Riddles for the English classroom

I've just found these old riddles on my hard drive and thought I'd share them.

Click here for the PowerPoint show http://chrisspeck.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/riddles-for-the-english-classroom.ppt

They'll provide a quick bit of speaking practice for pre-intermediate to intermediate EFL, ESOL or ESL students and you'll need to have an Interactive whiteboard or a projector to show the PPT show.

Put your students into pairs and ask them to discuss the riddles one by one before you reveal the answers. You might also find that students have their own riddles they would like to share with you and the rest of the class.

I can't remember where I found all of these, but three of them (numbers 3,7 and 8) come from the amazing and seminal English teaching book 'Challenge to Think' by Christine Frank, Mario Rinvolucri and Marge Berer' first published in 1982.

Here's the ppt file again http://chrisspeck.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/riddles-for-the-english-classroom.ppt

for more of the same visit

www.englishlanguagespacestation.com

The Google Translate Challenge

Language students routinely turn to the web to do their translating and there's not much better than Google Translate. It effortlessly handless data and will translate into different scripts like Arabic and Russian, it can even translate some idiomatic phrases. It's still a long way from being perfect, however and it gets a lot wrong.

I wanted to see if my human students could do better that the automated, super fast machine that is Google Translate. Here's what I did.

1. I found a simple story, wrote it out in English and then pasted it into Google translate. I then translated it into the languages that my ESOL students can speak, Swahili, Arabic, Polish, Russian, Latvian, Hungarian and French.

2. In class, I handed students a copy of the story in their language and asked them to try and translate it into English. If there were two students, I asked them to team up and try to translate the story together. I told them where I got the translations and that there might be some mistakes in, but they should try to translate it the best they can. Also, before they started I pre-taught the word 'worth' and gave them some example sentences, this word is the key to the whole story.

3. As a group, I now asked them to shout out their translations, sentence by sentence before I showed them a copy of the real story in English.

Here's the story I used and a link at the bottom to the translations from Google Translate.

Joe and the rich man

Joe was in a bar when a rich man came up to him.The rich man looked very healthy and sun tanned. He wore an expensive black suit and a silk tie.  He looked at Joe with a frown.

“How much do think I’m worth?” said the richman.

“I don’t know,” said Joe.

“Come on, guess how much I’m worth.”

“Okay,” said Joe, “I think you’re worth $100”The rich man laughed.

“Ha, that’s just the priceof my suit.”

“I included that in my answer,” said Joe.

Here's the link to the translated versions:  http://chrisspeck.files.wordpress.com/2011/12/the-google-translate-challenge.doc

Online reading tasks - How e-learning can save paper - no kidding

My English language students need to read a lot - fact, and I often want them to read something quickly which they can discard when they finish. What I don't want to do however is photocopy the same thing for each student only to have them read it once and then file it away neatly never to be seen again.(or more likely, thrown it in the bin.)

Here's where technology can help.

Armed with their smartphones that can access the internet students can read a wide range of material quickly and without wasting resources. (except maybe their monthly bandwith allowance)

Online Reading Tasks
I put my students into pairs and gave them the urls below. I then told them to go away and use their smartphones or any device that could access the internet to read the three stories and come up with three endings ...each ending being a single sentence or even just a word.

Story 1 - Joe and the tigers

http://chrisspeck.wordpress.com/2011/11/29/joe-and-the-tigers-read-the-story-and-write-the-last-line/

Write your ending to the story in one sentence here:

------------------------------------------------------------------

Story 2 - Joe and the hairdresser

http://chrisspeck.wordpress.com/2011/11/29/joe-and-the-hairdresser-read-the-story-and-write-the-last-line/

Write your ending to the story in one sentence here:

------------------------------------------------------------------

Story 3 - The workman and the beggar

http://chrisspeck.wordpress.com/2011/02/08/quick-stories-2-the-workman-and-the-beggar/

Write your ending to the story in one sentence here:

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Suggested answers

A good ending for story one - 'I know, it works really well."

