сайт учителя английского языка Каркусовой Диляры Маирбековны МАОУБ СОШ №7 г. Владикавказ

If you want to establish good communication with the parents of your students, call each one at the beginning of the year. Talk about his or her child and say some positive things. Having good communication with the parents is extremely important. When you have to call to report some type of negative behavior, it is much easier and acceptable. You surely do not want to start off the year with a negatively charged classroom!

1. Pin the Tail on the Globe

   After introducing or reviewing a list of weather terms, post a world map on your classroom wall. Take a few moments to introduce your students to the terms equator and pole and discuss what types of weather the residents at each place (human or otherwise) experience year round. Then, depending on the time of year, discuss with your students what the weather may be like in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. Finally, review weather in specific areas like rain forests and deserts. Now it is time for fun. Give each student in turn a marker with either a pushpin or piece of tape or other adhesive. This is especially entertaining if you can take a picture of the student or have her draw a small self-portrait. Blindfold one student, give her three turns while she wears the blindfold, and then point her in the direction of the world map. The student should then place the marker somewhere on the world map. You can encourage her to aim for the type of weather she thinks she would enjoy. Then remove the blindfold and have your student describe the weather where she is on the map. Give each student a turn to place himself on the map while blindfolded and then tell the class about the weather at his location.

2. 2

   I’m Going on Vacation

   Do you have a dream vacation? Most people can imagine where they would like to go whether it is skiing on a dramatic slope or sunning on a peaceful beach. Give your students some practice with weather words by getting them thinking about their dream vacation. Have your class sit in a circle and ask a volunteer to start. The person who takes the first turn will also take the last turn in the game. With each turn taker, the person should first describe in about two sentences the type of weather he would like on his vacation, and then tell the rest of the class where he will go on that vacation. For example, “I like sunny skies and warm ocean water. I’m going on vacation to Hawaii.” The second person, whoever is sitting to the left of the person that just went, will describe her dream vacation weather, and then tell the class where she is going on vacation. Then she must also repeat where the first student is going on vacation. The third student then tells the class about his dream vacation weather and then where he will go. He also says where student number two will go and then where student number one will go. Continue in this manner until you make it all the way around the circle to the first student who must say, in the correct order, where each of his classmates will take his dream vacation. Feel free to prompt students throughout the game if they are stumped, but do not be surprised if the students do it on their own. If you have the map on the wall from the previous game, you could also let your students put their markers on the globe where they said they would like to vacation after the game is finished.

3. 3

   Twenty Questions

   Here is a game that reviews not only weather words but also question asking. Have one student choose a location he would like to visit. You can supply a list of possibilities or just let him choose at random. The rest of the class takes turns asking questions about the destination trying to determine where the person chose. Encourage your students to use questions about the weather at the beginning to narrow down the possibilities. If the class cannot guess after twenty questions, the student answering the questions wins. If they are able to guess before using all twenty questions, the class wins. Give each student a chance to be the question answerer. If you have a particularly large class, you may want to break your students into small groups to play the game.

4. 4

   Clothing Relay

   This game requires more preparation than the others and a small financial investment, but you can use the props anytime you teach about weather. Start by getting a collection of clothes that are appropriate for all weather conditions, bathing suits, hats, scarves, shorts, raincoats, sunglasses, etc. You can ask for donations from parents, friends or purchase some second hand items at a thrift store. Put them all into a large bin and place them at the front of the class. Then divide your class into two teams and have each team chose a volunteer to stand up front with the collection of clothing. The rest of the class should line up at the back of the room in teams. For each round, you will announce a weather condition and one person from each team should run up to the front of the room. They must then run up to the person on their team who is standing by the clothing and chose an item that is appropriate for that type of weather. The runner must then place the item on the other student without the other student’s assistance. The first person to choose an appropriate item of clothing for his teammate and put in on the teammate appropriately scores a point for the team. Continue until everyone has had a turn or until you have used all your weather words. The team with the most points wins.

