Warmers, Fillers and Coolers

What they are, when we can use them and examples. Expert opinion - Olga Starkova.

Aug 8

When students come to class they are rarely ready to dive headfirst into the lesson straightaway. Just as with your muscles before a workout, your brain needs some warming up in order to function at its best. Use a warmer activity to get your students’ gears turning. On the other hand, if you feel that your students are getting tired of the same repetitive tasks in the middle of the class, changing pace might work, and a filler activity is the thing to use here. And just as every story ends with a nice final scene or an afterword, so should a lesson a clear and distinct ending. The activities used here are called Coolers. Today we are going to talk all these activities and see some examples.

Warmers, fillers and coolers.

These are short 5-10 minute activities used to engage learners, fill time during a lesson or to end a lesson on a positive note. They can either be related to the aim or theme of the lesson or act as short, standalone activities.

Warmers are designed to activate your students and get them in the mood for learning. A lot of teachers simply have a chat about the news or the past weekend, but there is more to it. Here are some ideas for you:

discuss latest news and current affairs
play a revision game
set the objectives for the lesson
check homework

Some people may argue that what we have listed above are not really warmers. After all, playing a revision game serves the purpose of recirculation and recycling of what has been learned. It is a vital part of the curriculum, and in reality, up to 60% of the lesson time may be devoted to recirculation. So is it really a warm-up?

Some more ideas that experienced teachers will suggest are:
- Show pictures related to the topic of the lesson and ask your students to describe them and guess what they are about;
- Show students a quote related to the lesson and discuss it;
- Ask general questions connected to the target vocabulary or grammar and see what your students already know.

But don’t these activities elicit what the students already know and serve as lead-ins? We ease the students into the topic of the lesson, direct their attention to the target vocabulary and grammar, create the need for it and also find out what it is that they can already say. They introduce the topic in a personalised and interesting way, but are these activities truly warmers?

And then there are more ideas you can find in almost every teacher-related forum:
- unscramble words
- word associations
- say words starting with particular letters
- synonyms and antonyms and so on.

Fillers are activities and games you may use in the middle of the lesson if you feel that the students are getting tired or need the change of pace. But the question here is, why are your students getting tired? Have you accurately graded the language and selected the materials relevant to their level? Same questions arise if we talk about the pace - have you thought of a variety of activities, a change tasks that will activate different skills and areas of knowledge? If everything has been done correctly, than it seems the need for fillers will simply disappear.

Here you can read more about planning lessons.

And finally, coolers. It is often said, that if your students finish the lesson too fast, you need to have an activity or two up your sleeve to fill up the remaining time. That strikes a familiar note, raising the issue similar to one already mentioned in the previous paragraph - time management.

Here you can read more about Time Management.

So, should we not use Warmers, Fillers or Coolers at all? Of course we should! But it is important to understand how and when they can be used. The issue with many activities suggested online today, is that is seems that they should be used at random, regardless of the students’ needs, lesson’s objectives and the curriculum. What this means is that we are moving from a student-centered classroom to a teacher-centered classroom, where valuable lesson time is wasted with a cover-up of useful activities that are supposed to do something.

So, our verdict is the following: use lead-ins, review and revision activities, play games and do debates, use a variety of tasks and activities to pace the lesson in a way that your students stay engaged until the very end. But do so with purpose, knowing that everything you do in class leads your students to reaching the objective of the lesson and their learning in general.

What do you think? Do you agree with our opinion or do you have a different view on filler activities? Penny for your thoughts!

EXPERT OPINION

Hello, everyone! My name is Olga. I have been teaching English for 8 years, and I really love my job. I have worked as a corporate teacher, and I also have experience in teaching children of different ages. I enjoy working with children as well as with adults because it helps me find various approaches to teaching and create interesting materials for my students.

When students come to a lesson, they are often tired, and their minds are full of problems and other things which can distract them from the effective learning. At such moments, it is important not to hit them with a demanding grammar or vocabulary task, and that’s when warmers can help. They are usually short and rather dynamic activities which are supposed to be completed within five or ten minutes.

When I worked as a corporate teacher and gave my lessons in the evenings after long working days, it was vital to prepare engaging and motivating warmers for my students. They were so tired that they couldn’t even concentrate properly. It was a real challenge for me because I didn’t have enough experience in such situations. That’s when I started creating my own collection of warmers. I used various quizzes, cards with funny questions for discussion, pictures for description and mingle activities. When it was possible, I added some grammar or vocabulary from the previous lesson, so my students could recycle the language that they had already learnt. However, I think we should be careful with revision at the start of the lesson not to make our students feel stressed or ashamed if they don’t remember something. It’s not a test yet. The main goal of warmers is to help students gain positive emotions towards the further work.

Apart from quizzes, games, pictures or questions, I sometimes start my lesson with a small talk which can be considered a warm-up activity as well. My students often get really engaged into discussing the weather, their future plans or their last weekend.

I also like using time fillers in my lessons. They are activities which you can give to your students if you have some extra time in your lesson. I frequently use fillers at the end of my class, and when I realise that it is too early to go to the next stage of the lesson. In this case, I have a filler or two up my sleeve. It helps me feel more confident and avoid monotony. However, I believe you shouldn’t use a time filler in the middle of a certain stage of your lesson. For example, when you are doing grammar exercises, try to focus only on them.

Time fillers can be in the form of quizzes, games or questions. For example, I usually make additional questions to encourage my students to use the vocabulary we learnt in the lesson.

As I mostly work online now, I use many interesting websites which help me to create bright and amusing warm-up activities or fillers. For example, I make short quizzes and games on https://wordwall.net/ and https://learningapps.org/. As I’m only starting to use Amazy, I’m planning to create many fascinating warmers there, too!

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