FCE Reading Part 7 Made Fun.... well, slightly less boring at least

In my experience this is the part of the reading exam where students do best. They tend to get at least 6 or 7 right, becuase it's usually quite obvious. I created this class to make it more interactive and for students to think individually but then also as a team. I also used it to enable students to improve their paraphrasing and as a way of retelling what they'd learnt. In the end it was really successful and every group, even with the weakest students got at least 8 correct answers.

So what's the process.

First up I find a vaguely interesting reading. With something, at least mildly, relatable to the class. Something to do with sport perhaps.
I find any tricky or complex vocabulary and preteach it. I draw students attention to the wide range of collocations used in the text and allow them to reflect for a moment or two on their own speaking and writing. It gives the students time to digest everything before the task.

Next I ask students to get into groups of 4 or 5 and have a quick talk about the topic of the text their about to read. (Perhaps it's one person speaking maybe it's 4/5 differdent people. There is, however, a central topic that can be discussed at length. I try and ensure students use some of the vocabulary taken from the text in order to solidify its meaning and useage.
In the example below I picked out
Big Grins
unstoppable Appitite (I also mentioned insatiable as a collocation)
Rolling Waves 
Vast Amounts
Hang Around
Itching to do something
A drop in temperature
To blossom
Spray
instinctive
hair-raising
never be bothered

Next tell them the title of the text they are going to read and get students to hypothesize about what they are going to read.
In this case the title was from the online handbook sample paper:

Walking On Waves

Sarah Whiteley talks about her love of surfing and how it began

After they've spoken for 4-5 minutes tell students they are each going to get a paragraph of Part 7.

But first they are going to read through the questions, paying close attention to key words and underlining them (here they're in bold).

1. feeling satisfaction that her determination resulted in better performance?
2. the problem of having to wait for conditions to be favourable for surfing?
3. a change which helped her to pursue her hobby?
4. continuing to surf even when the conditions were unfavourable?
5. the pleasure she gets from seeing others succeed?
6. being aware that it would take time for her abilities to be recognised?
7. her enthusiasm for the sea being recognised by someone else?
8. an admission that she doesn’t think about what she is doing when surfing?
9. not being concerned that she stood out from others?
10. people appreciating her serious attitude towards her surfing?

This is when I give each student a different part of the exam.

Person A in each group gets:

 

Person B: 

Person C: 

Person D:

Person E:


When students have finished reading they tell each other abou their paragraph. Not only what it was about but also any interesting language or collocation they came across. EG: Person D might say, it mentions vast amounts of hanging around. Which is a better way to say we had to wait a long time.
Person C might mention something not happening overnight, which means it takes a long time.
Person B could talk about the collocation to be exceptionally good at something and how they'll try and use it in future. 

After the students have talked about their paragraphs they again go over the questions and decide which paragraph pertains to which question. They then have to underline the relevant text.
When it's all finished they report back to the class.  Low and behold most of them will get 8 or 9 at the very least.

My final step is to then give students 15 minutes to do a different part 7 of the exam. This tends to calm them down.

A worksheet is avilable here Walking on Waves.

Below are the answers for the about take.
1)C
2) D
3) A
4) B
5) E
6) C
7) A
8) E
9) B
10) D

Movie reviews with a twist. Or just twisted movie reviews?

It's been more than just a little while since I last posted anything. That's not to say I 've been resting on my laurels, I most certainly have not. I've merely been lacking in what some might call free time. Be that as it may, the summer has arrived and I shall be presented with a little more free time. For that very reason I'm going to try and churn out as many ideas I've come up with/adapted over the last six months, in the coming months.

Today's post came about thanks to one of those silly games I tend to play with a group of friends that lends itself very well to teaching. We decided to make new movie titles by taking old ones and adding just one word.

Some of the first to come out were things like NOT Saving Private Ryan and Million Dollar Baby Sitter.

