Tag Archives: C1

2 Engaging Retrieval Practice Activities to Start your Class on the Right Foot

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Two ideas that can easily be adapted to your own context.

True to my habit of beginning the class with a retrieval practice activity, I have added to my growing arsenal two new ones:  playing hangman and doing crosswords. This is how I have modified the rules of the games to adapt them to teaching/learning more effectively.

GUESSING THE TOPIC WITH A FRIENDLIER VERSION OF THE GAME HANGMAN

Playing hangman is an old classic. Well, at least for me. I cannot count the number of times me and my friends whiled away the time between classes (sometimes during classes) playing the paper and pencil version of hangman.

And playing hangman is just what I need to start my classes this week.  (Aside note: did you know that the hardest word to guess in Hangman is Jazz?) This time, the word will be easier. Students will need to guess what topic we will cover in class next, But…. There are rules to follow:

  • The class is divided into 2 teams. Each team names a spokesperson.
  • Let’s say Team 1 starts. Now, to get the chance to say a letter to solve the puzzle, they’ll have to answer a content review question.  For example: “what preposition collocates with the verb “depend”?”. After a quick discussion with the members of their group, the spokesperson will give an answer. If correct, they can suggest a letter. Whether it is a correct or incorrect guess, the turn will pass to Team B, who will get another content review question and the chance to guess a letter if the answer to the review question is correct.
  • Important: Teams can’t try to solve the puzzle until half the letters have been guessed(i.e. if the word has 14 letters, 7 must have been guessed) and only the Team playing will have this chance.
  • If they guess and fail, their turn will be skipped.

Tool used: Learning Apps

GAME: THE 15 SECONDS CROSSWORD GAME

Ready for another engaging gamified retrieval practice activity? Here we go!!

  • Divide the class into 2 teams.
  • Team A chooses a representative who chooses a number from the crossword puzzle, reads the description, and has 15 seconds to guess the answer with the help of their team.
  • If they guess the answer, they can continue playing until
  1. they can’t guess the word,
  2. they run out of time (remember 15 seconds) or
  3. they guess three answers in a row.

If this happens, it is Team B’s turn.

  • The winner is the team that solves the last clue.

In this case, the terms in the crossword were related to the “relationships”
NOTE: (click on the top right-hand corner to enlarge the crossword)

  • Tool used: Learning Apps

I hope you have enjoyed these two activities I have created for my students.

Would Rather: Introducing, Revising and Reinforcing

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This is not the first time I’ve shared a lesson on using Would Rather to express a preference, but this lesson is also an excuse to share some of the tricks (also called activities 😊) I keep up my sleeve to engage my students and make them enjoy learning; because they/ we deserve to have fancy, engaging, dynamic lessons even if what needs to be explained is as dull as ditch water.

I strongly support the use of visuals in the class to create stimulating lessons. I know creating your own content takes time. But it pays off. Trust me on this one!

FIRST SESSION
INTRODUCING THE TARGET LANGUAGE. PRESENTATION.

I have introduced Would Rather presenting students with some slides and some visual prompts and asking them to provide the questions based on the images.

Some help might be needed, at least, for the first two slides. Encourage students to describe their preferences in pairs, even if it’s a guided assignment.

Target grammar:

  • Question: Would you rather read a book or watch TV?
  • Answer: I’d rather read a book than watch TV because…

Would Rather Introduction de cristina.cabal

GRAMMAR AND EXERCISES
SECOND SESSION

The two activities that follow are meant to be done the following day in order to revise and reinforce this content.

REVISING AND REINFORCING: VIDEO, INTERACTIVE GRAMMAR, FLIP CARDS GAME

(NOTE FOR TECH ENTHUSIASTS)  This beautiful activity has been created with @Genial.ly.  First I created the video, published it on YouTube, and then embedded it on Genial.ly. Then, I used the Template to create the Flipcards.

  • Revise with the video (1st slide)
  • Revise with the matching grammar (2nd slides)
  • Flip Cards Game (following slides). To be used in the game that follows.
FLIPCARDS GAME. Rewriting with Would Rather.  Using Dry-Erase Boards

1. Pair learners and give each pair a dry-erase board and a whiteboard marker.
2. Show the first sentence and ask students to rewrite it using Would Rather
3. Depending on the length or difficulty of the sentence, set a different time limit.
4. Once the pair have their sentence, ask them to write it on the board, big enough for you to see from a distance.
5. When the time is up, ask the pairs to hold it up and quickly go through all the sentences, awarding 1 point to the pair who has the correct grammar.
6. The winner is the pair that get the most points.

