YES!! Gangnam Style for English classes!!!

The video to the global smash hit song Gangnam Style has become the most-watched clip in YouTube's history. It has had almost 825 million views in the past five months and is moving quickly towards one billion. The video currently has 5,473,726 likes and 338,504 dislikes.

Teenagers seem to like the hit a lot but how can we handle using it for ESL lessons if the song is in Korean? Well, there is this great site http://www.breakingnewsenglish.com that brings lesson plans on every type of news. I just loved it!! The link to Gangnam Style activities is http://www.breakingnewsenglish.com/1211/121127-gangnam_style.html. Very resouceful site for ESL teachers!

Challenge your students with dartboard games!

Darts is a form of throwing game in which darts are thrown at a circular target (dartboard) fixed to a wall. Though various boards and rules have been used, the term "darts" usually now refers to a standardized game involving a specific board design and set of rules. So why not taking advantage of this well-known game and challenge your students in your ESL classes? I describe below two games I have already tried and they proved to work very well!

Suggestion 1) One game you could do is to draw a dart board on the board and fill the spaces with some of the  alphabet letters. Then, have students throw a paper ball at the board and whatever letter it touches, they must make a word beginning with that letter. How many letters that word has are points; e.g. apple would be 5 points, alphabet would be 8 points and so on.

Suggestion 2) Play and enjoy this simple Question and Answer revision game with your students. It works well with students of all ages and levels. To play this game, draw a target on the board with points on it, much like a dartboard.For darts, you can use  a small soft ball,paper ball or paper airplanes. Divide the class into two teams. Ask a revision question to the class. The first student to answer correctly can throw a dart at the target. Wherever the dart hits correlates with the amount of points won for that team. Another suggestion is to have a student come up from each team and throw a dart. The highest score would then get to answer a revision question, and if they are correct they would keep the points they scored.

This is Halloween! Activities and ideas!

Are you looking for Halloween activities and ideas? Check these links out!

http://anaisacunha.blogspot.com.br/2011/10/witch-time-2-fun-halloween-games.html

http://anaisacunha.blogspot.com.br/2011/10/video-activity-setting-up-mood-for.html

http://anaisacunha.blogspot.com.br/2011/10/halloween-spooktacular-activities.html

http://anaisacunha.blogspot.com.br/2011/10/halloween-greatest-hits.html

Silent moments in ELT lessons can be golden!

One of the most usual issues in ELT is the amount of teacher talking time (TTT) vs. student talking time (STT). There are a number of strategies to be used in order to enhance students’ production but my point today is to explore why teachers fear so much silent moment in class. My assumption is that in many lessons situations, a high TTT ratio results from teachers’ anxiety and even fear of some seconds or minutes of sheer silent in class. Given that, as teachers we have to take into account that sometimes silence is the best approach. Have you ever seen a TV interview where the interviewer asks a question, lets the interviewee answer, and then says nothing? What happens? There's a pause, maybe even a pregnant pause - and then the interviewee just keeps on talking, very often revealing something s/he never intended to reveal. The thing is:  People just can't stand silence! But in a learning situation, silence can have another truly beneficial effect. They need silence sometimes, to catch up, to reflect, to rest, to process. Those ten seconds of silence, or thirty seconds or two minutes, may be far more valuable to them than yet more TTT! For this reason, I list below 6 tips, written by Thomas Topham for TEFL.net to give the right value for these silent moments:

1. Don’t Echo

Here is a common classroom script:

T: So, what are your ideas, where shall we go?
S1: Bolivia.
T: Bolivia, yes, great, we can go to Bolivia. Where else?
S2: The Marshall Islands.
T: Ooh, the Marshall Islands, yes, we’ll put the Marshall Islands on the list, ok…

Even though the lesson is to some extent interactive, the students have no reason to listen to one another – the teacher is repeating everything that needs to be heard. “But they might not hear each other!” Tell them to speak up. Or better yet, if a student can’t hear, she can ask the other student to speak up.

2. Wait

It takes time for learners to hear and process what you have said, and adding more teacher talk doesn’t help. Shutting up and waiting does.

“So where should we go? (1.5 second pause) Let’s make a list, we’ll write down our ideas here, what do you say guys? (1.5 second pause) How about Tierra del Fuego, is that a good place, should I write that? Yeah, OK…”

The only way for student voices to enter the classroom is by the teacher allowing the space. After you ask a question, wait. Wait a long time, if need be.

3. Don’t Answer Right Away

Chances are one of the students knows the answer, if the teacher

strives to shut up! Compare:

S1: Why is that?
T: Ah, yes, you see here we have the auxiliary, so blah blah blah…

S1: Why is that?T: Mmmm. (pauses, looks around the room, waits…)S2:

I think because, is question…

T: (pointedly shuts up, open body language, waiting…)

S3: Yes, “Do” because it is question, same like in yesterday lesson…

Here not only do we have students speaking and the teacher shutting up, but as an added bonus the students are doing the thinking, and are showing evidence of their learning! Big Win!

