Tag Archives: methodology

Writing a narrative

General, Writing, ,

This is a writing exercise for my PAU students and I thought you might find it useful. In this written exercise they’ll have to make good use of the vocabulary they have learnt about travelling and going places, the connectors they have studied and they’ll also have to put in practice some of the tips I have given them about the Writing Process, which if you are interested you’ll find published in this blog, here.

This is the idea:
Students, in pairs, are asked to write a narrative. They have to use words from both word clouds, i.e, they have to use connectors from the first word cloud and specific vocabulary from the second. Ask them to write their narrative in coloured  paper which you’ll later post on the walls of the classroom for student to vote for the one they like best.

 

Make sure that you:

♣ begin by describing when and where the story takes place

♣ describe the events in chronological order

♣ use the different forms of the past tense

A Game to Practise Spelling with Teens

Games, Lesson Plan: Elementary, Resources, Speaking, Vocabulary, , , ,

Yes, yes… here I am again, struggling to find ways to teach my demotivated students from E.S.O. That’s why I’m constantly surfing  the net  looking for different ways to teach the same things over and over again.

This game can be used to revise vocabulary from the lesson and at the same time practise spelling. It goes like this:

♥ Divide the class in two teams, A and B and ask them to invent a name for their team.
♥Then, divide the backboard into two halves and mark each side  of the board for each team.
♥ On each side of the blackboard draw either:

• a river with stepping stones for students to get across the river. The winner is the team that crosses the river first.   For every correct word they write, mark a stepping stone.


• a ladder. The winner is the team that climbs the ladder first. For every correct word they write, mark a step on the ladder.
• a mountain with climbing points for the teams to climb and put their country’s flag up on the top. The winner is the team that climbs the mountain and puts their country’s flag up first. For every correct word they write, mark a climbing point.
• a daisy. The winner is the team whose daisy is wiped out first. For every correct word they write, wipe out a petal and after all the petals have been wiped out, then wipe out the leaves and the stem until the whole daisy has gone.

♥Call a member from each team up on the board and dictate a word from their vocabulary to them. The students write the word they hear on their side of the board making sure at the same time that the student from the opposite team cannot see what the other student is writing. So cheating is eliminated.

This has proven a very nice and exciting way to check spelling, listening comprehension and pronunciation in a fun way.

Many thanks to Barbara Koziori for this idea

There are also lots of sites on the web to practise spelling with the typical hangman game so if you have a little time to spare ,why don’t you try some of these?

http://www.hangman.no/ divided into categories ( Harry Potter,Countries of the World , Musical Instruments..etc

http://www.playhangmanonline.com/ also divided into categories , namely, music, sports , geography …etc

http://www.englishbanana.com/hangmanhome.html and that’s the place you want to go if you want to play the game with colours, everyday adjectives or household things.

If you are feeling creative or just need a specific category to work with (as is my case) , you might want to create your own hangman. To do this try this site http://www.what2learn.com/. It’s good fun!

Blog de Cristina is also  on Facebook.

Editing students’ written assignments

Create your own stuff, Resources, Writing skill, ,

This post is mainly intended for anyone who needs to add comments to a written document. In my case and being a teacher, it has been used to correct essays as more and more often my students seem to be committed to saving the rain forest by not wasting unnecessary paper and sending me their assigned tasks via email instead. I have often used Jing to explain their mistakes but this is an easier way to do so and, in my opinion, as effective.
Of course, I am aware that most of you know how to add comments to a word document so this article is only for those who, like me, have just discovered some of the miracles MS Word can do to help us spice up the always boring task of corrrecting compositions. Before you read further you might like to see an example of what can be done with the Reviewing Toolbar.

 

Where can you bring this toolbar up? Navigate to the View menu bar and select Toolbar and then Reviewing and you will see the Reviewing toolbar appear with a set of icons you’ll have to learn. Then, select an area of the text that you want to comment on and click on the “Comment” icon, type your comment on the red bubble which will appear in the margin. I have found that in MS Word 2003 the red bubble will only show if you’re in the Word Print Layout View or View Web Design .
That way the document looks as it might if I had printed a version of the original and I had marked it up with a red pen.
Another thing you can do is cross out a word(s). To do this you select the word(s) you want to cross out and choose Format/Strikethrough.

Easy, isn’t it? I hope you find it useful !

Creative Writing : Using Wordle

Lesson Plan: Advanced, , , ,

I’ve been using Wordle for quite a long time now but this idea is something I have not yet tried. This task involves using this great little tool called Wordle and the very popular Breaking News English site.
I read about this idea in Marisa Constantinides’ blog, which I highly recommend if you’re a teacher.

Lesson Plan:
• Tell students they are going to write a short news report. Write on the backboard the following heading

” Teacher on trial for attacking student”

and ask students to comment of this heading and what they think  might lead a teacher to attack a student.

• Display with the OHP the Wordle and ask students in pairs to brainstorm ideas for an article using the words in the Wordle Cloud. Explain new vocabulary if necessary

• Give students about 15 minutes to write the first draft of the article.
• Play the audio from Breaking News English twice and ask students to add, improve or edit their articles.
• Students write the final draft of the article on a coloured sheet of paper, which is them posted out on the walls of the classroom. Students stand up, read everybody’s article and vote for the best.

Students compare their aticle with the real one. Click here

• Finally, it would be interesting to talk a bit about the role a teacher plays in our society. These questions might be helpful to get them started.

Do you think being a teacher is easy or difficult?

Do you feel sorry for Mr Harvey or the student?

What kind of behaviour do you see in your classroom?

What can society do to make students respect their teachers?

If web cameras were put in classrooms, teachers would teach better classes and students would behave better. What do you think?

Music on my Mind

Music, Students' Corner,

I am one of those teachers who think that playing music is as good a way to improve listening as it is playing any other piece of information.
That’s why every Monday you’ve been doing listening based on lyrics. It’s not always easy to choose the song and even more difficult to choose which lines you will be able to understand. What’s more, I’m also quite aware of the fact that the music I like is probably not everyone’s cup of tea (I know, I know… you’ve never complained). So , now it’s your turn. Have you been listening to some tracks lately and thought… “Cristina should be playing this track” ?
Yes…. Then, let me know. Send me a reply to this post with your suggestion. It should include the following information

Singer/ Band:
Song Title
A few lines:

and thanks for your help. This blog is written for you and with you.