Tag Archives: Output

Using an iPhone to make a PSA

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The fact that everyone these days has a smartphone means that every classroom has multiple cameras.  This is a tremendous opportunity for teachers since acting out a role-play on camera is usually more exciting for students than acting one out in the classroom.

I’ve always found public service announcements to be a great place to start when making movies in class.  You can really fit any type of topic into a PSA.

When making a PSA in class, there are a few things to keep in mind:

– Editing is usually not possible.  This means students have to get creative and think about how they can shoot a PSA in one take.

– Phones have different formats.  Make sure you know how you’ll get the videos on the OHP.  I find youtube the best source for this.  Having everyone upload their videos to youtube averts any need to download.

– Examples!  Youtube has a ton of PSAs.  Explain that you can go for shock value, humor, seriousness, etc.  Again, the idea is to be creative and have fun.

Here’s an example from my students.  It’s pretty good considering they did it in 45mins.  We were working with tag questions this week so they developed an script based on this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4o6kQ9bNMyg&feature=youtu.be

The Newly Wed Game

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For this activity, the teacher first arranges the class into two parallel lines so that students are sitting face-to-face.

Using a list of “would you rather” questions, the teacher asks each student in one line to guess what answer their partner in the other line would chose.  Examples of these questions include:

– Would you rather have $1 million but you could never leave California or an all-expenses paid trip around Europe?

– Would you rather have a boyfriend/girlfriend who is: loyal, funny, intelligent or good looking?

– Would you rather __________________________

Depending on the level, you could have students draft the questions as well.

Writing Activity: How Does It End?

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“How Does It End?” is a great activity to engage language learners in the writing process.  The activity consists of the teacher reading the majority of a story but leaving the ending for the students to predict and construct on their own.

In a follow-up class, students form groups and read each other’s endings as well as write an ending together.

To wrap-up, the teacher reads the author’s ending to compare how close students’ endings were.

History in Post-It Note Format

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Students are divided into groups of three.  Each student is given three post-it notes each.

The teacher instructs the students to write an important event in their life along with the month and year it happened on each post-it.  Once everyone has completed writing their events, the groups are told to arrange the events in a line according to when they happened.

Using a small trinket as a marker and a six-sided die or coin to move (heads = one move; tails = two), each group member takes turn rolling and moving their token.  Whichever post-it the token lands on, the person who wrote that event must explain it to the group.

After all of the events have been explained, the group can then practice explaining the events using a target grammar structure.  For example, if there is an event such as “moved to France (08/2002)” and “bought my first car (05/2005)” the group can say or write, “Matt moved to France three years before Joan bought her first car.”

Reassembling an Essay

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The goal is to take apart an essay then have the students put it back together using their knowledge of transitions, main ideas, etc.

The first step to setting up this activity is to take a sample TOEFL essay from any online source and import it into MS Word.  As you read through the essay, break it apart into fragments based on the use of signpost words or idea groups.  Don’t break it up so much that it’s difficult to spot the logical transition between ideas.

Once you’ve got the essay broken down, print out as many copies as you need.  I usually have students work in groups of three.  Cut up the essays one-by-one and mix the strips together.

In class, distribute the cut up essays and explain the task to students.  The goal is for them to visualize the logic and structure of a TOEFL essay.

Hot Seat: Present Perfect

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First arrange all of the chairs in a circle, there should be one less chair than there are students.  One student then stands in the center of the circle while all of the others are sitting around him or her.

The goal for the student standing in the center is to free up a seat so he or she can sit.  In order to do this, he or she makes a sentence using never + the present perfect (“I have never smoked a cigarette.”)  Any student that has done this action must stand up and explain how many times or for how long they have done it (“I have smoke cigarettes for many years.”)

Ideally, multiple people will stand up.  After the last person has stated how long or how many times they have done something, everyone must take a new seat (you cannot sit in your original seat).  The student left without a seat then makes their own sentence and the process is repeated.

Back to the Board

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Similar to Taboo, this is a vocabulary game in which students must elicit a specific word from a partner using clues.

To set up, two chairs are placed in front of the whiteboard.  I prefer to make this a competitive game so I divide the class into two teams who then crowd around the chair in front of the board.  One member from each team then sits in the chair.

Next, I’ll write a word or concept on the whiteboard which the two teams will try to elicit from the team member in the chair.  Teams are allowed to use whatever means necessary (acting, defining, using synonyms) to get their teammate to say the word.  Once someone gets the word, the two people in the chair join their group and a new person gets in the chair.

Paraphrasing Practice for Millennials

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Teaching paraphrasing and summarizing can be frustrating for students.  One way that I’ve tried to make it slightly more enjoyable is framing the skill in the context of sending tweets.

Prior to class, I draw up a three or four short paragraphs that I feel can be summed up in 140 characters.  A paragraph might look like this:

Today I went to the mall.  I had to buy some new blue jeans since mine look a little old.  When I got to the mall I couldn’t find a parking spot since it was so busy.  Once I got into the mall, I couldn’t walk past all of the stores without buying something in them.  By the time I left, I had bought a new shirt, some new shoes a slice of pizza and some new jeans.  I spent all of my money!

Working in small groups and using a twitter app, students try to condense the paragraphs into single tweets.  After each group completes their tweets, we put them on the board and compare answers to see who was able to get the most information into a single tweet (there’s no single right answer).

Three Truths, One Lie

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A classic activity which can be used to target a wide range of grammar structures, vocabulary, etc.

Students are told that they need to write four sentences, three are true and one is false.  The teacher can specify what the sentences must be about, for example: “write four sentences about yourself using the present perfect” or “write four sentences about San Francisco that use the vocabulary words we learned yesterday.”

Once all of the students have written their sentences, put them into small groups to exchange their sentences.  After a student reads his/her sentences, the other students must guess which one is not true.  Once all of the students have read to their group, the students who managed to stump their group can read their sentences to the class.

Opinion Gap

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A basic activity which involves students, in pairs or small groups, reading or listening to the same information.  This can be a story form the news, a fictional story, etc., that will elicit a range of opinions from students.  For example, Justin Bieber’s new tattoo.  The goal is to inspire conversation and the exchange of information (opinions) using the target language.

From my experience, it’s generally best to use fictional situations or news related to pop culture since some students are adverse to discussing topics that might be considered politically sensitive.