I recommend you use an icebreaker or a warmer.

This website is very interesting and here you can find excellent worksheets.

There are also other useful links, where you can find many tips:

Another suggestion is to give a "getting to know you activity".

Here you can find many things: http://www.educationworld.com/a_lesson/lesson/lesson019.shtml

When you get to know your students, you prepare activities that are interesting for them!! Find out what are their hobbies, when is their birthday, what are their favorite songs and so on! A getting to know you questionnaire might be helpful for you to remember all their information.

 

Hope that helps you!

Good luck!!

 

Diana

 

What I usually do with first classes - which by the way are always a great pleasure as you, as a teacher,  are getting to know other students, and similarly students themselves are getting to know each other - (What I usually do) is some pair work where they are given a set of questions prepared in advance (for instance. tell us about yourself, how long have you been learning English, where, what are your motivations, Have you ever been to an English speaking country, what are your priorities of study, how often are you exposed to English, what do you do outside to maintain your English, what areas  in English are you more / less at ease with, what attitudes do you have towards correction, what are your future projects, tell us about your hobbies.... among many other examples)

Just make sure student A �s questions are differnet from students B �s.

 

The interest of this activity is that it definitely encourages the shy students to do some speaking when answering their partner �s questions. Obviously, when a student is answering a question, his partner is supposed to take notes because once they have covered all the questions, they then introduce each other  (Students A introducing  student B and  vice versa)

 

Believe me, this pair work activity always takes me  at least two long hours  with a group of 15 students for example

 

You, as teacher, will check if they are using English only when doing the activity, and maybe help them with vocabulary or any other questions

 

Later on, when introducing each other, you may point out a few mistakes - I would always focus on the major ones -  and ask the student to correct it himself

Do this  at the end  (no need to interrupot them while speaking) and adults do appreciate being corrected, this is what mine  always tell me

 

There are many other alternatives: writing a set of questions on the board or projecting them and ask them to introduce themselves (but this is less interactive) or do some placement test or grammar diagnosis, but I would not recommand the latter for a first classes

 

Hope this helps

 

Use an ice breaker, make sure he students get to talk

 

Good Luck,

Douglas