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September 12th, 2011

It’s real-life writing (Project Noah)


I came across this wonderful site over the weekend and it struck me how this can be used with students as an authentic motivation for writing.

The site provides an opportunity for the nature-loving civilian scientist to contribute to an online catalogue of sightings of plants and animals.  You simply upload your photo, say where the ‘sighting’ happened via a Google Map, and write up a short description or note to accompany your picture.

Young learners can get outside in their wellies and snap pictures of minibeasts and adult students may take more of an interest in pictures from their home country or in the differences in wildlife we have here in the UK.  Either way, there’s a lovely opportunity for the development of productive skills in the form of writing notes and discussion about the site content, and receptive reading skills as students browse the vast catalogue that is already online.

Enjoy, and as ever, leave your comments on how you would use or (even better) have used Project Noah with your learners.

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August 8th, 2011

It’s real-life writing (Million Disney Memories)

Keeping with my wish for my blog to be a place where classroom experiences and ideas are shared, I wanted to share some ‘authentic’ motivations for writing with students which I’ve come across this last week.  Today it’s the Million Disney Memories campaign.  Raise money for a good cause and get people writing – bonus!  I’ll be uploading some worksheets over the next few days but please feel free to share how you might use with your students.

The Million Disney Memories is a campaign being run by Disney and Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH). The idea is to collect, via the Disney Junior Facebook page, one million memories from the public about their first ever Disney experience. For every memory collected, Disney will donate £1 to GOSH. Even the Disney-cynical humbugs out there can see it’s for a good cause – there’s nothing on the terms and conditions which stipulates your memory has to be sickly and positive, although I’m not sure a diatribe on the spooky undertones of “It’s a Small World” wouldn’t really be entering into the spirit of the project.

In my mind this could work in so many ways as a real writing activity with English learners. I’ve linked below to a number of sources such as celebrities sharing their own Disney memories in short video clips, newspaper articles publicising the project and of course the Facebook page itself where the memories are being collected.

Great Ormond Street website gives more information about the hospital as well as the basics of the partnership with Disney and the Million Disney Memories campaign.  There are also some heartwarming reports on special Disney in-hospital screenings of new films so the little patients do not miss out. For children unable to make it to the screening room, films are shown at the bedsides too – just awesome.

The Disney Junior (UK) Facebook page where the memories are actually being recorded. Looking at other people’s memories could form the basis of a reading activity in itself.  Many students will quickly notice some patterns in language and register which they can emulate when writing their own memories.

London Evening Standard newspaper’s short write-up on the campaign. Contains some nice set expressions and collocations to do with fundraising and emotions.

Daily Mail piece containing a number of video clips of celebrities sharing their Disney memories, as well as quotes of many more famous people talking about their childhood experiences of beloved characters and films.

Topics could include Childhood Memories, Films, Charity – I’m sure there are many more. Language areas are huge: recounting memories (and the set patterns of language that we use to do so e.g. “I remember + …ing”), telling anecdotes, positive/negative emotions,  dealing with the often ambiguous nature of memory (I think I was about six; I guess I must have been…etc.).

Be sure to familiarise yourself with the terms and conditions regarding privacy and any age limitations. If students don’t have a Facebook account for example, they could write up their memories and email it to a friend or teacher for them to upload. I believe however it’s only one memory per person.

I’m really looking forward to hearing more suggestions on how you might bring this to life. Go-on. Comment. It’s easy :)

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April 18th, 2011

Do you think our online ELT teaching community would benifit from a dedicated reflective practice forum?

For one reason and another I’m unable to be at IATEFL Brighton this year, but I have really enjoyed following the plenaries online and catching the gist some of the talks via Twitter.  Tom Farrell’s plenary “Reflective Practice for Language Teachers” has been a talk that has really made me consider the extent of my own professional reflection on my classes.  I will post a link to Tom’s talk once it goes up on the IATEFL Online site.

I teach mainly Business English and like many of my colleagues I know online, we are freelance. There isn’t a staffroom, observed lessons, developmental sessions (although some might think this sounds great). Whilst the obvious freedom that this brings is an advantage, the negative can be that one can feel a little lost at sea on those days when you need support or have a lesson which didn’t quite go to plan. Reflective Practice for some is very literally a personal exercise.

