November Gems!

Can't believe it's December! Time flies... November was full of discoveries which I'd like to share with you in this short post. Here are some gems you might find useful:

Free Webminars on ELT- Macmillan English

Free Resources for Business English Teachers and Students

Graded Reading- LearnEnglish Teens British Council

Stories- LearnEnglish British Council

Collaborative Essay Brainstroming Strategies by The Daring English Teacher

12 Fun Speaking Games for Language Learners by Edutopia

Little Fox- Animated Stories for Young English Learners

Are there any websites/activities you'd like to share? 

What would happen if every human suddenly disappeared?

In this post I'd like to share a lesson I prepared for my upper-intermediate/advanced, adult students. I'm sure it could also work well with older teens and young adults. The lesson aims at revising the second conditional, practising listening, reading and speaking skills, as well as introducing some vocabulary.  


I. Divide your students into four groups and give each group one of  these photos  (or  photo 1, photo 2, photo 3, photo 4  ). Each group needs to describe their photo to their classmates in as much detail as possible.
Then ask everyone what the photos have got in common (they show a world without people)

II. Ask each group to discuss the following question: What would happen if every human suddenly disappeared? Let students brainstorm a few ideas in their small groups before sharing them with everybody. (Remember to encourage everyone to speak and use the second conditional.You can write their ideas up on a whiteboard).

III. Play this TED talk and ask your students to compare their previously discussed ideas to the ones from the video. Ask them to remember/note what the speaker says about the world without people. After watching the video spend some time on discussing it.

IV. Hand out this  worksheet   and ask students to do exercise I. Check their answers and talk about anything they found surprising.

V. Move on to exercises II and III to work on vocabulary. I told my students to do the exercises on their own first and then discuss their answers with their partners but you can choose another interaction pattern. Check their understanding of the words by asking various concept questions and asking them to use the words in a context. 

VI. Question IV might be answered in small groups first and then turned into a whole class discussion. Your students can later use the ideas to write a short essay on this topic (perfect homework ;) ).

You can play this  taboo game  in your next lesson to revise the vocabulary and have some fun :)

Hope you and your students will enjoy my lesson!

Teaching English to Young Learners- Useful links

A fellow teacher who's just at the beginning of her teaching career has asked me for some resources for her younger learners. I've compiled this list of useful websites which I'm also sharing here with you.

                                                 

 ⇩  ⇩  ⇩  ⇩  ⇩  ⇩  ⇩  ⇩  ⇩  ⇩  ⇩  ⇩  ⇩  ⇩  ⇩  ⇩  ⇩  ⇩  ⇩  ⇩  ⇩  ⇩  ⇩  ⇩

British Council- Learn English Kids a must for every English teacher working with children;

ISL Collective   plenty of downloadable worksheets for students of all levels and ages;

Busy Teacher    a classic with teaching material for students of all ages and levels;

One-Stop-English  plenty of downloadable worksheets for students of all levels and ages;

Super Simple Learning   younger learners (songs and worksheets);

Teachit Languages various resources;

Twinkl teaching resources for teachers of various subjects (including ESL);

TES educational materials;

Yummy interactive resources for young learners (Polish and English version available);

ESL Kids stuff - to use this website you need to pay and become a member but there are also some free downloadable worksheets;

I child might be quite useful- I used it with my kindergarten kids but there are some materials for older kids too;

MES-English flashcards, crosswords, bingo cards, etc;

Little Fox animated stories for English learners- really good! includes songs and games;

Book Box another webiste with animated stories for children;

Fluentu some ESL activities for children.

Are there any other sites you would include in this list? What advice would you give an EFL teacher who is just starting their teaching career?

Business Phrasal Verbs Taboo Game

Sunday afternoons usually mean one thing for teachers: lesson planning ;) It's the end of a long weekend for many of us here in Europe so I'm sure you want to go back to work with something energising for your students...something that will wake them up after four days off. I bet a game will do the trick :)

In this post I'm sharing a Taboo Game which I've created for my adult students to revise some business phrasal verbs we'd been learning before the break (look forward to, go over, put forward, hand out, lay off, get on to, get out, get down to something, get away with (something), come up with, pull out of (something), knock off, stand out, slack off, go under, fall through, go down a storm, run ouf of).

I love playing taboo with my students: it gets them to speak and it's entertaining for adults and teens alike. Also, it teaches how to describe terms- a skill I find essential in working towards being communicative in a foreign language. Taboo, like any other game, might be played to revise vocabulary after finishing a unit of a textbook or it could be a great time filler at the end of a lesson. It's also a good way of waking your students up if they're a bit sleepy.

Taboo cards are easy to make and can serve you for a long time so you can reuse them (if you laminate them, you can have them forever...and who doesn't like laminating?!?!?!). 

If you've never played taboo and aren't sure how to play it, click here to familiarise yourself with the rules and read some useful tips. 

