Ideas for exploiting the Oscars

Lots of good ideas landed in my mail box this morning in the developingteachers.com Weekly Teaching Tip, on how to use the Oscars in class.

Among them, I enjoyed (and think my learners will enjoy) the stories about the Oscars in an article in the Independent.

Sitcoms: consuming or creating?

Videoing on a mobile phone: making it less intimidating than a video camera

More from the very excellent TeachingEnglish.org.uk, this time on exploiting sitcoms...

A lesson...
Besides the likelihood that your learners are going to just love them, there is an awful lot of language you can get out of sitcoms, as the article on building a lesson around a sitcom suggests. When it comes to choosing a sitcom, my own suggestion would be that you don't choose it, but that your learners do. What they already watch (perhaps in their own language) and can tell you about is likely to be more popular than something you pick (unless it's Fawlty Towers, which is always a success!)

An activity...
There is also a Sitcom information activity, which includes a photocopiable worksheet with a gap fill exercise.

I've got my doubts about this one -- not so much about the activity itself as about whether or not that is the way we should be using technology. Photocopying exercises is one use we could make of technology -- the photocopier being part of technology -- but it has the students merely consuming, not creating.

The activity suggests the learners then go to YouTube and watch a clip of one of the sitcoms mentioned in the text; but that's merely consuming too.

If you get your learners to watch and create listening comprehension questions for each other, instead of merely watching, then you've got greater engagement, not merely entertainment.

Actually creating a sitcom...
A third idea on the same site involves actually creating a sitcom; now that's more like it!

I'd suggest that, in this last case, you really want to get your learners to video it -- that's creating, not merely consuming.

To get round the problem of people not wanting to be filmed, you might try filming on mobile phones first, as they appear less intrusive; and always remember that no one should be forced to act but that, if they don't want to, there are other roles such as directing and the actual filming that can engage all the members of a group... You could also record audio only, not video.

My experience of such things is people's inhibitions tend to drop, when they see what fun it can be.

Easy, fun, meaningful tasks with technology

Easy, fun, meaningful...

Welcome to those of you who came to my talk on Easy, fun, meaningful activities with technology at the IH Barcelona ELT Conference today...

The tasks I proposed assumed that at least one, preferably more digital cameras (or mobile phones, or webcams...) were available to your learners, either at school and/or at home. Below, how I defined "easy", "fun" and "meaningful" and, although the tasks suggested involved cameras, I think the same criteria apply to any other technology you might be considering using in the language classroom.

Easy...
The "ease" is particularly the easy and speed of set up -- and the time involved, before and after class. You don't want to be editing images, for example, afterwards -- though, as I suggested in my talk, your learners could be doing that (and I suggested using Picnik).

Having no programs to instal can be important in a school: can you, as a teacher, actually instal programs on your school's network? Probably not.

As much as anything, you want to limit the time you the teacher have to spend on the technology; what you want is a huge return-on-investment, i.e. for the amount of pre- and post-class time you invest, your language learners in- or post-class get a huge return in terms of the language they practise and learn.

Fun...
In my classroom experience, what is creative is fun; and because it's creative and fun it's enjoyable; and if what is created is also shared with other learners, it's motivating and thus more fun. If it is motivating, if learners want to do things, and (provided you ensure that they speak in English doing well-designed tasks maximising interaction) it's also and most importantly, successful in terms of language learning. They learn more, in other words.

And then they are more motivated, and learn more, and have more fun... It's a cycle of success -- and of enjoyment.

Meaningful...
In my talk, I contrasted photographs taken by learners with cloze tests [define]... The picture that my learner has taken (not stolen from Google-is-Evil, note) matters; it's an end-product that you can share and care about.

When did the answers to a cloze test ever really matter to a learner (unless it was on an exam)? When did a learner ever really feel truly proud of a completed cloze test...?

I've been having my learners complete cloze tests for nearly thirty years and I've never, ever, seen a learner enjoy one.

But most importantly...
I've highlighted in my slide (above) how I'm suggesting using technology: to create and share end-products. But that's merely how I'm suggesting using it...

What really matters in language classrooms is that lots of language learning takes place.

That's what is important, the learning, not the technology. The technology is merely the tool that affords opportunities for language learning to occur...

