post-it fun for all ages.

Good morning one and all.
I'm sure you've all used and enjoyed one of 3m's finest inventions; the gloriously underrated post-it note. Be it as a reminder to pick up milk or an effort to get your son to remember to take his PE kit out of he washing.
How many of you have used it in a classroom situation? Quite a few I imagine.
This week I've been teaching clothes to my youngest students, body parts to some teens and idioms of the body to my adults. Whilst flicking through ideas online I saw people drawing outlines of their students on the white board and labelling them. I thought this might be a bit of fun. Rather than drawing around my students though I simply plunked them on a chair at the front of the class, gave each team a different colours set of post-its and got them to set about sticking them to the model at the front of class. After I saw that the kids enjoyed it so much I cranked it up a notch and tried it with my teens. A roaring success again. Finally it came to my adult class and as we all know adults are the biggest kids of all. They all got mega involved and were tearing around the classroom trying to stick their idioms to their classmate. Thankfully none of them had found a pain in the ass or being a right tit. That could've caused a complaint or two.

give it a shot. I guarantee every so gel student will have a blast.

Till next time

Higher or Lower

A super simple game I use in class is Higher or Lower. It takes no time to prepare, gets students really engaged in an activity and can be used to practice a wide range of skill sets.
To start with numbers. The is a myriad of numbers you can practice all. Prices, times, dates, weight, height, number of people at a place. The list is endless. If it has a number you can use it.
You can also use it to practice modals of deduction and some simple language chunks that will be useful both in life and when the students goes in for their dreaded Cambridge exam.
I tend to arm my students with the chunks of language they are going to need at the start of the game.

I think it could be....
I don't reckon it's more than....
I can't be sure but....
I'm guessing it's about.....
Well, it's obviously more than.....
You said Claudio was close so it must be around...
It's clearly between ..... and .... so my guess is....

Ok, so the number must be....

Then I draw a simple grid on the board. 2 columns and two rows.

In the title row I put the comparatives necessary for the activity. If I were doing the price of a car one side would read:

More expensive than....   and the other.              Cheaper than....


I'd put a picture of the car up (google images) and I'd get the students to start guessing. Asking each students in turn to provide me with a number.


I'm not sure how your students are with numbers and the different ways in which we use numbers in English but after just 5 classes which have included the height of a mountain, the price of a car, the time of my alarm on my phone, the age of a painting and the number of tourists to visit The Alcazar in Sevilla. I've seen 90% of my students being able to use "Big" numbers with almost consummate ease. It's a fun way of drilling numbers and it gives everyone in class a chance to practice.

Right then. That's it for today. Coming soon some fun musical ideas and post-it notes galore.

Til the next time.

Looking Forward to the Next Class

I've often found myself wondering, whilst plannig my next class, what do the students already know. we are all well aware that before we start a class we should really take into account and think about any assumed knowledge the class have on the subject we're about to embark upon.

You'll read it in every book, you'll hear it at every training session but how often do you actually check what students know before you start teaching it?

What I like to do is check at the end of the previous class what they might know. I always review what we have done in that lesson (I check again in the next) and then using a spidergram or something of that ilk on the board I just get students to come up and write any words or phrases relating to that subject of the next class.It's a simple way to get the mind going and into gear. If unit's a grammar point simply asking a student to explain it rather than a boring diagram up on the board. All it ever sounds like to me is
 Subject +blah + bla-ing and I'm teaching it.

So for vocab. Preview known vocab with a spidergram and then in the following class open with a quick round of Categories on mini whiteboards or in Ss notebooks. Starting the class with a game is always great and students have almost always thought of a new word or two since the previous class as you've left that idea there in their heads.

I have been know on the odd occasion to tell eams it's their turn to look for new vocab on the topic and start the next class by explaining it to the other students.

These ideas are hardly revolutionary. I don't claim to have any ownership whatsoever over them. They just make classes flow a lot easier and take the subject matter from the hands of the teacher and puts it into the hands of the students.

These ideas take a a little bit of forethought. Just flick to the next page in the book before the class finishes and see what's coming up, if you're a class to class planner, like me. If you're even more organised and you plan a few classes at a time then you're already set. These ideas have helped me an awful lot and have saved time in lengthy explanations and most importantly got the students thinking about what they've learnt and what they're going to learn.

It's very rare that a class will have no idea at all about the subject matter so give them some credit and relinquish your power........ to an extent.


That's all you're getting for this week.

Enjoy your weekend.

What's that sound, A step further.

good morrow one and all,
I've been talking a lot recently about the importance of pronunciation in class. I mentiod a few posts back about using the phonemic chart in the classroom as a useful tool but by no means as the be all and end all of how to help`pron.  I've been teaching my students, bit by bit, what each sound looks and sounds like. I mentioned my game What's that Sound a wee while ago. Not only does it help pron but it also throws up a whole bunch of new vocab the students would never have come across without a wee push. Well, it's been a few weeks since then and I have a whole bunch more sides that I've used in class. They have been added to the materials link just over there   --------------->                                                                                  Have fun with phonemes and don't thrust them upon your students or you'll just get a bunch of scared looking faces staring up at the utter guff you've projected in front of them.

