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vocabulary

Vocabulary: Dictionary race

Astrid van Houwelingen

Nowadays many of us resort to an app or the internet when we want to know the meaning of a word. This is all fine as long as you are not in an exam setting. Because my students are sitting exams in a few months I would like to make sure that they know how to use a dictionary quickly and correctly. And what better way than to make a race out of it?

The Basics

Level: A1-C2 (Elementary, Pre- Intermediate, Intermediate, Upper-intermediate, Advanced)
Focus: Learning new vocabulary, using a dictionary
Time: 10-20 minutes
Materials: Cards with words (2 or 3 sets), markers (2 or 3), whiteboard, dictionaries (2 or 3)

Aim

Students learn to use a dictionary with speed. Students learn some new vocabulary items or revise words from their vocabulary lists.

The task

Before you start you need to make sure students know how to find words in a dictionary quickly. You could do a practice round by giving the class a word to look up and to let the student who knows first raise their hand and read the right definition to you.

  1. Prepare two or three similar stacks of cards with words from the dictionary on them.
  2. Divide the class in two or three groups.
  3. Put two (or three) tables in front of the room a couple of metres from the whiteboard. On the tables you should have: one stack of cards, one dictionary and one whiteboard marker.
  4. Let the groups of students line up behind a desk.
  5. Explain that they are to take one card from the top of the stack and look up the word as quickly as they can. Once they have found the definition they race towards the board and write down word and definition as quick as they can. When finished, they return their marker to the desk to pass on to another student and join the back of the line.
  6. Set the timer to the required amount of minutes and yell ‘GO!’.
  7. The group with the most correct answers in a limited amount of time wins.

Additional ideas

If you do not want the bustle of the race but do want to make a game out of it you could have the students sit at a group of tables with the stack of words and a couple of dictionaries and have them write down their answers on a piece of paper. Once they have gone through their stack they raise their hands and wait for your approval. First group that is done wins.

If you have a larger group I would advise to use the grouped table method described in the previous paragraph.

If you want the students to have their spelling on point you could decide to only give the point if their spelling is correct.

An alternative way of playing this is to not set a timer, but to allow all groups to work through the same amount of words. The fastest group wins.

If you want students to revise their vocabulary you could use words from their wordlists for this race.

Over to you: Do you ever let students race each other? How does that work in your classroom?

Have fun teaching! ^_^

Love,

Astrid

Geen categorie, vocabulary

Vocabulary: Hot seat

Astrid van Houwelingen

In the past few weeks this site has featured a number of ideas on how to revise vocabulary. Here is one to add to that list: The Hot Seat. It is a game which students enjoy as it is the right mix of frustration and victory. It is a tightrope we are walking but the victory is that much greater when you succeed.

The Basics

Level: B1-C2 (Intermediate, Upper-intermediate, Advanced)
Focus: Revising vocabulary, listening, speaking
Time: 10-20 minutes
Materials: Vocabulary list, a large screen or large sheets of paper, seat facing the classroom (teacher position)

Aim

Students revise their vocabulary. This can be done either before a test or after you have set some vocabulary revision homework.

The task

A Hot Seat is a situation in which you put a student in front of a class, where they perform an act or share their knowledge in one way or another. In this case however, the student in the Hot Seat is the one who needs to figure things out.

  1. Prepare a slideshow or a set of papers with one word of the vocabulary list on each slide.
  2. Put one volunteer in front of the room with their back towards the screen or the paper signs.
  3. Instruct the class that they will have to allow the Hot Seat student to guess the vocabulary item by using descriptions, synonyms, antonyms and any other ways they might think of. They are, however, not to use the word itself, nor are they allowed to use parts of it.
  4. If the student in the Hot Seat guesses correctly a point is awarded.
  5. Repeat with another vocabulary item for as long as you want.

Additional ideas

If you want to add an element of competition you could put two or even three students in front of the room and divide the class into two or three competitive groups. The group that has the first correct guess wins the point.

If you want the students to have their spelling on point you could give them a piece of paper to write their answers on. They will only get the point if their spelling is correct.

If you want to discourage using the native language you could subtract points for each word or instruction used in the native language.

If you want to sit back and relax you could ask one student to select and hold up the vocabulary item to the class and another to be the ‘referee’. 😉

Over to you: There are many other ways in which Hot Seat could work in a classroom. Have you made use of it in the past? If so, how?

