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

20 Questions
One person thinks of an object (person, place, or thing). Everyone takes turns asking yes/no questions until someone can guess correctly (or until 20 questions are asked). The difficult part is that you cannot ask "wh" questions!
Example: PINEAPPLE. Does it talk? No. Does it make life easier? No. Do you eat it? Yes. Is it something you would eat for dinner? No. Etc...
If someone makes a mistake in forming the question, other club members can help turn it into a proper question.

Can't Say Yes or No
In this game everyone is given a certain number of coins or squares of paper (about 10). Everyone moves around the room starting conversations and asking each other questions. The only rule is that you cannot say the words YES or NO. If you accidentally say one of these words, you have to give a coin or square to the person who you said it to. Try to trick each other by asking questions that you would almost always answer with a yes or no. Think of other ways to trick your friends. Sometimes asking two quick questions in a row works well. (Especially tag questions: Are you new here? This is your first time in America, isn't it?). This game is a great way to practise using small talk and to add variety to your vocabulary. It also makes everyone laugh.

Fact or Fiction
In this game, one person tells a short story about themselves or someone they know or heard about. Usually it is something funny or crazy. It can be a true story, or something made up.
Example: Josh tells a story about his Uncle Leo who sleeps in the nude. One day Uncle Leo was sleepwalking and he went outside and took his dog for a walk. The next door neighbour was coming home late from work and saw him! She called the police and he got arrested for being naked in public.
Everyone around the room has to say whether they think Josh's story is fact (true) or fiction (made up). Josh reveals the truth when everyone has guessed. Members can take turns telling a story.

Chain Fairytale
This is a fun writing warm-up. Everyone has a piece of paper and writes the first sentence or two to start a fairytale (not one that already exists).
Example: Once upon a time there was a frog that had no legs. He wanted to get married, but there were no female legless frogs in the land.
After one minute the leader will say "SWITCH". At this time the writers have to put down their pens and pass the papers. They cannot finish their sentences. Then, the next writers will continue the story. After about ten minutes you will have as many silly stories to read as you have club members. The leader should warn the writers that they will soon have to wrap-up the story during the last two minutes so that each story has a conclusion. Read all of the stories out loud for a good laugh. You can extend this activity by trying to edit each other's writing and spelling errors.

Draw the Picture
In this activity members split up into pairs or small groups. One person looks at a scene from a magazine or book (the leader should cut out enough pictures, or bring in enough magazines for the club). The other person has a pencil and a blank piece of paper. The person with the picture will try to describe everything he sees to the drawer. This is good practice for using prepositions of place. When the describer is finished, compare the drawings to the real thing! Whose is the closest to the original?

Categories
For this game, one person thinks of a category, such as MOVIES. In a circle, everyone must take a turn thinking of a Movie title (in English of course). If someone takes too long to give an answer (the leader should count to five) then that person is out and a new category begins. If someone gives an answer that doesn't make sense or is incorrect, he is also out of the game. For example, if the category is VEGETABLES and someone says "banana" that person is out. The game continues until only one person is left!

Who am I?
In this game, the leader prepares cards with famous people's names on them. The leader tapes one card on the back of each member. Then everyone pretends they are at a party and asks each other questions to find out their own identities. When someone guesses their own name correctly, the name-tag gets taped to their front and they continue to chat with the party guests until everyone is wearing the nametag on the front.

Jeopardy
In this game, which is based on the famous gameshow Jeopardy, everyone writes down ten answers to questions about themselves. After writing down the answers, people have to form pairs or small groups and try to find out what the questions are.
Example: (answer = purple) "What is your favorite colour?" "Blue." "What colour do you hate?" "Green." "What colour is your underwear?" "Purple!" You can stop at three guesses if you want, or keep going until someone in the club can guess the question.

Hot Seat
In this game, the club is split up into two teams. One member from each team sits facing the group. The leader holds up a word (or writes it on the board if you are in a classroom) for all of the team members to see except for the two players in the hot seats. The teams must try to get the person in the hot seat to guess the word or phrase. The first person to guess correctly gets to stand up and a new member from their team takes the hot seat. The person on the other team has to remain in the hot seat until she gets an answer first. You can keep score or just play for fun. This game can also be played in pairs. One pair member closes their eyes while the leader shows the word to the other pair members. The first pair to get the word right gets a point. Warning! This is a loud game because people tend to get excited and yell!

