DUST

Welcome...

2012-02-10T12:56:00.000+01:00

This website was inspired by an ACEIA teaching conference in Sevilla where a lovely lady called Tessa Woodward talked about the stages of TEFL life in the opening plenary.

She called the first 3 years of teaching 'Survival and Discovery' which led to the making of this site...

I have Discovered and Uncovered, Survived and been Tested. (DUST)

I am into the second stage of my TEFL career now, 4 to 6 years, where the DUST I've created is slowly turning into STARS.

From the links to the right you can see some ways to stop that DUST settling in the TEFL classroom - that i have collected from webpages and conferences - and yourself become a TEFL STAR. I take no credit for any of them, dust wanted to share them.

Steve

Blog for students here

Talking about Photos

2012-02-07T14:05:00.015+01:00

This is a speaking activity aimed at encouraging discussion and is also good exam practice for B1 and B2.

I have been using images from The Guardian: 24 hours in Pictures and ask students to talk about them in groups or as a class in the following ways.

1) Ask for a description of the photo (what they can see, where things are)

2) If there are people / animals in the photo - how they are feeling and why? what are they thinking..?

3) Ask them if there are any similarities or differences in the photos with their lives.

3) Speculate as to what could be happening in the photo, where might it be etc.. (remind them they don't have to be right and that anything goes)

4) Make them predict what might happen next or in the near future, in the photo

5) criticize the photo. As simple as you like (e.g. i don't like the colour of the sky, it's too blue.)

6) If there are 2 or more people / things in the picture get the students to imagine they are them and improvise a role play for a minute.

7) When you've looked at a few or they're bored... get them to recount what they saw and talked about in order, from memory.

Recycling Narrative Tenses

2012-02-07T13:09:00.001+01:00

A story around the class (or in pairs) for narrative tenses...

Write 'Before that' / 'After that' / 'At the same time' on the board

Teacher or a student starts a story in the past. Around the class the story continues, students choosing to continue with 'Before that', 'after that', or 'at the same time' and making one sentence

If they choose 'before that' they make a past perfect simple / continuous sentence

If they choose 'after that' they make a past simple sentence

If they choose 'at the same time' they make a past continuous sentence.

Idea taken from HERE

Len's unplugged heroes

2012-02-01T13:17:00.002+01:00

An ongoing account of a teachers 'unplugged' teaching, right from the start
An experiment with Dogme

Dale Coulter's

Language Moments

Luke Medding's

The unplugged Index

Dead Famous

2012-01-31T20:13:00.000+01:00

One student thinks of a Famous person who is dead and the rest of the class ask questions about their life and guess who it is using questions in the PAST form. A classic example would be Michael Jackson and that could be modelled by the teacher. Typical questions might be... Did you live in America? Were you a singer? What was your favourite colour? and so on.

The Press Conference

2012-01-26T21:06:00.000+01:00

One student is giving a press conference while the others ask questions as reporters. The subject of the conference is either a known figure giving some sort of announcement (Retiring as manager of Barcelona / new face of Vogue magazine... anything goes really) or some sort of unusual achievement (e.g. the first female to sail around the world with a dolphin). The subject is not informed of their identity, but it is written on the board behind them and they must deduce it from the questions that the reporters ask.

Taken from 'Whose line is it anyway?'

Alphabet Dialogue

2012-01-17T14:54:00.004+01:00

The students (upper ints + probably) create a scene in which each line of dialogue begins with a certain letter of the alphabet. Traditionally, the game starts off with an “A” line.

e.g.

Are you listening to me?
Baby i'm always listening to you
Can you not call me baby!
Does it matter, I thought it was romantic...
E...

With a bit of practice it does become easier and is great for on the spot thinking.
Maybe you could mix up the letters / start elsewhere in the alphabet.

Yes and...

2012-01-16T14:30:00.005+01:00

Improvised Pairwork. Watch the video!

Idea found here

Zen with Len : Dust S.T.O.R.M

2012-01-16T14:07:00.005+01:00

Using Luke Medding's Videos and Dale Coulter's website Language moments I have put together my own simple process / template for doing an unplugged / materials light class and working with emerging language in the class. I have called it S.T.O.R.M because I like to give things names and that also works well with DUST. I think this is method is another useful and natural skill to add to your teaching repertoire.