A good ending for story two - 'I'm the one who has to look at it all day.'

A good ending for story three - 'No'.

Further thoughts

When are we going to see 'electronic paper'? By this I mean a cheap, simple device that can use either a wi-fi or USB connection to show written content to students. I don't mean a set of expenisve laptops (or even a computer) or a trendy handheld device,I mean a cheap bit of plastic that will show words and pictures, that can be thrown around and used over and over and over again to show documents. Think of the amount of money that could be saved on paper. You'd never need to print exams, worksheets or home made books, or stories, or timetables

...actually, if students already have a smartphone then they've got this already.

Valentine's Day and Relationships - complete PowerPoint Lesson

Valentine's Day soon...

complete lessons using only PowerPoint slides.

Can't be bothered to read the post? Get the lesson here

http://www.englishlanguagespacestation.com/powerpoint%20lessons/Relationships.pps

I think this lesson on relationships fits in really nicely with Valentine's Day, especially since the audio features a lady dumping her boyfriend. It's for pre-intermediate learners and should take about an hour. You only need the PowerPoint show above and working speakers to play the audio, students only need a pen and some paper.

Slide 2

Elicit different types of relationship from the class before you show the slide - mother, father etc. Now show the slide, students have to write their own explanation for each word.

Slide 3

Students match the phrasal verbs to the meaning.

Slide 4

Ask and answer the pre-listening questions as a class before listening to the girl dumping her boyfriend. Students answer the gist question.

Slide 5

Now students listen again and answer the more detailed questions

Slide 6

Students ask and answer these questions in pairs or small groups. You can monitor and give feedback at the end.

Here's the PowerPoint lesson again

http://www.englishlanguagespacestation.com/powerpoint%20lessons/Relationships.pps

You can find more lessons like this at http://www.englishlanguagespacestation.com/complete_PowerPoint_Lessons.htm

Ten good homework tasks to set.

Homework doesn't always have to be something that a teacher has to mark. Used correctly, it's the springboard to a great class with students doing most of the work before they even sit down.

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1. Go onto youtube and watch something... This is a classic homework. You will find something on youtube that will be relevant to your topic or grammar point. Mr Bean is great, Monty Python are funny for higher levels. For more videos that might be good check out this blog post, also www.teflclips.com is amazing.

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2. Think about something - to talk about..I've written about 'thinking homework' before and you can check that out by clicking here. Setting this kind of homework seems downright strange - but it's a great skill to teach your students and will definitely help them learn English.

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3. Bring something into the classroom - it's the old show and tell lesson, but in the digital age this could be a picture, a film as well as cuddly teddy. Students bring in an item and then tell the rest of the class about it.

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4. Talk to someone in English... Easy to do if you live in an English speaking country. If students can talk to each other then they might be able to find someone online using www.skype.com or a virtual language school like www.languagelab.com

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5. Listen to something - I've already blogged about using www.spotify.com (click here to read that post) but students could also listen to one of the many brilliant podcast websites out there or even the BBC.

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6. Draw something... a bit like going back to school and a little strange for adult learners. Check out Jamie Keddie's blog for some really good ideas. I got students to draw, among other things, their dream house, their dream car, an invention they would like to create, the perfect school, the perfect jail or the perfect hotel. Confident students who are creative love these tasks but other students might bitterly hate them.

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7. Take a photograph of something...I've blogged about this already here. Most phones have cameras on them these days and most students have a phone (try getting them to turn them off!) Ask students to take a photo of something that they will show to the rest of the class in the next lesson. It could be something they love, hate, need, an important possession, a person...anything... as long as they can talk about it with the rest of the class.

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8. Anecdotes...Little stories, be them amusing, scary or instructional are proven to help language learners. For homework, ask students to find a good annecdote in their language which they can then recount to the rest of the class. There are some great anecdotes at One Stop English, but if you have your own they will be much better

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9. Read something... There are lots of great little stories on the internet, the news, short stories,. Comics are also really go for reading online, click here for a list. There are also some good 'choose your own adventure' kind of stories at 'Choice of the Dragon'.

