Incy wincy spider

If you are teaching very young learners, this morning my RSS feed for teachingenglish.co.uk tells me there are some great things you could do on creepy crawlies, a subject dear to the heart of all young learners (well, nearly, anyway!) -- and not a few webmasters, as you can see from our photo.

The Language Assistant section on teachingenglish.co.uk is well worth checking out if you do teach small kids.

See also >> Incy Wincy Spider, the song (etc)

Eyes right! A fun way to revise grammar

This is a fun way to revise grammar!

Loved this activity, by Jo Budden, which I got from my RSS feed for teachingenglish.org.uk.

You get all your learners to stand up, get themselves into a nice long line, and then dictate to them sentences which are either right or wrong.

If they think the sentence is "right", they take a "big step" to the right (though as you can see in the photo, I got my learners just to look right or left); if they think it's wrong, they step or look left. You could make it an elimination game, Jo suggests, until you've got a "winner" -- or make it boys vs girls.

You know the grammar casino game? You could play it like that, with the sentences you dictate being right or wrong grammatically.

It's fun -- and might be especially good as a break for your hyperactive teens...

Eyes: an idea for a class blog

Mystery eyes: someone in our class

Here's an idea that might be fun if you have a class blog: every week, we publish a photo of the eyes of someone in the class, and we then attempt to guess who our "mystery eyes" belong to.

By a "class blog", I mean one on which your learners author and publish the content and, besides class projects [example], and what you might publish as being of interest to your students [example], having a different pair responsible for the blog each week will get the students interested and involved. You could have such things as a "YouTube video of the week" or "Album of the week", which the students would be responsible for picking -- and "Mystery eyes of the week" would also be fun.

You want the students to take the photos and edit them and want to ensure that other students do comment on the blog, something they could be doing before class, during class, or at home...

An important issue is privacy, so do make sure you have appropriate school/parental permission before you start publishing photos, especially if you are doing this with young learners!

Witches and more stuff for Halloween lessons

WhaaaaaaaaaahHHHHHH! Photo: KateT

It's getting round to that time of year again... On the British Council's Learn English Kids site, you have things about witches and wizards -- "things" being songs and jigsaw puzzles and stories and and stuff you can print, a link which I picked up from the Council's excellent ELTeCS list.

Don't print it, make it!
Stuff you can print...? I've always had my doubts about that -- especially if we are talking about young learners. Who was the teacher trainer I once heard say that it broke her heart "to see young learners all with the same photocopied picture"?

You want ideas, not printable activities, I would suggest -- and for pictures, you want to get your young learners to draw them. If you've got a class blog, that's where they should be published.

If we're talking teenagers, for whom drawing witches is undoubtedly not going to be cool, you could get them to take photos of Halloweeny things on their mobile phones -- which again could be great on a class blog.

Don't worry so much about the quality of the images -- just quick snapshots like the one at the top of this post (detail of the decorations at Reception here at school) will produce a great collection.

Creating, not consuming
If you then got your learners to write ghost stories (possibly featuring the creatures they've taken photos, or drawn pictures of), then they'd be creating, not merely consuming -- and that's what technology allows us to do.

In Spanish, here's another idea that makes a great Halloween activity.

Related posts

>> A Halloween project
>> Halloween lessons

Great stuff on YouTube for English teachers

Bruce Springsteen interviewed on the OGWT in 1978

There's a ton of great listening comprehension on YouTube, stuff that's so much more interesting than the things that come on your coursebook CD -- to start with because (especially to kids!) watching a video clip of (say) a song is so much more interesting than a CD...

Getting them to do the work
One of my colleagues suggested having the learners, in pairs, search for a suitable interview with a famous person, and then write listening comprehension questions for another pair. Get them to choose the video -- don't you make the choice.

Doing that means that there is so much more active involvement of the learners, with them wanting to listen, and wanting to listen again. Whether or not they come up with great listening comprehension questions is not important either: what the activity does is make them creators, not merely consumers of content.

Or letting someone else do the work...?
If you prefer someone else to do part of your lesson planning for you, teflclips.com is a site which will interest you.

On yappr.com you have YouTube-like videos conveniently sorted by subject and level of difficulty, many of them with a subtitle option.

In a recent issue of HLT, there were more ideas for exploiting YouTube.

And here's another idea from Nik Peachey's excellent blog...

Word(le) clouds, Paint pictures

Wordle cloud, Paint fish

Here's one that came from one of the sessions on our CELTA course in the last week...

I suggested Ananova.com (specifically the bizarre news stories in its Quirkies section) as a great default home page for both teachers and learners, with the Dead angler becomes fish food story an example of a text you could do in class.

