Search results matching tags 'vocabulary' and 'fce'

Teaching Resources: Steve Jobs

Anonymous — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 13:16:36 GMT

It’s not until someone goes that you realise the impact they had on your life – Steve Jobs was one of those public figures who inspired belief and achievement in others.

One of my classes was asking if we could talk about Steve Jobs and his life, and clearly he meant a lot to a lot of people – so here are some resources that you can use with your learners.

The Guardian has a reader tribute interactive here: “Dear Steve, your products changed my life.” They also have a photo slideshow featuring reactions from around the world.

Also from the Guardian, this page “Steve Jobs: the 10 best tributes“.

The Lexical Press Blog from the American TESOL institute has a comemorative lesson plan available here: http://americantesol.com/blogger/?p=366

Cecilia Lemos at Box of Chocolates has an obituary style lesson plan available here: http://cecilialcoelho.wordpress.com/2011/10/05/hot-off-the-press-an-activity-about-steve-jobs/

@MrTESOL tweeted this link to an interactive online Steve Jobs quiz: http://www.tutor2u.net/business/bizquiz/061011/quiz.html.

Eva Büyüksimkeşyan at A Journey in TEFL has a lesson idea here: http://evasimkesyan.edublogs.org/2011/10/06/a-lesson-idea/, she also mentions Sean Banville’s News English lesson: http://www.newsenglishlessons.com/1110/111006-steve_jobs.html.

Finally, you’ve probably seen it elsewhere on the web recently – but here’s Steve Jobs’ famous speech at Stanford university:

Online Teaching Resource: Idioms Videos

Anonymous — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 09:30:16 GMT

I just came across, during a further exploration of the Pearson ELT Community site, their idioms discussions space.

There doesn’t seem to be much in the way of discussion, but they have posted a set of mini-videos which purport to explain English idioms and expressions. The videos are very short (about a minute) and are followed with a dictionary definition. One of the tasks they give is “Can you guess the idiom before the definition comes up?” If you had learners in teams with different coloured board pens, and they raced to write the expression on the board before it came up, it could work….

The videos are also available via the Pearson You Tube channel (I’ve tried to embed one of them below, but don’t think it’s worked – so click the link instead).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHo5DXDFGyo

Here’s the original page again: ELTCommunity.com: Space: Idioms Discussions.

First Lesson or First Week Ideas

Anonymous — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 09:30:14 GMT

Back in July I posted a selections of 20 ideas and activities that might be worth trying out as you get to know your new classes this school year – and since then there’ve been a couple of additional ideas to throw into the mix:

Recently, the 24th Edition of EFL/ESL/ELL Blog Carnival : A Journey in TEFL got posted on Eva Buyuksimkesyan’s “A Journey in TEFL” blog. I strongly recommend taking a look here if you’re in need of inspiration – Eva’s collated over 40 (I lost count) posts from different contributors.

The Lesson Plans Page also has a wide range of back to school resources and materials, though these are aimed more at native speaker young learner classes than a language learner class – and I’ve not tried any of them, so can’t vouch for them personally!

First Lesson: Find Nobody Who…

Anonymous — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 09:30:58 GMT

This is an alternative approach to the inevitable “what did you do on your holidays” conversation. Many first lesson activities and ideas are based on the premise that nobody knows anybody else but often the students in your classes have come up through the levels together and the only new person in the group is you…

It should also combat those conversations with teenage classes that go: T: “Hey, how was your summer?” S: “Alright.” T: ”What did you do?” S: “Nothing.”

The basic objective is that the learners have to find stuff they did over the holidays that NOBODY else did.

So a simple procedure might be:

Ask the learners if they had a nice summer and lead into a REALLY boring description of what you did over the summer. e.g. I watched TV and I played computer games and I did some laundry and stuff. Ask the learners if they did anything similar. Establish that pretty much everybody in the class watched TV and played computer games. Then tell the learners about something slightly more interesting and less usual – for example taking a plane trip – and find out how many people did the same. Finally, describe something really interesting that you did – or alternatively make something up (e.g. rented a Ferrari and drove up the West coast of the USA). Find out whether anyone else did the same.

