Category Archives: Create your own stuff

Creating visual content for my classes with two awesome free online tools

Create your own stuff, freeware, Grammar and Exercises, Lesson Plan: Advanced, Lesson Plan: Intermediate, Slides, Speaking, , , , , , , ,

Let’s go visual!

If you have been following my blog for a while you probably know how much I like exploring new tools to spice up my lessons. We all know students prefer looking at a screen than at a book so, for this lesson I have decided to explore two new free online tools, which have a lot of potential for language teaching.

 

Perhaps  you have never considered creating your own content because you think you aren’t tech-savvy and you don’t really know how to go about  these  modern things, but I can assure you that creating these two videos has been as easy as falling off a log.

In class, we are studying how to express preference with the structure would rather and (would)pefer  and this is just the perfect excuse to “play” with these two little tools.

1. For a revision of the grammar for Would Rather and Prefer, I have used biteable.com. This is how this tool works:

  • Login for free.
  • Click “create a new video”.
  • Choose your scenes one by one and enter the text. You can choose between animation scenes, footage scenes and image scenes where you can upload your own pictures. Click + to add a new scene.
  • Choose the colours for your presentation and then the music track or upload your own.
  • Click Preview and the video will be sent to your email address once it’s created.
  • At this point, you can download it, share it on facebook and twitter, or post to youtube.

(presentation created with biteable)

2. For a speaking activity using Would Rather, I have used emaze.com. This is how this amazing free online tool works:

  • Log in for free.
  • You can create a new presentation form scratch or upload a power point presentation.
  • Choose a template.
  • Share it or embed it on your blog.

(presentation created with emaze)

Powered by emaze

Give them a go! You won’t regret it!

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Nine Ways to Revise Vocabulary Using Slips of Paper

Create your own stuff, Funny Stuff, Games, Lesson Plan: Advanced, Lesson Plan: Elementary, Lesson Plan: Intermediate, Lesson Plan: Pre-Intermediate, Speaking, Writing, , ,

In today’s post I would like to share with you the link for an article I wrote for the  British Council’s magazine, Voices. As a result of winning this month’s  TeachingEnglish blog award with my article on pronunciation  Most Common Pronunciation Mistakes Heard in Oral Exams,  I was kindly invited to write a new article for their magazine.

Here’s the article Nine ways to revise vocabulary using slips of paper , which I hope teachers will find useful.

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An Engaging Combination: First-Day Introductions+Indirect Questions + Concentric Circles Technique

Create your own stuff, Funny Stuff, Games, Grammar and Exercises, Lesson Plan: Advanced, Lesson Plan: Intermediate, Slides, Speaking, , , , , , , ,

Last week was crazy. No lessons yet but lots of tests to be marked and tons of red tape to go through. So, I am shockingly super excited about beginning a new course; yes, excited about getting up early and teaching non-stop for six hours and   no…  I did not trip and fall  into a bucket full of cider   😉 (typical drink where I live).

First days are for introductions and little more, but  this year I think I am going to kill two birds with one stone  and combine introductions and some grammar that needs to be reviewed. So, I have got this idea in mind of asking students to introduce themselves to each other using indirect questions. I hope most of my new students will have, at some point over the years, studied  with me and for the rest, I will have to find a way to deal with the OMG- shocked looks I am sure I am going to get. But let’s cross that bridge when I come to it!

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Level: Intermediate and Above

Time Required: 30-45 minutes

Description of the Activity .This engaging activity has been designed as a  first-day oral introduction activity and to teach/help students revise how to make indirect questions . I will use the concentric circles  technique,  which is a mingle activity .The technique is explained below and I have also published a picture of my students doing the task.

STEP 1.Revision of Indirect Questions.

Indirect questions were studied last year, so we will just do a quick revision with this video I have  created using the free tool powtoon.com

If necessary, we will spend some minutes brushing up in two different ways

  1. Doing some online exercises you can find here  or , here  or if you do not have a computer, you might want to photocopy this worksheet here
  1. Orally producing some questions and asking students to provide the indirect question.

 STEP 2. Writing .

Ask students to write a question they would like to ask their classmates. For example: ” Do you speak any other languages?”, “Where do you live?” or “How long have you been studying English?”.