We then took the story -- assuming that we'd already "done" the text in class -- to Wordle.net and converted it into a cloud. By a bit of simple editing, first with Wordle, then with Paint (which we used to add an eye to create a word cloud fish), we've then converted the text into a picture which we could use to decorate a class blog.

As I suggested earlier, I still have my doubts about using Wordle as a classroom activity -- principally because your learners will be manipulating the image, but not the words themselves: they want to be tinkering with the language not just looking at it, if we want people to learn language.

But as an "after reading" activity, to add some color to a class blog, to add some fun, you might still justify it...

And as one of you pointed out in at least one of the sessions this week, we might also possibly use the word cloud as either a prediction or a reconstruction activity...

>> How to change the default start page of your browser

Wordle: create and edit your own word clouds

This one I came to me from Ana Falcon by email on the ELTECS-Latinamerica list...Wordle allows you to take a text and turn it into a word cloud and then to customise it in a variety of cool ways. My original text was about El Alux, a spectacular bar located underground in a cenote, a geological formation in the Yucatan.

What could you do with Wordle with learners? In her message, Ana suggested "You can print them out, or save them to the Wordle gallery to share with your friends". My suggestion would be that it's another example of something you shouldn't be doing -- but that your learners might enjoy, especially if they are young.

Would they actually learn anything from it...? I'm not entirely convinced that they would. But they would have fun doing it, and it would involved actively doing something; it could be a way of persuading them to look back at previous texts (or finding new ones); it might be a way of revising vocabulary if what you asked them to do was turn a text they had "done" into a Wordle; and if you had a class blog it would produce some attractive images (you would have to take a screen capture and edit it [how?], as it's not possible to create an image directly at Wordle).

The ELTECS lists are well worth subscribing to -- apart from anything else for the links Ana suggests at regular intervals.

Making collages with Glogster

Glogster: Yes, and those creep crawlies moved about on the page... Yuck!

Like ImageChef [see previous post], Glogster allows you to create images, though the latter is a lot more sophisticated, allowing you to create much more complex collages, making it suitable for older young learners with a higher level of English.

If you got your learners to work together in pairs to create their collage, there is a lot of potential for interaction and language use. You can't quite understand how it works? Don't worry, your kids will get it immediately!

As always in the technology classroom, you want to make sure that language is English!

Alternatively, you could get them to create their collages at home and then present them to the class in an oral presentation.

See also >> Making animations with Dfilm

My basketball jersey is blue

ImageChef is one for young learners at a very low level -- I think.

They'd love it, I'm sure (my 12-year-old daughter and all her classmates do, for one thing) but I say "I think" because I'm not sure how much language learning you would get out of it.

Basically, it allows you to create a simple image like the one on the right from a series of templates, something which you could have your learners do for homework. If they then brought them back to class to show each other (or display on the walls, or post on a class blog...) you would get such language as "My shirt is red", "It's a basketball jersey" out of it.

As always, before I used the technology, I'd ask "How much language learning am I going to get out of it?", "What's the return on investment?"

The "investment" is in terms of time -- your time and your learners' time (in class or at home). The "return" is the amount of language learning and practice you get out of the activity.

The return on investment (ROI) is low? Don't do it. Your ROI is high? Go for it!

See also >> Making collages with Glogster

Virtual worlds

Here's an interesting article on Edutopia.org that shows how virtual worlds can provide "a shared online universe in which students can play to learn": Get a Life: Students Collaborate in Simulated Roles,

It mentions Whyville, "a Web-based virtual world that provides inquiry-based education for middle school students" and some of the projects that schools have done using it, as well as looking at some of the benefits and (ahem) "challenges".

Whyville isn't Second Life -- it's not so sophisticated, as you can see from the avatar I was starting to create (above right) -- or Teen Second Life, but it's simplicity might just appeal to kids, if you're teaching them.

Edutopia [about] (the cynic in me loves that name! .-) provides "Information and Inspiration for Innovative Teaching in K12 Schools".

Christmas lessons

Happy Catalan Christmas!

It must be getting round to that time of year again... Christmas! There are some Christmas lesson plans on DevelopingTeachers.com, if you are looking, and another 2 million plus on Google, it would appear.

A webquest would be one idea, and here's a Christmas webquest from OneStopEnglish.

If you have a class blog, they could post their results there, or they could write about their own Christmas traditions as well as ones they discover in a webquest (in the image, above, a Catalan Christmas tradition).

If you've got young learners, somewhere I would always look for ideas would be EnchantedLearning.com, where there are some results.

A Christmas card is always fun with kids -- you could get them to draw a nativity scene and then label the different things (shepherds, kings, donkeys, the Baby Jesus, etc) so that they learn some English too.

