Some visual help to accompany a more thorough explanation.
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It was not Rocket Science but it was a Smashing Success: Conflict and Resolution
It is not very often that I feel depleted of energy. I try to prepare my classes in such a way that they do not only engage students, but also me. I really need this spark in my lessons to keep me motivated. But some Mondays ago, I was just not feeling it and the way the lesson was laid out in the textbook was not helping either. It was mind-numbingly boring, and I was so tired that I could think of nothing to engage me or my students. But thankfully, my colleagues Paula and Alba were there to save the day, and they rushed to help with some ideas. Want to know what came out?
First Step. Always. Revision.
We were working with these useful phrases to use in arguments. So, first and foremost, revision. This is key.
These are some of the sentences we studied:
Using “point”
- What’s the point you are trying to make?
- That proves my point
- You are missing the point
- I take your point.
- Please, get to the point.
- There is no point crying over spilt milk
- You’ve made your point
Some other useful phrases:
- You are twisting my words
- That’s not what I meant at all
- We’ve got our wires crossed
- We should clear the air
- That came out all wrong
- We are going round in circles
- Can we just agree to disagree?
- There is no need to raise your voice
Second step:Paper
I gave my students a small piece of paper and asked them to write one of the sentences above on the slip of paper, encouraging them to use their best handwriting, as this sentence was meant to be read and used by other students working with them.
To hold the pieces of paper, I gave them these tiny blue holders I bought here. (I love props, what can I say? Does the activity work without them? Sure thing!)
Spice Up Your Writing Lessons with the Noun Roulette
Let’s talk about writing today! If you’re searching for a writing activity that is engaging, effective, promotes collaborative work, and takes only about 20 minutes to complete, then look no further! I have a simple yet effective activity that can help you achieve all these goals.
As an educator, I am always looking for new ways to help my students improve their writing skills. That’s why I’m excited to share an activity that I’ve created which has proven to be both effective and engaging for students. In this case, it’s been used in a C1 level class, but it can easily be used with any level. In this blog post, I’ll be explaining the details of this activity and providing examples of how it has helped my students write more advanced texts. If you’re looking for a fun and creative way to help your students improve their writing, then keep reading!
This activity consists of two parts, with the first part being designed specifically for C1 students, or possibly strong B2 students. If you teach lower levels, you’ll need to create your own slides for Part 1 of the activity, but you can still use Part 2 and 3 in this post.
Part 1: The theory
I have created this brief presentation to target some specific points to help them write more advanced sentences. We have focused on 5 key points, including reduced relative sentences, order of the adjectives and using a noun as a compound adjective.
In the last slide, you will find the Noun Roulette Randomizer. Yay!
Improving writing de cristina.cabal
Part 2: The Noun Roulette Randomizer
Time to recycle spare photocopies! Cut them into strips of paper large enough to write a long sentence on.
- Ask students to pair up and give each pair 3 or 4 strips of paper.
- Display the noun roulette and explain that it will randomly select a noun. For example: collection.
- Click here to see the roulette in action. To create your own, click here and type your own words. Easy-peasy!!
- In their pairs, they will have about 2 minutes to come up with their best sentence by incorporating some of the points worked with in the first part of this activity. They must include the noun “collection”.
- In the meantime, I’ve written the word ‘collection’ on a post-it note and posted it on a visible part of our classroom wall.
- Once they have finished writing their “advanced” sentence, we will put them up on the wall, surrounding the noun. You can use Sellotape or Blue-tack for this.
- Select a new noun with the roulette and do it all over again. I have done this 3 or 4 times.
What is your role as a teacher? Yes, you need to be working, too. Once they have placed their sentences on the walls, correct their mistakes.
Part 3: Voting
Once the sentences have been written and mistakes have been corrected, instruct students to stand up in pairs and read all the sentences surrounding the nouns. They will now need to vote for the sentence they think is the best in terms of showing a more advanced level, regardless of the mistakes they might have made. To mark the sentence they like best, they will just have to put a tick on the strip of paper containing the sentence, as you can see in the picture.
This has two aims:
1. To help students identify their own and their peers’ mistakes, which is a valuable learning experience.
2. By voting on the best sentence, students come to understand their own ability to distinguish between writing that meets the C1 level and writing that falls short.