Broken Telephone
This is a listening and pronunciation activity that always gets people laughing. The leader first must think of a sentence or phrase and whisper it to the person beside her. That person will then whisper what she heard to the next person. Each person can only say, "Can you please repeat that?" one time. When the message reaches the end of the chain that person must speak out loud. Oftentimes the message will be completely different when it reaches the end. Try to find out where the chain broke! In a big group you can send the message two ways and find out which team comes closest to the real message. (A famous example is the army message that started as "Send reinforcements, we're going to advance" and ended as "Send three and fourpence, we're going to a dance.")

Галина КОПОТЕВА: Универсальные учебные действия

http://standart.edu.ru/

Анализ урока по ФГОС

Общая схема анализа компетнтностно-ориентированного урока может выглядеть следующим образом.

Схема анализа компетентностно-ориентированного урока

Критерии анализа инновационного урока.

В условиях инновационного урока учитель, кроме того, что он делает на традиционном уроке, дополнительно осуществляет какое-либо нововведение: вводит новое содержание, новую методику обучения или воспитания, ведет экспериментально-исследовательскую работу на основе предварительно разработанной концепции и т.д. Поэтому при проведении инновационного урока, кроме тех показателей, которые применяются к оценке эффективности традиционного урока, дополнительно используются показатели и критерии инновационного урока.
При оценке эффективности урока могут быть использованы как 5-, так и 10- балльные шкалы. Это зависит от того, какой шкале вы отдаете предпочтение.

Показатели и критерии оценки эффективности инновационного урока.

treasure-hunt-in-london.pdf    

Е.К. Форина. Словарь по информационным технологиям

Testovye_zadaniya_dlya_attestacii.rar

Role-plays give students the opportunity to demonstrate how to use English in real life situations and make them focus more on communication than on grammar. Role-play activities can be a lot of fun however a class full of shy students may be reluctant to participate so it is important to know your students.

How To Proceed

1. 1

   Regardless of what type of role-play you intend to do, it is imperative that students feel comfortable with the necessary structures and vocabulary.
   This makes role-plays ideal for the final lesson on a particular topic. If students perform well, move on to the next chapter and if students struggle, address any mistakes in the following lesson. The feedback given in any role-play lesson should be primarily positive and focus on pronunciation, acting, and creativity. Role-plays are about encouraging your students and building their self confidence.

2. 2

   Mini-role plays can be done in any lesson as a practice activity.
   Rather than just practice the model dialogue in pairs or groups, encourage students to be creative and use props to better reflect a real life situation. Students should have some space to move about the classroom and be given extra time to practice. If the model dialogue is four to six sentences total, a practice activity in pairs may take five minutes with only two or three demonstrations while a mini-role play of the same length may take ten to fifteen minutes to prepare with about ten minutes for performances. This activity can even be done in the same lesson as the introduction and drilling of a new topic if your students have a good understanding of the new material.

3. 3

   Role-plays can also take an entire lesson especially if students are put in groups instead of in pairs.
   A lesson such as this would be ideal after several lessons on the same topic. A directions themed role play might be best in groups of three or four where each student must say a minimum of three or four lines. Structuring the activity in this way will give your students some easy guidelines to follow. You can prepare your students by explaining the activity at the end of a class, placing them in their groups, and asking them to think about what they would like to do. Suggest that they bring in any props they would like to use and try to provide some if possible. In the next class, quickly review the target material before splitting the class into groups and dedicate half of the time to practice with the remaining half being for performances. If your students are really eager to perform, ensure that every group gets an opportunity to present their role-play to the class even if it means performing during the next lesson as well. If students are reluctant, then have only the groups that volunteer present.

4. 4

   Role-plays can be used as end of term projects for intermediate and advanced students.
   At this stage in their studies, they have sufficient knowledge to draw upon to enact real life situations and can get really creative. It is important to decide how you plan to grade your students so that you can explain it to them before they get started. If the project is worth one hundred points, you can break it into sections such as creativity, pronunciation, acting, attitude/enthusiasm, script, etc and assign a point value to each section. Four sections are probably enough. Perhaps each group of students can be assigned a different chapter of your textbook or a different theme. This project would take many lessons. There would be one class where you introduce the project, split the class into groups, and let students brainstorm followed by classes for script development, practice sessions, and final performances. A good method of checking the progress of each group is to have script submissions once or twice before the final performance. The first submission can be to correct grammar and the second submission should be the final script. This will ensure that students can take chances and push their abilities, prevent them from practicing incorrect material, and verify that they are making progress on the project.

