Category: Advanced

Torn Pictures…

This is a wonderfully simple communicative activity.

Get a pile of nice magazine pictures. Next, tear or cut them into twos. Enough halves for the number of students in your classroom.

Then, give each student half a picture. They have … Read More ....

Guided Writing

There are many ways to teach writing but one way that I really think provides enough structure for beginning and developing writers is guided writing.

Give students a text with words missing (usually nouns). In groups or pairs, they can … Read More ....

Report it! Newspaper reading…

I really think it is great when a teacher gets the students interested in the world and what’s happening there.

You can use the newspaper in many ways but one easy way is to ask a student each day to … Read More ....

Finish It Off!

This discussion activity really teaches students to listen to each other.

Start the activity by making statements for the class but “coughing / mumbling or saying “blablabla”. Ex. I went to the &&)))*** last night.  Students ask for clarification using … Read More ....

Who Am I ?

This is a nice way to get students to know each other.

 

Make a quick organizer for writing. Have the students fold an A4 “hamburger” like, 4 times. They will have 8 lines for writing when they unfold it.… Read More ....

Silent Speaking

lipsThis is an excellent activity for students to gain awareness of pragmatical competency and pronunciation problems they may have.

In pairs, students silently “mouth” very slowly, the questions from a handout. Simple questions. Go here for many lists – use … Read More ....

Text Messaging – A writing lesson

Cellphones are the imbilical cord of today’s youth. Instead of fighting against them, let’s use this interest to get them learning English!

Transl8it.com allows the teacher to enter English text and then get the “text message” equivalent. Simply copy this … Read More ....

Backdoor – a great teaching technique

Mr. Bean works well with this technique.

Get some great Mr. Bean videos here or here.

Backdoor is a technique where in pairs students sit back to back. One student watches the screen and describes the action. The teacher … Read More ....

Talking about your family

This generates a lot of talk and students are always very interested in each other’s lives.

Write down on the board some of your own (the teacher) family names. Underneath write;

A. Who is …………………..?

B. …….. is ………..’s …………….… Read More ....

Writing Tag

A piece of paper, a chalkboard and a pair of scissors are a teacher’s best friends.  Tr.uly, let me explain with this one activity.

1. Give each student a blank piece of paper.

2. Ask them to fold it “hamburger”, … Read More ....