Task #1: A single image with text

A single digital image plus text

This was the first of the easy, fun, meaningful tasks I suggested in my talk today at the annual IH Barcelona ELT Conference.

I highlighted the importance of the things in red on my slide, above:

• The learners taking photographs of things of personal value to themselves (a watch, a necklace...) -- something that they care about
  
• The tasks being done with a partner, your partner taking the photo and writing the text about your object, and vice-versa -- so that learners interact meaningfully in English
  
• The photo itself -- the end-product that is being created
• The text -- which will afford more opportunities for meaningful interaction to take place
• The sharing of the texts and images -- creating something to look back at and be proud of
  

Sharing images
For sharing the images and text you could use the classroom noticeboard (which is certainly the simplest); or Flickr (which is also very easy); or a blog (which is also very easy to set up [how]).

The problem with Flickr would be including the text, but you could go for an image and a short oral presentation.

My personal recommendation would be a class blog, with Blogger.com being among the best choices for setting your blog up.

See also:

• techlearning.com's Portraits of Learning (the source of the idea)
• enmibolsillo.blogspot.com (an example)

Task #2: Mystery photos on a throw-away camera

Pictures on a throw-away camera: about as simple as technology gets...

The second task that I proposed in my workshop at the IH Barcelona ELT Conference last week was "Mystery photos on a throw-away camera", a task originally suggested by my colleague Susana Ortiz.

As you can see from my slide (above), the tasks has learners working in pairs to take up to 3 "mystery" pictures per pair on a throw-away camera (for costs, see the first "comment" below), and then passing the camera on to the next pair, with the photos being developed when the film runs out.

You could do the same thing with a digital camera, a mobile phone or a webcam, all of which would have advantages over the throw-away camera, most notably the digital image you will get from them (and can thus edit and upload, etc).

The disposable camera, however, is more of a challenge (you can't just go on taking pictures until they come out right) and the mystery of not knowing until the end what photos other people have taken (no "telling" when the camera is passed on to the next pair), and the shared experience are all reasons for considering turning to what I described in my talk as being "the pond scum" of technology -- the lowest of the low.

But learning should be a challenge and it should be an experience, something which is memorable...

See also
On our Formación ELE blog, for Spanish teachers [content in Spanish], you can see some of the pictures of Barcelona taken by students in Susana's class.

Task #3: A photograph of learning actually occurring

Follow the steps and the task isn't as impossible as it might look...

This was the third of the easy, fun, meaningful tasks I suggested in my talk today.

It is easy -- from the technical point of view. All you your learners have to do is point the camera and shoot, and then share it in some digital way (eg. on a blog, or as a PowerPoint presentation, as I suggested).

It is however more of a challenge. Can you actually photograph the actual instant learning occurs, and actually capture it on film? I've been trying for years and never really ever got close to it.

What your learners should aim for is a photograph in which they can then say "What we were trying to capture was...". The end-product is less important than the meaningful interaction that precedes it -- though it is also true that working towards producing an end-product makes that interaction meaningful.

And, as I suggested, discussing the subject of when learning takes place first, before taking out the camera, will make it slightly less of a challenge, as well as creating the opportunity for the interaction to occur.

Stick figure storyboard

The stick figure storyboard (example above) will also help, and is again creative and fun to do...

The interaction -- the use of language -- is what is most important, together with the appropriate language assistance you (reactively) provide. But I think the challenge is what I like about this task: we should be challenging learners in classrooms...

Valentine's Day lesson plan

Harry met Sally on the Internet...

Here's an idea for a creative, collaborative writing activity for Valentine's Day, which is coming up shortly, which uses a process writing approach...

• Whole class, discuss what good love stories have in common and what they boil down to, preferably a single sentence... The conclusion we reached in the group I first tried this with was that all love stories are variations on "Harry met Sally".
• Individually, have learners expand on that single sentence, not necessarily to finish the story but to make it more romantic.
• In pairs, have the learners pick which of their two stories they like best and, together, expand the one they chose into a first draft of the story
• Whole class, share the stories... This could be done on the computer screens, if you are using computers, or by printing them out, or by posting them on a blog
• In pairs, have the learners give other pairs feedback (orally or in writing...) on their story (what they like/dislike, would add/take away...)
• Edit the story into a second draft, with possibly a second round of feedback...
• Publish the final versions (classroom walls, class blog...)