Have fun teaching! ^_^

Love,

Astrid

Geen categorie, vocabulary

Vocabulary: Revision Bingo

Astrid van Houwelingen

Getting students to revise their vocabulary often enough so it sticks can be a tough one. Students find it tedious. They feel like they know it all after having read through the list a couple of times. Getting them to be active and work with the vocabulary can be a challenge. But there is no better way to get students’ interest than the words let’s play a game. In this case: BINGO!

The Basics

Level: A1-C2 (Elementary, Pre-Intermediate, Intermediate, Upper-intermediate, Advanced)
Focus: Revising vocabulary, listening
Time: 20-30 minutes
Materials: Vocabulary list, empty bingo cards (or let your students make a grid in their notebooks)

Aim

Students revise their vocabulary. This can be done either before a test or after you have set some vocabulary revision homework.

The task

So if you have never heard of BINGO, it is a fairly simple game in which you listen out for the information in your grid and cross it out once your number, or in this case word, has been called.

If you want to get started quickly you can make the cards yourself beforehand and skip to step 3 or even four. However, if you’re more like me, you make your students do the hard work.

  1. Explain the game to students that have never done the game before. You might want to model it the first time.
  2. Give your students an empty card or let them make a grid in their notebook (3×3 or 4×4 or 5×5). The larger the grid the longer the game will take.
  3. Instruct them to fill their grid with words from the vocabulary list you are going to call out from. You can let them write down the word in their native language or the word in the target language.
  4. Once students have their bingo cards ready you will tell them when they have bingo. Is it one vertical/diagonal/horizontal row or the whole card. Agree with students what the ‘penalty’ will be for a false bingo. My class opted for singing a song in front of the other students.
  5. One by one, call the translation or definition of the words. The students will have to mark off the word that has the same meaning. Keep tabs on which words you have called to be able to check for false bingo.
  6. When a student calls BINGO! they will have to show their card to you to verify they were correct. If so, congratulate them or give them a small prize. If not, let them perform the previously agreed on penalty.
  7. You can choose to give other students a chance at bingo or let them have a go at filling up their cards.

Additional ideas

If you do not work with translations in your wordlist but words and definitions then this would work just as well. Let the students fill in the word and you read out the definitions. You could do it the other way around but that would take up some time when creating the bingo card. Nice homework task though!

If you do not have a vocabulary list per se but you do want to expand your students’ vocabulary you could let them play bingo with synonyms or even antonyms. You would need to agree on a set of words that are part of the game. A selection of words from a reading text could work well here.

Over to you: Do you have any other ways in which a game like BINGO could be used in the classroom?

Have fun teaching! ^_^

Love,

Astrid

Literature

Literature: Character poster

Astrid van Houwelingen

We all know characters in literature that feel like real people. It seems as if they existed before you started reading the novel and continue on existing and living their lives when you finish the story. For students it is important to be aware of what tools and techniques there are for an author to create a character so vivid that we wonder what will happen to them after the story ends. When students are able to gain a deeper understanding for character building, their appreciation for literature will increase and their pleasure in reading will too.

Of course it is possible to deconstruct the complexity of a character with a question-answer series. But there are more fun ways of doing so. I like to make use of student’s creativity by asking them to create a poster, in which they display everything they have learned about a character throughout the novel. They then share their knowledge by presenting their poster to the class, practising their speaking and presentation skills and allowing the other students the benefit of their work. How is that for a win-win-win?

The Basics

Level: B1-C1 (Intermediate, Upper-intermediate, Advanced)
Focus: Reading, speaking, presenting, listening, co-operating, literature
Time: 60 minutes
Materials: Poster sized sheet of paper, markers, literary work

Aim

Students learn how characters in literature are created and how they can be analyzed. They give a short presentation.

The task

Before starting to analyse, students are introduced to the basics of character creation and the different functions they can serve in the story (see slideshow). Once the basics have been covered they are given a poster sized piece of paper, some markers and a character to investigate.

Step by step:
1. They title the poster with the character’s name and draw a simple stick figure.
2. They dig through their literary work to find physical descriptions, character’s thoughts and examples of dialogue revealing the character’s demeanour.
3. They note down these quotes and explain in their own words what these quotes say about the character.
4. They might want to ‘dress up’ their characters by drawing the described clothes, hair and other physical features as well as typical attributes. This makes the text visual to all students (Students will need about 25 minutes to finish the poster).
5. When finished, students present their poster to the rest of the class. They describe both the function of the character and how the author has brought the character to life.

Additional ideas

This character poster discusses the characters in isolation. If you want students to also be aware of the connection between different characters you could do a follow up activity where you let students make a sociogram or family tree with the posters. This will help students to see the connection between the different characters. Who is family, who likes whom and who are archenemies?

