Wednesday 29 August 2007

PHRASAL VERBS

There are at least 7 other phrasal verbs in the text. Can you find them?

to make out
to make off with
to drop off
to set off
to get out of
to get into
to get ready
to be up to
to take off
to grow up
to make up
to set off
to turn down
to get into
to bring up
to break out

PHRASAL VERBS

Read the text below and underline the phrasal verbs:
ADVENTURES GROWING UP
"I was brought up in a small town in the countryside. Growing up in the countryside offered lots of advantages for young people. The only problem was that we often got into trouble as we made up stories that we acted out around town. I can remember one adventure in particular:
One day as we were coming back from school, we came up with the brilliant idea to make out that we were pirates looking for treasure. My best friend Tom said that he made out an enemy ship in the distance. We all ran for cover and picked up a number of rocks to use for ammunition against the ship as we got ready to put together our plan of action. We were ready to set off on our attack, we slowly went along the path until we were face to face with our enemy - the postman's truck! The postman was dropping off a package at Mrs. Brown's house, so we got into his truck. At that point, we really didn't have any idea about what we were going to do next. The radio was playing so we turned down the volume to discuss what we would do next. Jack was all for switching on the motor and getting away with the stolen mail! Of course, we were just children, but the idea of actually making off with a truck was too much for us to believe. We all broke out in nervous laughter at the thought of us driving down the road in this stolen Postal Truck. Luckily for us, the postman came running towards us shouting, "What are you kids up to?!". Of course, we all got out of that truck as quickly as we could and took off down the road."

PHRASAL VERBS

Introducing phrasal verbs is a constant challenge, because they are just rather difficult to learn. A dictionary can help, but students really need to read and hear phrasal verbs in context for them to be able to truly understand the correct usage.
My suggestion is to begin with a reading comprehension of some interesting student stories for discussion peppered with phrasal verbs. The second part is to propose a brainstorming for students to create a list of phrasal verbs to share with one another.

Thursday 23 August 2007

QUESTIONS

I believe you are in panic when you have to deal with some questions in classroom.
Well, I have experienced an activity that the students enjoy very much. It requires a lot of attention and concentration because the student has always to answer his friend question, I mean the question before.
Ex: start with the teacher...so the first question the class ask to the teacher.
1- What is you name?
Mary.
the second question is for the student;
2-Where do you live?
Peter.
3- When do you come to the school?
I live in Arbroath
4-Do you work?
I come to the school twice a week
5-What is your hobby?
No, I don't work
If the student forgot the question, or misunderstood the question, keep it and repeat is later.
Don't make it to long. It is an activity to have fun, to stimulate concentration and to bring motivation and self confidence.
Enjoy the activity and have fun

Monday 20 August 2007

A TEXT IN PIECES

Have you thought about a group with discipline problems? I believe everybody has already had at least one experience in the career. I don't mean the students are bad, but they are talkative and so noisy that is extremely impossible to keep a good development of the planning activities.

I would like to share a planning class to keep them busy, and they also can talk with a partner, but of course, it is all about the subject you intend to work with.

Find a very interesting text, suitable for the group;

make copies enough for the group to work in pairs;

cut the text in some pieces; ex: 6 pieces;

make sure you have a complete mixing piece text for each pair;

they are supposed to read it and order the pieces to get a fully understanding of the text;

prepare some questions to be discussed in pairs and later without the text they can report to the class in a sharing bases.

It is funny, you are going to keep them busy, and they can still talk to their partner and to the class.

Try it and let me know the results. Good luck!

Saturday 18 August 2007

ENGLISH LITERATURE ACTIVITY

A very good activity in English Literature class.

When studying Shakespeare (ex.), choose some of his plays and give to the students a choice to work in group and perform it freely. The groups shouldn't be more than 5 members.

Each group is supposed to introduce the author, the play, time, space, characters, and perform it in about 45 min.

Enjoy it. You are going to be surprised with your students creativity.

Learning Process

I HEAR AND I FORGET, I SEE AND I REMEMBER, I DO AND I UNDERSTAND
Confucius.
In spite of Confucius quote, I would consider all of them very important in the learning-teaching process. Every person has his/her one way to learn, and it has to be understood and respected.
A very good activity can be applied in your classroom to identify the main learning skill in your students.
Ask to your students to write a password, choosing 4 numbers from 1 to 9 and 2 symbol from * ? ! +
Example 4?2!87
Each student is supposed to write his own code in a paper without showing it to the class. The teacher can also participate if necessary. The students are going to work in pairs.
Here is the test:
1) Visual
In pairs they are going to show to each other their code. Count in your memory until 10. This is the time they have to look at the code. Say STOP. They are supposed to write what they saw.
Choose another code. Example ?!9413
2)Listening
They are going to say their code 3 times in their partner ear. Don't break the speech. Take a breath between the repetition. They are supposed to write what they heard.
Change the code again. Example 69+5?!
3)Kinesthetic
Draw in their partner back the code. Repeat 3 times. Then write the code.
Check the codes written with the original ones.
Now you and your students have an idea of their cognition to acquire any information. Use it to help your students in the process of learning
"Curriculum and instruction can be developed to help all students make progress in enhancing their talents in each of these eight areas of intelligence"

Friday 17 August 2007

CHOOSE YOUR CAREER

Have you ever thought to prepare your students for a career? Think about it.

