Tag Archives: B2

Speed-Chatting and Perfect Modals: Drama Queens/Kings and Judgmental Friends

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When you’re looking for a speaking activity that gets everyone talking, speed-chatting is a fantastic option. On this occasion, to work with perfect modals. Yes, in this activity we will have translation, grammar, speaking and lots of interaction.

Cards with Problems.  Spanish_English Translation

Step-by-step setup
Choose and Translate: Hang the “Laundry Line of Problems”

The teacher hangs problem cards written in [Spanish] on a clothesline around the classroom—little everyday disasters students might relate to.

Students stand up, walk around, and choose one problem that catches their attention. Then they sit down and translate the problem into English. The teacher circulates and helps if needed.

Revising the grammar and exemplifying

The key language focus is perfect modals for giving advice about the past.

Students should try to use:

  • should have + past participle
  • could have + past participle

Example of a potential interaction:

  • Drama Queen/Kings: “Oh no! I stayed up all night watching Netflix and I missed my final exam this morning!” Judgmental Friend: You should have set five alarms!” or “You shouldn’t have started a new series last night!”
  • Drama Queen/Kings: “I missed the bus by ten seconds. I stayed talking at the school gate for too long” . Judgmental Friend : “You should have looked at your watch!”

Because students repeat the interaction several times, these structures start to stick naturally.

Assign the roles

Now divide the class into two equal groups:

  • Group A: “Drama Queens/Kings” – their job is to present the problem dramatically.
  • Group B: “Judgmental Friends” – they listen and give advice.

Speed-chatting begins

Students form two facing lines or circles.

  • Drama Queens/Kings explain their problem.
  • Judgmental Friends react and give advice using the target structures.

Rotate every 1–2 minutes

After each mini-conversation (about 45 seconds) , the teacher rings a bell and students move to a new partner.

Reverse the roles

Once everyone has given advice, students switch roles.

  • Drama Queens/Kings become Judgmental Friends.
  • Judgmental Friends now present their own problems.

And just like that, the room quickly fills with advice, laughter, and dramatic stories. Students practice the  grammar again and again in a natural, communicative way, and everyone has the chance to speak with several different classmates..

Sometimes the best speaking activities are the simplest ones: a bit of movement, a bit of drama, and lots of chances to talk.

 

 

Lesson Plan: Technology. Using Gallery Walks to Bring B2 Tech Vocabulary to Life.

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This gallery walk feels like all the interaction we want in our classrooms — but in one dynamic activity. A strong mix of movement, discussion, and reflection runs throughout. And the atmosphere? Energetic, student-led, and genuinely engaging. Pair it with carefully designed posters and open-ended questions, and you get one of those lessons where students don’t just complete a task… they learn together as they move, talk, and reflect.

Yes, the unit in the textbook is about technology. And no — I don’t hate textbooks. I actually think they’re useful. They give structure. They give students that quiet moment to sit, process, reflect. And honestly? Sometimes we all need that calm, focused time.

But here’s the thing. Textbooks don’t move. My students do.

They need energy. They need interaction. They need to stand up, look at each other, disagree, laugh, negotiate meaning. And that’s where this activity comes in.

The Gallery Walk: Technology Reshaping Life

I designed a series of posters (inspired by the idea of how technology reshapes different areas of life) focusing on:

  • Entertainment
  • Travelling
  • Family Life
  • Work
  • Education
  • Shopping
  • Dating

Each poster shows a powerful “Before vs. Now” visual contrast. Old world. Digital world. Analog vs. hyper-connected.

What’s on Each Poster?

Every poster includes:

  1. A visual comparison (before and after technology)
  2. Useful vocabulary (so students feel supported, not lost)
  3. Thought-provoking discussion questions

PDF Download the posters

Technology reshaping Life de cristina.cabal

How the Gallery Walk Works
  • Students stand up. Maximum groups of 3. They choose a poster. They discuss the images. They read and use the vocabulary. They answer the questions.

And this time, I don’t control the timing. They decide when they’ve talked enough and move to another poster when they feel ready.

