Day One: "Getting to know each other"

It's getting round to that time of year again: the start of the new school year and thinking about what you are going to go on the first day of class. Here's a really simple activity a collegue (Kim?) on a course once showed me...

Draw a rough star on the board (example, right) and for each point of the star, include a name, a date, etc. that is important to you personally (so that, for example, Toni and Isabel are the names of my own children), label your diagram "Me" and tell your class all of the things on the board are special to you for one reason or another.

What your learners then have to do is, quite simply, ask you questions to which those are the answers. Once they've got them (and learnt quite a bit about you in the process), you should have them each draw their own diagram, which they should share with at least one partner.

It's simple, it's easy, it breaks the ice, it gets people to know each other...

Mobile phone pix

In the bar: "He was cutting a pineapple"

Here's one that came from the session on our CELTA course, July 24. I sent six of you out with your camera-equipped mobile phones to take pictures of people doing things. My instructions were to ensure that you asked politely for permission to take the photo, and thank the person for their assistance.

My assumptions were that you were teens; that you had such technology in your pockets; that we had been doing either the present or the past progressive; and that we had a class blog on which we could afterwards post the pictures with an appropriate caption (in the example, "He was cutting a pineapple...").

The point of the exercise was to raise the question of how much language would be learnt and/or practised and/or used relative to the amount of time invested in the activity. What is the return on investment, in other words, a question I would always ask myself with technology.

This isn't an idea that I've actually tried out with language learners, but I think I would: when are teens -- or adults -- more likely to learn: "doing" the language via a photocopied exercise or doing an activity in a way that is actually significant to them (and fun!)?

Task #1: Creating an animation

Go to www.dfilm.com, create an animation and email it to me.

Don't forget to add a comment (below) on what you think of this activity for use with language learners.

More ideas for blogging projects, webquests

A couple of very recent news stories that might make good blogging projects and/or webquests...

I'm assuming that you have a class blog with a group of adults, on which all your students can "author" posts (write, and not just comment, that is), though if you only allow your students to comment, the first at least would still work well.

1. Virtual fashion
In Britain and France, "the world's first virtual fashion game" Miss Bimbo has been a huge success with young girls (it's addressed to 9-16 year olds), allowing them to create a virtual self and earn "bimbo dollars" to give themselves plastic surgery etc. Needless to say it has sparked controversy -- and it's the controversy that I think would make it an idea that would work in class: your learners will want to talk about it, find out more, etc.

2. The worst food in the USA
The New York Times has a book review that lists the worst foods in America, based on their fat content, calories, etc (like the Chocolate Chip Paradise Pie with Vanilla Ice Cream, with a mere 1,600 calories). The article gives you a starting point for discussion and though they might not be able to find out all of the actual details, calorie counts, etc, researching "the worst foods in Spain" (or wherever), or "the worst fast food", might make a good project.

3. Plastic rubbish on the beach
The BBC's environment correspondent David Shukman has a report on the threat of plastic rubbish drifting in the ocean, which might make an interesting project particularly if you are teaching a content-based curriculum (or have just got to the "Environment" unit in your coursebook!), and particularly if you teach somewhere close to the beach. You might not be somewhere as dramatic as Mr Shukman gets to (the historic Pacific island of Midway), but you might try to persuade your learners (for homework!) to go down to the beach, see what rubbish they can find and report back (via their blog, that is).

Homemade webquests
If you wanted to turn these ideas into webquests, I'd talk about the stories first and see what sort of unanswered questions class discussion produced -- as I much prefer my learners to generate their own questions, their own webquest, rather than one I impose on them.

Alternative technologies
If you don't have a blog, you could still do all of the above, and could produce PowerPoint presentations or things to display on your classroom walls.

More evidence that Google is Evil ,- ) !

My husband... Now would that be "Google search" or "I'm feeling lucky"?

Ananova.com's bizarre news "Quirkies" section is one of my default start pages -- partly because some of stories amuse me greatly and partly because there's often a text there that you can use in class.

Among the headlines this morning, "Wife's £5m Google surprise":

A woman is suing her husband after she Googled his name - and found out he had won £5m on the lottery. >> Full story

What could you do with such a text...?