Over to you: Do you have interesting lessons that teach students to look more critically at literature?

Have fun teaching! ^_^

Love,

Astrid

vocabulary

Vocabulary: 30 Seconds revision game

Astrid van Houwelingen

At the time of writing we are getting closer and closer to the Christmas holidays. The cold, short days and holiday preparations take their toll on students and teachers. People are getting tired and with the two-week school break approaching it is tempting to just put on a dvd or log in to Netflix and call it a listening activity.

But what if we can find a way to bring the Christmas spirit into the classroom without the help of a Christmas film? When asked what students enjoy most about Christmas with their families, many students mention playing games with their loved ones and enjoying each other’s company. Now I am not one to leave a suggestion like that go unnoticed. And because my students were sitting a vocabulary test I dusted off the old 30 seconds vocabulary revision game. Let’s play!

The Basics

Level: B1-C2 (Pre-Intermediate, Intermediate, Upper-intermediate, Advanced)
Focus: Revising vocabulary, speaking, listening
Time: 20-30 minutes
Materials: Vocabulary list, palm-sized cards (or let your students cut these), timers or stopwatches

Aim

Students revise their vocabulary. This can be done either before a test or after you have set some vocabulary revision homework.

The task

30 seconds is a family board game in which two or more teams of 2-4 people battle against each other. One member of the team pulls a card from the deck and gets 30 seconds to describe to their team the five words or terms that are listed on the card. The word itself or translations thereof cannot be used. For each correct guess the team gets a point. When the 30 seconds are up the turn goes to the next team. The team with the most points wins the game. (In this instance I don’t use the board itself. It does not add much to the gameplay in my opinion)

If you want to get started quickly you can make the cards yourself beforehand and skip to step 4. However, if you’re more like me, you make your students do the hard work.

  1. Explain the game to students that have never done the game before. You might want to model it the first time.
  2. Give your students an empty card.
  3. Instruct them to write down five words from their vocabulary list on the card and return them to you once they are finished.
  4. Divide the class into teams and put them around a set of tables shoved together.
  5. Put the stack of cards in the middle and provide a timer (or let the students use the timer on their phones)
  6. Let them play and enjoy the scene.

Additional ideas

With a larger group of students you will find it works better to divide the group into smaller groups of a maximum of ten students. When this is the case you will need as many sets of cards as you have groups of students. This is easily done by asking students to not make one but two or three cards. The students can give these back to you and you divide the cards into two or more stacks, creating two or more game sets.

Depending on the amount of words they had to study you can ask them to make two of the same cards or two different cards.

If you want an even distribution of the words between students you can assign them units or pages of vocabulary.

If you have a pre-intermediate group or a group who finds it difficult to describe vocabulary in the target language you could give them more time to describe the terms. Note, however, that if you allow them too much time, the pressure of the game subsides and the stress factor, which makes it fun, is taken out.

Of course you can save the sets of cards to play in future. It saves you time when you want to play it with another class next week, next semester or next year.

Over to you: Do you ever use family games in your classroom?

Have fun teaching! ^_^

Love,

Astrid

writing

Presentation: Infographic

Astrid van Houwelingen

Occasionally we are presented with a unit in the language coursebook that lends itself very well for further investigation. When that is the case I find myself jumping for joy and seizing the opportunity to make something more out of the unit than the regular reading, writing, listening and grammar activities.

In this instance the unit in our coursebook dealt with the history of the English speaking world. It included five chapters with topics ranging from the Amish community to the early colonisation of Australia. These topics were presented in each of the reading texts for the units. In order to intensify students’ learning of English culture around the globe, I presented them with the task of creating an infographic and presenting their work to the rest of the class for a mark. This task forces students to dig deeper into the culture and history and at the same time invites them to read, write, speak and listen in English while doing their research. It also allows them to master some of those all important 21st century skills. Now who doesn’t love that?

The Basics

Level: B1-C1 (Intermediate, Upper-intermediate, Advanced)
Focus: Reading, speaking, listening, writing, computer skills, co-operating
Time: 3 hours + time to present (depends on how large your group is)
Materials: Laptops/computers

Aim

Students learn about English-speaking cultures, doing research and making an infographic. They prepare a 2.5 minute presentation.

The task

The task of creating an infographic was mainly done in class. Students worked in groups of four and used their laptops to find information online. They worked with an online free programme in order to make a neat looking infographic on the topics listed in their coursebook. The remainder of the work as well as preparing for the presentation was done at home.