Role-plays can be immensely time consuming and require some real planning and structure but are generally easy to conduct once started. Students who struggle with English exams may finally get their opportunity to shine while students who generally perform well on exams will be challenged to prove their abilities in another way. Role-plays are less stressful than preparing for exams and enjoyable for both teachers and students.

When it comes to speaking, confidence is the key, password, login and biometric security that students need in order to succeed at speaking with ease. Once a student builds the confidence to speak, their abilities begin to improve at breakneck pace. Students who lack confidence are the ones who stumble and resort to their L1, and develop a fear of making mistakes that manifests itself if not ironed out quickly.

As a teacher, you cannot magically click a button and provide the students with the confidence to speak, but you can be there to encourage them to build their confidence by trying a few new little tricks, or even something as simple as nodding your head and smiling a little bit more.

No matter what lengths are taken, the foundations of succinct, accurate and fluent speech are through a high level of confidence. This article will take a look at some of the methods to help students speak by opening the door to some of the untapped confidence that lies within. Here’s a few of the best that we could think of.

How to Proceed

1. 1

   Forget the errors; just be happy that they’re speaking

   Yeah! See how well they’re speaking? Yes it may not be accurate or fluent, but hell, sure enough they are using English! Sure, they may be speaking in purely the present simple, but hey, keep sitting back smiling and nodding, and you will do wonders with helping the student cross the first hurdle of building their confidence with speaking.

2. 2

   Give them easy topics that they know a lot about... Them!

   We all love to do it, recalling an amusing story about our lives in our home country, telling a tall tale about teaching a government minister or even the introduction class where we get the students to ask us questions. The most familiar topic anyone can talk about is oneself. We do it, they can too.

3. 3

   Provide the cues, give them the ideas

   One of the things that I like to do is draw a diagram that outlines me. In the middle of the board is a little stick figure of me, leading out to all of the influences in my life. The best way to describe it is like a mind-map, but I prefer to call this a “life map”. The life map allows students to see influences, likes, dislikes in their life and then give them the necessary cues to speak about themselves.

4. 4

   If the cues fail, give ‘em the outline

   If the visual cues fail, give the students a virtual template to work off. The teacher can simply write the language and the structures on the whiteboard for the students to fill in with the appropriate words.

5. 5

   Take them for a walk on the wild side, outside their comfort zone

   If the potential is there or the student’s skill is just lying underneath the surface, one of the ways I like to deal with that is to push the students a little bit harder and chip away at what’s underneath the service. I love pushing students to the best of their abilities, and if there is a mere inkling of the confidence, I will be there to prod and poke it as much as I can. I love to give little challenges to my students such as talking for 30 seconds or a minute non-stop on a topic. This seemingly difficult activity will make life so much easier when it comes to speaking about the simple things.

6. 6

   Listen to the real deal

   Sure enough, students who have been away from the English language for a while, only need to listen to a dialogue before they begin to grab their confidence by the horns and take it for a ride. A good dialogue that clearly outlines the language can be used as a starting point, while providing students with a chance to “mimic” the accent and the style. The more “brave” students will quickly take to the task and instantly pick up on some of the key vocabulary, while adding their own personality into replicating the dialogue.

7. 7

   Smile, be patient, and smile again!

   No matter how many different activities that you try with your student, nothing beats a smile when it comes to unlocking the confidence. A smile provides the students with positive reassurance to keep at it and give them a positive outlook on what they can perceive as being the impossible task of speaking a foreign language.

If you follow these steps, we’re sure that you will succeed in providing your students with the key to unlocking their inner confidence, which is one of the major factors in speaking English with confidence.

How to get everyone speaking in a multilevel class is a question that plagues ESL teachers.

You can try role plays, and that works to some degree, but shy students and those with less fluency won’t participate at the level teachers would like. Group discussions can be hit or miss. One solution for the multilevel class is theStrategic Interaction Method. This method combines group discussion with role play and class discussion to encourage stress free participation from students at all levels.

How to Get Everyone Involved

1. 1

   The Scenario

   Strategic Interaction begins with a scenario. This scenario is a real life situation in which your students will be required to use language to solve a problem. Though a group of students will receive each scenario’s information, only one person will perform the assigned role during the performance stage. Each group’s information about the scenario is different. They do have shared information about the situation, but each group also receives information specific to the role assigned to that group, that is the personal agenda of the role that group will be fulfilling. This situation and conflicting agendas will create tension between the roles and a conflict which needs to be resolved.