So following the plenary session I mention above, I have been wondering if some of our online community might benefit from a regular teacher development session. This could be in the form of a regular, scheduled slot similar to #eltchat, or it could simply take the form of a dedicated hash-tag on Twitter to which people can post their suggestions, reading suggestions on a questioned topic or offer advice for a troubled teacher.  It’s not an easy thing to come out and say that something didn’t got as your planned, or you are not sure what to do with a particular problem. Equally, some people are uneasy about coming online and ‘boasting’ about a great lesson.  Do you think such a forum would be of help?

I’ve embedded a poll below to get an overview of your thoughts. Please feel free to use the comments section to give me detail or your further suggestions. They would be very much appreciated.

I know for one, I would greatly value the opportunity to share, help and develop in a focused and dedicated space, rather than simply randomly throwing it out to the interweb!

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December 5th, 2010

Vocabulary Blogging Challenge: Draw to remember

As a response to my own challenge (?!), I’d like to share this experience which was responsible for getting the rusty old cogs moving in my head and lead me to put this challenge together.

Aga is a Polish student who recently spent ten years living in Germany where she met her Welsh now-husband. Now they are settling in the UK and I have been lucky enough to be one of Aga’s English teachers.  She is one of those students who always makes me happy to be going what I’m doing – I hope you know the ones.

Aga is a very visual person. For example, she sees time in shapes and pictures. We’ve had many an interesting conversation about this.  So, I thought we should tap into this visual preference and use it to help remember new vocabulary.  English is Aga’s L3 so remembering and separating is particularly important for her.  I asked Aga to draw a picture incorporating the following items of new vocabulary:  volcano; earthquake; a bolt (of lightening); eruption; a fence; common land; series; to make a good impression; soporific.

These lexical items came up during some work we were doing on describing photographs of natural disasters, so much as they might sound it, they’re not totally random.  I did want to ensure we had some unusual words in there however so that we can assess later whether there is any pattern as to what sticks in the mind.

These are the pictures that she did – I just love them!

I think the trick here is to revisit these pictures on a regular basis, frequently at first and then over longer periods of time to commit the lexis to memory.

Have you had any experience using drawing in the classroom to help remember vocabulary?  Did it work?

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December 5th, 2010

The Vocabulary Blogging Challenge

I’ve been meaning to start a series of posts on the topic of vocabulary learning for some time now and well, you know how it is with those busy weeks sometimes.  Then I read Karenne Sylvester’s post “Complicated Vocabulary? Make Cartoons” shortly followed by Vicky Loras’ entry “Word of the Week”.  I think now is a good time to put this post up and get things going.

I would like to gather, for the greater good, a series of posts concerned with learning, and teaching vocabulary.  Consider some of the following factors:

  • Are you a language learner? If so, do you use any techniques  to notice and remember new vocabulary?
  • As teachers, how can we best advise students on this important area of language learning and encourage greater learner autonomy and vocabulary retention?
  • Have you had particular success with any memory techniques in the classroom and how did you use them?
  • Should this be an area we encourage our students to experiment with in the classroom and if so, how?

You could blog your thoughts and link back here so all contributions are in one place.  If you don’t have a blog, but would like to contribute, do feel free to contact me via the comments section below and I can post your entry here as a guest post on my blog.

Happy blogging my friends and I can’t wait to hear your thoughts, advice and experiences!

_________________________________________________________________________________________

Here are the posts related to The Vocabulary Blogging Challenge:

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December 5th, 2010

Edublogs “Best New Blog” Nomination – voting instructions below…

I’m still in shock! It appears that this blog has been nominated for the Edublogs “Best New Blog” catagory – a total surprise, but one I’m very happy about.  Please see below on how to vote for my blog.

Voting for the finalists is open until 17.00 GMT on Tuesday December 14th…and the winners will be announced at the Edublog Awards ceremony (more on that to come soon).

Click on the badge below to be taken to the ‘New Blog’ catagory site to cast your vote.

*fingers crossed*

Voting is now open for the 2010 Edublog Awards!

Dec 5th, 2010

by Ronnie Burt.

The nominations are up and voting is now open in the 2010 Edublog Awards.

Voting is open until 12 PM US Eastern Standard Time on Tuesday December 14th…and the winners will be announced at the Edublog Awards ceremony (more on that to come soon).