S is for Simple Start

The Start can be as simple as listening to what students are talking about as they come in. Asking simple questions like 'what did you have for lunch? How are you feeling now?' or asking 'What's happened?' or 'What's new?'

T is for Tune in

Pick up on something that comes up and begin to expand on it. Noting down vocab, grammar, and any brainstorming on the board and letting the conversation flow.

O is for Open up

Extend the conversation with some activities based on the language that has come up.
For example: Conduct Interviews, Write Role Plays, Rank the top 5 / bottom 5 of what you are talking about and ask Opinions

R is for Recycle

Recycle it. There are a whole host of activities for recycling Vocab and Grammar that come up in class. Click on the link above to see some from my website.

M is for Memory

As well as memory style games in the link above the whole process is pointless if things are not recycled, Recalled, committed to memory so we can rise up a level.

Criticise me!

2012-01-16T01:23:00.002+01:00

Take an object

Even something as dull as a pen

Either around the class or in pairs the students have to criticise it.

I don't like the colour / It's too small / I can't write with it

Recycling the past

2011-11-29T12:55:00.003+01:00

Past Perfect

Write the following sentence on the board

'When Ben's parents came back from holiday...'

Then ask the students to talk together and come up with some ideas about what had happened in the house or with Ben when they were on holiday. This activity assumes they've learnt the grammar already.

Disappearing Sentence

2011-11-29T11:39:00.002+01:00

Write a long sentence or two on the board. This could come from the student book or an exam style book.

Ask a student to read it then ask them to nominate one word. Clean that word off the board. Ask them to nominate someone else in the class.
The next student must then read out the whole sentence including the missing word. Repeat as above until all the words have disappeared.

Extension

Ask students to write the sentence from memory and then rewrite it to have the same meaning as before but using as many different words and phrases as possible.

This activity was found on onestopenglish and was compiled by Alex Case. It was mainly targeted at an alternative way of introducing/doing FCE Use of English paper Part 2. As he also said it can work for any level.

Blankety Beep

2011-11-14T22:14:00.001+01:00

This timeless game that has been enjoyed right back to Shakespearean times is a great way to get students thinking about context and words used.

The teacher reads a sentence like - I am having a few BEEP problems since I lost my job. As you will know there are a few potential answers for this example but only one (the one you are thinking of) is correct.

I have found it a good way to revise the words that come up in FCE word formation and open-cloze activities by creating sentences around them but it works right down to the lower levels too. In some cases of course there is only one answer but I feel its a good way of cementing those words and chunks

Alternative games

In a Blankety Blank style way get one student (A) to secretly write down what they think is the answer and then get the class to follow suit. Those who match the word with (A) get the point or just general satisfaction.

In a Casino style format, students in pairs guess the BEEP word and bet money related to how correct they think they are.

I'm sure there are plenty more. Let me know if you have any.

Telling a Story

2011-11-14T22:06:00.001+01:00

These following questions - taken from the OUP new matrix series - offer students great scaffolding to tell/invent a story that happened to them. I gave an example first revealing one sentence at a time and then let them loose.

Where were you?
Who were you with?
What the weather and the place was like?
What you were doing?
What preparation you had made before?
What went wrong?
How you solved the problem?
How you felt at the end of the experience?

The Desert Island

2011-11-10T13:32:00.001+01:00

Imagine you wake up on a desert Island with no possessions and it seems you're going to be stuck there for a while. Talk with your partner / group and decide on 5 things you wish you had with you (5 each person or 5 as a group). As far as I'm concerned anything goes if they can justify it, even if it is a bit far fetched.

Five Things in common

2011-11-10T13:21:00.000+01:00

Students in pairs / groups simply chat and ask questions to find out what they have in common with each other. I usually set it up by asking a student if they have any brothers. If they say yes one brother, i say hey me too. That's something we have in common. Or the other way round.

7 to 1

2011-11-02T13:49:00.001+01:00

The students write a 7 line dialogue with the first line being 7 words and the last line being 1 word. This activity makes students think about grammatical structure and lexical chunks rather than just writing. It can also be very funny when they read them back.

E.g.

A: What did you do at the weekend? (7)
B: I went to a cool party (6)
A: That's funny, so did I (5)
B: Not my party though (4)
A: well yeah obviously (3)
B: See ya (2)
A: Later (1)

I expect there are some variations on this exercise. if you have any let me know.