Give students slips of paper containing the beginning of an indirect question and ask them to make sure they know how to ask their question beginning with the phrase on their card. Cards here. (template downloaded from Teknologic). For example : “Can I ask  you where you live?” or “Would you mind telling me how long you have been studying English?”. 

STEP 3. Explaining the concentric circle technique.

This technique is a kind of mingle. Although mingles can be a bit noisy  and a bit disorganised, most students love it.The distinctive feature of a mingle activity is that all the students work simultaneously and switch from one classmate to another while speaking. Mingles allow constant repetition and this raises students’ confidence in their use of English.

Students arrange themselves so that they are facing each other in two circles. The inner circle faces out, the outer circle faces in, so that each participant has a partner that they are facing (Note: If the group has an uneven number of people, the teacher should participate in the circles). Each student from the outside circle, after speaking with the person facing him or her, moves one step clockwise to speak with a new classmate from the inside circle. I would suggest asking students to switch partners every four minutes for this activity. This concentric circle technique can very well be adapted to talk about any given topic of discussion. Encourage students to elaborate on their answers and use targeted language structure.

STEP 5. Speaking.

Students introduce themselves to the person they are facing and then ask their indirect questions making conversation with their partner. After four minutes, call time and rotate for the next question, forming a new partnership.

The conversation might go something like this:

Student A: Hi, I’m (student’s name)

Student B: Hello, my name’s  (student’s name)

Student A: Can you tell me how long you have been studying English?

Student B : (answers the question giving as many details as possible)

Student B : Can I ask you a question now? Would you mind telling me why you are studying English?

Student A: Answers

Teacher  says :”  Rotate” and students from the outside circle move one step clockwise to speak with a new classmate from the inside circle.

Model an example of a conversation with a student.

Stop the activity when they have had a chance to speak to most students.

 

 

 

Most Common Pronunciation Mistakes Heard in Oral Exams

Common Errors, Create your own stuff, Phonetics, , , , , , ,

Even for the most confident students  taking an oral exam can be quite stressful. Twice a year, in June and September,  I  assess students’ speaking abilities acting  as both an interlocutor asking questions and interacting with students, or an assessor listening to students’ performance.

It was while acting as an assessor that I  decided to write down the most common pronunciation  mistakes students make  with the intention of  going over them ,with my own students, at the very beginning of the course.

I  have created a quiz with, what I hope, will be the last I see of these pronunciation mistakes. I hope you find it useful!

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6 Excellent First-Day Icebreakers

Create your own stuff, freeware, Games, , ,

Dear readers

Here I am again!! I Didn’t  this summer fly by ? It totally  flew by!!!

Oh my god! The beginning of another school year is fast approaching and I am feeling  the butterflies starting to gather in my stomach, even after 25 years teaching English. Yes, even after all this time, I still feel like a newbie about to teach her first class. I have yet to decide whether this is a good or a bad thing.  In these 25 years there are not many things I have not tried but I always like to start telling my students something about myself. I used to include information about my age, but I no longer do ( for obvious reasons)  and in fact, I always say I am 25, with a wink, if a student dares overlook the fact that I have intentionally omitted that bit of information. Anyway. I feel like in my twenties 🙂 when facing a new group of students.

Why use icebreakers?

Teaching aduIts has a lot of advantages and some minor disadvantages. In my experience, one of these disadvantages is that they tend to be naturally shy when asked to speak a foreign language  so it’s essential to break the ice from the very first moment students enter my class. The sooner I get to know them and they get to know each other,  the faster they will start learning. One way to accomplish this is by using icebreakers.

Below are some of the icebreakers/first-day activities I normally use to introduce myself .Some of them might sound familiar to you although I have slightly modified the name to better describe my own contribution but I should add that  I take no credit for inventing these games. I hope you find something you can use. I would suggest you demonstrate how to play the games  by  first offering personal information about yourself. It doesn’t have to be too personal, just a bit, enough to satisfy students’ curiosity.

This is an interactive image using ThingLink

1. HANGMAN WITH A TWIST (no preparation required)
I have yet to meet a student who doesn’t like playing  hangman. This time we will play  a variation of the traditional  hangman game as all the words will  contain some information about myself ( blue, twenty.-four, music, keeping fit…etc). Remember that you cannot use proper nouns such as names, places, and brands.

