Tag Archives: B2

The Perfect Gift: a Listening and Speaking Lesson Featuring Rihanna

General, Listening, Speaking, , , , , , ,

Hiii! Hello! Happy New Year!  Here I am again! Back to the grind or so they say!

Almost a month has passed since my last post. And this break ends right now. The holiday break has me going mad and sometimes I don’t even know what day of the week it is. So, I have started preparing classes. Sort of miss them. Can you believe it?

Anyway, I feel so full of energy and I have prepared so many activities that I have written three posts on a row. I will refrain from publishing them all at once and save them for a rainy day.

This first one has to do with presents, something that almost everyone gets these holidays. I know that some people don’t get any presents; some other people don’t like giving presents and some others don’t like receiving them. It does not matter. This lesson fits all moods.

Warm-up

Ask the class to discuss in pairs or in threes the question: What do you prefer, giving or receiving presents? Why?  Get class feedback.

Ask students if they know the singer Rihanna and the famous American talk show host, Oprah Winfrey. I think Rihanna is world-famous but I am not so sure they will know who Oprah is. If necessary, show them a picture. Tell them they are going to watch a video where the protagonists are Rihanna, her mother and Oprah Winfrey. Ask them to predict the content of the video.

Listening Comprehension: Back to the boards

Ask students to work in pairs: one of them faces the board and the other one faces away from the board. Play the video without sound and ask the student facing the board to describe to his partner what is happening in the video.

Listening Comprehension: the questions

You can ask students to do it online or you can print the PDF. If you decide to do it online, you will get feedback immediately; just press, see your score.

After the listening, ask students: What is the most expensive present you have ever given to someone?

Speaking

You know when you are on holidays, and have some time to spare and decide to try some crazy stuff? What you see below is the result of me having some time on my hands. Obviously, the idea can be simplified and the gift drawn on the board. But, as I said, I was feeling creative and with nothing to do.

As I have 24 students, I have designed two identical gifts (one in green as in the picture and the other one in red). The idea is to divide the class into two teams and assign each team a different gift.  On one side, they can see nonmaterial gifts; they should choose the one they would like to possess in 2020 and on the other side, a conversation question about gifts and presents.

Ask students to remain standing. The two groups should not mix – easy, as the two gifts have different coloured cards, red and green- and they should talk to everybody in their groups asking and answering questions. Encourage them to elaborate on their answers but let’s keep it flexible.

Click here to get the PDF with the conversation questions on the other side of the card.

Enjoy teaching, enjoy learning!

Some Help with the Terrible “Another, Other, Others”

A word on Grammar, , , ,

Look at these big words other and another. Talking about these two is always a good idea.  If you are wondering why, it is maybe because you are not a teacher ‘cause if you are in the teaching business, you know well why they are so big.

If you are a student and you don’t recognize the problem these two words might cause, it is mainly for one of these three reasons

  1. You are aware these two cause problems, but you do not make this mistake, in which case you can stop reading here.
  2. You are making this mistake and don’t know how to fix it, in which case this post can really help you.
  3. You don’t really know what the fuss is about, which means you are nor even aware that you are making this mistake. Well, dearest, it is you I had you in mind when I decided to write this post.

Let’s see if together we can fix it once and for all.

First, let’s have a look at the grammar. Below you’ll find the PDF, but I have always liked teaching and then revising and then reinforcing and because it kind of feels repetitive, I feel the necessity to do it in different ways. I don’t want my students to die of boredom.

So, I have designed this nice presentation using the interactive tool Genial.ly to support the rather dull but effective PDF file.

Another, other, others PDF

Note: to enlarge the presentation, click on the 3 dots

 

  1. A drag and drop exercise

2. An interactive quiz
And then the fun part. By the way, I had to resist adding more questions. I am kind of addicted to making quizzes. But I refrained 😊 . Only 15 items here. Enjoy!

Create your Own Board Game to Practise Speaking and Activate Vocabulary

Speaking, Vocabulary Games, , , , , , , , ,

It is true that there is so much material out there for our English classes that most of the times, we just need to type some keywords on the internet and voîla, we have it. But, think about it, has it ever happened to you to come across some great material but not just exactly what you are looking for?  To me. All the time. And that’s probably why I am always on the lookout for new sites to help me create my own content.

This happened to me last week. I wanted to give my students a board game with conversation questions about sports and at the same time, use a little game to activate the vocabulary we had been studying.  I was lucky, from my files, I rescued an old board game that I had used a long time ago. But although it served the purpose, I was not entirely happy and therefore I set out to trawl the internet looking for an editable board game where I could write the questions I wanted my students to discuss.