2. Rehearsal

   Students are given time in group discussion to determine the strategies they will use in the performance stage. Though only one student will actually be performing the interaction, all students can participate in the rehearsal phase and give advice to the performer. By discussing strategies in groups, students who are not confident enough to perform a role play in front of the class can participate in a less intimidating environment offering valuable input to the group and learning from others the language needed to accomplish their goal.

3. 3

   Performance

   One student from each group will participate in the performance stage. Remember that at this point neither group knows the agenda of the other, and each participant has his own agenda to accomplish. Students must use language in strategic ways to try and achieve their goals. The goal of the different roles will be at odds with each other, so students must decide if and when to compromise on their goals. At any point during the interaction, the person playing the role can pause the interaction and consult with his or her group for advice and input. This gives strategic interaction an advantage over the simple role play. Students playing the roles are freed from the need to know all the answers and students at all fluency levels can participate in giving advice. Still, all students are using realistic language to resolve a conflict.

4. 4

   Debriefing

   After the performance, conduct a debriefing. Debriefing is the only part of the activity that happens with the entire class. In the debriefing stage, the teacher should lead a discussion about the interaction. You can encourage students to offer opinions about successful communication strategies or unsuccessful ones, and provide an opportunity for students to ask questions about any part of the interaction. In addition, during debriefing students can share alternative resolutions to the situations and share how they could have been achieved. Students find the freedom to express their personal opinions in this stage even though they may not have been able to perform the role play.

5. 5

   Possible Scenarios

   In any scenario you use, each role should have an agenda in conflict with the agenda of the other role. Here are two possible scenarios you can use with your students. You can also easily write your own as long as each the two agendas create tension in the situation.

   Scenario One: This scenario between two friends puts the participants in a tense situation, each reticent to tell the other the full truth of what has happened. 
   Role A: You borrowed your friend’s car to pick your significant other from the airport. Because you parked the car illegally, it was towed. You do not have money to get the car back from the towing agency. You are about to meet with the friend who leant you the car. 
   Role B: Although you know your friend can be irresponsible at times, his/her significant other was flying into town and you were unavailable to pick that person up. Instead you loaned your car to your friend. Thankfully, your friend did not have any accidents. Because you have some unpaid parking tickets, the police would impound your car if anything had happened. You do not have money to get your car back if something like that happens. You are about to meet your friend and get your car back.

   Scenario Two: In this situation, each of the participants has pressure to achieve an outcome in opposition to the other participant. 
   Role A: You are a teacher who has gotten much criticism for giving too many students A’s. You are on a program this semester to only give A’s to the top five students in your class. If you fail to be more restrictive in giving high grades, you may lose your job. 
   Role B: You are a senior in college and have achieved a 4.0 up until this semester. Every other semester when you have failed to get an A, your professor has allowed you to do makeup work or retake tests to improve your grade to an A. You are about to graduate and do not want your perfect record spoiled. You are about to meet with the only teacher who did not give you an A this semester. Try and get him/her to change your grade.

As you can see, strategic interaction is one of the easiest ways to get everyone in your multilevel class speaking. By taking away pressure and embarrassment and giving students the support of their group, you can get everyone in your class speaking today.

7 Ways to Turn the Boring Coursebook into Engaging Speaking Tasks

ROLE-PLAYS WARMERS:

Neighbors

Give each student a piece of paper.

Tell the students that each one is to draw a house on his or her paper. They are to work alone. When the houses are drawn, they are to fold the papers in two so that the houses cannot be seen. The papers are collected, placed in the center of the table, and shuffled. Each student then picks one and unfolds it. Now ask the students, one at a time, to describe in detail the house on the paper each has chosen. Ask them to describe the occupants of the house, the furniture in the"house, the colors used in the different rooms, the location of the house, and any other details they can think of. Next, arrange all the drawings face up on the table. Ask each student to choose one that he or she likes and write his or her name on the back of it. There should be only one name on each drawing.

Then have the class, working together, arrange the houses in groups of three. (If the number of drawings is not divisible by three, one or two groups may have four houses.) Let the students develop their own criteria for grouping the houses. Provide no more guidance than "houses that you think go together well." When the sets of houses are formed, ask those whose names appear on the drawings to sit together and create a three-minute skit that illustrates or depicts the relationships among the "neighbors" who live in the three (or four) houses. Have each group present its skit to the group.