• Before reading, you could speculate from the headline what the story might be, something which you might do in pairs, with each pair then telling the whole class "their" story
• During reading, you could get people to determine which pair they think got closest to the actual story, which can get them to read more closely, and gives a natural reason for "talking about meaning"
  
• After reading, there are any number of discussion points that might come up -- do they believe the story, what can they guess about the people involved, have they ever "Googled" their own names (or those of their spouses!)
  

Persuade your learners to change their default start pages to a website where they are going to get themselves some reading (or listening) practice -- it's one of the most useful things you can do for them!

Me, from A to Z

Not so well-known as the big ELT publishers, Delta Publishing has an excellent "Professional Perspectives" series of resource books for teachers (image, right).

My favourite is Chandler and Stone's The Resourceful English Teacher, which has lots of practical ideas on how to use things like the OHP, video etc (though an update -- or a new title -- to cover the Internet would be an idea).

I also like some of the ideas in Chris Sion's Creating Conversation in Class ("Student-centred interaction"), including "Myself from A-Z", which suggests having them create an "A-Z of your own life", which might be a great way to have people get to know each other at the start of the year, as it will reveal a surprising amount about yourself.

As is pointed out, you need to give a few examples, which can be "trivial, personal or humorous". I found it surprisingly difficult to complete an A-Z of my own life, but don't think it matters if your learners can't. My own examples:

• A is for...?
• B is for Barcelona, where I've lived for over 25 years
• C is for cycling, which is one of my great passions in life
• D is for drawing, which is one of the other things I enjoy doing most (though perhaps doodling would be the correct term...)
• E is for...?
  

The book seems to suggest a "whole class" presentation, but small group, or pairs, might work better, I think.

It's also something that might work well on a class blog, on which each learner could post (and update) their own...

Chocolate!

Get me my daily dose of chocolate, quick!

October 15-21 is Chocolate Week, according to the weekly tip DevelopingTeachers.com sent to my mail box this week.

Not sure I'd "use chocolate bars as prizes in class competitions", but the Tip comes with lesson plan ideas and some great links -- like a chocolate tasting competition as a warmer!

"Chocolate" might also make an interesting class discussion -- and you might then turn it into a webquest.

True, I am wild about chocolate (see picture of my breakfast, above), but I'd be prepared to bet a King Size Mars Bar you've got several chocolate freaks sitting there in your class, too!

>> Another Weekly Tip idea

October 10, World Mental Health Day

This Wednesday (October 10th) is World Mental Health Day, the "Weekly Teaching Tip" from DevelopingTeachers.com tells me.

If you like your lesson plans gifted to you without too much thought on your part -- and directly into your own mailbox if you subscribe -- the Tip is a good place to look.

Personally, I like students as involved as possible from the start. This week's Tip quotes an article on stress from the BBC. The headings are:

• Symptoms of stress
• Dealing with stress
• Work-related stress
• Tackling work stress

I'd suggest starting there and, before the students read the article, get them to brainstorm what they think will come under the headings... Getting them to find which of the ideas they came up with and what other ideas the article suggests then gives you a natural reason for reading the article, and a natural reading comprehension question.

"Stress", some wit once said, "is when you wake up screaming and then you realise you haven't fallen asleep yet." If you're already stressed out yourself by your new term, now you know where to look...!

>> Bank of previous teaching tips
>> More free stuff in your mailbox

German kids set up own school

Here's one I spotted thanks to the fact that I'd set Ananova.com's Quirkies section as one of the default start pages that comes up every time I log on to the Internet:

In Germany, kids frustrated by "the way they were being taught" have set up their own school, believing that it will improve their chances of decent A level grades.

It was the headline -- "Pupils set up own school" -- that caught my eye. I wanted to read it, and I think the effect on my learners would be similar. Anything that makes kids want to read has got to be a good thing.

It also looks like a decent basis for a lesson, with a text giving me fairly obvious "before, during and after" reading activities, the "after" (and possibly also the "before") being whether or not my learners think the idea would work. They could plan (or even write about) the sort of school they'd set up...