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10 Play a video game...Here's a list of my favourite flash games online. Ask your students to play them and then tell you what they enjoyed or didn't enjoy about them. Digital play is a fantastic blog that explores using flash games with students in different ways and is well worth a look.

Instant and Emergency English Classes - your get out of jail free card

 

In the game Monopoly, at some point, you'll be sent to jail, this can be avoided if you have a 'get out of jail free' card. All teachers get to a point when they don't know what to teach or are put in a situation where they have got nothing to teach . There may be many reasons for this, you've been asked to cover a lesson at short notice, your new born baby kept you awake all night, you have a new girlfriend/boyfriend, you feel sick, the reasons are endless. Here are my five instant lessons or links that will get you out of such a fix.

1. Instant Writing Lesson - Writing Circle - Click here for the lesson

Never be fooled into thinking that writing means a lot of marking for the teacher. Like speaking, sometimes it's just good to have a go... Click here to download the powerpoint which you can either show or print off and cut up. The idea is that students all begin wrting a letter using the prompts. They write the first line and then pass the letter to their left for the next student to continue - while they continue the letter they recievied. Students have a time limit, say two minutes. In this way they all write a letter together and students get valuable practise in continuity, reading and writing. These letters on the PowerPoint start unnaturally, with Dear Supermarket etc.. and are not formatted correctly, this was so I could fit them onto one page as to give students and idea of what they had to write in the first line - make students aware of this.

TIPS FOR MAKING THIS WORK WELL
1) make sure that everyone changes at the same time, wait for slow students and don't let fast students pass their letter on until all the students are ready.
2) don't make the letter go on for too long, six or seven passes is enough.
3) When students have finished, read their letters out to them. They will find them very funny.

2. Instant Reading Lesson - One Stop English.com - Click here to go straight to the website

Go directly to www.onestopenglish.com and print off one of their news lessons. They are interesting, not too difficult or easy and most importantly, they are free.

3. Instant Speaking Lesson - Discussion - Click here to go straight to the discussion shows

Apart from teenagers, most people have opinions and experience of life. Here's a link to loads of PowerPoint presentations which will get your students talking to each other.

4. Instant Multi-skills lesson that can last ages - Click here to go straight to the pub quiz lesson.

Here's the old favourite pub quiz lesson.

5. Instant PowerPoint Lessons - click here to go straight to the instant powerpoint lessons

If you've got a projector or an interactive whiteboard with speakers that is connected to the internet, these complete lessons from the English Language Space Station might just save your teaching skin, they have done mine plenty of times.

 

The Pool ball over the pocket rule.

In the game of pool, sometimes a ball will end up just next to one of the pockets without actually going in. Although this ball is a ridiculously easy pot, journeyman pool players will always leave it and try another shot. The reason for this is they know it's easy and leave it until they don't have another shot to play. The same is true with 'get out of jail free' lessons - don't use them till you really need them.

Teaching English/ESOL/ESL with SmartPhones - ten things I'd like to do.

In the UK you can get a smartphone for £100 and they are only going to get cheaper as more people want them. A device with a camera and video camera, access to the internet, with thousands of apps and the ability to share and recieve information will have a profound effect on education if we work with it. Here are some lessons I'd do if all my students had Android  powered Smartphones with access to the internet and cameras:

1. Mess about with googlemaps. I'd spend ten to fifteen minutes making a virtual tour of the town where we live and then ask students to log on and follow it in teams of two on their phones answering the questions I set them as they went. I actually did do this, but my students didn't have the technology to access it. I'd go even further than this and get students to make their own tours on googlemaps with commentary, get other students to follow them and decide if they were good or bad.

2. Get students to take photos of things in pairs or teams, I blogged about this a long time ago here (click here to read it), I asked students to follow instructions to take snaps of various easy things like 'a chair' or 'a book' and then made it much harder by asking them to capture 'sadness' or 'happiness' to stretch their imagination. It worked really well and if we could do this with smartphones on the internet then we could instantly share the pictures on facebook or googledocs. I'd also get students to make films - something which I'm experimenting with at the moment. This is huge area for development.

