Tag Archives: speaking

Swayable: a picture survey

Create your own stuff, Writing skill, , ,

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






 

Ready-made lessons : lessonstream.org

General, Grammar, Resources, Speaking, Vocabulary, Writing skill, , , ,

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

Voicethread and my students

Create your own stuff, Resources, Slides, Speaking, Writing, Writing skill, , , , , , ,

I’ve been meaning to use this tool for  quite a long time but  the right time never seemed to come.

I think this little dialogue performed by my most elementary students is a nice way of showing you what Voicethread is. VoiceThread is a collaborative, multimedia slide show that holds images, documents, and videos and allows people to navigate slides and leave comments in 5 ways – using voice (with a mic or telephone), text, audio file, or video (via a webcam).

I want to thank María Sánchez and Rocío Ibias in the first dialogue and Eva Bedia and Ainhoa Nuevo in the second (from IES  Cesar Rodríguez – Grado) for their enthusiam. Thanks girls, I would never  have done it without you!

To use Voicethread you need to register but it only takes a minute and it can help you a lot improve your speaking and writing abilities. How ?

  • You can  record yourself describing pictures
  • You can  add comments to photographs
  • You can tell a story using different pictures

It also has a lot of potential for teachers.

  • I intend to use it for debates on issues: by asking students either to record themselves or  type their own ideas
  • I have already used it to record students doing role-plays

I’m sure you have plenty of ideas to use VoiceThread. Why don’t you share them with us ? Please, send a post if you want to contribute with your own ideas.

Want to learn English through music? Lyrics Training helps you

Audio, In the Computer Room, Listening, Music, Resources, , , , ,

Do you want to learn English and/or French, Italian, German… through music? Well, if this is so, this is your place. This cool site is called Lyrics Training and it’s just amazing and hear this ,free to use!

This is how it works: at the bottom on the right-hand side you can see some lyrics, choose according to your level. There are three: easy, medium and hard. Then, when the window with the song you’ve chosen opens up, choose your mode; again, there are three, beginner,(fill in the blanks10%), intermediate (25%) and expert (full lyrics).

Now, this is what you’ll see if you choose  the song Tell him  in the beginner mode.  One of the best things is that if you get to a word and you can’t understand it or if it goes too fast, it will stop until the blank has been filled. The song literally WAITS for YOU!!!

But there’s even more. If you click on HELP at the bottom you can see what else the programme can do for you. Let’s imagine that you want to listen to the same line again, press Backspace, and if you are still unable to understand the word, don’t worry, just press TAB and the word will be written for you. Aren’t you dying to give it a go!!

In Spanish

Lesson Plan: Pre-Intermediate, , , ,

Como seguramente sabeis,Photopeach ( la herramienta que utilizo para hacer los role-plays) ha decidido hacer limpieza general 😉 justo ahora , por lo que los videos creados antes del 6 de junio no se podrán ver durante algunos días. Pity!!

Ahora mismo, de los publicados solo podeis ver :” at the train station” y estos que acabo de hacer.

At the police station  .

At the Antiques Market

 

Your passport , please!!