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 #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

Learning should be fun!

Learning should be fun! Especially learning languages! I have been very lucky to have had great teachers in my life who were able to show me that learning a foreign language is an amazing adventure. I still remember my first English class, first Welsh class, first French class... And I also remember very well the moment I realised that not everyone speaks Polish - my perspective on Dr.Quinn, Medicine Woman completely changed that day ;)

I want this blog to be a place of sharing great ideas for making language lessons as interesting and effective as possible. Some of the activities and games were created by me, some of them were found in books and on the Internet or were recommended by my friends, who are great and inspiring teachers. I hope you will help me become a better teacher. Feedback, opinions, suggestions, comments and teaching ideas are more than welcome. But BE NICE, please.

from behappy.me