PROCEDURE.

  • Think about some information you want to share with your students and play the hangman  game.
  • Choose beforehand the information you want to use and play hangman for every piece  of information you want to share. Once they have guessed the correct word, explain  why this word is important to you.

Students in pairs play hangman with using their own personal information.

How to play Hangman here

2.CONCENTRIC CIRCLES ( requires little preparation)

  • PROCEDURE
    Students arrange  themselves so that they are facing each other in two circles. The inner circle faces out, the outer circle faces in, so that each participant has a partner that they’re facing (Note: If the group has an uneven number of people, the teacher should participate in the circles)
  • Tell the students that they will be having a series of short conversations with  different partners. They  will need to  introduce themselves and  share the time given  so that everybody has a chance to speak.
  • Give students a  getting-to-know-you question and  ask pairs  to discuss their answers to the question (Note: after  three minutes, call time)
  • Rotate for the next question, forming a new partnership.

This engaging one-to-one game gives students the chance to get to know their classmates very quickly

Some ideas

1. Why do you want to learn English?

2. What’s your favourite TV programme?

3. What you like doing in your free time?

4.Do you prefer to live in the city or in the countryside?

5. Where do you hope to be 10 years from now?

3.PERSONAL INFORMATION  BINGO (requires preparation)

Everybody knows how to play Bingo. This time we are going to play bingo with personal information.

PROCEDURE

  • Decide on 20 or 25 general traits that you think might apply to your students and use  a free online bingo generator here or  here to create your own bingo cards. Some ideas: who has a pet, who speaks two languages, who hates maths, who went abroad last year, who has a friend called Mary, who likes tea, who is  his/her twenties, who hates going shopping,who has slept on a beach, who doesn’t like meat…etc)
  • Now cut all the squares in the bingo card and put them in a bag.
  • Draw one card at a time asking ” who….?”.
  • The winner is the person who first fills  4 boxes (if you have  20 traits) or 5 boxes (25 traits) either across or down and yells BINGO.

Ask students now in pairs  to talk about some of the squares they have crossed  off.

4.PERSONAL STAR (no preparation required)

The one I like best is Personal Star, for many reasons but mainly because it requires no preparation  and students always  enjoy a bit of gossip  about their new teacher.

PROCEDURE

  • Draw a  six-pointed star  and on each point write  6  answers to questions about yourself. (My answers are black, London, December 9, tennis, Terry and meat.)
  • Tell students that the star contains information about you.
  • Ask them to try to guess the information behind the words by asking questions.If they don’t get the idea give an example. Tell them “My favourite colour is black. What question do you need to ask to find out this information?” Elicit from them, “What’s your favourite colour?” and cross out the word ‘black’ from the star.
  • Then, put the students in pairs. Ask them to draw their own personal star and write 6 pieces of information about themselves on each point. In pairs they can ask each other questions to find out about their partner. When they have all finished, ask them as a group to tell the others what they have found out about their partner

5.WHO AM I? (no preparation required)

I love this game to introduce myself to my students. It is played in teams and there is a winner. If you have been reading me for some time you know I am very competitive; that must be the reason why I am definitely going to use this one this year. The game was written by Paul Adams  and here is the link.

  • Write on  the board information about yourself and next to each piece of information write a number.
  • Divide the class into  two or three teams, depending on the number of students per class.
  • Tell students that teams  have to choose a number and ask the question they think matches the answer on the board.
  • Teams  take it in turns to choose a number and ask the question they think matches the answer.
  • They  get 1 point for asking the correct question and 1 point for using the correct grammar.

6.A QUESTION, PLEASE(no preparation required)

Again, this little game requires no preparation and students love it because it gives them the perfect opportunity to meet their new classmates

PROCEDURE

  • Ask students to write two questions they would like to ask you.
  • Answer some of their questions elaborating on your answers.
  • Tell students questions cannot be repeated  so they need to be ready to write a new question if necessary.
  • Once this step has been completed and their curiosity satisfied,  ask students to stand up and mingle, introducing themselves to the rest of the class  by saying their names and then asking their questions and answering their partner’s .
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