5. 5

   Clothing Stacker

   This is another game you can play with the collection of all weather clothing. Again, divide your class into two teams. You should also divide the clothing into two equal piles. Again, have one person volunteer to wear the clothing, but this time the opposite team will dress him or her in all the clothing from their pile. That person then returns to his own team and stands at the front of the room. The others are in line at the back of the room. Begin a relay race in which one person at a time runs up to the dressed member of their team, removes a piece of clothing, and announces to you or another judge what type of weather in which that item can be worn. After getting an okay from the judge, he runs back to the rest of the team with the item. Then the next person takes a turn. Continue until the person up front has been stripped of all his weather clothing. The first team to finish wins the game.

When it comes to teaching weather, do not be a drip. Put some fun and excitement into your class and do a weather lesson based on games.

It will energize your students and challenge them to think on their feet, and weather will become an instinctive part of their vocabulary. See our collection of free weather worksheets here.

7 effective ways to end a lesson – because those last minutes matter!

What have you learned today?

It goes without saying that you should never end a lesson by introducing something new, just to leave your students hanging till the next class. The best way to end a lesson is to give students some kind of review activity, so that they may see the progress they've made in just one lesson. One of the most common and easiest to implement is simply taking the last 5 minutes of class to ask your students, “What have you learned today?” Notice, here, that you’re not the one telling them what they’ve learned. They may give you a list of new words, or say they learned to speak about what they did in the past or what they will do in the future, etc... Students may pick up something they missed earlier. Also, it's important to speak in functional ways, for example not say they learned to use the “simple present” but rather that they learned to speak about their habits, schedules, and everyday activities.

Performance correction and feedback

Right before the last 5 minutes of class you can have some sort of performance activity, for instance a role play. Usually we don’t correct students during the role play so we don’t interrupt the flow, but when they’re done you can end the class with corrections of words or expressions they used incorrectly; things they forgot to say, etc…and your students will go home with these corrections fresh on their minds. Students may also give their opinion or feedback on their classmates’ performance.

60 seconds

Choose a few students and give each 60 seconds to speak about something you’ve covered that day: what they did yesterday if you worked on simple past; talk about Halloween, professions, or animals; older learners may even give a “how to” lesson; they may also summarize a story they heard, or place themselves in another person’s shoes, like a celebrity, profession, or even animal. But they must speak for a full minute. To motivate students to speak, you may choose to reward the student who says the most, or includes the most information, with a reward sticker.

Write an email

Ask students to imagine they have to write an email to a friend or family member and tell them what they did today in their ESL class. Students have a chance to summarize what they’ve learned in written form. This writing activity may be tailored to any topic. If you talked about farm animals, ask students to write about their favorite animal and why it’s their favorite. And the same goes for foods, sports, celebrities. Adult learners may write a business email with the new vocabulary they’ve learned.

Say goodbye

For very young ESL learners the best way to wrap up a lesson is with a goodbye song or saying goodbye to a puppet. The puppet may “ask” them questions about something they learned, and even give them a short “review” by asking, “What’s this?” or “What’s that?” or any other question or expression they may have learned. You may set aside this special time with the puppet every day at the end of the class, so children know what to expect, and even though they may be very young, they will still have this sense of closure.

Tidying up

After a special holiday class, or right after a lesson packed with arts and crafts, ask students to help you tidy up the classroom. Make sure you factor in this tidy up time when you plan crafts. Letting students run off with their art work just to leave you in a classroom littered with papers and art supplies gives them the wrong message.

Sharing with the class

Another great way to end your class is by asking your students to share whatever it is that you worked on that day: a fall collage; a painting; they may read something they’ve written. The important thing here is to give them a space to share something they've produced with the language elements they've learned. Even adult learners may read a letter or email they’ve written.

You can do anything you want to wrap up your lesson and be as creative as you want to be.

However, it is essential that you provide these three things:

• a time for students to cool down after an activity-filled class
• some sort of review of what they’ve learned
• the proper closure to the day’s tasks

Keep these three essential points in mind, and you’ll come up with great, effective ways to end your lessons every time!

