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Tag Archives: writing
To Dream or Not to Dream…
Unfortunately , it is not very often that I get students to contribute to the blog with an article , but this does not apply to Patrick M. Hyyryläinen , who I didn’t have to ask twice and readily accepted the challenge. Sorry it took me so long to publish and many thanks!
Now , aren’t you dying to read his story? It starts right below
I was sitting in the train.
It was like any other day; I took the train to school at 5:45 AM.
The winter had started and it was completely dark outside.
The trip takes 55 minutes. I decided to spend the time usefully so I took a nap.
Suddenly I woke up because my phone was ringing. I answered it and it was my mother. She told me that I needed to run, as fast as I could, and then she hung up.
I was stunned, of course, because my mom had sounded like she was trying to get away from something, but also because it happened so fast, I didn’t even have a chance to ask her what had happened before she hung up.
I was trying to figure out what had made my mother so afraid, when I noticed that a man was looking at me from the other side of the train. I could see that he was talking to a device that looked like the ones secret agents use in films.
Then it came to me like a lightning from a blue sky, that it could be why my mother was so afraid; perhaps the government had found out some dark secret about my mother or our family, and now they were catching us, one by one.
That last part made me realize a very important thing, I was a part of that family, so if my theory was correct, then they will be trying to catch me as well. I had to think fast so I pulled the emergency break in the train and as soon as the train began to stop, I got up from my seat Continue reading To Dream or Not to Dream…
A Website with 346 Writing Prompts to Ignite your Creativity
I found this website quite by chance. It’s one of these sites that you definitely want to bookmark as it comes in very handy when you want to do some writing practice, need to come up with a good story starter or some prompts for a five-minute writing activity and your inspiration has run dry. Don’t worry! It happens in the best families!
The site is called Creative Writing Prompts. Right now, they have 346 prompts and as you can read on their page you just have to choose a number, point your cursor to this number, read the prompt and then write your story.
Some suggestions to use this website:
- A quick writing activity in class. Students decide on a number and write for about 15 minutes. You can do this activity often as it only takes 15 minutes and gives them a lot of practice if done regularly. They also get direct help from the teacher as it’ s a class activity.
- You can also divide the class into pairs or groups of three, depending on how large your class is and ask each group to assign a writing task to another group in the class by choosing a random prompt. Students write their stories. Set a time limit of 30 or 35 minutes. Put their stories up on the walls of the class for all the students to read.
- Brainstorm vocabulary recently studied. Make sure there is a variety of nouns, adjectives, phrasal verbs, idioms…etc to choose from. Write them on the board. Ask students to choose two numbers and write the two prompts on the board too. Students choose one of these options and write their story including some of the target vocabulary.
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English Media Lab
I’m sorry I haven’t posted for some days now but I’m up to my eyes. Preparing and marking exams takes up most of my free time. June is chaos!
I imagine you have plenty of ideas when half the class is taking an exam and the others ,sort of have already passed all the tests, but here’s another one in case you’re running short of them.
I have taken my students to the computer room and let them roam a bit about this website. English Media Lab offers Grammar, Vocabulary , Pronunciation , Videos and Games for different levels, though I have only used the Elementary Level. They have all loved the Memory Games revising Vocabulary and they’ve made me promise to take them to the computer room once again before the course ends.
The website is a bit confusing because it has a lot of things and it might sometime take you outside their own website. I don’t really mind as long as the new website has what I’m looking for. Anyway , have a look at it and tell me what you think!
Predicting the Future : another game
To play this game you don’t need any preparation, which, to be honest, sometimes it’s just what we -busy teachers- ask for. But if you are like me, you’ll find yourself doing just the same as your students, ie, having lots of fun.
For this game you need to make an origami fortune teller, also called “cootie catcher”( see picture). Instruction on how to make one and how to play here.
Ask students to write 8 fortunes inside the flaps. Encourage them to use their imagination and make sure they use the future simple: will.
Once this task is completed, ask students to stand up and mingle. Time to be a fortune teller!
Ask a student to choose one of the four colors. Spell that color out, while moving the fortune teller in and out. Then ask this student to choose one of the numbers that is showing. Move the fortune teller in and out the right number of times.
When you finish, have the person choose one of the four visible numbers. Open up the flap they choose, and read their fortune.
Have fun! Who said English was boring???? ;-))