Note: Be strict with spelling mistakes or any other tiny mistakes. Students love it when you are strict and don’t give away points easily.

Follow-up: Revise all the sentences again, but this time orally.

SPEAKING: BOARD GAME

This board game has all the ingredients of a good game:

  • Reinforces grammar
  • Boosts communicative skills
  • Improves writing skills
  • Builds rapport
  • + Combines technology with traditional props: in this case, a huge die  (there is a built-in die on the board, so don’t worry if you don’t have this beautiful red die; it is just that I love mixing both worlds.

And here’s the board. As you can see,

  • There are 3 draggable counters.
  • To see the prompts, you need to click on the number.
  • As you can read in the Instructions, if they land on a square with the question GIF, students will need to write a “would you rather” question for the teacher. Yes, you need to answer, it is only fair!!!

 

Hope you have enjoyed this lesson plan. My students have! 🙂

Oral Exams: Two Activities to Revise all the Topics in a Single Lesson

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I know precisely what you are looking for because I guess,  we are all in the same boat: approaching finals, a plethora of topics to revise and juggling work and life. These two activities might come in handy now that you, like me, need to help students  1. revise the vocabulary for all of the topics covered during the course and 2. provide the means to use this vocabulary in spoken interactions or monologues. And this, in a single lesson. Granted it is a two-hour session, but still a feat.

What’s the aim?

  • to develop their communicative skills by asking and answering questions  about different topics
  • to compose a short speech on a topic of choice
  • to revise the specific vocabulary learnt for these topics

ACTIVITY ONE: Throwing the Dice. Revising Vocabulary. Asking the questions.

What you need:

  • slips of paper
  • sticky notes or, alternatively, scraps of paper and cellotape.
  • a dice or a virtual dice (here)

On the walls of the class, put up slips of paper with the various themes you wish to review: work, sports, education, leisure time activities…etc.

Step 1. Revising Vocabulary

  1. Put students into pairs or groups. You’ll need as many pairs/ groups as there are topics you’ll be revising.
  2. Assign each pair/group a topic and ask them to write down all the vocabulary/expressions…etc they have learnt related to their assigned topic. Have them name a secretary who will be in charge of writing the vocabulary on a clean sheet of paper and trying to write in legible handwriting.
  3. Give them some cellotape or blue-tack and instruct them to tape/stick the vocabulary on the wall,  next to the topic they have been assigned.

 

Step 2. Throwing the dice. Writing the questions

1. Assign to each number on the dice a wh-word and write it on the board. For ex:

  1. why
  2. where
  3. when
  4.  what
  5. how
  6. who

2. Now, roll the dice and ask pairs/groups to choose a topic and write a question beginning with the wh ( for example if the number is 4, they will need to write a question beginning with “what”) and related to the topic they have chosen. Make sure pairs/groups choose different topics. Encourage students to write interesting questions or questions that can generate conversation.

Ex: the topic is Crime and the number is 4; the question might be something like :

What are the most common crimes in your town?

3. Once they have written the question, ask them to post it next to the topic the topic it pertains to.

4. Throw the dice again and repeat procedure only, this time, groups must necessarily choose a different topic. Again, make sure all topics are covered. Hopefully, when you roll the dice, it will show a different number. If it is the same number( say number 4 as in the example), throw it again, you want a different Wh- question.

How many questions do I think would be more than enough for each topic? I would suggest 3 questions/topic

Step 3. Gallery Walk

Gallery walk: Once you have at least 2 or 3 questions per topic, ask students to stand up in their groups and stand next to a topic and together read the vocabulary for the topic they will next to it.  Then, have them read the questions and discuss them. Allow about 10 minutes per poster and then ask them to move clockwise to the next topic. Repeat procedure.

ACTIVITY TWO: Tearable topics. Beautiful template

It is not the first time I have used a tearable activity- if I may call it like this-, but it is the first time that I have used Meredithakers’s template. I saw her design and I thought ” I need to use it”. So cute. Have a look at her design here and if you don’t read her, I highly recommend it.

