Writing Elementary (A1): Write about a popular group

It’s not easy to find writing activities  that motivate students but Writing about Music is one of the most popular among teenagers. From my point of view, at this stage of their learning, writing should be partially guided and this is what this activity suggests.
This is the writing task my A1 students had to undertake. I thought I might share it here as I always find it hard to find activities such as this one. Hope you find it useful, too!

Step 1. Students think of a group they know and like and then they provide the following information about their group.
Name:
When popular:
Members of the group:
From:
Instruments:
Songs

Step 2. Students write  about this group , using their notes above.As I suggested , at this stage students need a lot of help and encouragement , so it’s really a good idea to give them a model they can refer to.

This is the model I gave them

The Fray are a popular group in the United States and all over the world today. In the group there are four musicians: Joe King, Isaac Slade, Dave Welsh, Ben Wysocki . They are all from the USA. They sing, write songs and play the guitar, the drums and the piano. Two of the group’s most popular songs are How to save a Life and All at Once.

Step 3:I decided to give my students an extra point if they gave a presentation about their group in class. Most of them did and they even brought along  some flash drives with the group’s most popular songs.

Presentations given by Karen and Alice . Thank you girls!

 


Who said English is boring?

Introducing Have Something Done

This is how I am planning to introduce the structure Have Something Done. I hope it is helpful!

Situation 1. Students are shown a picture  such as a wedding  . Ask leading questions such as Would you like to get married? What sort of preparations are required for  this event?  Make sure students become aware that  one person cannot do it all alone. Ask the students what the solution is or how they cope to elicit that they pay people to do it for them.

Students will most probably tell you that the bride goes to the hairdresser’s and pays someone to do her hair or to paint her nails.

This should be the right time to introduce the structure.

Exactly , so the bride has her hair done at the hairdresser’s and her nails painted at the beautician’s.

Some  more hints :
Wedding dress/ design
Hair /do
Photographs /take
Nails /do
Wedding cake /decorate
Invitations / send
Music at the ceremony /play

 Situation 2. Being rich

Students imagine they are rich and could have all sorts of things done for them , like annoying everyday chores that nobody likes doing plus some luxuries that money allows for.

I’d have my back massaged every day.

Encourage students to use their imagination  and ask them to try to come up with something very extravagant . You can put them in groups of four and vote for the most extravagant luxury  within the group and then within the class. This will encourage everybody to participate and have a nice laugh while learning.

 Grammar and some exercises here

And we wonder why our students think English is confusing?

Writing and Speaking Elementary : Describe a game

Of all the skills a student has to become fluent at when learning a language  writing is ,for me ,the most boring one. I don’t think it’s the hardest by any means, this prize is awarded to Speaking but the truth is that students find it boring and we, teachers, almost always put off marking essays for as long as we can.

On the other hand, I find that it’s much easier for students to write a worthy piece of writing  if you provide a model , some guidelines to follow and also give them a topic  they are mildly interested in .

Last week’s topic for composition was Writing about a Game .I asked students to think of a game or a sport and answer the following questions

What’s the name of the activity? ♥How many players are there? ♥ How does a player start the game?♥What do the players do then?

I also asked some students to record their work and this is what they did(I used a tool called Fotobabble . I wrote about Fotobabble here) . Thank you folks, good job!
Lucia Gonzalez Hide n Seek


Alba Feito “Marbles”


Laura Alvarez The Secret Object

Carolina Macas The Handkerchief

David Díaz The Liar Dice

Video Lessons: TedEd-Lessons Worth Sharing

I’ve known about TED (Ideas Worth Spreading) for quite a long time but although I found their videos very interesting I thought they were too long or too difficult for my classes. Now TED has launched a  new  site, called TedEd,  with  a collection of educational video lessons you can choose by subject and view in class or assign as homework. Every video is accompanied by a lesson with Quick Multiple Choice questions that check your general comprehension. If you have one wrong, you can always check with the video hint and you can also have Think questions that further explore the topic.

For teachers , one of the most powerful features is the FLIP THE LESSON where you can customize the lesson by editing the title, giving your own instructions, select  or deselect any multiple choice questions…etc.

