In praise of teenagers

Two weeks ago in Johannesburg, educators celebrate teen learners through some creative writing.

Here are some of their fabulous products:

 

Resourcefulness in a resource-poor environment

I am just back from Namibia and have been reminded that so many schools around the world cannot afford lots of beautiful resources and materials for the students. BUT we don't need them. It is great when we have them, but making do with what we can find may be even better for our students. Encouraging children to make their own masks and big books is far more creative, hands-on and fun than just giving them ready-made materials.

Making puppets is such fun. Here are some made by the teachers in a very short amount of time.

They can be made by students and used for speaking practise. It doesn't make much sense for young children at primary level to use English amongst themselves BUT getting their puppets to interact in English is a game - of course the puppets can talk English and have their own personalities. The puppets can be used again and again as students build up the English they can say, this can be incorporated into new dialogues.

Big books are very expensive to buy but as we discovered in Okahandja,

Namibia, they can be made very quickly with just a few bits and bobs and a lot of imagination.
For developing literacy and a love of books and story, I can think of little better than these colourful fun books.

The teachers created them in about 30 minutes.

Initially children could just make them using pictures and the teachers can add text, later the children can add their own text.

This poster made by the teachers in the Eagles team sums up the value of using recyclable and readily available materials brilliantly.

Get the children and parents as well as other teachers to start collecting right now:
toilet roll tubes, scrap paper, old newspapers & magazines, plastic bottles and bottle tops, used-up markers and pens, buttons, wool, scarps of fabric, sweet wrappers, food packaging, seed pods, leaves, small pebbles - anything that you can find - and let the children's imaginations run wild!!

Happy New Year

Happy New Year to you all!!

Huge apologies for all the delays in my posting stuff.

What can I say? I had to buy a new laptop and it's got a mind of its own and refuses to do things - it must be male !! I wish Santa had brought me a tech assistant.

I hope to be putting up a new year post with teaching ideas by the end of next week. 

Soap Opera Collaborative Reading Task

I have finally got my new lap top and scanner and can post this task, which I promised to teachers in Japan and I hope you'll all be able to use with your teen classes. It's suitable for Intermediate Plus levels.

And just in case you still haven't written your wish list and sent it to Santa, this is where this activity comes from!

 

 

 

As promised - part 1 - web sies

When in Japan I did say that I would post some useful websites - here they are. There are so very many more out there.

Websites and other online resources

Worksheet making tools

http://www.discoveryeducation.com/free-puzzlemaker/?CFID=10339146&CFTOKEN=23348529

http://quizlet.com/

http://www.triptico.co.uk/ (use with IWB for classroom activities)

Comic/movie making

http://www.pimpampum.net/bubblr/

http://www.pimpampum.net/bookr/

Windows Live MovieMaker (part of the Office package)

http://www.dvolver.com/moviemaker/make.html Make fun animations with dialogues in seconds and then send them or embed them.

Discussion/voting/brainstorming websites

https://tricider.com/en/t/?wicket:pageMapName=wicket-6

http://www.voxopop.com/

Video on how to use this: http://www.teachertrainingvideos.com/voxopop/index.html

http://en.linoit.com/

Listening

http://www.elllo.org/

as well as the BBC sites, TV streaming sites, etc.

Recording/podcasting (many of these could also be used for listening practice)

http://my.brainshark.com/Home.aspx  Add audio to presentations

Video on how to use this: http://www.teachertrainingvideos.com/brain/index.html

http://mailvu.com/ MailVu allows you to send Webcam messages and can be used for lots of different things. It works with just 2 button clicks and one more to send the videos.

video on how to use this: http://www.teachertrainingvideos.com/mailVu/index.html

http://vocaroo.com/

Video on how to use this: http://www.teachertrainingvideos.com/vocaroo1/index.html

http://audioboo.fm/ Easy to use podcasting

http://www.podomatic.com/login Easy to use podcasting

http://vyou.com/ Students can create profiles and then other students can email them questions. The first student then creates  video answers to the questions so lots of speaking, reading and writing taking place.. You can listen to questions and answers on other profiles and even look up experts.

http://anmish.com/ Choose a famous person, imagine what you think he/she might say and then do the voice recording. Great way of getting students speaking and lots of fun. Takes about 2 mins to do