Thanks to Phil Thompson speaking at 'Tefl del Sur, Cádiz' for the idea.

Zen with Len: What do we know?

2011-10-26T10:47:00.007+02:00

A wonderful quote from the blog of Anthony Gaughan...

…We have a firm opinion about our strengths and weaknesses, we believe we know enough to know our character, and recognise our limits. In this we know, strictly speaking, absolutely nothing.

What we “know” about ourselves, we have learnt through comparison. All the characteristics that we have attributed to ourselves, we have taken using another person as our standard. We only know how we are in comparison with other people. We compare ourselves with what we have learnt, with what others have taught us, with how we are to be like, with how success is to be achieved, with how one should become educated or how others imagine we are to be or to behave. Therefore even our behaviours are relative. They orient themselves on the standards that are essentially relativistic….

Believe me, the average person has not the faintest idea, not a clue, what they really are.

- Theo Fischer -

Visit his BLOG

(Daft) Biography

2011-10-23T12:51:00.005+02:00

Teacher introduces an object to the classroom. Maybe a vegetable. Students are asked to consider it's life up until now and write its biography. (I used a real Orange)

Teacher could offer support with useful verbs... be born / get married / be sold / move house / live / start school / work as / have children / enjoy / go out / travel...

As well as Biographies the same could be done for Obituaries. Once, a student killed a fly in my class. After a 30 second silence I asked them to write the obituary for the Fly stating what it enjoyed doing, where it had lived and what special things it had done to help other flies. 50 - 60 words.

Post inspired by #eltchat

Words of Wisdom

2011-10-16T11:40:00.001+02:00

"Teachers open the door. You enter by yourself." - Chinese Proverb

The Wand made of WOULD!

2011-10-09T13:34:00.003+02:00

You have just found a magic wand that amongst other wonderful things allows you to change three things in your school. You can change anything you want. How WOULD you change yourself, your school, your teachers, your classmates, exams and homework with the wand made of WOULD???

Have them discuss why it is important to make the change and then do something more interesting like who would you change into if you could be a famous person and why or what would you change about your life at home or your boyfriend etc... Any more..?

The Wand made of WOULD is a 'Tefldust inspired moment' (TIM) and has brought magic and fun to the classroom but the general idea was nicked from here. Enjoy.

How?

2011-09-26T23:28:00.002+02:00

Students give mini presentations on "how to do something".

e.g.

how to start a car
how to use a photocopier
how to make a cup of tea
how to make an omelette
how to change a tyre
how to change a baby's nappy
how to make a telephone call
how to play golf

They are asked to choose one (different one each) and are given 5/10 minutes to prepare for a small (detailed) presentation to the class. Teacher should demonstrate one first maybe.

Interview a Famous Person

2011-09-26T23:05:00.001+02:00

Imagine you are a famous person. Decide:

Your Job
Your Daily routine.
Your brilliant/terrible Social Life
What things are changing in our life
How you feel when someone recognises you
What are you doing this week / month
What you like / don't like.

After making notes, students interview each other and should attempt to be as inventive as possible.

Thinking / Talking Portraits

2011-06-26T13:23:00.004+02:00

Place Pictures of portraits on the board. (perhaps famous)
Activities:
1) Students imagine what the Portraits are thinking.
2) One student is the portrait and the other student(s) asks questions.
3) Invent a biography for the portrait
4) A Photo with 2 or more people could be played out as a Role Play.

I don't agree with you

2011-06-22T12:22:00.000+02:00

to give students practice in discussing topics in small groups.
(Good for the PET Exam Speaking part 2)

Compile a number of sentences like the following

Saturday is the best day of the week.
Football is the most popular sport in my country.
Reading books is boring.
Summer is the best time of year.
Emails are the best way of communicating.
Cats are better than Dogs.

These sentences can be displayed one by one on the IWB and discussed in pairs or groups for a minute or as a collection of cards faced down on the table that in turn the students pick up.

They should give their opinion and as a group agree or disagree and say why or why not.