Teaching Teenagers

A book I read a long time ago and now wish I'd included as one of my list of 10 ELT books your Mum could get you for Christmas: Teaching Teenagers, by Herbert Puchta and Michael Schratz or "Teaching Teenagers: Model Activity Sequences for Humanistic Language Learning", to give it its full title.

I've personally never been much good teaching teenagers -- I've not got the patience for it, apart from anything else. But if you have to, and many of you teaching in private language schools will have to, read this book. It made me look at my teenagers in a different way: teenagers aren't wild animals (no, really!), they're human beings, too.

I can't remember now who first suggested the idea to me, or whether or not it was in this excellent book, but the vital thing about teenagers is not their attitude to learning English (or to you), but your attitude to them. Treat them like wild animals, and that's how they'll behave...

It takes something special to get on with teens; whether you've got that or not, ask your Mum to get you this book -- and get yourself some attitude!

>> Buy it on Amazon.co.uk

Halloween lessons

On TeachingEnglish.org.uk's section of resources for teaching children, there's a new .pdf file with ideas for Halloween lessons.

>> More ideas for Halloween lessons

Ungoogle your cats!

Titi the Cat...

Someone asked me the other day whether or not an image of a cat found on Google (not that shown above) was going to print out well for use in class -- on the black-and-white printer they had access to.

As the contrast in the picture was low, I said I thought not and suggested looking for a different one.

And to enlarge it? Possibly the best way to enlarge is by using the photocopier to do it for you.

It was actually for use in a class on our young learners extension course and so I suggested that, rather than using Google, that the young learners themselves should draw the pictures -- and would then be able to describe their cats.

I've got no idea how the lesson eventually went, but I later happened to be in the actual classroom used and noticed the drawings of cats on the walls (see one example above) -- and like to imagine that the lesson meant much more to the kids, that they learnt more because they participated and were more involved in it.

Ungoogle!
I thought I'd just invented the word "ungoogle", but Google itself currently finds around 34,000 results for it.

But, because I think Google-is-Evil, and perhaps sometimes has an adverse effect on the lessons we take into our classrooms, it's one I think teachers should adopt.

There are better places to search than Google, there are better places to find images...

Steal and photocopy... or draw your own images?

A monster in the Internet Room! It's got a tail! It's got 3 eyes!

Rebecca is currently taking the CELT YL course with us at IH Barcelona and brought this into the Internet Room before class... Wow! It's so impressive, and so much more so than a monster she could have stolen from Google Images.

She was going to get her kids to draw monsters too, and then say what body parts their monsters had got.

You could pinch the pictures off of the Web, but how much more engaging for your young learners to draw their own!

>> 1000+ Pictures for Teachers to Copy

Arts and crafts with your learners

More from the very excellent TeachingEnglish.org.uk site:

• A new article on Art in the classroom
  
• One on Arts and crafts with young learners
• Full list of articles

Looking for something to do with English teaching...? Don't go to Google! Go somewhere like TeachingEnglish...!

MySpace or Our Space?

The Electric Shoes: Great band, great example of what you can do with MySpace

In the US in particular, My Space is hugely popular, though there have been doubts raised in US High Schools about security problems (do you want it to be that easy for all those crazy people out there in cyberspace to contact your young learners?).

Here's a great example (not ELT-related) of what you can do with MySpace.

MySpace is very easy to use, and I can see why your teenagers might love it...

Our space, not my space
Personally, however, I've got two things against it, one the security issue (check how many of the MySpace FAQs refer to security: there must be a problem with it!).

The other is that I hate the name "my space".

One of the technologies I do like a lot for language learning is blogging, particularly if what you've got is a collaborative, team blog, to which all your learners contribute.

Then you're talking our space, not my space...

Our amazing houses project

Carla's spaceship house (not shown, the accompanying description)

The kids (8-10 year olds) with one of my colleagues here at IH Barcelona, Oliver Harris, have produced some absolutely fabulous houses.

The idea came from the Macmillan Heinemann coursebook Little Detectives Oliver is using, where there is an example. The kids then came up with a Sun Flower House, an Umbrella House, a Dustbin House, a Cloud House, and Shell House, and many others.

"Last year they came up with even more amazing things," Oliver says. "My favourite was a Rolling House, which was inside a football! Kids have just got so much imagination -- and the detail is just so incredible."

A blog project?
We're currently displaying the project on a noticeboard in the corridor. Had Oliver ever thought of incorporating technology into the project somehow, say, publishing the work on a class blog?

"I'm a bit of a technophobe," Oliver confesses, "but yes, I'm sure they'd love it."