3. I'd do loads more things with text messages - except that I wouldn't use text messages because they cost money, I'd use the email feature of Facebook. I've already blogged about using text messages on here and use them to give students 'thinking homework' click here to read that one, and sending students out on a treasure hunt using messages they recieve digitally to tell them what to do - click here to read that one. With smartphones linked to the internet, this would be quick and more importantly, free

4. I'd get students out of the classroom with a text to read from either Amazon's Kindle store via their ap or through googledocs, or even their email. When they've read it they can come back. And... I'd get students to read comics on their phones as homework.

5. I'd have students download the 'my tracks' app which would track their every move via satelitte. I'd ask them to record their movements for one full day and then upload the 'track' to googlemaps so they could share it with the rest of the students. In class I'd get them to explain what they did and where they went using the map as a presentation tool.

6. I'd make students play games together, I mean multiplayer games where they play at the same time. Stratergy games, platform games, farmville type games - anything as long as they play together and it makes them interact with each other in the target language either to tell  each other how to do it, or how to cheat.

7. I'd ask students to interview someone in English, record it, edit it with something like audacity and then present it to the rest of the group.

8. I'd get students to use the radio and  listen to the news/a radio play/ in English at a certain time, write down some information from it and then share what they learned with the class in the next lesson.

9. I'd get students to listen  to music, any type of music as long as it's in English. They could share it with each other, talk about it, learn lyrics from songs and find out about the singers or the group. I've also blogged about using youtube in lessons and those ideas would work perfectly well on smartphones.

10. Finally...I'd call them. Sometimes during the lesson, sometimes for homework. I'd phone for a chat or to ask them their opinion or to tell me something they found out. I'd also ask them to phone each  other - as long as they spoke in English.

My prediction is this: a decent,cheap smartphone that is compatible with the internet and has all the features needed to work with a PC will be able to dominate the educational landscape of the future. Students buy and maintain the device but the books  and the materials that might be needed be them audio, video or text, are transmitted to this device by the educational institution. We would need paper of course but there wouldn't be the need for nearly as much. The technology is here now.

Is there anyone out there who agrees...?

Is there anyone out there who wants to lend me a bunch of smartphones to teach my students with?  Please get in touch of you've got a project on this!

Making a quick song sheet using www.youtube.com - an activity for teachers and students.

Here's another youtube.com lesson, you'll need at least one computer with access to the internet per two students.

Below you'll find instructions on how to make song sheets your students can use when they are watching and listening to their favourite tracks on youtube.com. BUT: THIS WORKS MUCH BETTER if you get your students to find a song they like, and make a worksheet themselves.

I told my students that they were making worksheets for other students who were of a much lower level than they were. I gave them each a copy of the instructions below and asked them to find a suitable song and the lyrics on the internet. I also asked them to pay close attention to point 2 which asks them to check the lyrics to make sure they are correct.

I was surprised to find out how much students wanted to get this right and make a good worksheet for other learners.

The songs I made are here

How to make a song cloze worksheet

1. Find a song on youtube.com that your students might like


2. To get the lyrics, write the name of the song lyrics into google.com . Lyrics and words found on Google are NOT ALWAYS CORRECT, you need to read them and check that they are spelled correcly and make sense.


3. Now you have the lyrics, copy and paste them into word. Make the font bigger and change it so it’s easy to read.


4. Now delete some words that are easy to hear and easy to spell, replace them with a line ______


5. Now delete some more difficult words that are still easy to hear. You should aim for about 15 depending on the song.


6. Now you have them all, add numbers to the lines ___1___ ____2____.

Students can fill them in as they listen, practise pronunciation, cover different areas of vocabulary or grammar.

Here's the link to a some songs I made

http://chrisspeck.files.wordpress.com/2010/11/song-worksheets.doc

Thinking homework

What is thinking homework?