I took this game into a classroom environment. As a warmer I got students to think of as many films as they could in English. After two minutes I gave them an additional two minutes with their phones to get as long a list as possible.

as soon as they'd got their list at the ready I told them to get started on the game.
Captain South America, Paranormal Sexual Activity, The Rubbish Pianist and African American Beauty were but a few of the titles that popped up.

After their lists had been compiled I asked students to get together and talk about what their films would be like and who'd star in them.

Next up was reading reviews of real films. I gave the students a list Review sites and set them about looking for reviews of some of the films we'd talked about. I also ensured they took some useful chunks of language from the reviews for later use.

All that was left after the discussion was to set the homework. After going through a few movie reviews online I set got them to set about the task of writing their own. using at least 3 phrases they'd come across in the movie reviews we'd read together in class.

The results were nothing short of spectacular. I had by far the largest amount of homework handed in this year with this activity and it was by far and away of the best standard.

I found that doing exam style tasks just a little away from the exam really gives the students a chance to express themselves.

right that's all from me today.

I hope this gives your class something to write about.

Until the next time

Phrasal Verbs Battle Ships

I spent this morning sitting in a Cambridge seminar thinking and talking about various techniques for the Use of English and Reading exams. There was a huge amount of idea sharing and some wonderful idea. 

At one stage the speaker asked us if we had any interesting ways of teaching our students phrasal verbs. I piped up with my idea of phrasal verb battle ships. So for those of you who were there you just need to click on this link and look for "Phrasal Verb Battle Ships"

The worksheet contains the game board, definitions of each phrasal verb and an example sentence. It also has a space for students to write their own example. 

The rules are simple: 

1) Draw your ships on anywhere your Grid.

2) Say sentence using a phrasal verb to select a question.

3) If you HIT a Ship Answer the Question if you MISS all ships it’s                                       your partner’s turn to guess.

4) Win by sinking all your partner’s ships.  

It tends to take a fair while so I usually use it as a warmer and then later as a cooler or as a warmer for three or four classes in a row. 

Good luck and have fun.

Language Upgrade Lesson 1. Extreme Adjectives

We all know that out students need a little help when it comes to improving on their language. an extensive vocabulary is what makes someone proficient in a language, in my opinion.

The first steps to doing this can be taken very early in a language learners quest to be understood. It's also something that turns into a bit of a battle the closer students get to their B1 and B2 exams.

I created this worksheet because I was bored of hearing my students refering to something as a good idea over and over and over again. I decided that I needed to do try to help my PET students get to grips with some extreme adjectives and with the hope they might start in incorporate them into, not only thier writing but their speaking as well. This was the first step.I ask questions focused on the use of these adjectives at the start of each class by way of reinforcement. I've been doing this over the last couple of weeks and it seems some of my students are using these adjectives almost naturally.

A gradable adjective is one which can vary in size. Eg. The dog was quite big. Or maybe your bedroom is usually extremely clean.

Extreme adjectives, on the other hand, can’t be graded. It can’t be very freezing outside in winter it can be freezing or absolutely freezing. Using extreme adjectives adds interest to both written and spoken language.

The full printable is available here. Look for extreme adjectives.

1.       Match the extreme adjectives in box 1 with the normal adjectives in box 2.

EXTREME ADJECTIVES

Gigantic/Enormous BIG

Filthy_____

Boiling______

Freezing______

Hideous______

Gorgeous/Stunning______

Amazing/Fantastic______

Spotless______

Furious_______

Starving______

Stuffed_______

Terrible______

Tiny_______

 Normal/Gradable

Full

Ugly

Beautiful

Good

Bad

Cold

Hot

Angry

Clean

Dirty

Hungry

Big

Small

  

2.       Circle the correct answer.

a.       The dining room was very/absolutely big.

b.      After I cook the kitchen is usually a bit/absolutely filthy.

c.       Seville is absolutely/very boiling in the summer

d.      When I get home from school I’m usually quite/absolutely hungry.

e.      The view from my balcony on holiday was absolutely/a bit stunning

3.       Write some sentences using both gradable and extreme adjectives.

Eg. My brother is quite good at football but I’m absolutely amazing.