Cambridge handout, 2011

taking things on holiday

2011-06-21T12:11:00.006+02:00

To give students practice in giving reasons and commenting on what their partner has said.
(Good for the Cambridge PET Exam part 2)

1. Tell students in groups to make a list of 10 things that people take on holiday with them.
2. Collect some of the ideas on the board.
3. Take the word 'suitcase'. Ask students to tell you one reason why people take suitcases on holiday.
4. Ask students to give you one reason why people might not take a suitcase on holiday.
5. Ask students to give other reasons for and against taking a suitcase on holiday.
6. Put students in small groups and thell them to choose 3 or 4 other objects on the board and discuss reasons both for and against taking them on holiday and to agree or disagree with the people in the group and say why or why not.

Variations:
Activities that a school could offer students after school
Ways of improving your language academy
Ways of spending a weekend
Different Ideas for a friends birthday present.

Cambridge handout 2011

Question Time

2011-06-19T13:23:00.008+02:00

Ask a student some questions.
Student could pretend to be someone else, a famous person for example, or someone in a photo. This slide on the board helps the others realise the types and number of different questions they could ask.

O's and X's

2011-06-19T13:23:00.006+02:00

With the grid on the board and filled with the relevant grammar, vocab.. as above... students in 2 teams play out a game of Os and Xs. In this example they must make 1st Conditional sentences to be able to play. The possibilites for its use are endless really and a great way to recycle stuff.

Around The Class

2011-06-19T13:21:00.003+02:00

Ways to spruce up boring moments in class, warm up a class or fill a deadly last few minutes by speaking around the class.

1) Students tell a story around the class saying one word each

2) Students tell a story around the class saying two words each (and so on..)

3) Students tell a story around the class saying one sentence each (that follows on from the last one)

any other ideas...?

Good websites for dusting...

2011-06-12T11:45:00.005+02:00

General Activities - Teaching activities from the British Council to try out in the classroom. For each one you will find a simple guide for preparation and procedure, and sometimes printable worksheets too.

Views From The Whiteboard - Classroom activities and thoughts from Andalucia.

Designer lessons - Student centered Activities

Language Moments - Reflections on language and teaching

In My Opinion

2011-05-31T12:38:00.002+02:00

This activity is used to get students giving opinions and agreeing, disagreeing and basically communicating with another person.

T or SS choose one word and write it on the board

e.g UP

T asks students to write an opinion using this word.
If they need it give them a starting point
I think that
I believe
In my opinion
The way I see it...

e.g. I think that people should pick UP their rubbish on the beach.

With a partner students then tell each other their written opinions, agree or disagree and find out why.

When finished repeat with another word.
If it needs to be easier choose a noun but i have had some interesting results from more random words like adverbs, prepositions with the more advanced classes.

describing and defining

2011-05-31T12:18:00.003+02:00

Being able to describe something you don't know the name for is a real life skill.
(Good for Cambridge PET Exam part 3)

Tell students to choose any object in the world (you might have to help with this) and tell them to complete the sentences below on paper alone / in pairs / in groups.

1. You find this...
2. It's like a...
3. It's used for...
4. It's made of
5. It's a thing people...
6. It looks like...

Different groups then say their sentences. The other students listen and have to decide what is being described.

Can you guess what this one is..

1. You find this on the streets.
2. It's like a motorbike.
3. It's used for travelling and doing exercise.
4. It's made of metal and rubber.
5. It's a thing people pedal.
6. It looks like a big pair of glasses.

Taken from Cambridge Speaking Skills for PET Exam but useful for all classes.

Match!

2011-04-06T09:37:00.008+02:00

Activity to talk about what things you need to do something.
E.g Things needed for hobbies / holidays etc.

The vocabulary below is put on the whiteboard.

In this example of the activity the words are all to do with Hobbies and what people need to do them.

The teacher calls out a hobby (e.g. Sport) and the students use the vocabulary above to say what they need and why they need it. (e.g. For Tennis you need a racket and balls and some friends to play with and you need a net in the middle of the court.)

In this example of the activity the hobbies were...
SPORT / COMPUTERS / ART / MUSIC / SLEEP / LANGUAGE

After this, they can talk about what they need for their hobbies interests or other activities.

Last Word New Sentence

2011-03-20T21:36:00.001+01:00

A bit of an extension on the last letter first letter game. With this longer version ss have to say a sentence and the last word of the sentence is the first word of the next sentence. Quite often it's a strange word to start a sentence but it challenges the student to be creative.

Have a look at the example below...

