Monthly Archives: December 2010

Word of the day: verbs from a song

Music, Word of the Day

There are some verbs we never seem to use.It’s like when I tell my students not to use the verb “say” all the time when they are writing essays and  they invariably stare at me probably   thinking : What the hell does she want us to use instead? As if I didn’t know that, deep inside their brains , the verbs “claim” or “state” are there to use as substitutes for the mighty “say”.

So let’s widen our vocabulary by revising the meaning of some of the verbs used in this song. I hope that ,in the early future , you use some of them .

Let’s listen to this beautiful song by the country music group Lady Antebellum and focus on some verbs and expressions

-to scatter:to cause to separate and go in different directions scattering confetti from the upper windows

–to wonder:to feel curiosity or be in doubt  I wondered what happened

-To cross one’s mind:to be a sudden or passing thought; be thought of by

She looked so well it never crossed my mind that she was ill.

 To guess: to think; to suppose; to believe; to imagine I guess I can get there in time.

Road to Grammar

Grammar, Vocabulary, , , ,

Road to Grammar is a great site to practise grammar and vocabulary. One of the best things about this site, in my opinion, is that if you choose the wrong answer in the quiz  and you click on NOTES, it provides  a note explaining why your answer is correct or incorrect.
Apart from these quizzes there’s a section that I love called Games. My favourite one is called FLUENT and it allows two students to play. Be careful if you choose to play, it’s kind of addictive!
I also recommend trying the Extra Practice section and the Downloads, which has some great PDFs for students and teachers. And last but not least, there’s a section called Road to Grammar JR dedicated to young learners

Christmas Carols and Cristmas Cards

Music, Students' Corner, , , , , ,

It’s been quite a long time since I haven’t sung any Christmas Carols with my students . I might be wrong but I’ve always felt that although they might have been willing to learn about some cultural issues , singing Carols was out of the question. But this year …. is my year for all these secret pleasures that I used to enjoy doing when I was in primary or secondary school.

That’s why with my elementary class  there is going to be a Christmas Cards competition  and we are also going to learn the Christmas Carol  ,Jingle Bells . We are going to practise really hard and delight teachers and students with our graceful singing. No kidding , some students sing really well!

Click to see some ideas for the cards.

Craft activities (Oxford)

Making a Pop-Up card (Oxford), Another Pop-Up Card (Artcare), Christmas Tree Pop-Up Card (Staiden)

And this is the carol we’re going to be singing.  Want to join us?

Voicethread and my students

Create your own stuff, Resources, Slides, Speaking, Writing, Writing skill, , , , , , ,

I’ve been meaning to use this tool for  quite a long time but  the right time never seemed to come.

I think this little dialogue performed by my most elementary students is a nice way of showing you what Voicethread is. VoiceThread is a collaborative, multimedia slide show that holds images, documents, and videos and allows people to navigate slides and leave comments in 5 ways – using voice (with a mic or telephone), text, audio file, or video (via a webcam).

I want to thank María Sánchez and Rocío Ibias in the first dialogue and Eva Bedia and Ainhoa Nuevo in the second (from IES  Cesar Rodríguez – Grado) for their enthusiam. Thanks girls, I would never  have done it without you!

To use Voicethread you need to register but it only takes a minute and it can help you a lot improve your speaking and writing abilities. How ?

  • You can  record yourself describing pictures
  • You can  add comments to photographs
  • You can tell a story using different pictures

It also has a lot of potential for teachers.

  • I intend to use it for debates on issues: by asking students either to record themselves or  type their own ideas
  • I have already used it to record students doing role-plays

I’m sure you have plenty of ideas to use VoiceThread. Why don’t you share them with us ? Please, send a post if you want to contribute with your own ideas.