Process writing and word processing: they were just made for each other, and such activities are lots of fun to do in class, especially when the results are shared and (because the stories are written in pairs) there's no pressure on each individual to prove him/herself a brilliant writer.

Not many students say they enjoy writing, but most say they like doing things in pairs...

More ideas for Valentine's Day:

>> From Larry Ferlazzo
>> Be my Valentine!

The most annoying invention ever

Karaoke: if it's such fun, can it really be the most annoying invention ever?

Because its quirky news stories make great texts for use in class, Ananova.com is one of my default home pages: I spend 20 seconds a day there when I log on scanning the headlines in case there's something I could use in class.

One that caught my eye today: The most annoying invention ever: the Karaoke.

As well as the language and reading comprehension work that might come out of the text, my 20 seconds are about long enough to image my students, pre-reading, brainstorming their own lists of the world's worst inventions; and, post-reading, writing up their suggestions on a class blog and then taking a vote on it, possibly involving students in another class -- and possibly using the poll option that you can easily include on your blog if you are using Blogger to publish it (the steps being Layout >> Add a gadget >> Poll).

20 seconds a day scanning the stuff that comes to me: that, rather than wasting the day trawling Google-is-Evil...

A Christmas lesson

Christmas...? You know what I think... (and see below!)

Here's my all-time favourite Christmas lesson*... I've used it with lots of classes, and it's always been fun, both with teenagers and adults.

Stages

1. Play word association in order to brainstorm Christmas vocabulary
   
2. In pairs, find out if their partner believes in Father Christmas; and if not, find out exactly when they stopped believing
   
3. Teacher reads out this letter from an 8-year-old, asking the New York Times editor whether or not Santa exists
   
4. In pairs, write a reply to the letter, from the editor, to be published in the paper
   
5. Pin replies up and get everyone to read everyone else's
   
6. In pairs/3s decide which are the best three replies
   
7. Read the original reply
   
8. Decide whether or not their replies are better than the original (and if so, why/why not).

Alternatives
At Stage (5), you could have pairs swop their letter with another pair, with each pair then having to decide whether or not, as an 8-year-old, they would be satisfied with the answer they got.

If you have a class blog, that would be an ideal place to publish the letters, comment on them etc.

Other Christmas lessons
You could have a webquest to discover how people in other countries celebrate Christmas. Here's a peculiar local custom in Barcelona, for example (photo, above), which you can send as a Christmas card, if you wish.

On Nik Peachey's excellent Daily English Activities blog, you've got an activity your young learners might like -- actually chatting to Santa (so he must exist .-)!

And here are more Christmas lessons, from last year.

*I think I invented the lesson plan myself, but I'd be happy to correct that if my memory (at least ten years later) fails me...

The credit crunch: a topical lesson

Under 3 euros? Guess I'll not be going out tonight!

Here's one that came to me via an rss feed from the language assistant site which is part of what has to be the best ELT site, teachingenglish.org.uk...

The lesson "takes a light hearted look at the economic crisis, or ‘credit crunch' as it's often refered to in the UK", with downloadable classroom materials, tasks and activities, plus links to the useful archive of material on the Essential UK archive.

You'll want to pick n'mix as to which bits are going to suit your actual class best, but there's lots of good, topical ideas there, which is not always the case with coursebook materials.

VideoJug: a cool alternative to YouTube

Halloween? Kissing? Halo 3 Tips...? The "How to" video is on VideoJug

My colleague Carolyn Edwards has just told me about VideoJug.com. It's not quite YouTube but has stacks of "How to" videos on it.

As a lesson, you could probably get a lot of mileage out of asking your learners before watching "How to" go about a particular task; get them to make notes of the stages involved; then watch and, while watching, get them to tick in their notes which are mentioned in the video -- giving you student-generated, ready-made, photocopy-free listening comprehension questions.

As a follow-up, assuming you have access to a video camera (or video-equipped mobile phones), get them in groups to (first) storyboard a video of their own and (then) film it.

Your films could then be uploaded on to VideoJug or YouTube, and/or embedded on a class blog.

Not so sure the Love&Sex section is somewhere you want to take your (young) learners (like "Creative Kissing" or the hilarious Avoid Trapped Arm Whilst Cuddling In Bed) but with adults there lots of fun stuff there, and in the site's other sections.

Oh, and don't miss the Halloween videos...

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).