Thinking homework is a task you set your students that only requires them to think - nothing else. No writing, no reading, just thinking. Sitting in the bath, driving the car, walking in the rain or laying in bed. All students have to do is think.

There is some work in preparing learners for this, firstly, explaining that this is something useful to do and secondly, how they should go about thinking.

How do students do it?

Students are only allowed to think in English. They can talk to themselves if they like or say words in their head, but it won't be any good unless the think in the target language. Secondly, they have to remember to do it, I use text messages with my students to remind them.  Thirdly, there has to be some evidence that students have actually done the task and some sort of assessment of how they well they did it, this is done by getting students to report back to you or the class about their ideas and what they've been thinking.

Where does it come from?

The idea for setting students homework where all they have to do is 'think about it' probably isn't anything new, I started setting this kind of task after thinking about Brian Tomlinson's ideas on students developing their internal voiceby talking to themselves, among his many books (click here for a list) you can find reference on how to develop this in second language learners. Brian also explains this theory very clearly in the The Journal of Imagination in Language Learning and Teaching which you can read online. I also had two students in my class who were taxi drivers, so, I used to send them their 'think homework' via text message to their mobile phone so they would not only remember to do it, but would be able to get on with thinking about whatever it was while they were driving. Here are some 'thinking homework' that I've set in the past:

Story thinking homework

1. Which famous person's life would you like to live? What kind of things would you do?

2. If you could live your life again, what would you do differently? ***we were talking about regrets ***

Some problem thinking homework

1. Your home is on fire. You can only save three things from the flames. What things would you save and why?

2. If could invite anyone to a dinner party, alive or dead, famous or not famous, who would you invite?

3.  What invention do you think the world needs? A teleport machine, a free power generator, a language learning chip that fits in your brain? or something else? Please tell the class your idea next week.

Complete Powerpoint lessons for ESOL/ESL and IELTS - Chatting with friends/ social interaction

Can't be bothered to read the post? Download the lesson here http://chrisspeck.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/chatting-with-friends.ppt



Here's yet another complete powerpoint lesson to use with your ielts/ ESOL or ESL class. It follows the same formula as my previous powerpoint lessons

This lesson focuses on social interaction and how people chat with each other often telling each other stories or anecdotes. It's pretty straight forward and has all the answers built in. If you do like it and use it, let us know how you got on.

If you'd like more of the same, please visit my previously bad but now quite good webiste and download some more www.englishlanguagespacestation.com/complete_PowerPoint_Lessons.htm

World Cup for IELTS / ESOL and ESL Part 2#

If you're still enjoying the world cup, then here's another football lesson to try out with your learners.

Click here to download the footballing vocab worksheet

http://chrisspeck.files.wordpress.com/2010/06/talk-football-1-the-basics.doc

For more of the same visit

http://www.englishlanguagespacestation.com/world_cup_football.htm

The football also reminded me of this hilarious Monty Python scatch about footballing philosopher - this might not be great for students, but it's funny.

Using Text Messages to teach English - Part 1 'Think Texts'

 

'A lot of students have mobile phones and as teachers, we often wrestle with how to get them to turn them off in class (although I’ve stopped bothering now). But what if we could use them as teaching tools to deliver content and get responses from our students?' - I'm tired of reading and writing this kind of thing and was pleased to finally get to using text messages to teach rather than talking about it. Thanks to a UK Molenet project, I was able to do so.

How to do it

We signed up for an account with www.pageone.co.uk they specialise in all sorts of communications to do with texting and have a great service for education. Once we were set up, the interface was easy to use and also allowed us to schedule text messages we wanted to send. One constraint was that the maximum length for one text message is 107 characters.

Homework Messages



The most obvious thing is to send students their homework using text messages. You could text them an essay title or a question for them to answer in writing but this could just as easily be done in the classroom. Text messages are much more personal, a phone is something you carry around with you all the time and when someone sends you a message you read it straight away if you can. You might be sitting on a bus or having your lunch or even sitting in class. What I wanted to do with these ‘Think texts’ was get students to have a kind in internal dialogue and get ready to tell themselves and other students about it. I explained to my students that I was going to send them a text and here is the first one I sent on a Sunday evening,  as their homework for the next day.