Why? Because some posters spark quick reactions. Others? Deep debate. Sometimes they disagree and stay longer. Sometimes they laugh and move on.

Where AI Comes In

Could I have created these posters without AI? Yes. Would it have taken me three times longer? Also yes.

AI helped me:

  • Generate tailored vocabulary lists
  • Create  discussion questions
  • Adapt complexity to my students’ level
  • Design cohesive visual contrasts

But here’s the key: AI didn’t replace a classic strategy. It enhanced it. Gallery walks have been around forever. They work. Movement + collaboration + visible thinking = engagement.

Now we just have better tools to build them.

“If the City Could Talk…” 3 Beautiful Ideas to Talk about City Life

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So here come three super practical ideas to get students talking about city life in a way that feels real, relevant, and totally adaptable to wherever your learners are. In my case, that city is Avilés — the place most of my students actually move through every single day.

ACTIVITY 1. If the City Could Talk

Wait… what if the city could talk? That’s exactly where this activity begins.

Students talk using a speed-chatting format where everyday city objects suddenly have a voice. A  fountain. A Monument. One by one, these objects “speak” and ask students questions about city life. Students have to really understand the questions before they can respond.

(Note: if you are wondering. Yes. AI Generated. And it is so much fun!)

ACTIVITY 2. The “Buzz & Swap” Gallery Walk

 Prep time. You can print my posters here, but let me tell you they personalised for my own context.

  1. Stick 6–8 sheets of paper around the classroom walls. On each one, write a debate-style question connected to city life.(And yes — I use Avilés because it’s their city, but you can swap this for any local context in seconds.) For example:
  • Should the city center be 100% pedestrian?
  • Are holiday rentals becoming a real problem for locals and students?
  • Is the presence of large factories like ArcelorMittal a blessing for the economy or a curse for the city’s future environment?
  • Would Avilés benefit from becoming a completely car-free city? What are the pros and cons?
  • If you were the Mayor of Avilés, what would be the very first thing you would change to improve quality of life?
  • Is the city center becoming too focused on tourists (gentrification) rather than on the needs of local residents?
  •  Has The Niemeyer Center been a failure in terms of bringing real wealth to the average citizen?

2. How it works
Put students in groups of three. Each group stands in front of a poster containing a question. They’ve got 3-4 minutes to discuss the question on the poster.

3. The Upgrade: Here’s where we level it up: at each rotation, they must use a different  connector: on the other hand, therefore, additonally, …etc which you will write on the board after each rotation and before they start talking.

ACTIVITY 3. The “Human Spectrum”. Two lines. (Agree ↔ Disagree)

 Prep time
Put a sign that says “Strongly Agree” on one side of the room and “Strongly Disagree” on the other.

 How it works
Throw out a bold, slightly controversial statement about Avilés. these are some of the statements I am going to use.

  • The pollution from the local industry is a small price to pay for the jobs it provides
  • Avilés is a “retirement home” city; there is literally nothing exciting for people under 30.
  • The city council should ban all cars from the city center, regardless of the impact on local shops.
  • The Niemeyer Center has been a failure in terms of bringing real wealth to the average citizen.
  • Avilésians are too resistant to change, which is why the city isn’t growing as fast as Gijón.
  • Traditional festivals like El Bollo are outdated and should be completely modernized to attract international crowds.
  • The “modernization” of Sabugo has made it a place only for the wealthy, destroying its working-class soul.
  • It is better to stop industrial activity entirely for the sake of the environment, even if the local economy collapses.
  1. Students have to physically position themselves somewhere along the imaginary line between the two signs, depending on how strongly they feel.
  2. Now, pair up students sharing the same opinion and ask them to talk about reasons that support their opinion.
  3. Pick two students from opposite ends. They each have about 1 minute to defend their position.
  4. Ring a bell. If someone has heard a convincing argument from the other side, they can move and change sides after the bell rings.

Although, on this occasion, the questions are heavily personalised, I hope you can get some inspiration.

Guided Opinion Writing: From Individual Ideas to Collaborative Essays

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Let’s be honest for a second. Writing. That skill we know our students desperately need… and the one that somehow never quite fits into a lesson. Sound familiar? You look at the clock, look at the syllabus, and think: “I should do some writing today…” And then—boom! Time’s gone.