Thus having established the exclusivity principle, ask learners to find something that they did over the summer that nobody else did. Check that they understand they need to talk to ALL the other learners in the class.

Feedback: Find out from the learners what interesting and relatively exclusive things they did over the summer. You could also do some reformulation of any language areas that came up during their mingle activity.

The Vortex Game

Anonymous — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 09:30:40 GMT

The Vortex Game. This is a game I’ve created that can be used with any age or level – for pretty much any purpose. It came out of a conversation with a colleague (thanks Sarah!) who was looking for an idea to help learners with minimal pronunciation pairs, but it can be used with pretty much anything!

I can’t claim complete originality here though – this game was inspired by a very old BBC tv show called “The Adventure Game“. Now this is going back almost thirty years to a time when special effects were…. well a bit shoddy really. But truly amazing by the standards of the time! If anyone wants to look at the amount of progress the human race has made in the last quarter century, you only have to look at clips of the adventure game – of which more later…

Anyway – for game board, rules and different ways to play it (there’s a TPR style method) etc – read on!

At the end of every episode of the Adventure Game, as far as I remember it, the contestants had to cross “the vortex”. This was basically a diamond shaped grid. The catch was that “the evaporator” was also moving on the grid and… you know what – just watch the clip:

So the premise of “The Vortex Game” is relatively simple. The game board is available to download here: teflgeek – The Vortex Game

Versions and Rules:

In it’s simplest form – each team has to get to the other side of the grid. They can only move along the lines, from node to node or star to star, and can only move when they answer a question correctly. In this scenario, you would need a minimum of 15 questions, before one or both teams achieve their goal.

However – the catch is – that if one team steps into a space occupied by the other, then the team occupying the node initially get sent back to their starting base. Thus turning the thing into a lengthy game of cat and mouse, back-tracking, chasing and quite possibly nobody winning at all…. You are almost certainly going to need double the number of questions, if not more.

An even longer version can be played as a “capture the flag” style game. Teams have to make it over to their opponents’ base, capture the flag, and then make it all the way back again….

It probably works best with the game board displayed on an Interactive whiteboard, with virtual counters moved over the top of the board. But it also works well enough printed out and enlarged onto A3 paper. If you have access to an outside space, like a playing field, sports hall, garden or local park, it should be easy enough to recreate the game board in the real world, and have learners nominated to be the game pieces – if a learner gets sent back to base, another player can take their place for the next attempt. I’ve not tried the physical version of this – so any feedback greatly appreciated!

As an alternative to the teacher coming up with all the questions, why not ask your class to do this for you? You could collectively think about different categories, which could extend beyond the language learning context (geography, history, celebrity gossip, partical physics – the list goes on…) and allocate each category to a group of two or three learners to generate ten questions (and provide the answers!!!) – which could then all be jumbled up together and the questions asked at random.

Or there’s always exam practice classes…..

Anyway, let me know how it goes. I’ve only used this once so far and it went down really well – though apparently my questions were “too difficult”…. but they enjoyed the game! So I’d be really interested to hear how it’s worked elsewhere – or in any more variations or developments that you come up with!

Postie Postie / Agony Aunt

Anonymous — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 00:10:04 GMT

This is a great activity that you can use as a warmer or as a fun practice task in a number of situations.

I should acknowledge that I originally saw my Dip tutor Peter Moran do this during a lesson in Wroclaw in 2006 – in various forms it’s been one of my staple activities ever since!

I can’t remember why Peter did this – though as I recall he was stepping in to cover an absent colleague – and I can’t even remember what the lesson was about… In fact now that I think about it, it might have been an input seminar and not a lesson. But there we go – the important things matter….