The work they've done really is something to be proud of. There are two good reasons why you might want to use technology there: (a) because they'd love it, as Oliver says, and (b) a blog would be something to be even more proud of: "We made that!"

Young Learners session, May 25

Teaching young learners with technology... Does your classroom look like that?!

Hi and welcome, if you came to today's session!

One point from the session, something I don't think I mentioned, but should have done... I think Peter brought the subject up but we didn't then return to it. If you are going to blog or podcast with young learners, you definitely must get signed written permission from the parents. You'd also want to obtain permission (first) from your headmaster/mistress or Director of Studies.

More on privacy here on this blog...

There will be a couple of other things relating to the session that I will add in the next day or so.

Can you post pictures of young learners?

500+ crayon points... that's quite a collection!

The subject came up at our young learners' seminar today... Can you post pictures of your young learners on the Internet, for example on a blog?

I'd personally say, no, and definitely not without your school's and the kids' parents' permission -- signed, and in writing.

Even then, I think it's vital to protect your kids' privacy.

In the seminar, one of the things I suggested you could have kids blog about would be the things they collect. I showed you the example of my daughter's collection of pencil points, shown above. I've partly got round the privacy issue by not posting a picture of her face... and it still makes an interesting photo.

But even then, I'd still get written permission to publish it on the Web.

Resources for teaching children

The excellent TeachingEnglish.org.uk has a small collection of resources for teaching children, including articles on using stories (the latest addition), songs and flashcards.

It also points you to another British Council's website, LearnEnglishKids, which has lots more resources.

See also

• Where to begin with Young Learners
  
• Other sites for teaching young learners.

Making animations with young(-ish) learners

Here are two sites which enable your learners to make fun animations.

Dfilm MovieMaker allows you to select your character (eight can be seen, left above), add what they're saying, etc, etc.

Dfilm.com
Using Dfilm's MovieMaker you pick from a choice of preset backgrounds, skyscapes, scenarios (rendez-vous, chase...) and characters, write their lines, add music and -- in a series of straight-forward clicks, create your animation.

Once you've finished, you can send it to a friend -- or yourself -- which will then give you the URL (address), so that you can see it again.

ZimmerTwins (above) gives you just three characters to play with but some crazy additional features...

ZimmerTwins.com
At ZimmerTwins you can create similar animations, though you've only (currrently) got three characters to play with. You can save your movies, watch other people's and comment on them, among other features.

Like Dfilm, it's very intuitive to work with -- and kids will love exploring what you can do with it. The "How to make a movie" section explains all, if you are in any doubt (and makes good listening comprehension practice too!)

Note that you have to register (and provide an email address). You could get round your students doing that by registering yourself, and having them use your username.

Which is better?
Of the two, besides not requiring registration, Dfilm also has the advantage that your learners can input more text (important if you want them to be able to write some English).

On the other hand, ZimmerTwins seems to offer more "fun" features. If you've got really young learners, who don't know much English, it might be a better choice.

What would you do with these sites?
Make animations, of course... But what you really want is for your learners to get some language learning and practice out of it -- and it's all too easy for the class to go silent (or real noisy!) while they fiddle with the animations but learn and practise zero English...

Providing them with a list of characters and features first and -- in pairs -- getting them to storyboard their animation first, before logging on, might be the best way to go about it.

When they do then get on-site, they will probably then have to discuss how they are going to adapt their storyboard to what the site can actually do -- but that can only be a good thing!

What's the point?
For your learners, it's a fun, motivating activity. For the teacher, it must produce that language learning and practice.

If it doesn't, should you be using this technology...?

Technical note
Note that you might need to upgrade your Flash Player (an easy download, provided you have "administrator permissions" on your PC/s, which you might not if you are in a school).

What can you do with a blog (4)?

Example 4 is not in fact a blog -- it's an idea for a blog.

Someone on our trainee support group, teaching "a group of Brazilian teenagers here in the U.S. on a sort of pseudo educational vacation", asked the following question:

"This group is driving me insane! I've never come across a group of less behaved, unmotivated and basically spoiled brats in my life. (... ) most of these kids come from very wealthy families (...) and are generally accustomed to having everything done for them (...) How do you teach someone who not only hasn't a desire to learn but seems to refuse to?!"

My suggestion was:

"Being a total geek, I think I'd go for a geeky technological answer. I'd put them into smallish groups (3s?) and say they have 48 hours to produce the first issue of an online paper (I'm assuming their pseudo educational vacation in NY includes decent Internet access). They'd have to decide on sections, content, headlines, images -- the lot. And then produce it as a blog. Then they've got to produce the next issue 48 hours after that."

Questions as before: would you want to do such a project with your learners, why (not)? And would it work in this particular case, do you think?