyone knows their role, the game begins:

1. The gamemaster announces that it’s nighttime and tells everyone to close their eyes.
2. Once all eyes are closed, the gamemaster tells the killers to open their eyes and silently point to one villager they want to kill. The killers choose their victim and close their eyes again.
3. The gamemaster tells the doctors to open their eyes and silently point to one villager they want to protect from the killers. The doctors choose their patient and close their eyes. If the doctors and the killers choose the same person, the victim lives, and nobody dies that night.
4. The gamemaster tells the police to open their eyes and silently point to one villager they want to ask about. When the police point to one person, the gamemaster gives a thumbs up (or some other signal) to indicate that that person is a killer, or else a thumbs down (or another signal).
5. The gamemaster announces that it’s morning and tells everyone to open their eyes. If the doctors did not save the right person, announce who has died. The dead person can no longer speak, but they can share the role they had (doctor, police, or normal person) and they don’t have to close their eyes when the rest of the village goes to sleep.
6. The villagers get some time (1-2 minutes) to discuss who might be a killer. Ideally this should be done in English, but lower-level students may need Japanese to discuss more nuanced ideas. When time is up, the gamemaster asks everyone (except the dead person) to point to one person whom they think is the killer. Ideally, one person will receive the most votes and will be killed by the villagers, at which point the person can reveal their role.
7. Continue the game until all killers have been killed by the villagers, or until only killers remain.

Most students have played this game before in Japanese and understand the basics. It works best in a group size of eight to twenty people, and it’s a great way for a club or small class to bond while still respecting social distance.

### Ring of Fire

This idea comes from the fantastic website owlcation.com, which adapted it from the drinking game Ring of Fire (or King's Cup, or whatever variant you prefer). Again, you’ll need a deck of cards and students will sit in a circle, but you’ll also need several scraps of paper and something to hold them in. We used an old cookie tin from Universal Studios Japan, but you can use a bowl, a plate, or whatever you have on hand. Ask students to write four or five questions, one on each scrap of paper, and fold and deposit them in your container.

Once all students (and you!) have written some questions, the game begins. Shuffle the deck of cards and explain the meaning of each card to the students. It helps to have a written list for them to refer to. From the Owlcation site:

* “K: Ask anyone. (The person who draws the king must pull a random question from the bowl and pose it to any of their classmates.)
* Q: Ask a girl. (Same as above, but the classmate must be a girl.)
* J: Ask a boy. (Ditto, but a boy this time.)
* 10: Ask your teacher! (This is dangerous! They love it of course, but once they catch on to the game, they will start slipping dangerous questions in there, hoping to catch you, i.e. which student in the class do you think is the most attractive?)
* 9: Bunny ears! (Everyone must make bunny ears with their fingers. The last person to do so must select and answer a question.)
* 8: Words. (You choose a topic: The students must go in a circle naming new vocabulary for that topic. The first one who can't say a new word has to answer a question. For example: For the topic of fruit... Apple! Banana! Orange! Carrot! Oops! The person who said "carrot" has to answer a question!)
* 7: Pick again.
* 6: Touch your nose! (Like bunny ears, except students must now touch their noses with both fingers to avoid answering the question.)
* 5: Answer one question.
* 4: Ask the person on your left.
* 3: Ask the person on your right.
* 2: Answer two questions. (Ouch! The person who picked this has to answer two questions in front of the class.)
* A: Free card. (The student got lucky; she doesn't have to ask or answer any questions.)”

I’ve used this game to break the ice with newcomers to the club and to introduce my students to my foreign friends when they came to visit. As long as you’re careful to practice good hand hygiene, especially around the container you use to hold the questions, this game should work even with social distancing.

## Conclusion

COVID-19 has thrown us all for a loop, and Japan’s reaction to it doubly so. At first glance, many of the new social distancing policies are counterintuitive to an educational setting, and we ALTs haven't been prepared for a less interactive classroom.

In the words of Douglas Adams: don’t panic. The job has changed, but you can still create lessons that stimulate students while keeping them safe. Just start with these elements: (1) small teams and pair work if at all possible; (2) a method for students to communicate without an extended conversation (a vote, a slip or paper, etc.); and most imperatively, (3) a goal to the activity beyond “using English.” I prefer to use games because the objective—winning—is clear and compelling, but games are only a starting point for all the ways students can collaborate and teachers can engage them.

I'm eager to hear whether and how these activities work in your classroom. More than that, I invite you to share any other socially distanced lesson ideas you come up with. We’ve found ourselves in an alien environment, but as in all strange new situations, the ones who thrive are the ones who support one another. Good luck!