Complete The Dialogue

SS complete a dialogue in pairs using their imagination. Then they act it out in front of the class. Which dialogue was the best? (vote)

Collaborate with your students on a list of famous people, including movie stars, politicians, athletes, and artists.

Have every student choose a famous person, and put them in pairs to interview each other. Make it competitive by having a vote for the best-performed interview afterwards. Or use an MP3 player to record their interviews and then play them for everyone to enjoy!

You Are What You Will

Tell the class that they are to imagine another life.

In this new life they can take the form of an animal, a plant, or an object. The one form they cannot take is that of a human being. Give them a few minutes to think about what they would like to be. Then ask the students, one at a time, to tell what they are and to describe themselves. Encourage the other students to ask anything they like about the new personality, its function, background, feelings, and so on. After the students have revealed and described their new identities, conduct a general feedback discussion. Help the students to analyze what they have learned about themselves and one another and about human aspirations in general. You may also want to elicit discussion of possible contrasts between the students' "new life" and "real life" identities in terms of such criteria as age, sex, nationality, or any others that may show up in the course of the lesson.

Act It Out

Act it out. Hand out plots.

Pupils write the script and act it out:

The Fire. Detective or journalist interviews witnesses (one of whom may be a suspect) about what they saw/heard/did. (The Fire can be changed to a Bizarre Noise, Disappearance, Murder, Theft etc). Lots of questions and past simple.

The Hold-up. Group of gangsters planning a hold-up. "Stop. Now it’s two days after the hold-up and you’re all in prison. Now discuss what actually happened, whose fault etc." Could be a Hi-jacking.

Television Interview. Filmstar, politician, sportsperson etc.

The Amnesiac. Student A is in bed in hospital, having lost his memory. The other Students are medical staff, police officers, visitors (family, friends etc) who try to bring memory back. They must be careful. A shock could be fatal.

Teachers’ Meeting. Teachers discuss imaginary students to decide who should continue next year. One teacher is the ‘chairman’ and has a list of students ("Now we’ll discuss Erika...")

The Neighbour. A neighbour who needs to sleep or revise etc knocks on door and complains about the noise from a party.

The Small Ad. For sale/To rent/Friendship. Student A has seen a classified ad in the paper. Student A decides for herself the subject of the ad. She then chooses any other student (Student B, who has placed the ad) and calls her about it. "I'm calling about your ad for a live-in nanny..."

The Hypochondriac. Student A is a hypochondriac determined to have as many pills as possible. He consults Student B who is a doctor strongly averse to giving out pills willy-nilly.

The Clairvoyant. Student A consults a clairvoyant. Asks questions about lover, money, health etc. (Useful for practice of future.) Directions. A young girl stops passers-by in the street and asks for help/directions in finding an address.

The Tourist. Student A goes to another country (or planet) and calls home to tell Student B all about it.

The Answering Machine. Student A calls B and gets answering machine (B’s voice). Leaves message.

Do your students struggle to write with detail? Are their descriptions limited, lacking in specifics or uninformative?

If so, you can help your students write more engaging and elaborate pieces by teaching the following strategies for elaboration.

Elaboration: 7 Writing Strategies

1. 1

   Describe a Place in Detail

   It is easy for any writer to mention a place without really telling the reader much about it. Encourage your students to go back through a piece they have written and look for a mention of a place. There may be a personal narrative or story that he was writing when he got so enthusiastic about the plot that he quickly mentioned some place that he did not describe with detail. Have your student go back and write a paragraph describing only that place. It might be where the story takes place like a forest or a school. It might be a place where the main character dreams of going, like camping or skiing. Regardless, explain to your student that adding more information about that place makes his writing more interesting and helps the reader picture himself in that place. Make sure your students know that it is okay to return to a prior piece of writing to add that kind of detail. Describing a place helps the reader put himself in the story with greater ease, and it makes the characters and event more real.

2. 2

   Use Specific Words to Paint Pictures

   Look at the following examples:
   
      • I went to the mailbox.
      • I ran to the mailbox.
      • I staggered to the mailbox.
      • I plodded to the mailbox.
   