So one person says a few words

Words are what make sentences

sentences finish with a full stop

STOP! you've broken it!

it is time to go to bed

bed, lamp, wardrobe are things in my bedroom

and so on around the class or in pairs.

Pass the Thing

2011-03-20T21:32:00.000+01:00

Take an object

Even something as dull as a pen

Either around the class or in pairs the students have to say something different about the object (pen in this case) each time.

It's blue / It's made of plastic / It's not mine / It's cheap but very useful etc...

What's my Line?

2011-02-20T21:24:00.004+01:00

Inspired by the 2 Ronnies sketch where one keeps trying to finish the others sentences.

Find or write a small text and tell the story to the class stopping on purpose at certain points for them to guess what happens next in the story. Where there is ... at the end of a line the students speak / guess.

An example follows...

Mary was a very...

pretty girl, and her parents were...
rich. Quite a lot of the young men in the town wanted to...
marry her, but she didn't like any of them. One evening, one of the men...
came to visit her in her parents' house and asked her to be...
his wife. She answered...
"No, William, I won't marry you. I want to marry a man who is...
famous, who can play music, sing and dance very well, who can tell really interesting stories, who does not smoke or drink, who stays at home in the evenings, and who stops talking when I'm tired of listening." The young man got up, took his coat and went to the ...
door, but before he left the house, he turned and said to Mary...
" It isn't a man you're looking for. It's a...
Television Set".

(taken from Here)

Get them to retell the story after they have finished.

Pairwork Improvisation

2011-02-09T13:06:00.005+01:00

The objective here is total spontaneity and improvisation. Students have no time to prepare. Their roles and situations are given to them on the spot and they have to react immediately. They are a great warmer to the class. I do it for a minute and say they have to try and talk for the whole minute.

Examples...

A is on the phone to B. Arrange to meet somewhere.

A needs 2000 euros and has to persuade B

A is a child and doesn't want to go to school. B is the parent.

A is on the moon / mars / another planet. B asks questions

and so on...

Dust 2.0

2011-01-22T10:18:00.016+01:00

internet sites for IWB's / computer rooms

TOOLS

Stopwatch
Random Name Picker
Random Number Picker
Download Desktop Resources - Inspiring Imaginative Teachers

Cloze Test Generator - Does what is says
PHRASIN - Great Site to compare two sentences
Word Scrambler - Time saver for creating activities
Wondersay - Animate text with style

MUSIC

Lyrics Training is an easy and fun method to learn and improve your foreign languages skills like English through the music and lyrics of the songs.

VIDEO

Lesson Stream Lessons using Youtube / video by Jamie Keddie

IMAGES

Guess-the-Google is an addictive guessing game based on Google's image search.
24 HOURS in PICTURES - Striking images from around the world ready to be talked about
Flikr 5 Random Images - make / write a story
ELT PICS - Pictures for the classroom.

LISTENING

Listen a minute Listenings, handouts and quizzes.

MAKE YOUR OWN

Jeopardy Create your own content to use in class quickly and easily.

WRITING

Story Starters Cool starter machine that generates writing prompts.

Picture memory

2010-11-30T12:37:00.001+01:00

Watch the video

Students try and remember the drawings

They then write down what they remember in groups
and then they can simply report back or use a grammar structure

a man is walking in the mountains
a man was walking in the mountians
At the weekend a man went to the mountains

etc.

good to use their drawings.

I take photos of them, load them into picasa > make a slideshow with some music and upload to youtube.

The collaborative task (renting a movie)

2010-11-18T13:27:00.002+01:00

Expressing opinion and negotiating to reach a joint decision.

Students decide which movie to rent / go and see tomorrow night. (images need to be recent)
language - suggesting, agreeing and disagreeing.

Similar to the collaborative task in First certificate but better related to students lives.
Give them 3 minutes to discuss and come up with an answer.

From Steven McGuire, Aceia 2010

Other Slides I have used...
Who is the best Superhero?

Add caption

A long sentence

2010-11-18T13:01:00.002+01:00

1) Dictate a long sentence of about 20 words

e.g.
Last Saturday Paula and Javier spent a wonderful day in London where they went shopping for Clothes and Music. (or something related to your current topic in class)

2) Students write what they remember when you have finished.

3) After a minute dictate a second time. Students don't write until you've finished reading.

