Sep 2010 Presentation

These are the presentation notes for Simon’s session on teaching reading fluency for Elementary School students.

ETJ Presentation Sep 2010

Read Full Post »

Vocabulary Game

　RESOURCE 2

Vocabulary game

One student picks up a card and read the noun only e.g. restaurant. The other student(s) try and guess the adjective phrase

Student 1            restaurant               Student 2           a new restaurant

Student 1           No, try again           Student 2            A Japanese restaurant

Student 1           No, but close           Student 2            An Italian restaurant

Student 1            Yes, that’s right

 

An English Lesson	An Italian restaurant	A digital camera
A long story	A cold winter	A sandy beach
A new car	A difficult decision	A bad mood
A pretty dress	A clear sky	A sunny day

Read Full Post »

July 2005 Workshop

Activities and Minutes from July 2005 Workshop:

Re-Presenting language using different activities

 

Day and date

 Different Colours

Put students into pairs or teams. Each student receives a different coloured pen. When the teacher says “go” one student runs to the board and writes the first letter of the date. Then, they run back and tag the next student, who runs up and writes the next letter. The first team to complete the date is the winner

Alternative for small classrooms or large classes:

Students pass a piece of paper around the group instead of using the board

 Hot Potato

Students sit or stand in a circle. The teacher models the first sentence

“Today is Sunday” and throws a ball to a student the student repeats the sentence and throws the ball to another student. Once all the students have practiced the sentence once the second round starts.

The teacher says “Today is” and throws the ball. The student who catches the ball completes the sentence.

To make the activity more challenging:

l  Each student says one word only

e.g.        Tomomi:    “Today”                 Yuka:   ”is”                Michi:   “Sunday”

l  Use “today is”, “tomorrow is” and “yesterday was”.

 What am I?

When students enter the classroom they receive a piece of paper with the outline of a letter. They trace the letter, then stick their letter on a different student’s back. The students now have to make a line spelling the day and / or date. Because they can’t see their own letter they have to ask “What am I?”

Chopstick Spelling

Make one copy of the date for each team, cut up into individual letters. Each team receives a pair of chopsticks and one at a time students go to the middle of the room and pick up one letter with their chopsticks. They bring the letters back and their team-mates organize the letters to spell the day / date. The first team to finish wins.

Rhythm Game

Teacher starts a 4-beat rhythm – both hands on knees, clap once the click your fingers (left hand then right). Then a pattern is called out that includes a students name and 1 to 3 days of the week. The student whose name was called now continues the pattern and passes it to another sudent. E.g.

 

	Teacher	Tomomi	Yuka	Oliver
Knees	l	l	l	l
Clap	Tomomi	Yuka	Oliver	Simon
left	Monday	Wednesday	Friday	Sunday
right	Tuesday	Thursday	Saturday	Monday

 

Vocabulary Review games

 

1. Alphabet flashcard game

Teacher shuffles the alphabet flashcards. Each student takes one card and has to say a word beginning with that letter.

1. A-Z game

Students make a list of 26 words, one starting with each letter of the alphabet. Once the list is complete the students try to ‘win’ pairs of words by making as connection (e.g. apple and banana are both fruits, you need an x-ray if you’re sick, you find a cage and a zebra in the zoo

1. I went to ………… and ………………

Students sit in a circle (class can be divided into smaller groups if necessary). The teacher start by selecting a place, and starts the sentence. e.g. I went to the zoo and saw a lion

The next student repeats the sentence and adds another word. e.g. I went to the zoo and saw a lion and a tiger. The game continues until no more words can be added.

1. Lexical Spider’s web

The teacher writes a word in the center of the board or a piece of paper. E.g. BUS

Then students call out words that can go with the word to make 2-3 word phrases. E.g.

BUS – driver, stop, station, ticket, company and these are written around the word bus

Next the students match words up to the second group of words and keep expanding the web. E.g.

Taxi		smoking		President
	driver	stop	Company
right time	wait for the	BUS	mini	skirt
	get on a	school	Ticket
train		dinner		Office

 

 

Teaching and Reviewing simple present

1. Riddles

Students are put into teams. One member takes a riddle card from the pile and reads the first sentence. The other team members try and guess clue they hear. The sentences are read one at a time until the team guesses or gives up (see Riddle sheet)

1. Do you..?

Students take prompt cards and ask the question “Do you….? If their partner answers “Yes” they keep the card. The students with the most cards wins the game

1. True Lies

Students make 3 sentences about themselves, 2 are true but one is untrue. They read out their sentences and the other students try to guess which one is untrue.

e.g.                      My uncle is a famous guitar player (NOT TRUE!!)