   In each sentence, the speaker is going to the mailbox, but the images are quite different. With the first sentence, the reader does not get a clear picture in her mind. She does not know how the person felt or how his body was moving. Each of the other examples gives the reader a more complete picture of how the person felt and acted. Show your students these examples and ask them which one they think is boring writing. They will say that the first is boring. Then ask them how they would describe the writing in the other sentences. They will probably say it is interesting, specific or good. Ask your students if they would rather write boring or interesting pieces. They will say they would rather write interesting ones. Then encourage them that by using specific words, the writer paints a clear picture and does not have boring writing. When you are talking about using specific words, it is a good time to explain to your students how a thesaurus works. Show them that by looking up one word like happy, they can find many other ways to express that emotion to paint a clearer picture: content, joyful, blissful, cheery, fortunate, etc. The more specific the word that she uses, the clearer the picture becomes in the reader’s mind. Divide your class into pairs or small groups and have them share a piece that they have written with their partners. Then ask their groups to point out places where they do not get a clear picture from what is written. Give students time to revise their pieces and then share with their groups again.

3. 3

   Show How Something Feels, Smells, Tastes, Sounds or Looks

   Showing not telling is the key to writing with elaboration. Place a simple common object in front of your class, like an apple, and ask them to describe it. After they have given some description, ask them to describe how the apple feels. Then ask them to describe how it smells. Ask how they think it tastes. Go through each of the five senses (sight, smell, sound, taste, touch) and ask for a specific description of the apple for each category. Show your students by focusing on one of the senses at a time, they can provide a much more detailed and therefore interesting description. Give your students a little practice in class by asking them to think of a specific object and describe that object in terms of each of the five senses. They should write their descriptions down on a piece of paper. When finished, have students exchange papers and try to guess what the other person’s object might be. Were they right? Did the writer give detailed description for each of the five senses?

4. 4

   Compare Two Different Things Through Simile or Metaphor

   A simile is a phrase that compares two things using the words like or as.
      • He is as excited as a puppy.
      • The girl is like a spinning top.
   Both of these phrases compare a person to another object.
   A metaphor, on the other hand, compares two things by saying that one is the other.
      • They boy was an excited puppy running around the room.
      • The girl was a spinning top unable to stay still.
   
   Inspire your students’ creativity by challenging them to write similes and metaphors for some of their favorite characters from literature or television shows. You may also want to have them describe each other (though only do this if you are sure no one will be offended). Tell them that using similes and metaphors in their writing helps the reader associate the written piece with something that they already know. This association makes the written piece more real and engaging for that reader.

5. 5

   Use the Exact Thoughts or Words from a Person

   If you have taught your students how to use quotations, they will be well prepared for this elaboration strategy. Using a person’s exact words is usually more interesting than a paraphrase in writing. Encourage your students to use quotations from the people they know when writing their personal narratives. If your students are writing fiction, ask them to imagine what they would say in the situation about which they are writing. Then have them use those exact words for their stories. You can find more information on teaching about quotations here on busyteacher.org in the ESL essentials section.

6. 6

   Describe How Someone or Something Moves

   This elaboration strategy ties into using specific vocabulary (strategy #2). With a focus on movement, encourage your students to use specific verbs rather than using adverbs. Instead of saying, “He ran to the mailbox quickly,” say, “He dashed to the mailbox.” Instead of saying, “She cried hard all night,” say “She sobbed all night.” Using specific verbs rather than a verb plus adverb combination paints a better picture for your reader and helps the author show rather than tell in his or her writing. Let your students know that this is a strategy that professional writers use to make their writing more descriptive. To practice, have your students take a piece of their writing and circle all of the adverbs. Then have them replace the verb plus adverb combination with a more specific verb. How many of the adverbs were they able to replace?

7. 7

   Show Someone’s Feelings Through What He Does

   Show don’t tell, the professional writer’s motto, applies to more than just good verb usage. It is the cornerstone to good writing. A strong writer will communicate his character’s feelings through her actions. Instead of writing, “She was depressed,” encourage your students to show those feelings to their readers by writing about the character’s actions. She grabbed the last tissue from the box and dabbed her eyes. She threw it on the floor with the others. She did not change out of her pajamas all day, and she sat in front of the television not even changing the channel though she had no interest in the program that was on.
   This activity may be challenging to your students, but the final product is worth the effort it took to create it. They say that actions speak louder than words, and when it comes to descriptive writing, it is true.

These are seven proven strategies you can teach your students to produce strong, detailed writing.