4) Students compare sentences in pairs and amend where needed.

5) Dictate a final time if needed. Again students don't write until you've finished.

6) Students write final neat version on paper for teacher/class to check who got closest to perfect.

Warming Vocal Exercises

2010-11-17T12:08:00.000+01:00

At the beginning of the class or even in the middle of a long one these simple warmers are always good fun. In the format Student A Student B Student A and just keep repeating.

1,3,2
1, clap, 3
Irregular Verbs (Do, did, done) changing after each one.
make 3 word sentences (1 word at a time) and then longer ones

Any more ideas please comment below.

The Easiest Speaking Game in the world...

2010-11-16T15:52:00.000+01:00

Lyrics Training

2010-11-16T13:45:00.003+01:00

Interactive online gap fills

Ask the experts

2010-11-16T13:40:00.005+01:00

Volunteer a student or two up to the front of the class or just sat in their seat.

Tell the class this volunteer(s) is actually an expert on a subject you or they have chosen.
(maybe the current coursebook theme or some of the examples below.

Get the class to ask questions that they'd like to know about the subject, maybe the class can imagine they know nothing about the subject.

The experts respond to the questions truthfully or as they wish.

Play Board Games

2010-11-16T13:09:00.002+01:00

Print for groups of three
or put on your IWB and play as a class.

e.g.

Spot The Differences (or similarities)

2010-11-16T12:49:00.010+01:00

Spot The Differences (or similarities)

use images...

...the old classics where there are only 10 differences

or where there are lots of differences...

e.g.

What's the Question?

2010-11-16T12:49:00.006+01:00

Write different answers on the board for students to make questions in groups or as a whole class.

e.g.

20 Questions

2010-11-16T12:48:00.012+01:00

One student sits with back to the board with name / thing / place written behind them. They have to ask the class questions to help them figure out who / what / where they are. The class can only answer yes or no and the questioner only has 20 question within which to discover who or what or where they are.

Who?

A famous person
e.g
Are you a man?
Do you play sport?
Are you a Footballer?

What?

What is my job
e.g
Do you work in an office?
Do you wear a uniform?

Where?

Where am I?
e.g.
Are you in a city?
Is it in Europe?

Conversation

2010-11-16T12:48:00.010+01:00

General conversation practice with question prompts on the board.

Students can just speak to a partner or collect information from all the class.
(maybe even with a pen)

Hot Seat

2010-11-16T12:43:00.010+01:00

This game can be played in pairs or groups.
One student has their back to the board while the other(s) tries to explain what is on the board.

Excellent for explaining language by its terminology, defining and describing it.
Also excellent for saying students have to mimic what is on the board without speaking (I like running) or getting them to make the sound of the word on the board (water or a door opening)

4 Corners

2010-11-16T12:43:00.009+01:00

There will probably be 4 corners to your classroom. Choose 4 continents and put the name of one in each corner. The Teacher says a country or maybe things related to a continent and the students scrabble to the correct corner. If they go to the incorrect corner they are eliminated. keep playing until there is a winner.

Another variation could be using verb / noun / adjective / adverb and if students are older and can't be arsed to get out of their seats you could call the game 4 Columns and tell them to put the words in the correct column. Check and then maybe use the words in other activities like Bingo or Random Story.

The Last Person

2010-11-16T12:43:00.008+01:00

Last Person to do what I say is out or loses a point. If I say 'First person' nobody must do anything.

e.g

last person to touch the wall!

last person to sit down!

last person to touch their head!

first person to sit down
(nobody must sit down)

One or the other

2010-11-16T12:42:00.007+01:00

Put a piece of paper at either end of the table or a chair at either end of the room with a label on.
e.g Irregular or regular - Teacher says a verb. First student to run and slap the correct paper (regular / irregular) or sit in the chair wins the point.
A broader example would be simply having YES or NO as the options. Teacher can then ask a series of questions and students run and slap or run and sit down with the correct answer.

Telefono

2010-11-16T12:42:00.005+01:00

Class are in two teams in a line towards the board either side of the classroom. The teacher writes a word on a piece of paper at one end of the classroom and shows it to the first person in each team. They then Chinese whisper that word down a line and the last person of each team writes it on the board. The first team to have the word written correctly on the board is the winner. Any shouting and a team loses a point.