Music (other than YouTube…)

http://www.lyricstraining.com/

Blogs: there are lots of ideas on how to use technology, and links to websites

http://www.freetech4teachers.com/

http://nikpeachey.blogspot.co.uk/

http://ozgekaraoglu.edublogs.org/

http://www.teachingvillage.org/

Teacher Training Videos – lots of these websites were introduced to me by Russell Stannard via his Teacher Training Videos: worth subscribing to if you don’t already

http://www.teachertrainingvideos.com/Ancona/index.html

16 online tools presented in a video, e.g. Wallwisher

So sorry

Apologies - in particular to teachers in Japan! I am having some technical problems and it may take a bit longer to post the reading game on the blog. I will try to get it up as soon as possible.

I had such a great time in Japan. Thanks you all for your great enthusiasm and hospitality. I must say it's taking time to get readjusted to being home in England.

More soon.........

Activities for First lessons with New Classes

My favourite First Day with a new class activities – 10 year olds and older, including adults

The first lesson with a new class can be very daunting for teacher and students alike. It’s important to establish the kind of class dynamic you want for the year through routines and interactions. Do you want an energetic, collaborative class with a lot of peer support and plenty of room for creativity and self-expression? Then start as you mean to go on. And remember to give very clear instructions, otherwise the tasks will fall apart and you won’t achieve any of your aims.

1.  Write 10 - 15 sentences about yourself on separate pieces of card or paper, making around half of them true and half false,

e.g.

I can swim, ride and bicycle and speak French.

I have two brothers who are both older than me.

(My students never guess that I really don’t own a TV, car nor an ipad.)

Grade the language so it will not be difficult for the class.

Organise the class into pairs of threes.

Pass the cards around the class asking them to read the sentence together and discussing it decide if they think it’s true or false.

Once students have read all the cards, as a class get them to vote on whether they are true or false and tell you why they have made their decisions.

Why?

·        establish a collaborative dynamic

·        focus on thinking rather than just knowing the right answer

·        students can learn a lot about you (they won’t necessarily ask)

·        students, read, listen and speak

·        the focus is on meaningful language

Extension task

For homework or in the lesson, students prepare similar sentences about themselves and then work in pairs or small groups in class challenging their classmates to guess which facts are true or false. This encourages them to write with a purpose.

2. Arrange the class into groups of 3 or 4. Hand out a large piece of paper and a marker per group.

Explain that you want each group to write 3 sentences about your past, 3 about your present and 3 about you future.

Students have to use their powers of observation, deduction and ESP (extra-sensory perception) to decide what they write.

Give a minimum amount of words for each sentence: the higher the level, the longer the sentences e.g. B1 level – 9 words, C1 level – 14 words.

There will be a scoring system at the end. If a sentence is true, they score one point; if it’s grammatically correct they score one point, too.

It’s great fun as students become quite resourceful and imaginative doing this.

Pin up the paper on the wall so everyone can see it and encourage the other groups to decide if sentences are true and/or correct. They’ll need to explain what is wrong with grammar or vocabulary if they say it’s incorrect.

Why?

·        Great diagnostic activity – you can see what grammar and vocabulary they are able to use and how accurately

·        Students have to pay attention and give feedback on each others’ work

·        Again this task encourages collaboration

·        Great ice-breaker

·        Despite seeming very game-like there is a big focus on accuracy as well as creativity

·        Getting to know the teacher is quite often forgotten in a first class as the focus is usually on students getting to know each other and students do (really) find us a bit of a mystery!

3. Prepare as many questions as there are students in the class

e.g. What’s your favourite colour?

If you were an animal, what animal would you be?

What do you think is the best place in this town/city?

Make your questions age and level appropriate. If necessary you could give one question per pair of students.

Explain that the students are going to get one question each and they have to ask everyone in the class their question and keep a record of the answers as they will give a report on what they discovered at the end of the activity e.g. they can talk about the most common or most unusual answers they got. (If the class is big, you could divide it into 2 or 3 subgroups).

Students get their questions, mill around asking their classmates and then give their reports, which do not have to be extensive.(they could even me written up and pinned up on the walls).

Why?

·        Students move around, so they feel comfortable

·        They talk to lots of their new classmates

·        Asking only one question is not too demanding

·        Great for mixed ability as answers can be as long, short, complex etc as the interviewee wants

Happy New School Year!!!