NOTE: This activity follows the first one where students have already had the opportunity to revise vocabulary. If you choose to do only this activity, give students some time to revise the vocabulary they will need to give a great speech.

Before the class: Edit a copy of my/her template and write your own content. My template here

Cut a line between words but don’t cut them all the way so that the slip of paper doesn’t detach. I guess a copy will be enough if you have a class of 24 students or less.

Divide the class into groups of 5-6 people. You can easily create 4 groups of 5-6 people as there are 24 tearable strips of paper. Topics might be repeated, just make sure they are not repeated within the group. In fact, for easier identification, you can divide the class into 4 groups and assign a colour to each group. They can only tear off a topic highlighted in their assigned colour.

Give them about 5 minutes to prepare their monologue encouraging the use of vocabulary and grammar.

Isn’t it a beautiful template? I told you! Thanks @meredith

2 Engaging Activities to Work with Reporting Verbs

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I have to confess that lately I haven’t had much time to publish. I design a lot of cool, if I may say so, activities for my students but posting about them takes time, time I lack right now. But posting is constantly on my mind, and not because I feel I have to do it, but because it makes me happy. So, today is a happy day.

Now, these are two activities I have designed for my C1 students. If C1 is not your level, keep on reading; they are highly adaptable to any level.

  1. Working on the grammar of reporting verbs
  2. Using post-it notes to reinforce and fix mistakes
One. Working on the grammar of reporting verbs.
Helping students learn this point of grammar is not an easy task. OMG, they are so many reporting verbs….!!! Plus, some of them can be followed by more than one pattern. A nightmare!!!
STEP 1. The presentation.
Even though it is a C1 level, I felt compelled to explain what a reporting verb is with a small presentation.
For this introduction, I’ve used the first 6 slides. I have used the rest of the presentation to explain the game that follows.

This is the infographic that I have designed. Please, bear in mind:
1. It is not meant to be comprehensive
2. Verbs can follow different patterns
You can get it here

reporting verbs by cristina.cabal

Step 2: Using double-sided cards. Now that we have seen the grammar, let’s put it into practice. You can download the cards here.

  • Aim: to place the verbs under the right pattern
  • Before the class: photocopy one set per group of three/four students. In my case, I have photocopied them in different colours.  Also, photocopy the headings with the verb patterns here.

I think the images below clearly demonstrate how we have played this “game”.

Instructions: put students into groups of three and give each group a set of double-sided cards. (you might want to fold them before the game or ask students to fold them; whatever works for you) The aim of the activity is to place the verb on the card under the right column.

First, they guess the pattern and then, before placing it under the right column, they check their guess by turning the card over.

I did it twice:

  1. They just guessed the pattern and placed it under the right column
  2. They did the same as in 1 but, this time,  they also produced a sentence containing the prompts on the card.

Below, students working

Students checking their guess is correct by flipping the card.

 

Two. Using post-it notes to reinforce and fix mistakes.
This activity using post-it notes is dedicated to  Maribel, a teacher in Andalucía (I will say no more as I haven’t asked her permission) who, when we met in person in a teacher training session, gave me a most useful present, a box with 1440 colourful post-it notes (an easy multiplication) + a letter I will always cherish.
The activity is a simple, highly-adaptable one and one that can be done in many ways (you don’t have to use post-it notes-any discarded scrap of paper will do). I just happen to think that presentation matters, and colours and movement is an added bonus in this activity.
Step 1. Writing a reporting verb on a post-it note
Ask students to write on a post-it note a reporting verb. Encourage them to have a look at the infographic (PDF above)and instruct them to make sure they know the grammar of the verb they have written.
Note: If you have a large class, put the students in pairs. You don’t want to have as many as 25 reporting verbs to work with. If you have a 6–12 student class, you might want to ask them to work individually.
Stick their post-it notes on the walls of the class.
Step 2. Gallery walk. Writing sentences.
On a table in the middle of the class, leave some post-it notes -(a) different colour(s) would be great.
Put students in pairs now and ask them to stand up and do a gallery walk. They will stop at each “picture’ and in pairs write down a sentence containing the reporting verb. They should write the sentences on the post-it notes and put them next to the ‘picture’ it corresponds to. Encourage them to write only when they know exactly what they want to write. Otherwise, it would look very untidy. Also, tell them they need to write a sentence showing they are C1 students (you know how it goes if you don’t push them a tiny bit)
Pairs don’t have to walk clockwise; they can choose any ‘pictures’ on the walls in any order, but they must do all of them.
Step 3. Peer correction.
Once they have written their sentences, instruct students to move to the post-it containing their original reporting verb; the one in Step 1, the one they know the grammar for.  Ask them to read the sentences next to their verb.
— If they are correct, they should put a tick
— If they are wrong, they should underline the mistake but not correct it
Step 4: Fixing mistakes
Ask students to stand up again, the infographic containing the grammar for those verbs in their hands, and again do a gallery walk. They should read all the sentences surrounding a “picture’. If their sentence happens to be one of those containing mistakes, they will have to correct it using the infographic as a reference.
Step 5: My turn
Now, it is my turn to make sure, as a teacher, that all the sentences are correct. I have also added my opinion on whether the sentence is a C1-level sentence or a B2-level sentence to encourage them to try harder next time. 🙂
I hope you have enjoyed the activity.