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November 19th, 2010

English Language News Sources

Newspapers:

The Times newspaper

Unfortunately now only available through subscription (broadsheet)

The Independent newspaper

Relatively politically un-bias daily newspaper (broadsheet)

The Sun newspaper:

According to the paper, it’s “the best for news, sport, showbiz and celebreties”.  Debateable. (tabloid)

Online News:

The BBC website:

News, weather, travel, entertainment and much more from the BBC (online)

Children’s Publications:

BBC Newsround:

News and current affairs aimed at the younger generation. Simpler language than the ‘grown up papers’. Also has video section where you can watch the Newsround broadcasts online.

National Geographic Kids

Award-winning kids’ version of the well-known publication. Many videos, articles, games and fun stuff for curious small people.  Thomas gives this site a big thumbs up!

First News Children’s Newspaper

Online children’s newpaper

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October 30th, 2010

You are what you eat

This short post comes in response to Scott Thornbury ‘G is for Grammar McNugget’ at http://scottthornbury.wordpress.com/2010/09/18/g-is-for-grammar-mcnuggets/ :

An enthusiasm for compartmentalization, inherited from grammars of classical languages, has given rise to the elaborate architecture of the so-called tense system – including such grammar McNuggets as the future-in-the-past, and the past perfect continuous, not to mention the conditionals, first, second and third – features of the language that have little or no linguistic, let alone psychological, reality.

I like Scott’s analogy of easily-consumable, neatly-packaged bites of grammar.  I also enthusiastically agree with the notion that such nuggets bear little resemblance to the process of real life language acquisition.  However I can’t help but wonder, much as it goes against my usual cautious approach to grammar-heavy course books, whether our hatred of the breadcrumb coating isn’t causing us to throw the baby out with the bath water.

Allow me to, perhaps tenuously, refer back to Scott’s Grammar McNuggets namesake.  The entire Grammar McNuggets comparison seems to work as long as one accepts that Chicken McNuggets are the food of Satan. Of course I cannot argue that Chicken McNuggets are a nutritious, vitamin-packed snack, but I must argue a little in their defence and I hope that the grammar comparison will be obvious to you.

The problem surely comes when you expect your entire sustenance to come from breaded chicken. If this is all you eat, expect problems. You will be left malnourished, missing vital elements of your diet essential to your growth and well-being.  A linguistic diet of just Grammar McNuggets surely leaves the language learner verbally constipated (I’m not going any further with that particular analogy!) and lacking in essential other language food groups.  I wonder if vocabulary is the carbohydrates or the fruit and vegetables?  I’d be interested to think further how language learning could be compared with diet – I love this train of thought!

Nuggets, be they chicken or grammar are not, I believe, inherently bad.  Their real damage comes from how they are consumed. Don’t expect a healthy language body if this is your primary source of input.  However, ‘eaten’ with other food groups, they can be part of a balanced diet with no real damage done.

Everything in moderation.  If you’re students demand a nugget here and there, try not to beat yourself with a stick. Just feed them some fruit and veg next week.

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October 24th, 2010

All aboard, the board-work train!

This post is in response to Jason Renshaw blog post ‘May I call a meeting of the board(s)’ (http://jasonrenshaw.typepad.com/jason_renshaws_web_log/2010/10/may-i-call-a-meeting-of-the-boards.html). Jason calls teachers the world over to share their in-class board work:

…I feel this urge to encourage more ELTers around the world to show us their boards. It doesn’t need to be in response to a specific methodology/activity/technique challenge. I don’t particularly care what you are teaching or how, I just reckon I and a lot of other teachers could learn a lot just by getting a quick look at your board!

This is my ‘sort of board’ from a lesson with Amanda, a pre-intermediate student from Brazil.  We were looking at some future thoughts and following Global (Pre-Intermediate) Unit 4, ‘Hopes and Fears’.  I like to use Post-It notes on my boards so the elements can be taken off and moved around.