I found that students were confronted with a great amount of target language. Some students decided to watch a documentary to learn more about their topic whilst others dug into historical sites. Because students were able to choose their topics within their unit of study many students were motivated to create something satisfying. Some students even came up with their own ideas to include on the infographic. How’s that for ownership? 😉

Additional ideas

This presentation task was designed to expand on a unit of study about historical periods in the English speaking world. However, there are many other units that would be very suitable for creating a task like this. Think of units on student life, culture related units or units on technology. As long as the basis is there and you have some idea of building on it, your options are endless.

Over to you: Do you have coursebook material that would lend itself well to being expanded? Have you made use of this opportunity in the past?

Have fun teaching! ^_^

Love,

Astrid

Grammar, Listening, speaking, vocabulary, writing

Creative writing: The holidays

Astrid van Houwelingen

The holidays are always exciting moments for students. Whether it is Halloween, Christmas or some other local holiday, they are sure to get your students wriggling in their seats with anticipation. Why not make use of this time of year and ask your students to channel their excitement into some creative writing and story telling? And while we’re at it, throw in some revision too. Two birds one stone anyone?

The Basics

Level: B1-C2 (Pre-Intermediate, Intermediate, Upper-intermediate, Advanced)
Focus: Listening, revising vocabulary and grammar, creative writing, speaking
Time: 120 minutes divided over two lessons
Materials: Computer with audio, vocabulary list, grammar overview, writing materials

Aim

Students revise their vocabulary and grammar. This can be done either before a test or after you have set some revision homework. They also do some creative writing and storytelling.

The task

We all love to hear a good story. Writing one can be a challenge but it does provide for a great deal of language output and therefore a chance to revise what students have learned. In the slides below you will find a two-hour lesson. Students will write their own holiday related story in the first lesson (in this case a Halloween story). In the second lesson students will read their stories to each other, battling it out in a story battle. To motivate students to include their revision work the story battle works with a point system. The more vocabulary and grammar they include the more points their story has to begin with. The winner can be awarded a prize of some sort (some students work harder with chocolate in sight) or dish out some ‘eternal fame’ (or ‘lame’, as one of my students called it).

Additional ideas

Although the lesson in the slides is Halloween themed, it is easy enough to transform this into a Chrismas themed lesson. It could also be used more broadly as a lesson to be done before students are off on their spring or summer holidays. In that case you could ask your students to write about their best, most amazing, imagined holiday. You do not actually have to leave your chair to imagine where you could go or what you could do with your free time, do you?

Over to you: Do you feel like your students could write a longer piece of text like this? And how do you address the holidays in your lessons? I would love to hear your ideas in the comments.

Have fun teaching! ^_^

Love,

Astrid

vocabulary

Vocabulary: Revision Games

Astrid van Houwelingen

When it comes to making things ‘stick’ revision is the key word. Although repeating words until a student remembers them can be an arduous task, it is essential to learning a language. Of course revising by repeating the words with flash cards or using a vocabulary revision app can be useful. But if you want to liven things up a bit there are many activities and games you can play with your students that will have them begging for some more revision please…

And of course we aim to please. That is why I have designed a slideshow with six no-prep games that you can use in your lessons when you want them to repeat those words and still have some fun!

The Basics

Level: A2-C2 (Elementary, Pre-Intermediate, Intermediate, Upper-intermediate, Advanced)
Focus: Revising vocabulary, writing, speaking
Time: 15-60 minutes depending on the activity you choose
Materials: Vocabulary list, sheets of paper

Aim

Students revise their vocabulary. This can be done either before a test or after you have set some vocabulary revision homework.

The task

In the presentation below you can find six different ways of revising vocabulary. There are instructions on making your own gapfill, writing a short story, making a quiz, playing forbidden word, playing ‘Who is it’ and describing and guessing someone’s character. Because students do more than matching the word and definition or translation it also builds their confidence about writing and speaking in the target language.

Additional ideas

There are many other game forms that lend themselves well to be used in the language class. How about bingo with irregular verbs or playing charades with the words on the vocabulary list? Fun is guaranteed.

Over to you: Do you have fun ideas for revising vocabulary? Let us know in the comment section below.

Have fun teaching! ^_^

Love,

Astrid

speaking

Speaking: No more School!

Astrid van Houwelingen

We all have days in which we fantasise about what life would be like when we would no longer have to do that one thing that drains our energy. Or we imagine what we could do with our days when we are no longer required to attend that one meeting or class that feels superfluous.