In it’s basic form, “Postie Postie” needs only a lot of scrap A4 paper chopped into quarters (or not – depending on how you want to adapt it). As I recall Peter running the activity you give every learner or pair or small group a large amount of chopped up bits of paper. The bits of paper then play the role of the message medium – in other words, the learners write short notes to each other. When they finish writing the note, they shout “Postie Postie” and the teacher delivery system swings into operation. Or you collect and deliver the messages. From that point of view, it’s probably a good idea to ask the class to address and acknowledge their messages in a “to” and “from” format.

Adaptations:

As a warmer – if you brainstorm topic areas / conversations issues to the board (i.e. what everyone did at the weekend – or for summer schools -what the trip was like yesterday / how hot are the teachers / what’s different between my country and yours). Then learners simply write brief notes to each other in question or reply.

As a “freer” practice task – I have a suspicion that originally I saw this done in the context of “emailing” each other. It could of course also work in the context of a text messageathon – if text english is a lesson focus.

I used it that other day as an “agony aunt” style task. The learners were paired and had a bunch of scrap A4 paper. They were encouraged to think Jerry Springer style (e.g. My husband is in love with a tree / My daughter wants to marry our goldfish) but it was basically all their own work. They addressed their “problem” to another pair/group in the room and wrote their letter. As a grammatically correct postman – I refused to deliver letters with mistakes in them – but that was my choice, you could be more lenient!

At the end of the task we decided which problems and which solutions were worthy of awards…..

The general idea is a nice variation on a mingle style task. The learners can stay where they are and can work collaboratively in a way they can’t so easily in a mingle. Plus, as teacher, you get to vet the messages (essential with any class under the age of 16…) for content appropriacy and grammatical accuracy. As a really pedantic postman….. this task can run and run….!

The disabled access friendly world blog challenge: Creature Discomforts

Anonymous — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 13:30:31 GMT

Following on from the recent blog challenge on raising awareness of disability access issues, I came across the Leonard Cheshire Disability campaign whilst watching Shaun the Sheep dvds with my daughter.

The campaign is called “Creature Discomforts” and has very similar aims to the blog challenge – namely to get people to think about the way they see disability.

If you go to the Creature Discomforts website, there are eight short video ads (about 20 – 30 seconds each) and nine short radio ads. Both of these have tapescripts available, so would be relatively easy to adapt into short listening tasks – the ads are very visually appealing and would be great with young learners.

There is also a “fun and games” section which contains a quiz about disability in the UK. It could be interesting to do the quiz (which is multiple choice, one question at a time – questions change each time you do it) and get learners to compare the answers with the situation in their country. For example, apparently only 50% of train stations in the UK offer step-free access to the platforms – what’s life like where you live? The section also offers four different games that put the game player in the position of having a disability – in the Callum the Chameleon game, you can play with or without sight as you try to catch the flies buzzing around. Sonny the Shrimp attempts to rescue fish from their hooks – from his wheelchair. Tim-the-crutches-using-Tortoise attempts the long-jump, and finally Millie the mouse attempts to feed peanuts to her elephant friend. I like the way the Chameleon game makes you think about the difference between playing the game sighted and unsighted – the other games are not quite as educational, but fun to play for the younger classes.

Leonard Cheshire Disability is also running a campaign called Action for Access from which you can download access survey forms for shops, organisations and buildings – there are separate forms for transport options. If you work in the UK, then a class project could contribute to developing the access map on the site and making a positive contribution to the local community. If you work outside the UK, then you could adapt the access survey forms (they’re available in pdf or word) to fit your surroundings and develop a class project to survey the area around your school. Some thoughts anyway!

Summer school teachers – have you considered that this could be a handy project to work with one week? You could even incorporate some of the work into one of your trips out and about in the UK?

Online Game: The Curfew

Anonymous — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 09:49:21 GMT

I spotted a colleague (Thanks Neil!) using this with a class the other day and it looked brilliant and so investigated – it is really impressive work!

