Mini-Whiteboards!
Wow – now I have them, I wonder how I ever managed without them! Well, actually I can remember life before mini-whiteboards quite clearly and to be honest, it wasn’t all that bad! Mini-whiteboards are...
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Dictogloss-it-up
I’m going to try a dictogloss this afternoon with my PET class. I don’t think I’ve done a dictogloss before, so I’m quite excited, though a little apprehensive as well. I’m excited because it’s a new...
View ArticleA 2 Day in 5
This is a great activity I picked up from Catherine Morley‘s workshop on Dictation at the TESOL-SPAIN conference. It’s similar to the Wacky Web Tales site, but uses a simpler story which students will...
View ArticleSong dictation
Here’s another great activity from Catherine Morley’s TESOL-SPAIN workshop… Type up the lyrics to part of a song and stick them on the wall outside the classroom. Put students into pairs and then...
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An Ode to Munchbucket
This is a writing activity which Nina Lauder presented at the recent FECEI conference in Madrid. Instructions on writing your own ode are below. Munchbucket, Fluffy, grey, on the sofa...
View ArticleDifferent Dictation
I did quite a fun activity with a couple of groups today – it’s a mish-mash of a dictagloss and a circle activity which a former colleague, Richard Whiteside, once told me about…here’s the activity…...
View ArticleOugh!
I have a wonderful C1 group this year who aren’t currently interested in the CAE exam or GESE but simply want to keep up their level of English. The classes are largely communicative, with discussions...
View ArticleMake no Mistake
I watched an OUP webinar by Robin Walker a while ago on errors and as I’ve been sorting through last year’s bits and bobs I came across my notes. He divided the talk into three sections – Cause, Class...
View ArticleAn alien encounter
A few years ago at TESOL-SPAIN, I saw a great talk by Catherine Morley about using dictation in the class. She demonstrated a number of activities and one which has always stayed with me is “A 2 Day...
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Character Builds #3
In a previous post, I talked about how to set up a character build in the class and how they can be used to practise specific grammar points. With my KET group, we recently looked at the present...
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Fortnightly Focus #10 – assessing writing
Although it is Wednesday and two weeks’ after my previous fortnightly focus post, there is definitely a large amount of procrastination going on as I write it! We’re in exam week at Active Language...
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Not a semi-colon in sight!
I’ve just been reading some interesting posts on the Sentenceworks blog about the use of commas, colons and semi-colons and it got me to thinking about whether students are still seriously taught...
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Why always so positive?
OK, I admit it. I’m the first one who could be blamed for an excess of positivity (which I don’t see as a bad thing, by the way!). Whilst in a talk at last week’s ACEIA conference, someone suggested...
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PET Writing Part 3 – A Story
I recently attended a talk on writing, given by Chris Johnson who’s currently based at St. James in Sevilla. He gave some excellent tips on better preparing learners for writing and I decided to use...
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Writing
Inspired by a talk by two wonderful colleagues. I’ve been thinking recently about how much of what we read digitally can be manipulated – cut and paste, quote, mis-quote – which makes me think about...
View ArticleSong dictation
Here’s another great activity from Catherine Morley’s TESOL-SPAIN workshop… Type up the lyrics to part of a song and stick them on the wall outside the classroom. Put students into pairs and then...
View ArticleOugh!
I have a wonderful C1 group this year who aren’t currently interested in the CAE exam or GESE but simply want to keep up their level of English. The classes are largely communicative, with discussions...
View ArticleMake no Mistake
I watched an OUP webinar by Robin Walker a while ago on errors and as I’ve been sorting through last year’s bits and bobs I came across my notes. He divided the talk into three sections – Cause, Class...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Character Builds #3
In a previous post, I talked about how to set up a character build in the class and how they can be used to practise specific grammar points. With my KET group, we recently looked at the present...
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