Just to say that I think Fiona and Alberto will let us do a short training on using this starter page at the in-service on the 3rd April. I’m happy to do this – any questions, comments, suggestions let me know! It would be great if we could get everyone on here using it regularly.
Also:
If your students ask you for more practice on listening you can direct them to the excellent site www.ted.com which has short lectures on a variety of topics. Useful for FCE, CAE and TOEFL students especially. In fact, I have taken one lecture and written multiple choice questions on my student site here. You are welcome to use my questions but you will need to ask me for the answers! You could set this is an alternative-style homework.
Finally:
There is this guy on YouTube called rx2008 who makes very funny films about politicians. He often takes their words and rearranges them into popular song. See below for Tony Blair singing “Should I stay or Should I go” by The Clash. There is also one of George Bush singing a version of R.E.M.’s “It’s the end of the world as we know it!” and other Politicians singing John Lennon’s “Imagine”. rx2008 is quite an artist – but I am not sure how much good English content there is! Worth a look here if you get the time.
I’d promised to post this one some time ago. So, at last, here it goes! Gotta be bold enough to have teenage and adult sts work out to this. I’ve tried that and – surprisingly (or not) they loved it! God bless,
and it´s good to see so many good contributions in here, I mean it. However, I haven´t seen any girls around, writing/commenting you know, only boys… yeah, ladies, bring some good smell in here! =)
I stumbled across this website while trying to find an interpretation of Bob Marley’s “No Woman No Cry”. This website is a forum for people to discuss the grey areas of meaning in English. It has an excellent set of links to. I’ll put a link to it in our blogroll too.
There are some activities about haiku on the table in the teacher’s room, I sent an email about this. Also, I found a good website – poemhunter.com which has a lot of poems by modern poets. May I recommend the British poet Roger McGough who writes for children. His poems are often short, sometimes very funny and include a lot of imaginative language.
I haven’t tried this yet, but I believe it must be extremely funny! In this video, Johann Lippowitz mimes Oasis’ “Don’t Look Back in Anger” song on the BBC’s Comedy Shuffle. He basically mimes the whole song in a very peculiar way. So, after showing this video to your students, you could divide them in groups and give out lyrics of different songs for them to mime. I think it could be used in any level, depending on the song. Do you think it would work? Do you have any suggestions of songs we could ask them to mime?
Ahmed the Terrorist! My students are always telling me to watch that sketch… thanks Daniel.
I know we are always looking for simple warmers. Here are three or four that I have tried in recent weeks that have worked OK and I think they could be adapted to most levels from pre-intermediate and up.
1. Draw circles on the whiteboard – one for each student in the class. As they come in they have to draw their face in the circle with an expression of how they feel today. Ask them about why they drew the face they did. (For extra points, before wiping the board, take a photo of all the faces and put it online / send to the students for fun).
2. Similar to number 1 but prepare the circles on paper and with a thought bubble above each head. Ask them to draw their face and write or draw their thoughts in the bubble – then in pairs describe what is on their mind to their partners (this took up nearly half a lesson in Advanced Speaking last week!)
3. Ask the students to draw 3 circles on a piece of paper, one above the other, in the shape of traffic lights. If they want and you have time they should colour in pencil the top one red, the middle one yellow and the last one green. Ask them to write in the red circle things they want to STOP doing in their lives (going to bed too late, being late for English class…), in the middle yellow one ask them to write things they think they should stop but probably won’t (eating chocolate, leaving mess in the house) and in the green one ask them to write something positive they want to START (doing more exercise, read more English, learn how to play a musical instrument etc.). They then feedback to class and discuss what they wrote, who has the same as them etc. This could be used with the related language areas of future forms and intentions (should / would) and the vocabulary of resolutions, plans, addictions and habits.
4. Lastly, put a sign saying “agree” at the front of the class and one saying “disagree” at the back. Say sentences to students and they have to run to the around the classroom the sign that represents what they think. If they don’t know or are not sure they can stay in the middle. After each sentence interview one student about their choice. This could be for fun (“ABC is the best team in Natal”) or related to the vocab you are teaching (“Women are better at driving than men”). It’s a good way to generate conversation and it forces students to physically and literally decide “where they stand” on issues.
This video is about Achmed, a dummy terrorist controlled by the ventriloquist Jeff Dunham. There’s a “true or false” activity attached. Before playing the video, it would be a good idea to explain who Clay Aiken (pop singer) and Lindsay Lohan (actress) are, as well as what Verizon (cell phone company) and Prius (car) are. There are pictures bellow the true&false statements.
Posted by gringomaclure 
Posted by guarany 
I’ve tried that and – surprisingly (or not) they loved it! God bless,
Posted by guarany 
