If you have back-to-back lessons, or are sent to cover for a sick colleague at the last minute, you might find yourself in a situation where you have your class in front of you but haven't yet cleared up your materials from the previous lesson, or simply don't know what to do with this one. Time to buy yourself 5 minutes to think.
Rule number one: keep cool. Smile, and come up with a quick exercise for them.
If you know the group
- Write three questions or statements on the whiteboard and ask students to discuss them in pairs, find a compromise, or rank them. For example:
a) Which city is the most beautiful in the world?
b) English is the easiest language on Earth.
c) The three best dishes in my country are: 1) pizza, 2) ice cream, 3) pasta carbonara. - Give them a picture from the book to describe in pairs. They could, for example, make up a background story for it (which might also lead nicely into the listening task), or simply practise saying as much as possible about one picture.
- Ask them to check their homework in pairs, then encourage them to ask you only about the answers they couldn't agree on.
These quick tasks will give you 5 minutes to close down the previous lesson in your mind, tidy your desk, and get into this one. Start with open-class feedback.
If you don't know the group
- Tell the students that their teacher is unwell and ask them to write a quick "get well soon" note for him/her.
- Ask them to discuss in pairs who you might be, where you might be from, and any other details about your life (married, children, hobbies, etc.).
- Ask them to write down one thing they'd like to do in this lesson. While they're doing this, ask two of them to show you their books and notebooks, so you can get an idea of what point they're at. Then ask them about their discussion and give them feedback.
After that, everything depends on your talent for improvisation.