Our students are no different. They are required to attend a certain amount of lessons, most of which are obligatory. Motivation for these lessons can easily dwindle and you are left with a group who spends their time waiting for the bell to ring.

It is at those times that it can be useful to introduce a chance to reflect on the question ‘Why do people have to attend school?’. What better way to do this than by incorporating a speaking activity which allows students to fantasise about a life without school. What would they do with their time? What if no-one went to school? What would the effect be on society? Consequently, what is the use of school?

The Basics

Level: B1-C1 (Intermediate, Upper-intermediate, Advanced)
Focus: Reflecting on motivation, arguing an opinion, speaking
Time: 10 minutes
Materials: None

Aim

Students reflect on their motivation for the class they are attending or the use of school in general. They voice their opinion and support it with arguments.

The task

Using the powerpoint below you can encourage students to reflect on their personal motivation for school. Allow them some time to discuss the questions in pairs or little groups. When they have discussed the questions, invite them to show how useful they find school by doing what I call a ‘body vote’.

A ‘body vote’ is a useful tool to quickly see student’s opinion on a debatable issue. You invite the students that agree with the statement (or in this case find school very useful) to move to the left of the room. The students that disagree with the statement (in this case the ones that find school a waste of their time) go to the right. Students who are conflicted can move to the middle and anywhere from left to right on the scale depending on their opinion.

Once everyone is positioned in accordance with their opinion you can invite students to share and argue in the target language. You can choose to moderate and give turns or allow students to react to each other directly.

Surprising outcome

When I asked my least motivated class about whether or not school was useful, I was a little surprised to find all of my students had moved towards the ‘School is useful’ side of the room. When they argued their opinion it was just as informative for me as it was for them. They shared some of their frustrations about non-existing learning goals and teachers who did not seem to know either why they were studying poetry.

This activity has reminded me that a clear learning goal is key to motivate your students. It doesn’t hurt to consider this while planning our lessons and don’t forget to share it with your students! Learning is not a teacher’s secret.

Additional ideas

You could ask your students this question about any aspect of society. This is especially interesting if you want them to reflect on news events or big questions such as the use of democracy, affordable health care and other political issues.

You could ask students to extend their ideas and write an essay on the question arguing for and against. Students could also write an opinion column on the subject, arguing their opinion more thoroughly.

Over to you: Do you ever struggle with student motivation? How do you deal with this?

Have fun teaching! ^_^

Love,

Astrid

Listening

Listening: Bluff the listener

Astrid van Houwelingen

For English teachers there are a myriad of resources to expose our students to real-life English language. It is just a matter of finding suitable material. It can be hazardous and time consuming to find a fragment that is just the right language level, the right length and interesting as well.

Thank the internet for podcasts. These freely available radio shows are a gold mine when it comes to suitable listening material. They cover fun and interesting topics on all aspects of society. There are great shows which are masterpieces of storytelling such as Radiolab, This American Life, The Moth and Wait Wait … Don’t Tell Me!.

This last podcast (for the ones who are not familiar with it) is a news quiz in which the hosts and three comedians review the week’s news in several quizzes. These fragments are fun, current and best of all: between two and ten minutes per fragment. Perfect for an authentic, real-life listening assignment!

The Basics

Level: B2-C1 (Upper-intermediate, Advanced)
Focus: Listening to a longer piece of text, summarizing, speaking
Time: 20 minutes
Materials: Speakers and internet connection, students need pen and paper

Aim

Students will learn to focus on a longer piece of audio. They will practise taking notes in key words and verbally summarize what they heard. They can pick out the main idea of a fragment.

The Task

In the slideshow you will find a step-by-step lesson plan which can be used with little preparation. All it takes is going through the slides beforehand so you know what to expect. Before you present this to your students, double check if the audio fits their level of English.

Additional ideas

The podcast releases a new episode every week. You could adapt the audio so it is related to the week’s news.

You could easily extend this into a writing activity. Have groups of three students find a remarkable but true news story. Then one student summarizes the real story while the two other students come up with a fabricated story on the same topic that could be true. Students present their quiz to the class. The rest of the class votes on the story they think was the real story.

If you want to add an element of competition to the task you could add a points system where the students who guess correctly get a point whilst the students who chose the wrong story give a point to the story they chose (whilst they themselves receive none of course). The student with the most points in total wins.

Over to you: Do you ever use real-life materials in your lessons? What do you do with those materials? I’d love to hear your ideas.

Have fun teaching! ^_^

Love,

Astrid