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?

What is a “veggie”?

Funny Stuff, The English language, Word of the Day, , , ,

Well, I don’t know what I am, that’s why I have dedicated some time to finding an answer to what I am or rather to what I eat or don’t eat. For me,one of the most tiring things about not eating what everybody around me eats is having to hide the fact that I just eat differently and having everybody around me worried about what they might offer me; so, when my friends and I go to a party or birthday or whatever occasion where food is involved I ask them not to attract attention to my eating habits. I can tell you it’s not fun struggling to make people understand that I won’t eat anything cooked with meat and what is worst, trying to explain that even though they remove the chicken or the meat I still won’t eat it.
The word “vegetarian” is a blanket term used to describe somebody who does not eat meat, poultry, fish or seafood. But then, within this term there exist different sub-groups.
VEGAN . This person doesn’t eat any animal products or by products and this includes cheese, milk… some of them don’t even wear leather or wool.
LACTO-VEGETARIAN : The same as vegans but they eat dairy products
OVO- VEGETARIAN : The same as vegans but they eat eggs
OVOLACTO VEGETARIANS are by far the largest group of vegetarians
SEMI-VEGETARIAN are not vegetarians strictly-speaking as they may eat fish but not meat or the other way round.

Silly things people say to vegetarians ….. when given the chance. I no longer do.
•So what do you eat? A lot of salad?
•Can’t you just pick out the bits of meat in (insert name of dish here) and eat the rest of it?
•You should feel bad about the pain and suffering you’re causing all those plants you’re eating.
•What did you say gelatin was made of? You’re joking.

Some common mistakes : cook and cereal

General, The English language, Word of the Day,

Well,well , the first unit in the book I am teaching this year to Intermediate students is about food and if I didn’t know any better I would think it was intentionally placed in the first unit to remind me that I need to seriously consider going on a diet to try to lose the ??? pounds  gained after stuffing myself with tons of ice cream.  Haven’t I read somewhere that Uma Thurman, the actress, lost 25 pounds in six weeks by eating ice cream , chocolate and pudding??? Just joking !! But wouldn’t it be just great if  celebrities kept their strange fad diets to themselves ? Or rather not??? That way I can always put the blame on  Uma Thurman ! 😉

Anyway, talking about food , I feel I need to remind my students not to make two of the most common mistakes we, Spaniards, make when talking about food.

Mistake 1. When I grow up I want to be a cooker.  If a person who teaches is a teacher and  a person who runs is a runner  , why is a person who cooks called  a cook and not a cooker?

♥A cook= a person who cooks

My mother is a very good cook

♥A cooker= an apparatus where food is cooked  (also called stove in AmE)

Do you have an electric or a gas cooker?

Mistake 2. I like cereals for breakfast.

Cereal is an uncountable noun, so you  should say I like cereal for breakfast or a bowl of cereal.

Cereals can also be a plural countable noun. In that case, you are referring to the different kinds of cereals  such as oat, barley ,  wheat or brands like corn flakes , rice krispies or choco crispies.

There are so many different kinds of cereals in this shop that I never know which one to buy.

Hope it is helpful! Keep posted!

 

Four Icebreakers to Get to Know your Students

Funny Stuff, Games, Speaking, ,

that require no preparation 😉

♣The one I like best is Personal Star ,for many reasons but mainly because it requires no preparation  and students always  enjoy a bit of gossip  about their new teacher.

I draw a star on the board and inside it  6  answers to questions about me. (My answers are black , London, December 9, tennis, Terry, English , and meat.)

Tell students that the star contains information about you. Ask them to try to guess the information behind the words by asking questions.If they don’t get the idea give an example. Tell them “My favourite colour is black. What question do you need to ask to find out this information?” Elicit from them, “What’s your favourite colour?” and cross out the word ‘black’ from the star.

Then , put the students in pairs. Ask them to draw their own personal star and put 6 pieces of information about themselves inside. In pairs they can ask each other questions to find out about their partner. When they have all finished, ask them as a group to tell the others what they have found out about their partner.

 

♥Interviewing your partner: Tell students they are going to interview four or five people they don’t know in the class. Ask them to write three or four questions to ask these people. Once it is done, students get up and walk around the classroom

♥Find someone who. .. (bingo)

This is a good icebreaker to practise questions and to get students moving.

Ask students to draw a grid (4 squares across and 4 down) . Now, ask them to fill in the squares with prompts such as : speaks French, likes mice, plays golf…etc.

Make sure students know how to play bingo- this is quite  important , as you can guess. Students get up and walk around asking questions to everybody in the class but they have to have a different name for each grid. So if a student asks a question to a student and this student says “yes” , he should write the name of that student in the grid and move on; if the student says “no” , he can then ask this same student a new question. The first person to get a line down or across shouts “LINE” and the first person to fill in all the boxes with a name shouts  BINGO.

I would , most definitely, encourage follow-up questions  when checking,  with  the students providing the questions- of course.

♥Five Questions. Divide the class in five groups and ask each group to write a question they would like to ask you. In turns , one member of each group comes up to the board and writes the question. The students decide if the question is correct in terms of tenses, spelling …etc. Finally , the student asks the question. Before you tell them  , give the students the chance to guess your answer.

Hope you find them useful and have tons of fun with your students!

 

Songs to Practise Listening

Music

I am one of those you can see driving and tapping the steering wheel while singing at the top of their voices. I am also the kind who sings in the shower and while pedalling in the spinning class. Yes, I should probably say that music runs through my veins:)

Some students ,at the end of the course ,  have asked me for some extra listening practice .I guess they are worried they might become unskilled at an ability they have worked so hard to improve , and it is perfectly understandable.  You might not agree  with me here , and it obviously depends on the student,but to those who pass exams with flying colours I always recommend  that they listen to music ,  read the lyrics,sing along and have fun while still practising their listening and pronunciation skills.  It’s good practice and it is also good for your health. Come on! If you have passed , don’t you think you deserve a break?

Now,while  I am not trying to talk anybody into listening a certain kind of music, it is pretty obvious that some songs are less than adequate for this practise. This is my selection . Have a very happy summer! I’ll be back in October!