What is a class newsletter, why should students write one, and how can they write one? A class newsletter is a publication that informs the class of important events in their classmates’ lives as well as within the school community at large: a new sibling, for example, or school holidays coming up.

Producing a newsletter creates opportunities for authentic speaking and writing tasks as students interview each other and report on news in each other’s lives. With desktop publishing programs available, class newsletters are also easy to publish these days. Students can be involved in every step of the process from brainstorming the articles, to writing and editing them, to the final publication, and in the process gain a sense of authentic purpose and audience for writing.

Steps to Publishing Your Newsletter

This is an entire unit of instruction that could very well stretch out over the course of a week. It’s probably best to start small, however, and see if there is enough student enthusiasm for the project to carry it through.

1. 1

   First help students become familiar with news articles. Give out a sample news article and study its structure: the headline (title), the byline (author), and the lead or summary.

2. 2

   Have students summarize the article, an important writing skill, and also a check for understanding of main ideas.

3. 3

   Analyze important language for news articles, such as the how verb tense is used in a news story, such as simple past and past progressive.

4. 4

   Teach the passive voice, which is much used in the news. Teach and practice the passive voice in various tenses. Passive voice is prevalent in the news as the focus is usually on the event (e.g., “A bank was robbed”) not a specific person (e.g., “A criminal robbed a bank” is not standard grammar in news reporting.)

5. 5

   Have students practice writing sample news articles. Provide them with headlines, either real or made up. Divide into groups, and students write stories to go with the headlines.

6. 6

   To provide speaking practice, students can read the stories aloud.

7. 7

   Now that students have some familiarity with newspapers and news writing, they are ready for the actual newsletter project. This can be as simple or complex as you would like it.

Simple Class Newsletter Project

1. 1

   Generate Enthusiasm
   Explain what a class newsletter is, why the students should publish one, and generate some enthusiasm for the project. Show an example newsletter if possible. If you don’t have an example newsletter from a prior class, a community newsletter will do in showing the format and the types of stories covered.

2. 2

   Discuss Types of News to Include

   Work with students to brainstorm possible articles. Students can volunteer information about events they have heard about that may prove newsworthy. Some students may be involved in a competition, for example, or working on a particular project. They should receive recognition for their efforts.

3. 3

   Show Another Example Newsletter Article

   Now that the general project is organized, it’s time to talk about actually writing the newsletter.

   Teach or review the writing conventions of the news genre: e.g., an inverted pyramid with an early paragraph including the core information and why it is important, and the remainder of the article, which including supporting paragraphs with quotes and interesting facts of decreasing importance to the main idea. News articles are written this way so that they can be cropped as necessary to space requirements.

4. 4

   Teach Basic Interviewing Skills
   Go over the types of questions to ask to get information for the articles, such as the five “wh—“ questions.

5. 5

   Write the Stories

   After this preparation of seeing an example  newsletter, a couple of news articles, and some practice in the genre of news writing and its conventions, students are now ready to begin interviewing and writing. Each student should interview at least one other student and draft an article.

6. 6

   Type’n’Save
   Students should then type the articles and save them to disk, so the teacher or volunteer student can put them together in a desktop publishing program, and it can be as simple as that, a one-time project.

Expanding the Newsletter Project

If you and your students would like to see the newsletter expand beyond a one-assignment project to a more ongoing one, following are some steps.

1. 1

   Assign Roles

   Some students may be more comfortable with just writing the news articles while others may want to branch out and take pictures or work on the layout. Get some assistance in expanding the project by recruiting interested students to do some of the work.

2. 2

   Choose Editors
   One student with leadership skills might want to take on the role of editor and decide how to organize the stories each issue by class news, school and local news, and so forth.

3. 3

   Put It Online
   If the class has a web page, the newsletter can also go on the website to keep the class and community informed of school events and news, or students can hand out the newsletter. A regular readership provides an authentic sense of audience and purpose to writing.

4. 4

   Never Stop
   Students can take more control as they gain more confidence and skill, thinking up and suggesting stories to write about.

A class newsletter takes time and planning, but the results in student interaction, team building, leadership, and writing skills as well as the final product are all well worth the effort.