a.       Enormous________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

b.      Furious__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

c.       Stuffed__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

d.      Starving_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

e.      Tiny____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

f.        Boiling__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

g.       Hideous________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

h.      Gorgeous________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

i.         Amazing_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

j.        Filthy___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

4.       Finally I’d like you to write a short piece about your last holiday. Make sure you use at least 5 extreme adjectives and 3 gradable adjectives.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The Mind Boggles as does the game

Have you ever played boggle? It's a wonderful game to use in the classroom. you have a set of 16 dice each with 6 different letters on them. you shake them up and have to find as many words as you can. In the traditional games the letters have to be conected. In the classroom version I just get students to find as many words as they can. Or for the longest word they can conjure up with the letters on show in the time limit.  You can buy your own game then you can use it at home on those long cold rainy winter's nights or you can simply use an online generator.  I find the real game
engages my students more as they can be the ones in control of what letters come out and if there are 6 e's then they can blame Pablo and not just say it's impossible.
After the students have made a list or two I then ask them to use those words as the basis to a story or a dialogue between their teams. 
I tried this with my elementary adult class at the start of the year and saw they were porducing short sentences which often made very little sense. By the end of the year the students were trotting out bizarre and unique and often fairly racey stories. This game can really add to the studentes spontinaaity and helps them think on their feet about what to write. You can get students to keep a boggle folder and play the game a few times throughout the year. Your students will be able to see how much they've improved by the end of the year. Not only at writing but also at spotting hidden words within the game.

I trust you'll have as much fun with it as I have. Probably the best investment in a board game since buying Trivial Pursuit.

ELI Conference

Thanks to those of you who came to my talks today. As I said all of the materials are on the tab just over there -------------> plus a whole bunch more I've just uploaded the short version of the talk from today. Feel free to take it, use it, abuse it, change it or ignore it.
I hope you found it useful today and your classes enjoy the activities as much as mine.

Thanks again

H

Just around the corner

With ACEIA just days away I've uploaded all of the content from my talk onto the link to the right (just a few materials.)
The talk has evolved ever so slightly so for all y'all who saw it at TEFL del Sur, there are some new treats and one or two changes and additions.

If you're at the conference this weekend. I assure you it's worth staying until the end. I'll treat you to a spectacular somewhat akin to a live Muse concert. Ok, that might be a bit of a lie, there will be no fireworks aside the metophorical ones flying around the room.

20 Question.......Tags

Well, it's been a while hasn't it. Too long some might say. How on earth have we gone on with our lives without your frequent updates Harry? I don't know, but it seems you have and so have I.

I recently took my ESL presenter train, well bus,  off to Madrid for TESOL Spain 2014. Despite speaking at 09:30 on a balmy Sunday morning I got a pretty decent turn out, so thanks to everyone for showing your faces. Upon my return I've jumped right back into work and a mere three weeks later here I am, posting again.

There'll be a few more posts over the next few days because my brain has been simply overflowing with ideas.

This first one came about due to my students, who are all Spanish, constant use of the word No as a question tag. Try as I might I couldn't get through to them that, while English speakers do use no as a question tag, they really aren't "supposed" to. I also explained that in an exam situation they'd be looked upon in a much better light if they used the correct question tag. Or at the very least. Right?

The question tag unit in the book came at just the right time. I started by playing question tag dominoes. Which you can see below. I just cut them up and handed them around. It's a great introduction. (I'll add the downloadable doc to my the useful links above)

aren’t we?	You’re name’s Harry	isn’t it?	You’ve been here before
haven’t you?	Let’s make a move	shall we?	You didn’t see the film
did you?	She’ll be at the party	won’t she?	You couldn’t lend me five euros
could you?	You can speak Spanish	can’t you?	You haven’t seen Gavin anywhere
have you?	He’s bringing Barbara	isn’t he?	She won’t tell anyone
will she?	Give us a hand with this	will you?	We are all agreed

Next I did simple matching exercise. I used this one here:
http://www.englisch-hilfen.de/en/exercises/questions/question_tags.htm

Finally I got students to select the most obscure thing they could find in the room and played 20 questions with them. However, this time with tag questions. I started by giving them examples so they didn't get stuck on isn't it?

