» Writing skill Blog de Cristina

Creative Writing Prompts

5 Noviembre 2012 — Cristina Cabal

I found this website quite by chance.It’s one of these sites that is useful to bookmark as it comes in very handy when you want to do some very quick writing practice because ,let me be honest ,correcting esays is not my cup of tea.

The site is called Creative Writing Prompts ( right now there are 346 ) and as you can read on the page you just have to choose a number , point your cursor to any number,read the prompt and then write your story.

My idea is using these prompts to do some writing practise in class, setting a time limit of about 10 m . I can see several advantages to this idea:

1. Students get a lot of practice, essential if they are going to be tested on this skill, as is the case.

2. They don’t feel stressed because they don’t necessarily have to hand them in.

3. They get direct help from the teacher, something they can’t have at home.

Posted in Writing skill. No Comments »

Learn how to write an informal email with SlideRocket

23 Abril 2012 — Cristina Cabal

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.

Posted in General, Music, Resources, Slides, Students' Corner, Writing, Writing skill. No Comments »

Ready-To-Go Lessons:Breaking News English

29 Marzo 2012 — Cristina Cabal

I cannot believe I have never posted about Breaking News English. I have been a subscriber for a long, long time. But ,you know, sometimes the things you are more familiar with are the things you more tend to forget to highlight but the site is incredibly helpful.

♥Breaking News English mainly helps you improve listening and reading but also if you read along it’ll help you with your pronunciation.
♥It has more than 1,500 lesson plans based on current events and news.

♥These lesson plans are very useful for the teacher as this site provides warmers , pre, while and after reading/listening activities, discussion ideas , writing suggestions and even homework activities , all related to the news story. There is an MP3 listening you can download or listen online.

Posted in Audio, Listening, Reading, Speaking, Writing skill. No Comments »

Wanna someone to read your slides?

29 Febrero 2012 — Cristina Cabal

welcome Helloslide.com.

So often , especially when giving a long presentation with slides where I need to first type and then read and explain what I have written I have wished for someone to read and/or explain it for me( call me lazy but my voice demands a rest after maybe four hours speaking maybe non-stop.

HelloSlide transforms your slides into a rich audiovisual format, recreating the experience of a live lecture. Simply upload your presentation, type the speech for each slide, and HelloSlide automagically generates the audio.

HelloSlide gives more exposure to your presentations, making them searchable, editable, and available in 20 different languages.

It’s simple to get started:

Upload a PDF of your presentation to our website.

Type the speech for each slide using our editor.

Press play to hear your presentation.

My first experience with HelloSlide has been this PowerPoint Presentation on A For and Against Essay though first I had to convert the ppt file into pdf. I did it using this wonderful online converter http://es.pdf24.org/onlineConverter.html

Have a look now at my HelloSlide and tell me what you think. I like it when the robot says my name at the end (ha, ha) .

Posted in Audio, Create your own stuff, Reading, Slides, Writing skill. No Comments »

Two Timesavers: BusyTeachers.org and ISL Collective.com

6 Febrero 2012 — Cristina Cabal

Being a full time teacher doesn’t mean that I’m not also a full time mum. I am! Trust me! When I get home from a school packed with teenagers I go home to more teenagers, my own children. They take up most of my free time. I help them with their homework, cheer them up when they have had a problem at school, cool them down when necessary, take them to their different after school activities - none of them in the same place where I live… and a long etc.Have I ever mentioned that I also try to teach them some English?
This means that I don’t enjoy as much free time as I did when I worked in the afternoons/evenings in the EOI , so I ‘ve had to look for timesavers and these are , in my opinion, the best online.

BusyTeachers.org is an amazing site offering about 6,300 worksheets divided into skills: grammar, pronunciation, listening, writing, reading, vocabulary. ..etc. . You can also find ppt presentations to illustrate what you are teaching. It’s free and you only need to register to download the files.

ISL Collective is probably my favourite because of the quality of the worksheets. Teachers from all around the globe contribute by uploading their own home-made materials. It is 100% free and you only need to register. Teachers and students of German, French , Portuguese , Russian and Spanish will also find lots of worksheets.

Give them a go and let me know if you know any other great timesavers!