You can teach them to your students one at a time or take a day and go through all of them. Either way, the more your students learn about elaboration in writing, the better writers they will become.

BUSYTEACHER

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.

We all want our students to succeed. We try to encourage honest learning and do not just teach to the test.

We do assess our students, but can we influence their success merely by the test questions we write? We most certainly can. Following are some helpful tips learned from experience to help you write successful test questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. 1

   The grammar you use in your answer choices may be influencing how your students choose an answer. Make sure all your choices are grammatically parallel. In other words, if you ask, “Where does a rabbit live?”, phrase all your answers as prepositional phrases.
   A. In a house
   B. In a car
   C. Under a bridge
   D. In a warren.
   If you offered choice E. dangerously close to the highway, it will obviously be incorrect because it is phrased differently than the other choices.

2. 2

   Though every education student has probably heard it, watch your vowels. Always give the possibility of either a or an when asking a question. You can include the choice either in the question itself or in the answers.
   What does a rabbit eat for breakfast?
   A. a carrot
   B. a protein shake
   C. an egg
   D. a piece of toast,
   
   (or a rabbit eats a(n)___________ for breakfast).

3. 3

   Keep all your answers around the same length. If one answer is significantly longer or shorter than all the rest, it will likely be the best choice or an easy elimination. Try to write about the same amount for each answer option to avoid give away answers.

Fill In the Blank Questions

1. 4

   There is a difference between recognition knowledge of a word and recall knowledge of a word. Recognition knowledge means you understand the word when you hear it or read it. Recall knowledge means you can and will use the word in your own speech or writing. Everyone no matter what his language has a greater recognition vocabulary than a recall vocabulary. Test your students’ ability to understand the material you have presented, their recall knowledge, by providing them with a word bank. The word bank can have more words or the same number that your students will need to fill in the blanks. Because providing a word bank tests their recall knowdlege, it is a better measure of what they have learned than testing their recall knowledge and asking them to elicit vocabulary words on their own.

True False Questions

1. 5

   Do not try to trick your students with questions that have minor changes in them to make them false. When testing on literature, do not make up false names for characters or change letters in words to make them incorrect. This is confusing for your students and does not give you a useful gauge on their comprehension of the material. Instead, try to test general comprehension of the material.

2. 6

   If you really want to know what your students have learned, have them correct the false statements to make them true. This will eliminate random guessing and also give you a better idea what concepts your students might not understand yet. You may also find that you have to cover specific material again or explain a concept in another way.

Difficulty Level

1. 7

   Start your test with the easiest questions and move toward those that are more difficult. Though you might want to mix up the order to challenge your students, going from easier to harder questions alleviates stress for your students and makes for a better testing experience. Not to mention, standardized tests like the SAT and TOEFL follow this organization, so structuring your tests that way will help your students on these important tests in the future.

2. 8

   Test multiple learning levels. The majority of your questions should target the lower learning levels of recall, comprehension and application. Do not be afraid, however, to add one or two questions testing higher levels of learning like analysis, synthesis and evaluation (see Bloom’s taxonomy of learning for more information on learning levels). Test these higher levels sparingly, especially if you have not spent a lot of time during class on these types of activities.

General Tips

1. 9

   Give your students experience with the types of questions with which you will be testing. The test should not be the first time they have seen a fill in the blank or made corrections to an incorrect sentence. Your students should have practice with the form so you can test the content and not the form.

2. 10

   Tell them ahead of time what will be on the test both in structure and in content. It does not hurt you as a teacher or skew your test results to give your students a heads up about the type of questions that will be on the test. Giving your students this information ahead of time means you cannot write your test the night before, but that makes for a higher quality piece of evaluation anyway. Also, give them some idea what content will be covered on the test though you do not have to give specifics. Page numbers, lecture dates or book chapters are sufficient.

3. 11

   Include the points each section is worth. This way students can budget their time to be most impactful for them. Neither you nor they want them to spend ten minutes struggling to answer a question of minimal importance. Let them have full knowledge of what is weightiest as they take the test so they can prioritize as they take it.

4. 12

   Expect your students to have “foreign” handwriting. Even though English is taught in places all around the world, handwriting is not the same everywhere. Do not be surprised if your students consistently write in a penmanship style that is challenging for you to read.