Vocab Slap

2010-11-16T12:42:00.004+01:00

Some Vocabulary they have been learning is written on individual bits of paper and spread across the table or floor. Teacher (or another student) describes the words and the first student to slap the correct word wins. It's best to say they can only slap one word or they lose a point as it can get a bit silly and sometimes I'm just not in the mood for that.

Write What you hear (Lexical CHUNKS)

2010-11-16T12:38:00.007+01:00

Take one verse of a chorus or a song.
Students try and write the lyrics or grab chunks of text.
Repeat until they go crazy.
Write up on the board some of the chunks they heard and try and expand on them with dialogues or writing.

Order the words

2010-11-16T12:38:00.005+01:00

Give them 7 words from the first parts of a song.
Tell them to number them in the correct order they appear in the song.

Background Music

2010-11-16T12:37:00.004+01:00

Play music they enjoy.
Play a bit you like.
But no one likes a DJ who doesn't listen to their audience.

Image Association

2010-11-16T12:36:00.013+01:00

Students have to associate words with images. Each group chooses five words from a word bag or word list. They then look at a set of photos and take it in turn to associate one of the words on their list with one of the photos. They have to justify the association.

e.g.

I selected 20 words from the coursebook so far
and they chose 8

I then gave them these pictures and they had to justify their words with each picture

e.g. The man in picture 4 is going to give diamonds to his girlfriend tonight.

Thank you Ceri jones for this idea, Tefl Del Sur 2010

Compare & Contrast

2010-11-16T12:36:00.003+01:00

Find two same themed but different pictures and speak about the similarities and differences.

Consequences

2010-11-16T12:14:00.003+01:00

A Continue the story game.

e.g.

MY FUTURE (These are prompts that the students use to write their sentences).

I will live...
I'm going to marry...
For work I will ...
I won't listen to...
etc.

Students write the first sentence, fold the paper down and then pass to the next student who writes the second sentence perhaps thinking of the student whose paper they are writing on.
First student then ends up with an interesting future for themselves written by the rest of the class. It's a good way of reviewing all the grammar structures using what I did yesterday and What I've done in my life as other possible activities.

Reading

2010-11-16T12:12:00.000+01:00

Photocopy readings in Coursebook

-cut up and stick around class and set questions.

DICTATION

2010-11-16T12:10:00.006+01:00

SHOUTING Dictation

1 student shouts a text from a book, the other writes what he hears.

Running Dictation

1 student runs to a book, reads a bit of text, runs back to the other student and tells them what to write.

Composition Dictation

Use sentences writen by students about daily life or something completely random. Collect and improvise a story from their sentences which they copy down as a dictation the same class or another class.

Dictogloss

Dictate a short text 2 times. Each time students note down important words and chunks and then after try and recreate the original text.

Finish the Dictation

Teacher starts dictation and then leaves students to finish the story themselves. Perhaps in a certain number of words.

Category Dictation

Choose the language you want to review and devise a way of categorising it into two (or more) categories.

e.g.
like / don't like
jobs inside / jobs outside

Dictate the words and the students put them in the correct columns. With the words you could take them into other activities such as Bingo or Random Story.

Listen up!

2010-11-16T12:06:00.001+01:00

Get the students to listen for certain words (one or two) during the class (perhaps the current vocabulary). When they hear them tell them they have to do something like touch their head or look at the teacher. The last person to do so loses a point. Maybe the winner gets an incentive. You could also put them in teams.

YES and NO

2010-11-16T09:48:00.001+01:00

Students cannot say certain words throughout the class.
E.g. they cant say Yes or No but have to come up with alternatives.
The class can compete against each other and lose a point every time they say the words. Maybe use other words as taboo words.
You understand? Yes. Doh!

Pictionary

2010-11-16T09:47:00.001+01:00

Drawing words in pairs (one person draws on paper the other person guesses) or...
in teams using the whiteboard.. In teams I find it works better if you give each team their turn at the whiteboard rather than both teams drawing at the same time.

go on, Recycle that Lexis.

Picture Dictation

2010-11-16T09:46:00.001+01:00

Teacher dictates to all students as they draw or student dictates to another student who draws.

e.g
View from a window
Describing a person
Prepositons of place
etc.

