Read! Read! Read!

I was preparing a class for today and I was looking for something related to the World Book Day when I found this great website: www.activityvillage.co.uk. There are fantastic printables such as these animal bookmarks with language jokes:

I printed some of them, added a ribbon and gave away to my students. Now, I'm thinking about doing one for myself! Isn't he cute?  :D

Thursday Teaching Tips #3

Do you use a vocabulary jar ? Great! Now you may use it for many warm up and pair activities. For example, students choose one word from the jar and try to speak about if for 30-40 seconds (from B1 level). Or, you may again engage students into storytelling. Students make up a story together, creating sentences with words from the jar. One student = one sentence with a word from the vocabulary jar.

Do you remember that today is World Book Day? What are you reading at the moment? 

from www.daisygreenmagazine.co.uk

Send me a postcard

Sometimes, great teaching ideas come from learners. Some time ago, one of my students introduced me to the Postcrossing project. She was very excited about writing postcards and receiving them from all over the world. And, what's most important, all this fun was related to using English! 
I've decided to use this great project to encourage students to write. I think, it is an excellent opportunity for students to apply their knowledge outside the classroom environment. They are waiting impatiently for a new postcard and, when it arrives, they are very motivated to translate it as quickly as possible (pair work or group work with dictionaries). Postcrossing also gives students the possibility to experience a "living language" as opposed to the language of coursebooks.

Thurdsay Teaching Tips #2

Honesty is the best policy. Or is it?

Have you ever wondered why some students need so much time to answer a simple question? (e.g. What did you have for breakfast yesterday?) 

It is because young learners are honest and they try to respond truthfully. They actually make an effort to remind themselves the minute details.

Next time, before an excercise/activity remember to tell your students that their sentences do not have to be true.

Let's talk about love

Thursday Teaching Tips #1

If you want your students to learn vocabulary and actually remember it, prepare a vocab jar. After each and every class, put new words in a form of flashcards into the jar. At the beginning of the next class, ask a student to choose two flashcards from the jar, to check if he/she learnt the new words. You may have a grading system like this: for two correct words a student gets a plus (+), for two incorrect a minus (-), and for one correct and one incorrect a student gets nothing. Students collect pluses and minuses and they exchange them for grades (e.g. 5 pluses = A; 2 minuses = E). 

My teacher used to have this system and it worked perfectly.

Remember: You add vocabulary to the jar but you do not change it. This way, students always have to know and revise all the words.

Oh, give me a break! (after the break)

'Surprise-me' bag

This activity is really easy to prepare and allows students to practice storytelling as well as revise vocabulary from previous classes or learn new words.

We need:

• a paper bag or a tote bag;
• small objects that fit in the bag (the numer of them should equal the number of students).

The aim of this activity is to tell a story using past tense. The teacher starts with the introductory sentences and then students have to continue the story. First, a student chooses an object, and then he or she uses this object in a sentence. One sentence should logically lead to the next (revision of time adverbs).

This activity is good for visual, auditory and kinesthetic learners.

*If you want to introduce new words during this activity, remember to write them on the blackboard and pronunce before students use them in their sentences.

Sample set for this activity