I always follow the sounds, especially the minimal pairs, with a game or an activity in the next class to rehash them to the students. Minimal Phone numbers is always a favourite. I'll repost that blog next time so as to give you all a quick reminder and as a way of seeing some updated material.

'til next time

Get Toned

After my last post I felt like I was hit by some kind of mega evil throat infectiony train that whacked me on my back for a couple of days. thankfully that's done and dusted and I can stop acting like a typical man and acting as if the world uis about to end because my throat was a bit fatter than usual.

So last week I talked a bit about tone and how it can be adapted to convey some very different meanings. This post is going along very similar line but with a slightly different twist. It'll keep your students focussed on the importance of tone but not bore them with repartition. Yet again, it's a quicky. A wee five minute filler just to keep pronunciation at least at the back of your students minds.

Again it uses the premise of using the same sentence (last week it was a word) and presenting it to a partner in a different tone of voice.

Before setting the students off I tell them the three tones they are going to use.

Happy and Excited
Sad and upset
Nervous and worried.

i then tell them to think about different situations when they have felt those range of mixed emotions and quickly tell their partner about them.

Then I give students the sentence. "I've got something to tell you." Next I set the Ss to task with telling their partner the sentence for one of their previous situations. They then have to guess which one it was and switch. The winners are obviously the team who gets the most situattions correct. A always giving students a good model is absolutely vital.

For the powerpoint with all of these pronunciation ideas and a handout to go with it please take a look across at the more materials link. It's all there and free for anyone to do with as they please.

that's all for now peeps.

Game of Tones

Good afternoon all,

In further adventures from the land of STRIP I bring you. "You Had Me at Hello" This is a wonderfully quick activity which helps students understand the difference tone makes. With a great number of languages tone is absolutely vital so this concept is usually be very easily transmitted.

I start by asking the Ss what difference tone can make. I then arm them with two words. Hello and Really.  I  make sure they are aware the power these two words can weild and then I let them unleash that power on their partners.

For the first half of the activity I ask students to use one of the situatuions on the powerpoint (paper, boards) and speak to their partner in the tone of voice one would imagine a person in that situation would use. Their partner then has to guess which one they are trying to convey. If they get it wrong and feel their partner has misunderstoon the phrase then they can show them how it should be done.

It always helps to model the first two or three situations just to get students up to speed with the task. Especially those who aren't as quick as your star students.

When the students get to the Really section, I get them to translate or simply share with the class what each phrase means. Then they get 5 minutes to practice with a partner and finally they are called upon at random to do the same action as before, however, this time to the whole class. He, (or she) who guesses correctly get's to choose who speaks next.

The funnier you make the situations the more fun the students will have doing mock, over the top tones of voice.

As always you can find the slide for this within the STRIP presentation just there ------>STRIP materials
in  even more materials.

I hope your students enjoy this task as much as mine.

hasta la proxima.

H

Detective

A game I absolutely love to play with all my students is Detective. It's amazing for helping the formation of questions and is always a good laugh. What I've recently done, in conjunction with a game from the intonation section of STRIP, is combine it with question tags to add a bit of drilling and some much needed engagement with the grammar topic.

What I found with twenty question tags was it could get a bit stale when throwing this game into the mix it really livens things up. 

Before starting the activity you should obviously give. The students some target language. Some questions to ask, some responses to give. If you're doing this activity with question tags then really give a good review of those that could be used. O r perhaps just give students the statements and let them form the correct question tag. Eg. You took the rubber..... And You don't have any f&$#*£g evidence.......

To start the game I tend to build a story to get the students involved. I usually use something inane like a rubber or a pencil sharpener and tell the class that it holds the key to the very existence of the planet. If that rubber were to fall into the wrong hands all hell could and, most likely, would break loose.

Once the students are fully immersed in the tale I tell them that the item was, in fact, stolen the night before and two of the students, working as good cop and bad cop, would have to find the culprit in the class. 

I then send the two students out of the class and get them to decide who is the good cop and who is the bad cop, I also give them three or four minutes to prepare their questions. I give the rubber to a particularly angelic looking students and then, the two detective then re enter the class and set about questioning half of the class each. After five or six minutes the students should have a fair idea of who has taken the rubber of power. If they can retrieve the rubber they win the game and can throw it into the mount doom. 

Right I'm off to do some parenting.

Until the next time.

The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face. Johnny Cash's Version

Now, I know I'm a very lucky man. I am, obviously, accutely aware of that fact. Some mornings, though, I wake up next to my wife, look into her eyes and realise just how lucky I am. Today was one of those days. For that very reason I decided to make a gap fill activity weith some follow up questions to a song that will always be synonymous with our love.
It's great because it can really lead to a lot of debate about love at first sight. I also like to encourage my students to go out and listen to the covers. Next class we are going to discuss the difference in the different versions and which is the best.
 
I've added the andout to the materials site on the right.

I hope you enjoy it.