And as Jeremiah the prophet said, “You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart”. Well, I must have put all my heart into it ‘cause I found it. The design is not perfect but hey! it’s free. 

 Tools for educators is a nice little site which offers online editable templates. You just choose the template and write your own content. 

In my case, I have used the board game, but you can explore the other templates it offers. I am dying to try the dice generator. I don’t know how I am going to use it yet, but use it I know I will. 

So, this is what it looks like. You will need to fill in the 21 squares. If you don’t, it will still print the board but with some blank squares. Options when you have run out of questions?  Move ahead one space, move back two spaces… Once you have written your content, just print it.

Activating vocabulary

This is a great way to review any subject that needs a little jazzing up

  • Give students 5 pieces of paper. I normally reuse discarded printed with a blank side, which I cut into approx 10×5 cm pieces.
  • Instruct them to write on each piece a word or expression they have learnt about, in this case, sports. Ex: face danger, overcome your fears, adventurous. I encourage them to write not just the word but also the collocation as we have learned it.
  • Ask students to form groups of three or four people.
  • Ask them to put together all their cards, shuffle them a bit and place them face down in the middle
  • Give students counters and a die. The youngest in the group starts playing and then players will continue playing clockwise.
  • When Player A lands on a square, he reads the question and then picks up a card containing an expression which he will have to use when answering the question. They will have one minute to answer the question. If they manage to squeeze the expression, they can keep the card. If not, the card is returned to the pile.

Enjoy teaching! Enjoy learning!

When in Rome do as the Romans Do: a Lesson about Manners, Habits, Customs and Traditions

General, , , ,

Say hello to one of my favourite activities.

Here’s what makes this activity perfect for me and my style of teaching

  • Enhancing their listening skills by listening to authentic audio. Giving students authentic audio they can understand is a real boost to their confidence. Another plus, if there are no comprehension questions, as is the case, students feel more relaxed. Did you know that reducing stress enhances learning? (D Krashen 1981).
  • Gallery walks using posters which gives students the chance to stretch their legs, and practise their speaking abilities.
  • A small writing activity related to the posters
  • Giving students the possibility to work with different students in the class

 

The lesson
Lead-in

On the board, write the proverb below and ask students, in pairs, to comment on its meaning. Encourage students to share their anecdotes.

When in Rome, do as the Romans do
Listening Comprehension: British manners. A note-taking listening exercise

This authentic material is great for B2 learners. It poses just the right challenge. Not too hard, not too easy!

Tell students they are going to hear a man called Elliot talking about 5 British manners. The task is simple. Play each example of good manners individually and…

  • First time: ask students to write what manners he is talking about
  • Second time: play the video again and ask students to take down notes
  • Pair up students and ask one of them to retell the information offered in the video. The other student listens and /or helps. This role will be changed for the second example of manners
  • Ask someone to retell the information for the whole class.
  • Write any relevant vocabulary on the board.
  • Ask: what about in your country? 
  • Repeat procedure for the second example of manners. Remember, there are 5 of them.

 

Gallery Walks: a speaking and writing activity using posters

Can you see any benefits to always working with the same person/student? I cannot. That’s why I always encourage my students to change partners regularly. However, some of them are quite reluctant and need a gentle push.

Forming groups: I have used small popsicle sticks to form groups of three.  The sticks were coloured as in the picture and they just needed to find the other two students with the same colour.

Before the activity: I cut small pieces of paper of different colours and I assigned each poster a different colour

  • On the walls – I put up simple posters – I had to use the space outside my classroom as my class is tiny. I had six posters: Greetings, table manners, punctuality, gender roles, tipping and taboos.
  • Students in their groups choose a poster and they are instructed to do the following:

  1. Discuss the manners on the poster in their country and in other countries they might have been to. Is it the same or different?
  2. Before moving to the next poster, students are instructed to take a piece of paper with the colour corresponding to the poster they have been working with and write a piece of advice for someone visiting their country, in this case, Spain.  ( if they were talking about Tipping, they should write a piece of advice on tipping).They were instructed to leave their written piece of advice on the table, choose a new poster and repeat procedure.
  3. Allow 25-30 minutes for this part
  4. Quickly correct spelling and grammar mistakes. Using blue-tack, put all the pieces of advice around the posters the advice has been written for.
  5. Ask students to do a second gallery walk commenting on all the tips and having a look at their mistakes.

Posters here

Writing an article about an unusual custom in the world

Lead-in:

Ask students: Have you ever experienced culture shock? Where were you? What happened?

Unit 1 in our textbooks explains how to to write an article. Using this format, I have asked students to do a bit of research on the internet and write about an unusual custom. To spice things a tiny bit, I have assigned students different countries using a random wheel.