                            I have strawberry on my head

                            My car is a horse

1. Have a laugh

One student sits in the center of the group and has to try not to laugh. The other students take turns saying silly things to make them laugh. Once the student laughs the person in the center changes.

 

 

Riddle Sheet (note this was taken from www.onestopenglish.com)

 

I am not a bird, but I can fly. I eat insects and fruit. I’m dark. I sleep upside down. (bat)	I’m brown on the outside. I’m white on the inside. I’m hard and you can eat or drink me. I’m hairy. I grow in hot countries. (coconut)
I’m yellow and round I’m the same size as an apple You can’t eat me You hit me with a racquet (tennis ball)	I’m usually made of paper But in Australia I’m plastic I can lots of colours I have pictures and numbers on me You use me to buy things (bank-note)
Every country has one. I have different colours. I need wind to fly. The British one is red, white and blue. (flag)	I’m a special day. People buy each other presents. I’m romantic. I’m on February 14th. (Valentine’s Day)
I’m something you do every day. I’m also an Olympic sport. You use your legs to do this. It’s slower than running. (walking)	I’m something English people eat for breakfast. I’m hot. You can put butter and jam on me. I’m cooked bread. (toast)
I’m a sport. I’m usually done by men. You need to be powerful and quick. Muhammad Ali is the most. famous man who has played this sport. You wear shorts and gloves. (boxing)	I’m a beautiful animal. I’m found in Africa. I have the first and last letters. of the alphabet in my name. I’m like a horse. I’m striped. (zebra)

Students can prepare more of their own riddles for homework to be used in subsequent games.

A		N
B		O
C		P
D		Q
E		R
F		S
G		T
H		U
I		V
J		W
K		X
L		Y
M		Z

  

 

Video games	soccer	Baseball	Comics
Bath	Natto	Cycling	homework
Swimming	shopping	English	TV
Video games	soccer	Baseball	Comics

 

 

ETJ Oita, July 31^st, 2005

 

Presentation:

Teaching listening to young learners & Junior High students

 

Introduction:

Perhaps the easiest way to consider our goals when teaching listening to young learners is to start with focusing on what many adult learners are unable to do or have difficulty doing listening wise. Some of these things are listed below:

 

1: key word listening

2: prediction

3: making intelligent guesses that help listening, put things in context, and also aid prediction  

4: Understanding Pronouns when used    

 

We as teachers need to provide our young learners with practice and exercises that will mean they hopefully won’t have these same listening difficulties down the road.

The activities presented in the workshop work on developing these listening skills. A lot of these activities will not be new to you, but the possible benefits listening wise may not have been considered or fully understood. 

 

Activity 1:

 

Focus: key word listening

 

A: It was noted that this activity works best if practiced with relevant vocabulary first so as to ensure they are familiar with the key words to be heard in the story.

B: storytelling activity at natural speed. The students are given flashcards relating to vocabulary in a story. They are required to grab each card as quickly as possible when they hear them. The team with the most cards wins.

 

Activity 2: Focus: prediction

A: on the board, and at random, the second halve of the following words were listed:

On SunDAY, I’m goING to meET my frieNDS and go swimMING. ThEY are comING to toWN beCAUSE it’s a holIDAY.

 

As they were written up the attendees were allowed to say each aloud. Following this an example was provided of what to do using the following:

 

I’m not good at dancing but I c— sw– very well.

(I can swim very well)

 

It was noted that all the pieces of vocabulary written on the board are the second halve of words. The goal is to put their hands up as soon as they THINK they hear the first part of each one. N.B. Points are not be deducted for incorrect guesses to discourage shouting out any possible word and to try instead to utilize intelligent guessing.  

 

Activity 3: intelligent guesses. This activity focuses the students on using what they know to decipher the unknown.

 

A: list the following on the board: butchers, doctors, living room, and pharmacy. 

B: in pairs or small groups brainstorm associated words for each.

C: use the following to set up the activity.

 

Family: (brainstorm associated words e.g. mother etc)

Write the following and ask them to try to guess what the gap is

 

“My brother got a new job so my ________ was really happy

 

Once answers has been received ask them to tell you why they made that choice. N.B. there are other clues such as preceding words, verb tense, position etc, but due to age and ability these are perhaps best left for more capable and older learners.