When the students felt they were getting closer I told them to change their intonation to a falling intonation to show they pretty much knew what it was but just wanted confirmation.

Here were a few of my examples.

We use it every day, don't we?

Marco has one in his bag, doesn't he?

It starts with a letter from the first half of the alphabet, doesn't it?


So that's all for now folks.

I'll be back in a couple of days with my newest activity Imagine if.... a great way to practice phrasal verbs and dependent propositions. Not to mention an imagination booster.

'til then.

H
Follow me on twitter for regular updates: @sirhofthebomb

FCE Speaking Practice

Good day one and all,

I'm not sure how easy you guys find it to get fresh and new FCE speaking practice. It takes me a while. I decided this year to just make a few new parts every week. It's a work in progress but there are a good few practice parts on the link below.
I like to give my students a couple of minutes at the start of every class to get used to the format of the exam and remove any nerves they might have when exam day come around.
I find the grab activity works really well with drilling useful language.

https://sites.google.com/a/thenglishouse.com/harry/

https://docs.google.com/a/thenglishouse.com/viewer?a=v&pid=sites&srcid=dGhlbmdsaXNob3VzZS5jb218aGFycnl8Z3g6NTMxZWI0ZDFjNmJiZjA2NA

I hope you find them useful.

H

Could you Put the Pet in a Pot of Peat

Good afternoon. I realise it's been a while, again. Alas the perils of working and it being the new year I have been dragged into doing an awful lot of stuff. Whilst doing said stuff though my creative juices began to trickle.
I came up with a fun little game that I have found to be useful with my Spanish learners. It also adds a bit of a giggle to the class, which is always nice.

So what I do is: Using the super fun animations function on PowerPoint I make lists ten of 1 syllable words appear at 3 minute intervals. The first one I use to explain the activity.
Each of the words has to start and end in the same consenent sound or one, in Spain's case V and B, that frequently get confused.  Change the vowel sound.
Next up write numbers 0 -9 underneath the words. Make sure they understand and can pronounce the words.
Then tell them your phone number, passport number, inmate number (or something similar) using only the words. They have to then see if they got your number right.
The next step you should bring the next list of words up onto the screen. Do the same with the numbers underneath. then get the students to tell their partners their number.
Continue until everyone has had a turn and you've used all the lists of words. It took me about 20 minutes in total and was a great laugh

Until the next time my friends.

H

Riddle me this

Whilst puzzling out interesting ways to spice up my classes I popped onto eslprintables.com in search of ideas. I was reminded by an ESL veteran about the joy of riddles. Making students think outside the box to get them focused on class and not just throwing them in with a grammar exercise or speaking exam part jazzed up as a game. I found students used lots of the speculation language we went over last week without using the prompt sheet.

I'd done a riddle of the day a few years ago with an intensive FCE class and it had worked wondrfully well and by the end of the four week course the riddles were taking less and less time because students had started to think so far out of the box that the box had become a dot on the horizon. 

I started with this little one yesterday as we've been working on stereotypes this week.

Acting on an anonymous phone call, the police raid a house to arrest a suspected murderer. They don't know what he looks like but they know his name is John and that he is inside the house. The police bust in on a carpenter, a lorry driver, a mechanic and a fireman all playing poker. Without hesitation or communication of any kind, they immediately arrest the fireman. How did they know they'd arrested the right person?

I reminded the students we were working on stereotypes and that the carpenter, lorry driver and mechanic all had something in common. Then after stressing that HIS name was John a bright spark finally clicked and pointed out that the three former occupations were not gender specific and that they could as easily be women as men. Whereas the fireman by definition had to be a man. 

The class are now eagerly anticipating next week's riddle. I think I'll go with this little classic. 

How could a baby fall out of a twenty-story building onto the ground and live?

'til next time