Is your default start page one that is actually useful to you...? Do your learners have default start pages that help them learn some English...?

Design your own handbag

Here's one from Larry Ferlazzo's excellent collection of links: a site where you can design your own handbag (shown, right, the one I created).

My doubt about it as a website to use with students is whether or not they would actually learn that much English while interacting with it. It's pretty much point-and-click, with very little to actually read in English.

However, if you put your learners in pairs, and the task was to see which pair could design the most attractive bag, you might get a speaking activity out of it.

It might work nicely if you then got each pair to view all the other bags and then have to choose which three they would buy for a maximum of 900 USD, with "the winner" the pair selling the most bags. (The site, a genuine handbag manufacturer, prices and then offers you the chance to actually buy your own creation.)

It's possible to mail your bag to a friend (you could mail it to your teacher). Or your learners could capture the image from their computer screens and edit them as I've done, above).

Larry Ferlazzo is a site I would definitely recommend adding to your RSS feeds if you use them.

Something else I didn't have to search for

Here's an idea for a lesson -- an article on Forbes.com on Fifteen Things We Wish Someone Would Invent.

A lesson plan to use with this came to me in my mailbox, in one of DevelopingTeachers.com's weekly Teaching Tips [see current tip; full index of past tips; subscribe].

You could also just get your learners to brainstorm ideas for such things, and perhaps write (blog?) about them...

>> More stuff in your mailbox

Bizarre stories from Ananova

In our session June 11, I mentioned an article I'd spotted out of the corner of my eye on one of my default start pages, Ananova.com, or more specifically Ananova's "Quirkies" bizarre news stories section.

The headline read:

Green blood shocker
Surgeons operating on a man were shocked to find he had green blood

Other recent stories have included:

Robber caught - by mum
A Czech armed robber who targeted McDonald's restaurants was grabbed by the ear and marched to the police station by his mum

Beatles blast for beer burglar
A judge sentenced a Beatles-loving thief by quoting 42 of the band's song titles in his verdict

What could you do with them?
With a story like the first you could obviously ask students to predict what they thought the explanation might be. They could then read the text to find out if they were right. I remember playing a game called Balderdash, in which you got a word, a correct definition of the word, and had to invent three more, with your opponents then having to guess which was the correct one; you could do something similar with stories like this one.

With the second, and others like it, there's always the question of whether or not such stories are true, or merely urban legends -- a discussion topic I've always found works well.

And the third might make an interesting piece of writing: how many song titles can your learners cram in, but still make a coherent story. They could obviously use someone other than the Beatles.

Not searching, having things come to you
In our session, I mentioned Ananova.com being one of my start pages as an example of how you can have things come to you, and not have to go searching the Internet for them.

An alternative to Ananova would be Yahoo's Oddly Enough news section, with similar stories.

Changing your default start page
Check this previous post if you aren't sure how to change the default start page of your browser.

Happiness is...

Here's one from the Staff Room here at IH, where Ellie and Caroline, two of my colleagues, were planning a lesson on "happiness".

Their starting point was a video that came from instant-ideas.com, from which they'd moved on to a section on the BBC on a "happiness formula".

It looked like it was going to make for a fun lesson...

10 seconds: the makings of half a class

As one of my default start pages, yahoo.co.uk, has failed to turn up any interesting stories for class lately, I've made ananova.com's "Quirkies" section one of my "starts". (I'm using Firefox, not Internet Explorer, and open six pages by default, every time I log on).

What am I looking for when I spend 10 seconds a day scanning pages like that? A headline that makes me curious, that makes me want to read. I figure that if that's the case, then I can write the headline up on the board, and my students will then want to read the story in class.

Among the items this morning: Teen turns down £8.5m, about how a "Cheltenham teenager has reportedly turned down £8.5million to sell his website".

It gives the name of the kids (news) website, Sharpenews, and I guessed that must be sharpenews.com. 89m "hits" in 18 months...? It must be a brilliant site!

Whether or not I actually occupy class time visiting the site, I think I've got the makings of my kids' class for this afternoon...