Posted in Audio, Grammar, Speaking, Vocabulary, Writing skill. No Comments »

Saying my goodbyes or see you laters

21 Junio 2011 — Cristina Cabal

And there we are again! The school year has finished and we are again saying our goodbyes . This year has been very special for me , professionally speaking. I don’t know whether I’ll be given the chance to ever work here again but it’ been really nice and this is my big thank you to everybody who’s made this year a really pleasant experience. I’ll be leaving for Malta in a week’s time to do a course to Spice Up my Teaching so this blog is going on holidays until September. Hope to virtually see you then.

GoAnimate.com: Saying my goodbyes by cristina.cabal

Like it? Create your own at GoAnimate.com. It’s free and fun!

Posted in Create your own stuff, In the Computer Room, Resources, Writing skill. 2 Comments »

Swayable: a picture survey

5 Mayo 2011 — Cristina Cabal

In my neverending quest to integrate technology in my classes I have stumbled upon this little tool , Swayable, which is mainly intended to create surveys with the added feature of allowing you to upload an image from your computer or use one from the web which is, in my humble opinion, its best feature as it heightens its potential in the classroom.

I have been thinking it could be very useful when explaining comparatives or when asking students to write about the advantages or disadvantages of a certain issue.

Once published you can embed it in your blog and the students can write in the form of comments (you have to click just below the picture where it says “Click to Sway) to your Swayable.

The first example is for students to practise the comparative and the second for them to practise writing about the advantages and disadvantages of, in this case, working and studying.
And then it follows a little tutorial to help you ceate your own Swayable

Posted in Create your own stuff, Writing skill. No Comments »

Illustrating your stories: Storybird

4 Abril 2011 — Cristina Cabal

Has your teacher asked you to write a story ? or Have you asked your students to tell you a story? No matter whether you are a student or a teacher reading this, storybird is a very creative innovative tool which will turn writing tasks into a funny game.

How does it work?

♥Click on “Sign up” in the top right corner to register for an account and you’ll be sent an email to confirm your registration.

♥Pick up artwork and start writing your story

♥The story can be printed out , shared or read directly from the computer.It can of course be projected on a screen , which is a very nice to share what you’ve done.

And this is my storybird! I’m afraid I didn’t have much time to do it either better or longer !

Count The Blessings, Not The Curses on Storybird

Posted in Create your own stuff, Resources, Writing skill. No Comments »

Ready-made lessons : lessonstream.org

1 Marzo 2011 — Cristina Cabal

I have to admit , it’s more like a confession though , that very often I post about some sites that, I am fairly certain, are not very useful to my students. The reason behind these posts is that by having them published and organised into categories in my blog I make sure they are always handy and never lost to me.
Today’s post is not for you, dear learners(forgive my selfishness), but for us, English teachers.
This site lessonstream.org , is a great site for ready-made lessons . I’ve been following Jamie Keddie ’s blog http://www.jamiekeddie.com/ for while and knew that he was planning to create a new site with new and old- edited material. And Wow! The site is just great and very creative. I love it!
So far there are 44 ready-made lesson you can browse by Language Level,Learner Type,Time, Main Activity ( Dictation: Running Dictation, Dictogloss, Picture Dictation , Speaking, Gap-filling, Collocations, writing…), Language Aims ( adjectives, tenses, passive…)Topic ( Money, school, jokes, love, food..) and Materials

Posted in General, Grammar, Resources, Speaking, Vocabulary, Writing skill. No Comments »

Giving a speech with a nice presentation and using a Wiki

15 Diciembre 2010 — Cristina Cabal

I thought I would kill two birds with one stone by asking my intermediate students to give a speech about the advantages and disadvantages of a certain issue (I’ve already published a guide on how to do it here) as before working on pronunciation and intonation they had to write it , which ,in this course ,is essential if they want to pass their English exam with flying colours.

I have used a Wiki , from Wikispaces, so that they could choose from 25 issues the one they fancied most and the date that suited them best . By doing it with a wiki I gave them plenty of time to think , rethink and then change their minds about what they had previously decided.You can see one of the wikis I created here with the instructions on how to use it. I also gave them the option of illustrating their speeches and this is just an example of some of the nice presentations we have enjoyed.