Turns out Neil spotted this on Larry Ferlazzo’s site.

The Curfew game is aimed at young adults / older teenagers and is set in a dystopian Britain, some 16 years in our future. It aims to raise issues related to civil liberties, human rights and authoritarianism, though it does this not by preaching, but merely by putting the game player in situations where these rights have been removed.

From a language learners’ point of view, the dialogue is relatively authentic (obviously it’s scripted) and therefore might be difficult for lower levels to access. Dialogue is subtitled though, so I think CEF levels B2 and above would be able to cope with most of it.

I used the game last night with a class who really got into it and refused to leave the room at the end of the lesson… The mix of character interaction, point and click adventure game discovery and the occasional arcade game style task clearly winning them over!

I used this as the second half of a lesson that looked at civil liberties and human rights in fairly broad terms – asking learners to list the rights they had now and then running a mini-pyramid discussion to decide which rights they thought they could live without. This was also a handy way of making sure that the basic concepts and vocabulary of game were pre-taught. We also discussed Martin Niemoller’s “poem” – first they came. Obviously some of these issues may be sensitive topics for your learners, so some discretion is advised! I’d also suggest that you have a go at the game yourself beforehand, just to check over the suitability of the content – and also so that you can help any students struggling with what to do next!

To go and play the game click here: The Curfew Game.

The only caveat is that the game is too long to play in a single lesson (as it should be?) – and it doesn’t “save” (though if you don’t clean down your computer it might remember where you were the next time you try and play it). But I’m fairly sure my learners were happy enough to go home and work through it all again!

Happy Game play!

Exam Classes: Gapless

Anonymous — Fri, 27 May 2011 10:19:26 GMT

Another really simple idea for all those use of english papers…. just remove the gaps.

For exam classes this works with the following areas:

FCE & CAE:

Use of English Part One – multiple choice cloze
Use of English Part Two – open cloze
Use of English Part Three – word formation

CPE:

Reading Part One: multiple choice cloze
Use of English Part One: open cloze
Use of English Part Two: word formation

Simply take the target text and re-type it but without the gaps given in the original.

The idea is that first of all the learners work together to figure out where the gaps are. Having done that, they can then work out what is possibly missing, before comparing their ideas with answer options (for multiple choice cloze) or the root words (word formation).

You can then give full feedback.

Zip Zap Boing (I think?)

Anonymous — Tue, 24 May 2011 18:01:24 GMT

I blame that Simon Thomas over at efl-resource. It’s all his fault. And I’m still not sure whether it’s “zip zap zop” or “zig zag zog” or something else entirely!

I’ve inherited a class, which Simon once taught back in the misty dawn of time, of 12-year-old pre-intermediate students. When I walked in the classroom the other day, they were all so keen and motivated to begin the lesson that they roundly rejected my fun warmer and started going on about this bizarre pointing game. With some careful misunderstandings on my part, it took them ten minutes to explain the rules to me, all of which they did in extremely fluent English (which only goes to show if the motivation is there, the language will follow).

As far as I can work out, everyone stands in a circle. Someone starts things off and the game runs as follows: if you point (in a sort of two handed gun gesture) to the person on your immediate left or right you say ZIP, to anyone else in the circle you say ZAP. To deflect someone’s pointing at you back at them, you hold both hands up (as if in surrender) and say “BOING”.

It’s meant to be a fast paced, rapid fire game and if you get it wrong you’re out (though I’m not sure how you then declare a winner?).

To give this a larger linguistic focus or to work with higher levels, you could do this with parts of speech: Nouns to the left, verbs to the right and adjectives down the middle! A colleague, Alexis, also does this with vocabulary categories: learners have to precede their ZIP/ZAP/BOING with a vocabulary item linked to the target category.

A nice way to start the lesson – or a fun way to finish it!