Once upon a time, there were students who hated having fun in class….
I know, I know… this sounds like absolute blasphemy, but unbelievably there are students who mistakenly think learning and fun are two concepts that cannot be glued together. “You either have fun or you learn…and that’s flat! You can’t have both!” they claim.
I have over the years determined these students think these two concepts cannot cohabit just because they have not been rightfully exposed to them. In this blog you’ll find tons of activities and links to websites to help you change these students’ minds. One of these sites is Viralelt, which is an excellent example of how fun+learning can get along.
Viralelt is a blog for adult learners from upper intermediate (B2) to advanced (C2).
All the posts on the blog have a similar structure
- They all contain an engaging viral video.
- 10 conversation questions related to the video (Question Time)
- A listening activity (Sitting Comfortably) where students will have to guess which two questions, from the exercise above, are being discussed. I find this section especially helpful because it gives students a chance to see how a native speaker would answer these questions. Therefore, I would suggest doing this listening activity before putting students into groups to discuss the questions
- You can download the “Question time”and the “Sitting comfortably?” script in an editable Word document, so you can adapt it to your students’ needs.
The blog is run by Ian James, a teacher at the Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona, and here you can read some of his suggestions on how to use Viralelt.
So, let’s say you see this video, The texting hat, on the Internet
You like it. You think it has a lot of potential for teaching and it is just what you were looking for to give your students a break after a tough week. However, your brain has decided to leave you. You watch the video a thousand times, but nothing so far. I’ve been there, believe, very often!
Well, this is when your addiction to this blog will begin. You go to Viralelt and there it is, together with some teachers’ notes to help you with suggestions on how to use the video, 10 conversations questions and the listening activity.
I want to thank the amazing teachers from Cosas que encuentro para clase on facebook for sharing this superb blog with me.