As you can see, we started with a number of jumbled Post-It notes.  The lovely Amanda needed to make four sentences about future hopes or fears.
This exercise actually produced a pivotal moment of my own in the classroom.  As Amanda played around with the stickies, I noticed that actually a correct outcome was in some ways, secondary. Of course it’s great when they get it right, but it was what happened next that was my light bulb point.  Look at how Amanda approached the task…

She began by isolating chucks of language she recognised. When Amanda created “lots of money” I began bouncing around the room, snapping picture after picture and rabbiting on about what the perfect student she was. She stared at me a lot with her puzzled face on.  This cognitive process however just seems textbook.  No, it wasn’t textbook, it was real life – the classroom came first and the textbook second, and it was going on in MY classroom.  I hope I’m not alone here in appreciating my excitement. Maybe I am…

And so the chunks became larger as Amanda recognised more words that she had either heard together before, or that she deduced could exists quite happily together. Resulting in…

…one very happy lady!

In fact the sentences were not quite the same as those in the book, but it really didn’t matter. This was a really simple, non-event of an exercise to be honest, but I saw Amanda’s cognitive processes at work and had a lucky peek at how her brain arranges and recalls chunks of language when needed. Exciting stuff…I thought anyway.  You might well disagree.

Have a look back at Jason’s blog (link above) for links to other teachers who have shared their board work.

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September 25th, 2010

The Chocolate Mousse Lesson

This lesson can bring out a variety of language depending on your learners, their level and needs.  The following language elements have naturally emerged in our classes with this lesson:

  • Giving instructions
  • Recipe-book-style writing
  • Language to describe tastes and food textures
  • Revision of how to say numbers correctly
  • Common cooking actions (e.g. to whisk, to stir, to beat etc.)
  • Comparative adjectives (this one is nicer/sweeter/more bitter etc)

It has also formed the basis for a larger project on recipes from students’ home countries.  You really can take it as far as you like.

So here is ‘The Chocolate Mousse Lesson’, a favourite with my students.  It is based around a video of the TV chef, Nigella Lawson, making a ‘cheat’ chocolate mousse.  The links for everything, including the video are below – please feel free to use in your classes.

1. TASTE TEST

You’ll need: Some chocolate mousses.  Here in the UK, I buy a value supermarket own-brand one.  They taste pretty gross and that’s just what you want!  I also buy a more luxury mousse or one by Gü if they have any left!

Do it: Students taste-test the mousse! I remove the labels or have them do a blind test to make it more fun.  Students should describe the taste and texture of what they’re eating.  Note down the language and help with any adjectives they need to make their point.

Your students can then explain which product they preferred and why.

2.  UTENSIL PREDICTION

You’ll need: A homeware catalogue or some pictures of various items of kitchenware printed from the internet.

Do it: Tell the students that they will shortly be watching a video of a chef making chocolate mousse.  Right now, they should guess which items the chef is going to use.  Pop the pictures in the middle and students select the items they think will appear.  Take this further if you wish, with further discussion about a possible procedure and what each item is going to be used for (e.g. “She might use the whisk to beat the eggs”).

3.  THE VIDEO – INGREDIENTS WATCH!

You’ll need: The video of Nigella Lawson making quick chocolate mousse (click link to open).

Do it:  You can show the video as many times as you like.  I have my students listen out for all the ingredients and make a list of what we would need to make the mousse.

I have included here a transcript of the video and a gapfill activity which I used with some of my upper-intermediate students  Nigella Chocolate Mousse transcript.

4.  WHAT CAN YOU REMEMBER – A SEQUENCING ACTIVITY

You’ll need: Print outs of the stills from the video here – Stills from video

Do it:  This is a nice activity either in the same class as the previous tasks, or as a refresher if the topic is to span over two classes.  The aim is for the students to order the pictures in the right sequence so that a successful mousse would be the result!

5.  LET’S MAKE SOME MOUSSE – err this sort of speaks for itself

You’ll need:  The ingredients from the video and of course a kitchen etc!

Do it:  I LOVE this activity as unless you have 50 students in your class, the pressure is off and natural, survival English flows out of the students.  This very practical activity could be done in a couple of ways.  Students could follow the recipe in pairs, sharing the task.  One of my favourites is to have one of the pair telling the other what to do.  This whole activity generates some real situational vocabulary, and as long as it isn’t “the kitchen’s on fire”, it’s all good!

I personally think it my duty to personally taste each mousse – that’s only fair and I have to work hard at this figure.

Here are some beautiful mousses that two of my teenage students, Nicola and Julia made.  We had a scream in their mum’s kitchen and managed to clean up before she came back from the shops. RESULT!

I hope you enjoy and happy eating!

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