4. Groupwork Is Better, Always

Because when the students are working together in groups it is impossible for you to speak. Well, not impossible – resist the urge to interrupt the groupwork for “just a second” to “just explain this one more thing”…

5. Ask Open-Ended Questions

They require more from the students, and therefore require less talk

from you. Compare:

T: Is it a boy, or a girl?
Ss: Girl.
T: Yes, a girl. And what do you think, is she happy?
Ss: Yes.
T: Ooh, yes, she is. Maybe she got a good mark on her test, do you think so?
Ss: Yes.

T: Look. What’s this? (shut up. wait)
S1: A girl.
T: (continuing to shut up)
S2: She is schoolgirl.
S3: She is going to school, she has book bag.
S4: No, she is going home, she is happy. (laughter)

6. Make Use Of Your Written Materials

If the instructions are already there in the coursebook, why are you spending valuable class time blathering on about how to do a gap fill?

Blindfold activities!!! Super cool!

Blindfold activities impel students into working together more closely, promoting interaction and trust building among the students. For the sake of ELT teaching, this type of activity can be great warm-ups or wrap-ups and come very handy when we have to teach how to give directions. Below, I selected a number of activities for you to have a try.

Blindfolds Robot Wars Procedures: Players work in pairs, a controller who is sighted and a robot who is blindfolded. The robot is in the marked zone and scores points by picking up paper balls and then throwing them at the other robots in the zone. The controller is outside the zone and directing their robot verbally as to where to find the paper balls and then which direction to throw them in. 3 minutes per round works well.

Blindfolds route re-trace Procedures: Place a marker on a large grassed area. Stand a player at the marker wearing a blindfolds. Then give them walking instructions along the lines of 2 steps forward, 5 right etc. When they get to the end of the trail give them the reverse instructions. The goal is that they should finish as close to the start point as they can. Work in pairs, one wearing blindfolds and the other sighted to give instructions and check for safety.

Blindfolds line up (by Height order) Blindfold everyone in the group then ask them to line up in height order; (by birthday order) Blindfold everyone, then same as above but in birthday order; (by alphabetic order) Blindfold everyone, then same as above but in order of first name. Afterwards it could be by surname; (by shoe size) Blindfold everyone, then same as above but in order of shoe size.

Minefield Procedures: Lay a large number of soft objects to be avoided on a grassed area. Amongst them place some soft objects to be retrieved. Then in each pair one person is blindfolded and must be guided by the other to retrieve the targets without touching any of the mines.

Peg the Partners Procedures: Students partner up. One person gets blindfolded and is given a softball. The other player in the pair leads her around by the arm and gives her instructions on how to throw the ball to hit another blindfolded person. The blindfolded player who receives a hit picks up the ball and throws it at another person with a blindfold on and so on. The seeing partner can guide his teammate with his voice about how to defend herself. If a team is hit twice, that pair is out of the game. The last team standing wins.

 

Tips and Techniques to get instructions across in your classroom

Teachers use activities in the classroom which can be fairly complex in terms of the way they’re organised, and sometimes, even experienced teachers will claim they got a class totally confused by the way they’ve given instructions. Here are some reflection upon how to give instructions successfully:

1)    How can you make sure that your instructions are as clear and comprehensible as possible? Plan how you’re going to give the instructions before you go into the classroom, and make sure that you can explain them within the limits of the language which the students can understand. Think too about the speed of your speech - slow down slightly if necessary. Don’t start the explanation until you have the students full attention and make sure they have stopped whatever they are doing, are turned towards you and are listening.

2)    How can you make it in a more student-centered manner? There are some techniques that come very handy specially for more complex activities. The idea is simple: the teacher gives the instructions and after the teacher presents on the board the same instructions but without key words students are supposed to complete. Another idea is to put under some of the students’ desks key sentences about the activity and as soon you have finished, you ask them to put the sentences in order according to the instruction you have given. And the last but not the least! My favorite one: take a whistle or any other noisy object to class and every time you make that noise, students will have to repeat the last sentence you said. Of course you are going to choose key sentences and you will see that giving instructions can be a really lively and fun moment in you lesson with lots of students participation.

3)    How can you reduce your teacher talking time (TTT)? The answer to this question overlaps the other. By using some of those techniques you will certainly reduce your TTT. However, it goes without saying you should always check that students have understood your instructions before starting the activity. The question Do you understand? is as good as useless. Students may be too shy to admit that they don’t understand, or may think they understand when they actually don’t . Also you may take the risk to keep on repeating over and over the instructions. Some suggestions: ask them check questions, ask them to repeat back the instruction and role-playing.

Slang time!

 SQUEALER

 

DEFINITION:  To turn informer; betray an accomplice or secret.

USE: Don'y tell Debbie any secret: she is a squealer.

IN PORTUGUESE: dedo duro, X9

 

source: thefreedictionary.com