102 ESL Games and Activities - Book Review

Now just $2.99 on Amazon

102 ESL Games and Activities for New and Prospective Teachers I have skimmed through the whole book and about read half of it. I didn't find any new and groundbreaking activities, but I did find a lot of solid activities with a good basis in having students actively participate.

The writer is Miles Jaworski who has taught for 25 years in China, Vietnam, Ecuador and the United States of America.

Basically this book does exactly what it says it does. It gives 102 activities for new and prospective teachers.

What kinds of activities? There's a lot of speaking, some writing, some ice breakers, a lot of fillers and mainly drills (where students are tricked into having fun while learning...awesome!)

This is a sample of how the book looks in my kindle (in my case the kindle app on my tablet) and why it is awesome:

1. Each activity has a Language/ Skill Practiced e.g Past Simple /Past Continuous. Most games can be adjusted to practice whatever you want. However, when you are a new teacher doing a lesson on the past perfect (or another specific topic) for the first time, it can be nice to quickly find a game tailored to that skill.
2. In addition to a title each activity has an approximate time! When I first started teaching the HARDEST part for me what to figure out how long an activity should take. Now the author mentions that this isn't set in stone and it is key to remember that. Some classes will take longer and others won't need as much time, but at least Miles gives a general ideas.
3. Most activities require very little. So when you are assigned to a class without a computer, an IWB or a radio, it is nice to have these easy activities ot use.
4. If you don't have the Internet in your classroom you can download this to your tablet / Kindle and use it in class to find a last minute filler game.

Here's why it isn't the best

1. Most of these activities are fairly simple and you would probably have come up with them on your own / seen  them online / found them in a textbook.

Overall:

• If you are a new teacher, or a teacher who doesn't have time/ability to sort through the Internet to find appropriate activities this is great.
• If you had been teaching for a while but stopped and are just now getting back into it, this is a great refresher of some classics.
• If you are a new teacher who wants an overall view of different types of activities to do in EFL then this is a great e-book for you!

If you do download it let me know what you think! Do you like it more than I did, or less?