And when we do try to squeeze writing into class, it feels… weird. Students are working individually, heads down, writing quietly. Necessary? Absolutely. But also a bit lonely. A bit silent. And if you’re anything like me, there’s that feeling that you’re “not really teaching” because you’re not actively doing something every second. Asking them to write at home? Yeah… no. We all know how that story ends.

So here’s the challenge: how do we give them real writing practice, keep it guided, make it engaging, and still protect the process? Tricky? Yes. Impossible? Not at all. I’ve used the small whiteboards on my classroom walls (but big sheets of paper do the job too) and the results were much better than I expected. Let me show you how it works.

Step 1: Setting the model (with a little help from AI)

First things first. I used AI to help me build the presentation that introduces the writing task. Nothing fancy, no complex prompt engineering. I literally typed: “How to write an opinion essay with examples.” That’s it.

What matters here is the transparency of the process. I want students to see that AI can act as a support tool, not a shortcut. From one simple prompt, the tool generated a clear structure, key language, and examples that we could then analyse, discuss, and question together. Below, you’ll see exactly what that prompt produced.

Should you need this same presentation with AI voiceover, click here.

Note: Click on the three dots to view the presentation full screen.

Teaching how to write a strong introduction

Before students can write anything, they need something to react to. A topic. A bit of controversy. Something that makes them think, “Hmm… do I agree with that?” So we start with a clear statement and, just as important, the freedom to choose a side,

STARS AND FOOTBALLERS ARE PAID TOO MUCH MONEY

When writing an opinion essay, you can completely agree, completely disagree, partially agree or partially disagree. The important thing is that your position is clearly stated and that the points you make in the topic sentences of the main part fully support the position you have taken.

Once they have decided whether they agree or disagree, we zoom in on one specific skill: the introduction. Not a full essay. Not paragraphs and paragraphs. Just the opening. To make it manageable, I introduce the  3-Sentence Formula. Simple, structured, and very student-friendly.

A good introduction only needs three things:

  1. The Hook – a short question or a striking fact (big numbers work wonders here).
  2. The Connection – a sentence that shows this is something people talk about.
  3. The Opinion – a clear statement of what you think.

To practise this, students don’t write from scratch straight away. Instead, they build an introduction by choosing one option from each column: a hook, a connection, and an opinion

At this stage, the goal isn’t originality—it’s control of structure. Once they understand how a solid introduction is built, we can slowly remove the scaffolding and let them write with more freedom.

Brainstorming 3 ideas that support their position

Now that they’ve clearly decided their position, it’s time to brainstorm ideas. I give them one simple task: write three ideas that support your opinion about the statement. These ideas will later become the body paragraphs. We won’t necessarily use all three, but thinking of an extra one gives them options and makes them feel more secure.

  • Idea 1 (footballers earn more than essential workers/they generate huge income and entertainment)
  • Idea 2 ____
  • Idea 3____

Grouping students

By now, students have written their own individual introductions. That step matters—everyone has a clear opinion. Now I put them into pairs or groups of three, but not randomly. I group them by opinion: agree with agree, disagree with disagree. Otherwise, it doesn’t work. Once grouped, they move to the whiteboards, and we’re ready to build the body paragraphs.

The body of the essay

And again, we go step by step. No full essay at once. No panic.

I remind them of one key rule: One main idea per paragraph. You explain it, you add an example, and you move on. New idea? New paragraph.

To keep things guided, I don’t show everything at once. I first present the structure of the first body paragraph. Students choose the connectors they want to use, discuss which one fits best, and complete the paragraph on their whiteboard. Only when that first paragraph is finished do I reveal the second box with the next idea.

Body Paragraph 1: The Main Argument

Goal: Introduce the first reason why you hold your opinion and provide a specific example.

Body Paragraph 2: Adding Detail

Goal: Provide a second reason and look at the “human” side of the issue (the effort or the impact on society).

Time for the conclusion: closing the essay properly

Now it’s time to wrap things up—the conclusion. Before they write, I quickly remind them what a good conclusion does. No new ideas here.