‘Think about the last time you told a lie. Tell yourself the story in English. You'll tell the class about it tomorrow.’

This may seem a bit quirky – asking students to talk to themselves - and it might be worth pointing out that students can do this silently in their heads. This idea of a student developing their inner voice is something discussed and explained by  writer and materials developer Brian Tomlinson, among his many books (click here for a list) you can find reference on how to develop this in second language learners. Brian also explains this theory very clearly in the The Journal of Imagination in Language Learning and Teaching which you can read online.

Did it work?

Of those who had 'done' their homework, there were mixed responses, students who had thought about the question came up with lucid answers and this generated a good discussion on 'white lies'. Students were clearly motivated by texts and did feel that the opportunity to the 'think' rather than write an answer was useful for their English.

Here are some more 'think texts' I sent to students

Think about the best things about your country. Explain them to yourself in English. You'll tell the class about it tomorrow.

Think about the most important person in your life and why they are/were important. Describe them to yourself in English. You'll tell your partner about it tomorrow.

Think about your ambitions. Explain what you hope to do in the future to yourself in English. You'll tell the class about them tomorrow.

YouTube Presentation Lesson for ESOL / ESL and IELTS

This is a really simple lesson using youtube.com to get students to give an interesting and persuasive presentation.

Set up

I used this lesson with a group of pre-intermediate learners but the idea could easily be extended to higher levels and might tie in nicely for students preparing for speaking exams such as IELTS or Cambridge ESOL.

You will need an IAWB (Interactive White Board) or a projector with sounds linked to the internet so that students can show a movie on youtube. Students will also need computers to search for a youtube video they like although this could be done as homework in prepartion for the lesson.

Method

1. Ask students of they watch youtube and what kind of things they watch.

2. Now ask students to find something on youtube in English that they really like. It could be something that makes them laugh, a trailer for a film, an advert, a speech, a part of a film or an interview. Explain that they are not allowed to choose a music video (as there isn't always a lot to talk about and they don't always have a lot of English.)

3. Tell students that they now have three minutes to make a short presentation. They will explain why the film they have found on youtube is interesting and try to persuade the rest of their class to watch it. After everyone has finished presenting the class will vote and the youtube video that gets the most votes will be shown on the big screen.

Extra Tips

- make sure students have a time limit for their presentations as some talkative students will talk for a long time and some will not want to talk for very long, by having a time limit you will encourage shy ones to speak for longer and comfident once to condense what they have to say.

- make notes as you watch each presentation so you have some feedback to give them when they've finished. Make sure at two out of three comments are positive.  You can comment of their pronunciation, sentences you liked, their body language, their content - what they did or didn't explain and of course how persuasive they were.

Using a PSP to teach English - Flash Games

Putting Flash Games onto the PSP

To get flash games onto a PSP you need to somehow rip the .swf files from the websites that host the games. I used firefox to download the games and capture the them. More gifted and tecnically minded wizards explain this better than I can here http://www.lancelhoff.com/how-to-download-embedded-swf-files-using-firefox/

Using Flash Games on the PSP

Although playing flash games is a lot of fun (depending on the game of course); exploiting them for language learning is more difficult. I've blogged about using them before, but for really creative ways of using flash games in the classroom look no further than Digital Play http://digitalplay.info/blog/ where there are ideas on using individual games and wider links to education through video games. Digital Play has had  a real influence on my ideas and teaching.

The Lesson

I used this lesson with a group of intermediate students from various parts of the world.  Students were given one PSP between two and each PSP had a flash game pre-loaded onto the memory card 'Who killed Angela Spelling?' from the fantastic www.bbc.co.uk/skillswise. 

Students had to play the flash game together and fill in the worksheet which I also downloaded and printed off one between two - you can download it here

So, why not use a normal computer or laptop to do this activity?