 

D: Read out the following story but stopping prior to saying the underlined words, so as to allow ‘intelligent guessing’. Allow each pair or small group a minute to make an “intelligent guess” and then receive their answers. Award points for each correct guess.

 

“Last weekend I was having a barbecue so I went to the butchers to get sausages but they didn’t have any, so I popped over to the supermarket. Unfortunately they were sold out too so I bought some beer instead and said forget the food. The next day I had a hangover so I went to the pharmacy and picked up some headache tablets. I was really tired so I went back home and turned on the TV. 

 

In groups the attendees considered how this activity helps work in ‘intelligent guessing’ while listening

 

Activity 4:

Attendees were asked to create a listening activity that focuses on how to improve comprehension of people pronouns when used. 

 

Wrap up

 

You as teachers will have to consider ways to adapt these activities in order to use them within your classes. Major thought will have to be given to pre-teaching, and ensuring the language used has in fact been introduced and perhaps met a few times. Perhaps a good way to use Activities 2 and 3 above are as a review activity after the vocabulary has been recycled over a series of lessons. We as teachers should always be thinking of ways to simplify and increase the level of difficulty depending on our learner needs and abilities.          

 

Other listening activities

 

1: listening and drawing lines to position things correctly on a picture

2: Matching names to a picture by drawing a line

3: writing down numbers and specific information

4: Matching a described picture with a day of the week

5: Choosing from described pictures

6: Listening in order to color, draw

7: Listening to a question and writing the answer     

Read Full Post »

Various Activities

These activities were presented at the August 2006 Workshop

Activity 1 Cards Race Track

 

Put the lesson’s flashcards face down on the floor, in a circle with a clear START line

Give each student a coloured counter

Roll the dice and move your counter. Introduce the lesson language

e.g.        Past tense + places around town

 

Simon                             (quietly prompts student to ask “Where did you go?”)

Emi                                   Where did you go?

Simon                (rolls dice and moves counter)

I went to the post office ++turns card but it shows the bank. Move counter back to the start and turn the card face down again.

Simon                Where did you go?

Emi                                   (rolls dice and moves counter)

I went to the cinema

(turns card over and it shows the cinema. Emi keeps her place and the card stays face up.)

 

When a student guesses the wrong card their counter moves back to START

When they go past START they win another coloured counter

Keep playing until all flashcards are face up and all students have had equal turns

The winner is the student with the most coloured counters

 

 

Activity 2 – Rhythm 3

 

Put students in small groups and introduce the rhythm as below

Knees, clap, left hand, right hand

 

	Simon	Emi	Tomomi	Hana
Knees
Clap	Red	Dog	Hot	Green
Left	Blue	Cat	Sunny	Yellow
Right	White	Rabbit	Raining	Orange
Knees
Clap
Left	Tomomi	Tomomi	Hana	Simon
Right	animals	weather	colours	days

 

Alternative language – verb conjugation

 

 

 

 

 

 

Activity 3 – Memory

 

Past Tense + Zoo Animals

 

Student 1             Yesterday I went to the zoo and saw a lion

Student 1             Yesterday I went to the zoo and saw a lion and an elephant

Student 1             Yesterday I went to the zoo and saw a lion, an elephant and a

giraffe

Student 1             Yesterday I went to the zoo and saw a lion, an elephant, a giraffe

and a tiger

 

Alternative Language – past tense + department store vocabulary, future tense + different verb each time, simple present + daily routine vocabulary

 

Activity 4 – Battleships

 

Introduce 10 vocabulary item flashcards + example question and response.

Put students in pairs and have each student take 3 cards each.

Students sit back to back

Student asks “Do you like ice cream?”

Student B has the ice cream card and says “Yes I do”, then asks “Do you like strawberries?”

Student A doesn’t have the strawberries card and says “No I don’t”.

 

 

Activity 5 – Hot potato

 

Tell the students they have 3 minutes to think of 1 question to ask the ALT.

Once the time is up make a small ball from a piece of paper. Walk around the class throwing the ball randomly to students, who ask their question.

After the questions have finished, put students in groups and have short quiz based on the answers to their questions.

 

Activity 6 – chopstick spelling / sentences

 

Write out 3 or 4 short dialogues based on a previous lesson from the students’ textbook

Cut the dialogue into single sentences and give each student a piece of paper with one sentence.

Students walk around the room and read out their sentence to try and find their ‘partner’.

When the students find all the members of their “conversation group” they practice the conversation together.

 

Alternatives – cut up the letters of the days of the week and assign different days to each group. The groups race to get the letters for their day

Read Full Post »