Why are British teenagers so badly behaved?

Here's a discussion on the BBC that might make for an interesting class activity -- Why are British teenagers so badly behaved?

Basically it's a list of reader comments. You could get your learners to read through it, noting suggested answers to the question.

You'd then have the basis for a class discussion (which do they think are the most likely/unlikely explanations, etc), and could compare with their own country...

They could also write answers on the BBC discussion board.

Learn these 84 irregular verbs for Monday

If you were a 13-year-old kid, you might leave a rucksack full of irregular verbs on the Metro...!

My son Toni (13), who has English only as his third language, brought home a list of 84 irregular pasts and past participles that he had to learn by Monday.

"Ok, take this piece of paper away, and write me a story using some of them," I said.

"No, not like that -- just say 'eat', and I'll say 'ate, eaten' like at school," he said. "Test me!"

Is that any way to learn a language...? Is it fun, to begin with...?

Storytime
Eventually (he didn't get to watch the football, otherwise ,-), he did write a (true) story...

Last Friday I had left my bag in the Metro. I didn't realised until I had gone in the school. I thought that it was to late but still I ran to catch my dad. When I caught him I told him what had happened.

I went back to school hitting my head for being so stupid. I thought I would have to hold and hear all the nonsense of my mum about how much it cost and bla, bla, bla.

And on for another 18 lines, at the end of which "I had learnt a lesson"... and had enjoyed doing something with his irregular verbs.

Rules
Being a thirteen-year-old kid, Toni went for the easiest line of resistance. To combat that, the following rules got added in to the "activity":

• When you've finished one story, start another (up to three)
• All of the stories have to be coherent as stories, though not necessarily true
  
• Each story has to include some examples of the past perfect (otherwise we just got the past simple; including both involves thinking about and deciding when the former is required)
• 50 words minimum, no max.
• Only one of the stories can be about football!
  

What's all this got to do with technology?
You could obviously use the idea without ever going near a computer (you might consider pinning the stories on the wall, so that everyone can read them...)

But if you had a class blog (one on which all of your students can author), I'd suggest writing the stories there would make a great project...

Lateral thinking puzzles

To practise question forms, lateral thinking puzzles can be fun. Example:

A man is replacing a wheel on his car, when he accidentally drops the four nuts used to hold the wheel on the car, and they fall into a deep drain, irretrievably lost. A passing girl offers him a solution which enables him to drive home. What is it? [Answer in "comments", below]

More: 101 lateral thinking puzzles

They make good classroom activities apart from anything else because your learners really want to form those questions!

I suggest you refuse to answer any questions that are incorrectly formed... ("Good question, but if you can correct it, I'll answer it...")

Note that lateral thinking puzzles tend to be a bit morbid (and death is a subject I think best avoided in a classroom). The ones here are bit less morbid.

Preposition Basketball

This one came from a back issue of the excellent ET Professional magazine (ET meaning English Teaching, that is):

This activity practises prepositions of place with elementary students. Put a bin on a chair and draw an imaginary line about ten feet away. The students stand behind the line and aim a stone into the bin. Points are then won for various positions: in the bin (20 points), on the chair (15 points), under the chair (10 points), next to, behind, etc.

I'd suggest that the point of the activity is to actually say the prepositions correctly -- you get the points for that, not for your ability to lob a stone into a bin!

You could have several chairs and a couple of bags to add further interest to it, and might want to replace the stone with a screwed-up piece of paper rather than a stone -- especially if the bin is a metal one and there's a class next door!

Sounds like a great activity for a summer camp, to me...

ETP [website] comes out six times a year and currently costs 25 GBP a year. There's always something of interest in it... Highly recommended.

Designing prepositions

In the excellent Cambridge International Dictionary of English (one designed for learners), there is a neat little diagram explaining the prepositions, with each preposition plus a single arrow illustrating meaning...



With a group of design students (though you could surely do the same thing with any group), a colleague got them to "design" a similar diagram. As you can see above, one student turned the arrow into a matchstick man and added a paper bag or bags to illustrate the meaning (eg. the matchstick man climbing "into" or "out of" the bag).