Lesson Plan: The Hunt for News

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It’s been years since  I last discussed the media and its role in our society in my classes. I don’t really think much has changed since the last time I explored this topic in class.

  • I feel we are still being manipulated by the media
  • I still feel we are, in most cases, misinformed
  • I still feel that the press is controlled by the same networks of people that run everything else
  • I still feel the information we receive is biased and based on speculation rather than hard facts.

But this lesson is meant to be focused on the paparazzi and their work chasing celebrities or famous people. We will discuss the very serious damage that the paparazzi and tabloid media can cause when they constantly invade people’s privacy. We will discuss whether the paparazzi are to blame for some unfortunate events and whether stricter laws should be enforced. We will study vocabulary relevant to this topic and read real examples where the right to have a private life will be discussed. Are you ready?

Step 1: a stirrer.
  1. Ask students: Have you ever met someone famous?

Telling an anecdote about yourself never fails to engage students. It’s only fair that if you are asking them to talk about themselves, you do the same.

2. On the board, write the question below and ask students to briefly comment on this.

 Want fame? Kiss your privacy goodbye! 

Step 2 . Introducing vocabulary

Every time I revise or introduce vocabulary in my classes, I make a point of reminding my students that they need to study the vocabulary in chunks. There is no point in studying the verb “apply” if they don’t know the preposition it collocates with.  The next activity is a good one to remind students of this necessity.

  • Give students two minutes to write all the vocabulary they know related to The media.
  • On the board, write a circle with the word The Media inside. Do a mind-map with all the vocabulary students provide.
  • Drill pronunciation and then do a quick translation exercise to consolidate meaning and pronunciation.

Introduce new vocabulary.

  • To follow a lead
  • paparazzo/paparazzi/amateur paps
  • revulsion/respect for their profession
  • a tip-off/to tip off the paparazzi
  • to gather news
  • to spot a celebrity
  • agency/ˈeɪ.dʒən.si/
  • news outlets
  • news coverage
  • exclusive /ɪkˈskluː.sɪv/
  • a major scoop
  • a click-bait story
  • photojournalism
  • tabloid journalism and sensasionalism /senˈseɪ.ʃən.əl.ɪ.zəm/
  • to censor/impose strict censorship /ˈsen.sə.ʃɪp/
  • Celebrity scandals
  • sensational news
  • To harass foreign journalists UK /ˈhær.əs/ AmE /həˈræs/
  • to stalk a celebrity /stɔːk/
  • to pursue or chase celebrities /pəˈsjuː/
  • to catch up on the news
  • to leak to the press
  • to tackle misinformation
  • invasion of privacy /ɪnˈveɪ.ʒən/ /ˈprɪv.ə.si/
  • untrustworthy/reliable sources /ʌnˈtrʌstˌwɜː.ði/
  • accuracy of the reports
  • unverified information
  • biased/unbiased
  • to be in the limelight
  • to be highly sought-after /ˈsɔːt ˌɑːf.tər/

You can follow the rest of the lesson plan using the presentation below. I hope you enjoy it!

The Hunt for News

In case you are looking for debatable or persuasive topics about the media, here you have some.