This is a lesson I have flipped for my students. I used the video Questions No One Knows the Answer To to give my students some practice using Reported Speech Questions. You can see my lesson here

Teaching with Songs: Opposites

There is something I have to tell you. When I am alone in my car I sing at the top of my voice and I enjoy it so much that sometimes I even dance while driving! But it even gets worse  because  while I am listening  to music, very often, I focus on the grammar or the lyrics and if I am teaching something specific and I feel like my students need a break , then  I make a point of  not giving up till I find the right song .So much for concentration on the road!

This happened last week with my first and second years . I decided they needed a break from some boring stuff we had been dealing with . We were about to learn Antonyms  and then, all of a sudden,  Katy Perry was on the radio singing her world famous Hot n Cold. Great for opposites in elementary levels!

I was planning on grabbing the lyrics from Internet and racking my brains to create  some good tasks  when I decided to try ISL Collective and there it was. Ready to take! Thank you very much Missk for your wonderful job. It was a real timesaver!

(to download this activity you’ll need to register on this site : ISL COLLECTIVE (I talked about this page here).

Now, why don’t you try this activity? It’s a lot of fun.

This video was embedded using the YouTuber plugin by Roy Tanck. Adobe Flash Player is required to view the video.

My Crafty Side: Fancy Clothespins

Every time I publish one of these posts I feel the necessity to remind you that the aim of these articles is not only for you to learn to make pretty easy things but also to practise your reading skills ,reading authentic material.This time I have chosen this article by Ez published in her blog Creature Comforts.

In her article we can see how she turns  a plain clothespin  into a cute clothespin so easily that you can’t help but wonder why you had never thought about it. I just can’t wait to give it a try! aren’t they lovely?

Useful vocabulary:

Clothespin=wood or plastic fastener; for holding clothes on a clothesline

Fabric= A cloth produced especially by knitting, weaving, or felting fibers 


Learn how to write an informal email with SlideRocket

SlideRocket is an online presentation tool that helps you create , manage and share your presentations. With this tool you can create better slideshows more quickly from within any browser.You can also upload your  PowerPoints or Google Docs presentations. Presentations are stored on SlideRocket’s servers and can be accessed from any device that is connected to the internet. For casual users , it’s free.

I have used SlideRocket to teach my students how to write an informal email. I hope you find it helpful , too.

Word of the Day: Weigh, Weighed and Weight

“ I promise you that I keep trying to lose weight… but it keeps finding me !”  Unknown

Who gives a damn about “weight” when spring has come and it has been raining nonstop for two long weeks. I, for a start, have to keep reminding myself , that bad weather will eventually end and that , eventually, I’ll have a chance to wear my new bikini.And , every single Monday, I get on  my bathroom scale and I can almost hear the joking scale saying : “Is someone on here with you?” or “Hey, get Pavarotti off me” and every single Monday I promise myself I am going to start a diet and lose some weight so that the next time I climb onto the scale ,it’ll hear something like  ” Right on, girl! You’re loosin’ it baby.”

Now, what’s the difference between “weigh” “weighed” and ·weight“.

♥ To weigh /weι/ is a verb  and it means to physically assess the  weight of something or someone— is it 2 pounds? 50 kilos? 15 grams?

“You can weigh the tomatoes you’re buying”

Weighed /weιd/ is the regular past of the verb “weigh

  The butcher weighed the chicken

Weight /weιt/ is a noun and it means the mass or heaviness of a person or thing.The weight of a Yorkshire Terrier  on your lap might not bother you, but the weight of  a 60 kgs German Sheperd?
              “He has had a problem keeping his weight in check “
Weigh yourself to know your weight!

Having Fun while Revising Vocabulary

Some time agoI took a methodology course in London and I’ve been using this game to revise vocabulary ever since. It’s the kind of game I love playing in class for two reasons: it requires no preparation and it’s lots and lots of fun. Students love it!

♥How to Play: the class is divided into teams and one person from each team sits on a chair at the front of the classroom facing their team. I normally put myself behind the person playing and show the rest of the team a card with the word I want to revise. The team has to give hints about this word using English only. They have 1 minute to guess as many words as possible and I give them as many points as words they have guessed. Then, it’s the turn for the other team.

♥Post-Activity: At the end of the activity and when we have a winner I ask students to write on a piece of paper all the words, used in the revision game, they can remember so we have further opportunity to revise.

♥My humble Tip: I wouldn’t use it to revise a Vocabulary Field because it would be too predictable. It is , on the other hand, perfect to revise vocabulary at the end of a unit.

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