When a person is scared, angry or is experiencing any strong emotion, language will instinctively revert to what is most natural for that person. Do what you can to relieve as much of your students’ stress as possible by writing good test questions so that you are testing their knowledge at its best, not its worst. It will make you a better teacher and your students better learners.

How to Use Magazines in Your ESL Classroom

1. 1

   Current Events Reading and Speaking

   Particularly with advanced adult students, magazine articles from magazines like Time and Newsweek spark discussion and debate. Choose an article that suits your students' level, make enough copies for all, introduce vocabulary, present the topic through an engaging warm up activity, then read. End the lesson with a debate or discussion on the topic: try to present specific thought-provoking questions, rather than a simple, “Discuss!” See our other article ‘How To Teach Current Events to ESL Students’ for more on teaching current events.

2. 2

   Celebrity Comparisons

   This is a great activity for teens or beginners who are into celebrities. Magazines like People will work best in this case: the more celebrity pics, the better! Use celebrity photos to spark comparisons: Arnold Swatznegger is taller than Tom Cruise. He's also bigger. But Tom is a better actor. Who's the most talented actor of them all? Or songwriter? See what your students have to say!

3. 3

   A Search for Words

   Little ones LOVE cutting up magazines. Ask them to look through a pile of magazines and cut out all of the fruits and vegetables they can find, or people playing sports, or clothes - you choose the set of vocabulary you want them to practice. Once you have all of their cutouts, prompt them to say whatever comes to mind about each: Apples are red. I love apples. I don’t like tomatoes. I hate lettuce. I eat bananas every day for breakfast, etc…

4. 4

   What's happening?

   This a wonderful way to practice tenses like the present continuous and not have to resort to the same illustrations your students have already seen countless times before. Choose a photo from a magazine - make sure it's a scene where there's a lot going on, like an airport, restaurant, a family doing things outdoors. Simply show them the picture and ask: What’s happening in this picture?; What’s the father doing?; What’s the mother doing?; etc.

5. 5

   On the Cover

   Magazines are also excellent authentic materials that provide a great deal of information about more cultural aspects. Choose magazines that cater to specific audiences or shed some light into the American culture. Show your students the cover and ask them what they think this magazine is about: is it an entertainment, fashion, or news magazine? Who or what is on the cover and why? Ask them to guess what each story is about based on the headline.

6. 6

   Focusing on Headlines

   The headlines themselves may spark great speaking activities, as well as a glimpse into newspaper and magazine headline language. Before asking students to open the magazine, list some of the headlines featured in the magazine and ask them to say what they think each article is about. Write a list of topics that correspond to those headlines. Ask students to match the right topic to the right headline.

7. 7

   Where Would You Find Information on…?

   Bring several different types of magazines to class, the greater the variety, the better. Give your students a few minutes to browse through each and get a feel for the content. Then ask them: where would you find information on the latest iPhone apps? Where would you find information on dog breeds? What kind of person would buy Rolling Stone? What kind of person would buy Car and Driver? What interests do they have?

8. 8

   Topic of Interest

   Ask students to browse several magazines and choose one article or topic that interests them. Tell them that they can read the article, but they must be prepared to tell the class about it in their own words.

9. 9

   What Was That Question Again?

   Choose a magazine article that features an interview or information on a celebrity. Ask students to think of what questions the interviewer asked to get this information. Ask students to supply any other questions they may want to ask.

10. 10

    Find the Differences

    Show students two magazine pictures that present a similar situation: people in an office, people playing sports, people showing different emotions. Show students each set and ask them to tell the class what these pictures have in common and how they differ.

Choose unusual, abstract magazine photos and let your students’ imagination run wild. Choose magazine ads for a variety of products and discuss marketing or advertising strategies. There are as many ways to use magazines in an ESL classroom as there are magazines in a newsstand. But no matter which activity you choose, make sure you give your students a chance to speak up!

THE MAGIC OF OZ after Frank Baum
В качестве задания - разработка к каждой главе по лексике, грамматике и проверке понимания текста. К некоторым главам есть настольные игры. В конце - "Своя игра" на обобщение и повторение материала.

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CHRISTMAS ANDTHE FATHER FROST. after R. Crompton
короткий текст для второго года обучения (Preset Simple). В качестве задания - копия текста с картинками вместо ключевых слов.

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WILLIAM WANTS TO GO TO THE CIRCUS after R. Crompton
короткий текст для второго года обучения (Preset Simple). В качестве задания - копия текста с картинками вместо ключевых слов.

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