Grammar Sketches

2010-11-16T09:45:00.001+01:00

Use 1 side of paper for the grammar structure (e.g. I got up at 6 o clock) and the other side to draw that grammar structure (e.g. drawing of person getting up at 6 o clock). Drawings can be used as flashcards to help students with the grammar.

maybe take some photos and make a slideshow...

Alphabet Countdown

2010-11-16T09:44:00.001+01:00

Put the whole Alphabet on the board. Give them 2 minutes to get as many words as they can with a vocabulary set. E.g. Things in this classroom. Cross off the letters as they shout out (or put their hand up and say) the words. The Teacher or students can be in control of the whiteboard.

Bingo

2010-11-16T09:34:00.003+01:00

Using some current vocabulary or a list from earlier classes students will have a list of 10 to 12 words on their page.

They choose/circle 5 words from that list.

The teacher then describes all the words in random order and the First student to cross out their 5 shouts BINGO.

Boggle

2010-11-16T09:31:00.002+01:00

Put random letters on board.
Students make words of 4 or more letters in 1 minute.

The winner has the most letters in total.

Total Gap Fill

2010-11-16T09:28:00.002+01:00

Like hangman but with words. Split class into two or three teams and put a sentence on the board.

Last night ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ .

Maybe give them a word or two to help them along.
Go around the teams, students instead of saying letters say words they think might be in the sentence. if they need help start putting up letters.

Can also be played in pairs.

Word order

2010-11-16T09:26:00.002+01:00

Dictate a sentence in the wrong order. Get them to rewrite it.

e.g.

today are how you?
last did you night what do?

Grammar Casino

2010-11-16T09:22:00.004+01:00

Teacher presents a list of 6 or more sentances focusing on current grammar or grammar done this term etc..

Some sentences are correctly written, some have grammar mistakes.

In pairs / teams students bet on correct and incorrect sentences.

One way to do it is to start with 1000 points and make a maximum bet of say 500 on each sentence.

if they are correct they double the points.

if not they lose the points.

Do one sentence at a time.

Start and End Of Words

2010-11-16T09:21:00.003+01:00

Revise Vocab by helping them with first and last letters

Food

H____r
P____0
P____a

I went to the supermarket...

2010-11-16T09:18:00.003+01:00

This game can be adapted for all types of vocabulary sets, grammar points and numbers too. Work around the class or let them work in pairs for a few minutes.

e.g.

a) I went on holiday and I broke my leg...

b) I went on holiday and I broke my leg and my arm...

c) I went on holiday and I broke my leg and my arm and cut my finger...

Memory Test

2010-11-16T09:14:00.002+01:00

Teacher says 7 words slowly, students listen and memorise and when teacher has finished students try and write them down in the correct order. Once they have written them down they could use them to construct sentences or as a base for a conversation.

Other thoughts on Speaking

2010-11-15T12:49:00.001+01:00

Speak exercises sometimes rather than writing.
'you don't need a pen to talk'

Do class surveys and role plays

us

2010-11-15T12:23:00.002+01:00

BALANCE

Apply it to everything

PRAISE

Praise them at every opportunity.
And if no one else does it praise yourself once in a while.

SO IT WENT BAD...

Every passing class is a chance to turn it all around

REMEMBER...

To teach is to touch a life forever

I'm bored!

2010-11-15T12:09:00.002+01:00

Other thoughts on Being Creative...

When students look bored / tired especially in those longer classes give them a 1 minute physical activity to stand up and have a laugh. Play a practical game which is a bit silly and not using language. Let them awaken their minds.

Put a spin on it...

1) Turn the book upside down and continue reading.
2) Try writing English upside down.
3) Try speaking backwards.
4) Answer all questions and speak in the class as if you are the person on your right.

The First Word

I'm going to say a word and i want you to tell me the first word that comes into your head. Give each student a Different (maybe humourous) word around the class and then students can try in pairs.

Memory

2010-11-15T09:20:00.000+01:00

Recall

Start the class on the same material that you finished up on in the last class.

Recall what was done in the last class.

Them

2010-11-14T12:39:00.003+01:00

"Learning English is like learning a musical instrument. You have to practice and practice until you are able to perform perfectly."

Choose Their Life
What do they like? Talk about it. Use it. Relate it to the Students lives
-Ask them what music groups they want to listen to and do exercises on.
- Create a pretend map of the places they know for directions.

-Let them talk about their phones, music and things they like doing.