- With a bunch of PSPs you can do these activities without an expensive IT suite.  Just pass out the PSPs and you can start.

- Students really focused in on their PSP and becaue they had to work together to see the tiny screen, it helped them work together on completing the tasks.

Problems and pains in the neck.

- Putting the same file onto twelve PSP memory cards is a hassle. Charging them up is even worse. This lesson took too long to think about for  simple  flash game.

Using Digital Cameras in the ESOL / ESL / IELTS classroom Part 2

Can't be bothered to read the blog? Download the lesson here http://chrisspeck.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/telling-stories-with-photographs.doc

This is the second time I've blogged about using digital cameras in the language classroom, so if you missed it, here's a link to my first effort. http://chrisspeck.wordpress.com/category/using-digital-cameras/

Last time I got students to take photos of different nouns, and also some abstract nouns like happiness and sadness. This worked well and generated lots of language between the students as they did the task as well as more  when they presented their pictures to the rest of the class via a slideshow on PowerPoint

This time I wanted students to really communicate with each other and try to tell a story using pictures and themselves as actors. This would generate huge and meaningful discussion as they did the task as a group and would also provide opportunities for presentation. I knew it would be hard for lots of students to understand a visualize what they had to do, so I found my own picture slide show for them to watch first.

Lesson Plan

I used this lesson with a group of older teenagers from various parts of the world.  To carry out the lesson we used: Digital Camera (many students used their phones), computers that we could upload the photos onto, an interactive whiteboard or projector so that students could show their work to the class. You also need a copy of the worksheet - which you cut up into four sections and distibute seperately: Get the worksheet here - http://chrisspeck.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/telling-stories-with-photographs.doc

1. Ask students if they read comics or picture stories in the newspaper or anywhere else. Elicit their views on them, do they think they are good way to tell a story?

2. Show them the first comic slide show - snoopy and ask what them to tell each other the story.

3. Now pass them the second picture slide show. Ask them to tell the story to each other once again.

4. Explain that they are going to try and make their own picture story using digital cameras. Before they do this, it's a good idea to go through the language section in Part 3 so that students are aware and have the tools to be able to make a story together.

5. Put students into groups and get them to do Activity 4. It might be tough for students who aren't very creative but remind them that it doesn't have to be a masterpiece. Indeed, this is an English class and not a photography or film class so the real task is not making a photo story but using English to do so.

6. Ask students to work in their groups, uploading their photos to software that will allow them to show their images and write some captions. Perhaps the easiest program to use is PowerPoint, but there many more avaliable including Picasa, Windows PhotoStory, Windows Moviemaker or even Flickr. They could also audio commentary.



7. Have students display their photo stories to the rest of the class. Encourage feedback and questions.

- When I did this lesson I was unsure whether students would 'rise to the challenge' and make a story, but they were very creative and surpassed my expectations.

Further Reading

21st Teaching has some good ideas on using photo stories http://21stcenturyteaching.pbworks.com/Ideas-for-Photostory-3-Projects

Blocks with Letters - Simple Flash game for IELTS / ESOL / ESL

Here's a great game written by Martin Sears that really gets your brain working.

It's a simple game that hinges on moving blocks around the screen and making sure that words are spelled correctly.  I'm not sure I'd use this game with a class , but I might set it for homework and ask students how the got on in the next session. Although the words are quite simple to start with, they get tougher so I'd suggest using this with at least a pre-intermediate / Entry 3 / B1 class.

You might like to pre teach your students some of the vocab needed

Replay

Reset (very important - you can put things back to the way they were at the start if things go wrong)

Clue

Gimme a hint ( it should of course be 'give me')



Play the game by clicking here or the picture above.

Let me know how you get on.