Prepare some job descriptions and let the students choose one;

Ask them to prepare a list with their skills;

Research the skills for that specific job requirement;

Does your student still want that career? If not, open a discussion in classroom to find the best option;

It is a beautiful opportunity to know different professions, cultures and develop a positive interaction in classroom.

TRY IT, FIND PICTURES, SEARCH ON INTERNET, LOOK AT STATISTIC, KNOW THE MARKET IN YOUR AREA, COUNTRY AND ABROAD.

Wednesday 15 August 2007

INTERPRETATION

How about to take the 60 Second challenge! Creating your own interpretation of a famous writer in one minute - make a film or audio, take a scene or whole play, keep it classic or make it modern, it's up to you.


Any idea?


How about Shakespeare?

Tuesday 14 August 2007

If you want to teach the days of the week...try this song...

FRIDAY I'M IN LOVE (CURE)

Fill in the blanks with the days of the week.

I don't care if ........................'s blue
Tuesday's grey and ..................... too
.........................I don't care about you
It's .......................I'm in love
..........................you can fall apart
......................, .......................... break my heart
............................ doesn't even start
It's .......................... I'm in love

..............................wait
And ..........................always comes too late
But .............................. never hesitate...

I don't care if ..........................'s black
............................ , ....................... heart attack
........................... never looking back
It's .......................... I'm in love

.......................... you can hold your head
Tuesday ........................ stay in bed
Or ......................... watch the walls instead

It's ......................... I'm in love
........................... wait
And ....................... always comes too late
But .........................never hesitate...
(Dressed up to the eyes
It's a wonderful surprise
To see your shoes and your spirits rise
Throwing out your frown
And just smiling at the sound
And as sleek as a shriek
Spinning round and round
Always take a big bite
It's such a gorgeous sight
To see you eat in the middle of the night
You can never get enough
Enough of this stuff
It's ...........................)
I'm in love

Thursday 9 August 2007

HAVE FUN

I believe everybody has a good story to tell about teaching. Take a look at this one...
School Kids

"If I sold my house and my car, had a big garage sale, and gave all my money to the church, would that get me into heaven?" I asked the children in my Sunday school class.

"NO!" the children all answered.

"If I cleaned the church every day, mowed the yard, and kept everything neat and tidy, would that get me into heaven?"

Again the answer was,"NO!"

"Well, then, if I was kind to animals and gave candy to all the children and loved my wife, would that get me into heaven?" I asked them again.

Once more they all answered, "NO!"

"Well," I continued, thinking they were a good bit more theologically sophisticated than I had given them credit for, "Then how can I get into heaven?"

A five-year-old boy shouted out, "YOU GOT TO BE DEAD!"

Wednesday 8 August 2007

STAFFROOM

The TES Staffroom is where the teaching community goes to let off steam, swap ideas and get advice from TES Experts. The topics discussed range from practical classroom ideas to celebrity gossip.

Friday 3 August 2007

HOW TO KEEP INTERACTION IN CLASSROOM

It is a good idea to bring to the classroom lots of oral activities, so that the students can work in pair, group or individual.

For individual work, give them something purely subjective to speak about 2 minutes, for instance, sharing personal hobbies and interests, aspirations and dreams, opinion on a particular political, economic, social, educational, moral subject or issue, or, anything relating to hypothetical situations using "Conditional Sentences - IF."

For pair activities, they can practise role-play, or activities that could include group discussions on current affairs, general topics, debates, picture description, reading comprehension tasks, games like spotting the differences between two similar pictures, quiz, dumb charades, twenty questions, and so on. Bring local newspaper to the classroom, and you also can let them choose the news that was the most interesting. They are supposed to support their opinions, and for sure they are going to express themselves with sincerity.

Help them giving language hints, structures and lexis on board or in hand outs.

Don't forget. Teacher talk should ideally be kept to the minimum, and, you must encourage them to talk in the target language as much as possible with your gentle guidance and help.

In a typical Communicative English class,especially for the age-group you're going to cater to, the teacher should act more like the facilitator, friend, and, moderator rather than the traditional authoritative figure that he/ she usually represents.

Books might help, I personally consider them a guider line, you don't get lost. Use audio material for listening and it is always a good source to help a second language acquisition, as well for group discussion.

Don't focus too much on accuracy. The thrust should be more on appropriate of structure,form and function, and, overall communicative competence or fluency. And, of course, give them topics that they would be interested in and feel comfortable with.

Thursday 2 August 2007

IDIOMATIC EXPRESSIONS

As a foreigner, if you want to speak more naturally and understand better the meaning of a native English life, it will be a great help if you you learn some idiomatic expressions.
It is not common for writing, but it is quite often used in everyday conversation for native speakers.
You can also compare the idioms in English with the ones in other languages. You can have great fun.It is a nice idea to take to your class a local newspaper and organise some small groups to find the idioms. You can easily find them on the letters to the editor, or if you wish to plan something different, the book Essential Idioms in English by Robert J. Dixon, can help you.
Ex:
He plays the cards very close to his chest.
That car cost me an arm and a leg.

Wednesday 1 August 2007

ENGLISH IDIOMS

If you know any IDIOMATIC EXPRESSIONS in English, please let me know...

AN APPLE A DAY KEEPS THE DOCTOR AWAY.

A SCRIPUTURE A DAY KEEPS THE DEVIL AWAY.