Tag Archives: B1

Lesson Plan : Money

Lesson Plan: Intermediate, Speaking, , , , , , , ,

Level: Intermediate

Step 1.  Warm up

A: Students watch the video. Unless they beg for more, I would just play the first  15 seconds, enough for students to focus on the pronunciation of the word “money” which they tend to mispronounce, and on the chorus Money makes the World Go Round, which students will later need to discuss.

B: This second warm-up is a great one. I got it straight from George Chilton‘s blog Designer Lessons – I copy/paste from him–, which I highly recommend.

Ask your students how they would spend a day in their city/town/village without spending any money. What activities could they do? They’re not allowed to stay at home, they have to be out of the house for the whole day.

Put them in small groups and get them to come up with a plan of the day – from 10 am until 8 pm. Conditions – They are allowed to drink water from city water fountains and any food that they find. They should present their plans at the end of this activity.

Step 2. A Bit of Fun with Translation.

Previous to this exercise students have studied Vocabulary related to money, so now it’s their time to show what they have learned.

Students work in pairs or in threes. To make things easier for me, I’ll provide them with slips of paper so that when the time’s up they can raise it up and I can have a quick check. Sentences with mistakes will be automatically discarded and the correct translations will get one point. Time limit: 90 seconds.


Step 3. Speaking. Speed Dating Technique.

♥Photo and explanation of the technique here . 

♥Money Questions here

 

Scary Stories for Halloween

Students' Corner, , , ,

If you had asked me like twenty years ago  what my favourite stories  were, I would have loudly proclaimed HORROR stories but  this was back then when I  was brave enough to play with the ouija board  in a badly lit church without fearing anything, when me and my gang broke into abandoned houses with the legend of being inhabited by spirits or gathered around a fire to share  the scariest stories. This was back when one of my favourite writers was Stephen King and my favourite film was Carrie. I feared nothing and nobody. Yep. Those were the years  horror stories were my favourite.

I still like stories with a bit of something , but not like back then. I don’t remember when horror stories started to take a back seat but I guess it was when I began to have nightmares .

These two stories have a touch of mystery and they have been kindly sent by two of my intermediate students. I hope you enjoy them.!!

♥SNAKES ON THE PLANE  by  Felix Rodríguez de la Fuente

One of my passions is travelling and learning about other cultures and countries so last month I travelled  abroad.

I don´t really like flying but to go from Istanbul to Frankfurt I had no choice but  to travel by plane. The weather was sunny so the plane took off on time.

My trip was perfect until suddenly the  pilot said “We are heading for a storm and there will be turbulence”. I was nervous and worried because the sky was dark and there weren’t any lights inside the plane. I couldn´t see anything, I just heard screams.

When the light returned ,I couldn´t believe what I  saw. There were hundreds of snakes inside the plane. They were furious and they were attacking all passengers.

Then, I ran to the cabin but it was too late. The pilot was dead and I just saw blood everywhere and snakes.

I thought my end had come.

Luckily, when the biggest snake attacked me I woke up and understood that everything had been a bad dream caused by my fear to fly and my snake phobia.

♥LOOKING FOR SUSAN DESPERATELY by Noelia Espinosa

As every year, I had a Christmas dinner with some friends who lived outside Asturias. We went to a restaurant in Avilés  and after desserts, coffees and some glasses of cider, I felt tired and decided to go home. While I was in the restaurant I noticed a guy  staring at me . When I looked his way , he greeted me  and although  I couldn´t remember him I said “hello”.

When I left the restaurant, I felt that somebody was walking behind me ,very close, and I began to feel scared  so, I started  to walk faster but the person following me also walked faster. Suddenly,  he shouted: “Susan, Susan please, wait for me”. I told him: ”Sorry, I´m not Susan, you´re wrong” but he didn´t care and he went on shouting : “Susan, you´re my wife, we have two children, don´t leave me, please”. I thought “Oh, my God, he´s  crazy!!”

I stopped a taxi and I explained the situation to the driver. He called the police and I went home.

The next day, I read in the newspaper that “A DANGEROUS MAN HAD RUN AWAY FROM THE PSYCHIATRIC HOSPITAL” . There was photo of the man. It was him!.

Listening: What is a vegetarian ?

Audio, Create your own stuff, freeware, Lesson Plan: Intermediate, Listening, , , , , , , ,

I want to start this week with a positive thought. It is something I’ve read recently and that has been going around for some days inside my head.

Happiness is not getting what you want . It’s wanting what you have.

I should say that I am normally a glass-full type of person but sometimes, only sometimes,  I need to remind myself.

Well, today I want to share with you this amazing site which has a lot of potential. Educaplay is a platform to create embeddable multimedia teaching activities . You can create interactive engaging activities  like crosswords, matching exercises, dialogues, presentations, tests, dictations , interactive maps, word search puzzles and many more… but what I really like about this website is the possibility of creating  a video quiz  as the one I have posted below .

The structure of the activity, is defined by sequences that are composed of a video, or part of it, and a question that will be the end of the sequence.

To define the sequences, we go through three phases:

  • Video election: We can use the search engine, or if we know, insert its URL directly.
  • Sequence election to be held on the question.
  • Definition of the question: Each question can be configured to ask for the answer in any of the following methods;

              ♥In a written form, by selecting one answer from various options or by  selecting         several answers from various options.

Another important feature is that it is entirely web based so you don’t need to download anything  and … it is free, you only need to register.

And now, have a look at this videoquiz answering the question WHAT IS A VEGETARIAN?

 

What is a Vegetarian?

Picture Description .Intermediate Level.

Lesson Plan: Intermediate, Picture Description, Speaking, , , ,

Yes, yes I know classes have finished. So what? If you haven’t taken your speaking test, this post might still be useful .

I just couldn’t let it pass. I saw it and I immediately thought about you,  struggling at home, getting  no help at all and feeling utterly miserable without my wise guidance 🙂 ha,ha,ha

Well, let’s stop rambling and get to the point. What you’ll find below are two pictures and someone comparing the two pictures.

Well, they are clearly both connected to the topic of science… but in two quite different contexts. In the first one, there are two people- they’re probably lab technicians from the coats they are wearing- or I guess they could be research students or something like that. Anyway, they seem to be watching some kind of monitor but I am not quite sure why. The guy in the foreground seems to be holding something which might affect what they can see on the monitor. … it’s not all that clear.

In contrast, the second picture is of four schoolchildren, probably in a science class. They’re all wearing plastic yellow glasses of some sort… probably to protect their eyes from chemicals or something. They are sitting at the same desk. the one on the right, .. he is holding what looks like a plastic bottle.. which must have liquid in it.  There’s some kind of tube-like thing and plastic containers on the desk.