Complete Lessons using PowerPoint for IELTS / EFL / ESOL - Valentine's Day and Relationships

Here's the second edition of my complete lessons using only PowerPoint slides. Can't be bothered to read the post? Get the lesson here

http://www.englishlanguagespacestation.com/powerpoint%20lessons/Relationships.pps



I think this lesson on relationships fits in really nicely with Valentine's Day, especially since the audio features a lady dumping her boyfriend. It's for pre-intermediate learners and should take about an hour. You only need the PowerPoint show above and working speakers to play the audio, students only need a pen and some paper.

Slide 2

Elicit different types of relationship from the class before you show the slide - mother, father etc. Now show the slide, students have to write their own explanation for each word.

Slide 3

Students match the phrasal verbs to the meaning.

Slide 4

Ask and annswer the pre-listening questions as a class before listening to the girl dumping her boyfriend. Students answer the gist question.

Slide 5

Now students listen again and answer the more detailed questions

Slide 6

Students ask and answer these questions in pairs or small groups. You can monitor and give feedback at the end.

Here's the PowerPoint lesson again

http://www.englishlanguagespacestation.com/powerpoint%20lessons/Relationships.pps

You can find more lessons like this at http://www.englishlanguagespacestation.com/complete_PowerPoint_Lessons.htm

Low Level English - Flash Games for ESOL

...just discovered a wonderful site for low level ESOL and ESL learners, you need an Interactive Whiteboard or a projector.



http://englishflashgames.blogspot.com/

Loads of different vocabulary games and presentations aimed at low level learners.

Writing Cards - Christmas Cards for ESOL, ESL and EFL

Can't be bothered to read the post - Click here for the lesson on Writing Cards http://chrisspeck.files.wordpress.com/2009/12/writing-cards1.doc

Sending cards is an enourmous business in the UK and the USA with the average person spending way too much time and money on them. There's also a lot of social pressure to send and receive them especially at Christmas time. Who hasn't been presented with a card for someone who is leaving the office, sick or getting married, and thought 'Idon't know what to write!'?

It's also pretty difficult for ESOL/EFL and second language English learners to write them to. I used this lesson with a group of pre- intermediate learners.

Here's the lesson again http://chrisspeck.files.wordpress.com/2009/12/writing-cards1.doc

Here are the lesson stages

1. Ask the students to tell you when they last recieved a card of any description. Write a list of the cards they tell you about on the board. It might look something like this. Anniversary, wedding, congratulations, birthday, valentines, get well soon, sorry, condolences...

2. Now pass out the sheet and have the students correct the mistakes then match the card messages to the people they are for.

3. Now ask students to write their own messages in response to the prompts. You could ask them to work in pairs or alone and could check the answers by getting to write on the board.

4. There are some really good electronic greetings cards on the net. You might like to show these to your students if you have an interactive whiteboad or projector.

http://www.jacquielawson.com/ 

Simle Box

Flash Games for ESOl / EFL / IELTS - Just a bit of fun

You can find some really good games at

www.superduperflashgames.com

Desktop Defence

Click here to play Desktop Defence. Defence games involve you building towers to defeat hordes of enemies. This one is quick, easy to learn and difficult to master. Desktop Defence is easily the best out there. Say goodbye to break time.

Fancy Pants 1 and 2

Click here to play Fancy Pants 2 This is a well animated and very simple platform game with added depth for more serious gamers. It's got a great feel to it and the humour is nice. Try Fancy Pants 1 as well...

Flash Tennis

Click here to play Flash Tennis. Simple and yet demanding, this is a quality tennis game. With after hit control on the ball and a tight serving regime needed this quickly become maddeningly addictive.

Dino Run

Click here to play Dino Run Stylish retro gaming, guide your dinosaur at top speed in front of the crashing boulder of extintion. Fast and engaging, the multi-player option lets you race other gamers from around the globe. Simple and fantastic.

Dolphin Olymipcs 2

Click here to play Dolphin Olympics 2 Swimming around as a dolphin and performing tricks to earn points seems fairly amusing, but if you get really good at this game then you can get much further. Pointless, engaging fun.

Could you use these games in your ESOL/ESL or EFL classroom. I've got a few ideas... would love to hear how you would use them.

for more great games get on down to www.superduperflashgames.com