A strong conclusion is simple and clear:

  • Restate your opinion using different words

  • Briefly summarise your main ideas

  • End with a final thought that sounds confident

Then I display the last box. By this point, they already know the routine, so they get straight to work.

The Conclusion: The Final Word

Goal: Summarize the main points and leave the reader with a final thought.

Final step: revising, polishing, and thinking again

Before I step in, students re-read what they’ve written. This is their moment to spot mistakes, improve wording, and polish ideas. Only after this do I give teacher feedback.

The last part is one of my favourites. Students are assigned an essay that defends the opposite opinion to their own. Agree reads disagree. Disagree reads agree. The goal isn’t to correct—it’s to understand. To see how the same topic can be argued differently. And yes… sometimes someone changes their mind.

If you’d like to try this sequence yourself, you can download the PDF with all the steps and adapt it to your classroom.

Hope it is helpful! Let me know in the comments below!

The Sneaky Grammar of “Recommend” and some Exercises

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Ohhh yes… that sentence. That sentence.
The teacher recommended me to study more.
Hands up if your inner grammar siren starts screaming!  Yep. Same here!

Here’s the thing: “recommend” does NOT work like the verbs “tell” or “ask.”
So… “recommend + person + to + verb” = nope.

This little verb is a classic troublemaker for learners, especially because it looks friendly but hides some sneaky grammar rules underneath. And you know that correcting it once, twice, or even ten times doesn’t always do the trick, right? So the question is: how do we fix it so it sticks?

In this post, we’re going to try to fix this common mistake using traditional, tried-and-true methods combined with a tad of AI-powered magic.

Lead-in: The “Expert” Warm-up and Inferring Grammar

Write the verb ‘recommend’ on the board. Tell the class you have a problem and need their advice. Explain that you will listen to their recommendations ( using the verb “recommend”, of course!) ; however, unless the sentence is grammatically correct, you will remain silent or say ‘not quite right.’ you will respond with ‘Thank you very much’ ,only when the verb is used properly.

On the board, write only the sentences with the correct grammar and then, let students infer the grammar.

Some problems you might have

  • I feel completely overwhelmed with my workload this week.
  • I have a very important job interview tomorrow, but I am extremely nervous.
  • I need to book a holiday for my family, but we are on a very tight budget
  • I keep forgetting where I put my car keys every morning.

The Grammar: Display or photocopy the infographic

Apart from being beautiful, this infographic is simple and helps students see the grammar more clearly. Ask students to write or give their own examples using the different structures.

 

Controlled Practice: Digital Sorter (AI Generated)

Display this interactive activity and have the students tell you whether the sentences are correct or incorrect. This is a good opportunity to reinforce grammar.

Individual work: Students at their own pace.

The traditional photocopy. Just because we have AI now doesn’t mean you have get rid of things that work. And doing exercises to reflect and consolidate the grammar works; so here it is. Created with AI? Yes! Why not!

Download the PDF here

Flying Solo: Let’s move

Cards PDF

Oh yes!!! After so much sitting, students are begging me to give them an activity where they move and mingle with other students. So, let’s wrap up this lesson with a nice inetractive activity.

Divide the class into two groups:

  • Recommendation Seekers (students with a problem or dilemma)
  • Recommendation Givers  ( students who offer recommendations)

The Recommendation Seekers receive: A card with a problem or dilemma
(They can also invent their own — creativity welcome!) and a small piece of paper with the words “THANK YOU” written on it (This will be used later!)

Arrange the classroom so both groups sit facing each other in two lines and using a speed chatting format:

  • Each pair talks for 2 minutes
  • The Recommendation Giver must offer a recommendation  using the verb recommend and paying close attention to correct grammar.
  • When the bell rings, Recommendation Givers move one seat to the right

Students repeat the process until each Recommendation Seeker has spoken to 5 different people.

After all conversations, each Recommendation Seeker chooses the best recommendation they received and give their “THANK YOU” card to that student. The student with more Thank You cards is named “The Recommendation Guru” and receives a big round of applause.

Now, students change roles.