TESL - Teaching and Tips

Strangers on a Train

2009-08-02T06:18:00.000-07:00

This is an excellent activity to promote oral fluency practice and specific language practice at the same time.

Get the students to imagine they are strangers in a train compartment - get them sitting opposite each other in groups of four. Elicit what people usually talk about on the train - the weather, where they are going/coming from etc. Tell them you are going to give them a line to memorize and that it's a secret - give them out and have students memorize their line.

Then explain what they have to do - to say their lines as naturally as they can in the conversation without the others guessing it is their line. So they have to direct the conversation so that they can say their line naturally, without the others noticing. They must have one conversation and not split into two as the others will miss their lines when they come to say them.

The lines you give them could contain a language item that you have recently been looking at or off-the-wall sentences (e.g. My girlfriend sleeps in the garden). At the end the students then tell each other what they thought were each others' lines.

Warm Up Activity - Smarties

2009-02-05T09:39:00.001-08:00

My friend Marg provided this warm up activity:

Each student takes a Smartie from the box. Each student must talk for one minute about the category/colour that they choose.

Here are some ideas for categories:

pink - family green - work yellow - city

red - hobbies brown - pets/animals blue - music

purple - movies orange - favorite food

WARM UP ACTIVITY - MOVIE OF YOUR LIFE

2008-11-23T14:55:00.001-08:00

This is a fun warm-up activity that may require a few extra minutes for thinking.

In this activity, students are to answer the following questions:

1. If a movie was being made of your life, what kind of movie would it be? (comedy, romance, suspense, mystery...)

2. What would the title of your movie be?

3. What famous movie star would play you in your movie?

Warm Up Activity - Mystery Words

2008-11-03T04:55:00.000-08:00

I like warm up activities that do not require a lot of preparation and this activity falls into that category. Remember that even the most fun activity can become boring very quickly so use a lot of different warm up activities in your class!

INSTRUCTIONS: Write a word on the board. (You could use a word that relates to your theme or topic however try to choose a word that has several letters.)

N O V E M B E R

Students have to find as many new words as they can by using the letters from the word "November". Letters can only be used once.

e.g. beer, ember, no, mob, rove

Warm -Up Activity - I'm going camping...

2008-10-26T13:12:00.000-07:00

This is a fun activity but you have to make sure that everyone knows one another's name (including the teacher!).

Start off by telling students that you have organized a camping trip for the weekend. However they can only come if they choose the "right" item to bring. (The item needs to start with the same letter as their first name). For example, Anita says "I am bringing marshmallows". She won't be able to come. If Andrew says that he is bringing apples, then he will be able to go camping.

Students need to listen carefully and eventually they will figure out the trick!

Thanks to Joanne from the TESL class for this great warm-up activity.

Brain Works Quiz

2008-09-19T11:41:00.000-07:00

If you want to try an interesting quiz with your students (or you can try it yourself) go to www.planetpsych.com/zinteractive/brain.htm

Students can get their learning style results quickly (the results can be printed off) and used for discussion purposes or get students to think about how they may learn best based on their learning styles.

Warm -Up Activity - Jumbled Sentences

2008-08-24T13:11:00.000-07:00

This warm up activity was presented by Annabel - a student in the TESL Diploma Program. Thanks Annabel!

Instructions: Choose a sentence at the appropriate level for your students. You may wish to choose a sentence which relates to a topic you covered the previous day.

1. Students can work individually or in pairs.

2. Give an appropriate time limit (a minute or two should be enough time).

3. The sentence can be orally presented or you can write the sentence (jumbled) on
the board. Ask students to copy it down before they start to unscramble it.

4. The task is to make one sentence (grammatically correct) using all the words
given.

e.g. great sentence A is warm-up jumbled a activity

ANSWER: A jumbled sentence is a great warm up activity.

Earth Day 2008

2008-07-03T12:49:00.001-07:00

For Earth Day, students participated in an activity using a Centres approach. Each centre focussed on one of the multiple intelligences. Here is Dan displaying her Earth Day poster. Email me for more information on using the Centres approach and multiple intelligences.

Warm - Up Activity - Crosswords

2008-03-19T13:20:00.001-07:00

CROSSWORD GAME

You can use this activity to introduce a theme/topic; to check how much vocabulary students know related to the theme/topic or as a vocabulary review.

Start off with a large piece of paper for each group of students or a pre-printed grid.
Give students the name of the topic/theme. Write it on the board and check their understanding. The teacher should model at least one example before students begin. The aim of this activity is for students must make up their own crosswords using words related to the topic. For example, you could give students the word “business”. This word is written across the page. Students must think of as many words as possible that relate to the topic writing the words down like a crossword puzzle.

Teacher Buddy Program - Brazil

2008-03-15T05:59:00.000-07:00

I recently became a Teacher Buddy with Corina, an English teacher from Brazil. The Teacher Buddy Program works as a pen-pal program where Canadian teachers exchange letters or e-mails with English teachers living in Brazil. The main goal of the Teacher Buddy Program is to put together teachers with different teaching backgrounds to exchange teaching experiences and provide an environment for cultural enrichment. We have exchanged emails and shared some of our experiences.

The Teacher Buddy Program is part of the Brazil/Canada Project for Professional Development that is a volunteer-based Educational Project. The aim of the project is to facilitate the exchange of teaching experiences between Canadian teachers and Brazilian teachers who work for the public school system in one of the poorest regions in Brazil.

The public schools do not bring the quality of teaching which should be expected to a student to succeed academically. The lack of efficient academic training for the teachers and self-motivation creates the "culture" that students from public schools are expected to be "losers". Over 80% of the students in Piaui State attend public schools but less than 5% obtain a university degree. The Project is based on the belief that by empowering the teachers, the students who go to public schools will have a greater chance to obtain more education.

Here are some suggested themes for email or letters:

· Why be a teacher?

· Cultural differences

· Importance of education

· Classroom challenges

· Personal experiences dealing with problems

· Goals as a Teacher

· Exchange teaching materials such as classroom pictures or cultural artifacts

The time commitment is approximately 2 to 3 hours per month. To participate contact Daniela Nascimento, Project Director at daniela@newclassroom.org or visit their webpage at www.newclassroom.org

Warm-Up Activity - Creative Thinking

2008-03-12T11:24:00.000-07:00

I have presented several workshops on using Warm-up Activities in the ESL Classroom. Here is one of my favorite activities. Email me for the complete workshop package.

CREATIVE THINKING

Materials: any common objects

1. Have students work in small groups. Students are to brainstorm as many different uses for different objects. (e.g. paper clip, spoon, pin, hair clip, brick)

2. Give students 3-4 minutes to come up with ideas. Remember the trick is to think of uses for the object other than what the object is intended for.

3. Ask the group with the highest number of items to read off their ideas. You can ask other groups to add anything missing from the original list.

4. Give a prize to the group that comes up with the most answers.

Teaching Tip - Vocabulary

2008-03-11T06:15:00.000-07:00

Here is a tip when choosing texts for teaching listening and speaking.

ELT author, researcher and lecturer Scott Thornbury said, "... count one hundred words of a (reading) passage. If more than ten of the words are unknown, the text has less than a 90% vocabulary recognition rate. It is therefore, unreadable." (S. Thornbury, 2004). The same then is likely true for a listening passage.

Students in Hong Kong

2008-03-10T19:00:00.001-07:00

I returned to Canada from Hong Kong almost 8 months ago but I still get emails from students.