Double the fun: Travelling and Tourism Speaking Board with Two Decks of Cards
One might think that after 31 years teaching, I wouldn’t need to spend time preparing for classes. After accumulating so much content over the years, it would seem logical to just retrieve what I need from my files. However, for some reason, that’s not how it works for me. As a result, I find myself once again in the process of creating content, this time on the subject of travelling.
This post revolves around the topic of Travelling and Tourism and considering what I have written above, I have come up with this brilliant 🙄 idea. Use a board from Canva and replace specific questions with numbers, making it applicable to any topic. Alongside this, we can create cards that include the relevant questions and reference their corresponding numbers. What do you think?
Hold on, Cristina! Did you read the title of the post? It says “Two decks of cards”. So, we have one deck for questions, but what about the other one? I haven’t forgotten! The other deck contains useful phrases to help students express themselves more effectively. 😆
What do we need?
- Print the board multiple times. Print as many copies as groups of students. What works best for me is groups of 3 students. Get the PDF here
board game Template de cristina.cabal
- Cards with the conversation questions. One deck per group. PDF here
travelling conversation cards de cristina.cabal
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- Reusable cards with useful phrases. One deck per group. PDF here.
Ready to play?Create groups of 3–4 students and give each group a board game, the two decks of cards, counters and a die. Students decide who starts the game. Student A throws the die and places his/her counter on the corresponding square, which contains a number. On the deck of cards with the conversation questions, he/she finds the card that matches the number of his/her square, reads it aloud and then takes a card from the Useful Language deck. These cards are placed face down on the table. The student will need to talk for at least two minutes, trying to use the expression on the card. Then, it is student B’s turn.
CREDITS
- Original board designed by @mrkucukyilmaz
- Useful phrases from intercambiodeidiomas
Book Tasting or How to Engage your Students when Choosing a Book
February favourite activity! I know! The month has barely started, but I already know this is going to be my favourite activity.
The truth is I’ve been meaning to write about this activity for a long time, and it has been sitting on my shelves for so long that I cannot give credit to one single person ’cause I don’t really know who first came up with this brilliant idea. Not me. This time, I am just the vessel.
So, this activity revolves around books and the question I am asking you is: Do your students need to write a book review? Do you, or do they, choose the books they have to read? In my case, I have always hated being forced to read books I didn’t like so ever since I turned into a seasoned oldish teacher and could make my own choices, I decided to give students the choice I had never had as a student. Something as simple as choosing the books you’d like to read. From the school library. Sure.
Preparation.
- Book the library room. That’s the best place for an activity revolving about books.
- I carefully selected books and divided them into three categories: Fiction, Short Stories, and Classics. I chose a varied and attractive collection from each category.
- I bought a pack of red and white chekered plastic tablecloths. I bought them here. (Note: it is not sponsored 🙂
- I also brought some silver paper trays I had at home to place the books. Remember, this activity is called Book Tasting, so you want all the props.
- In Canva, I designed:
– a place mat (I photocopied it in red to match the tablecloth). Download Here
-a menu (brochure) with all the instructions and space to write their options from each table. Download Here
How to go about it
- Arrange the tables as seen in the picture above. Place the tray with the books in the middle ( to be honest, you don’t need a tray but it adds a little touch)
- There are X tables with books from different genres. In my case, as explained above, I had 3 tables with fiction, short stories and classics.
- Ask students to form groups and choose a table to start.
- Ask them to choose one of the books on your table. ( there should a number of them)
- Tell them they have 10 minutes to read the blurb, or synopsis, normally found at the back of a book’s cover. They should also read a page and assess the readability of the vocabulary used.
- Ask them to present the book they have chosen to their group and explain why they think it would be a good or a bad choice.
- After listening to all the presentations in their group, they have to choose the book(s) they’d like to read from this table and write their option(s) in the space provided.
- Ask them to move to another table and repeat procedure.
- Tell them to list their top three book choices in order of preference after having visited all the tables.
- It is now time to take the book they have selected. Ask them to start with their first choice, and if it is unavailable, move on to their second option.
Follow up: if you are feeling up to it and know how to work with Flip, set up a Topic asking students to record their reviews of the books they have chosen. Download the QR Code generated by Flip and attach it to the back of the book. Now it’s time to move on to another round of reading. Encourage students to choose another book and listen to recommendations from their classmates.