Enjoy :) 

🎃 Halloween 2018 🎃

Do you teach your students about Halloween? What are your favourite activities? While looking for some spooky ideas for my students I came across these three Halloween activities:

Ricardo Barro's Halloween Conversation Lesson for Adults
Beatriz Solino's Halloween Lesson for Pre-intermediate Students
Beatriz Solino's Halloween Lesson for Advanced Learners

Apart from great Halloween ideas, Beatriz and Ricardo present other interesting lesson activities so don't forget to explore their blogs :)

If you're looking for more Halloween ideas check out the post I wrote last year in which I described my own Halloween activity for teenage students and shared plenty of links with other lesson plans :) 

Happy Halloween!

🍁🎃🍁🎃🍁

Present Simple and Present Continuous Board Game

Aloha! 

Hope you're reading this post from a nice and sunny place sipping on something delicious :) It sure is sunny here but I'm hiding from the heat in a cosy cafe. Unfortunately, my internet connection hasn't been very stable since I changed flats over a month ago which made my lesson planning a bit tricky...but not being able to connect to the internet forces me to review and reuse my old materials which I have forgotten about. Looking for a way of practising the present simple and continuous tenses I came across a board game I created some time ago to practice these structures. I know how you guys love board games so I've decided to share this one with you :) Just click  here to download and/or print the game and you're ready to play! It's suitable for A2-B2 teenage and adult students who need to revise how to use the two present tenses. 

Hope you and your students like it and feel free to comment if you have any suggestions :) 

Humans of London: Rebecca's Story

After a long break (work, work, work), I'm back to share another activity that I created for my pre-intermediate/intermediate students to practice the past simple and the past continuous tenses.  The activity worked really well with my adult students but I'm sure your teens will enjoy it too.

Since my lesson inspired by Humans of New York has been quite popular (if you haven't checked it out yet, click here ), I decided to prepare something similar, but this time I looked for inspiration on Humans of London . 

To warm everybody up, ask your students if they know what Humans of New York/London/Amsterdam are. Have a quick discussion about the photoblogs and ask if there is any story your students would like to share if they were approached by a journalist working for any of these blogs. 

Tell your students they are going to read a story told by Rebecca- a middle-aged woman from London. Show them these two photos of Rebecca  and ask them to describe her appearance and think of some personality traits she might have (always elicit why). 

Now on the whiteboard write down these verbs: have, work, can, grow, cry, divorce, break up, run, lose, go, meet. Tell your students that all these verbs appear in Rebecca's story. Divide your students in pairs/small groups and ask them to write a story about Rebecca using the above verbs in the past simple and the past continuous forms.You might need to go over the forms with your students beforehand if their level is weaker. Give them enough time to complete the task and compare the stories they came up with. Correct where necessary. 

Then, give each student a copy of Rebecca's story which they have to complete with the right form of the verbs. Depending on their level, you might need to pre-teach some vocabulary. Give them enough time to do the task and check it together. Compare the real story to theirs and ask them what they think of it. 

Hope the lesson works for you as well as it did for me :) 

Speaking Board Game

Here is another board game to encourage your students to talk about a variety of topics. It can be used as a time filler or practice for speaking exams. I'm going to play it with a new group of students in order to get to know them and assess their spoken English level. I particularly like to ask my new students about their favourite and least favourite teachers (questions 6 and 8) to find out their preferences and adapt my teaching methods accordingly. You can download the game  here. 

If you're about to start teaching a new group of students and are looking for some fun activities to break the ice with them, you can check out my other post in which I shared my favourite icebreakers → your first impression is your last impression

You might want to start the course by involving your students in a discussion why they are learning English, and getting them to brainstorm benefits of learning a new language. Knowing my students' reasons for learning English plays plays a crucial role in the way I shape the course, plan my lessons, and choose materials.  This lesson plan , based on one of the most touching videos I've ever watched, will definitely help your students talk about the topic

Happy Teaching 😸

Be going to and will board game

The holidays are over, time to get back to work. 

Talking about New Year's resolutions is a great excuse to revise future structures, and since I know my students confuse the use of be going to and will when they talk about the future, I'm planning to concentrate on these two forms in my first lesson of 2018. 

To warm everybody up I show them Friends New Year's Resolutions video or New Year's Resolutions comic by Incidental Comics and engage them in a discussion about New Year's resolutions- the choice of the prompt depends on the level of my students and their interests. Some of the questions I might ask to prompt discussion are:

1. Do you make New Year's resolutions?

2. What are some New Year's resolutions you have made in the past?

3. Are there any New Year's resolutions you have kept? 

4. Are there any tips how to keep one's New Year's resolutions?

5. Are there any New Year's resolutions you have broken? Why?

6. Do you think making New Year's resolutions is a good idea? Why?

I'm pretty sure my students will use be going to and will interchangeably so I'm planning to point out some basic differences between the two structures (i.e. be going to is used to talk about already made decisions, plans and intentions while will is used to talk about predictions, spontaneous decisions, and promises). After eliciting a few examples and making sure everybody understands the form and use of the structures, I'm going to move on to playing a game to practice! All my students love board games so I've made a  be going to or will board game in which students have to throw the dice and answer the questions from the squares they land on. They can only stay where they have landed if they answer the question using the correct future form. Remember to encourage your students to avoid giving short answers- the longer their answers, the better :) 

English For Very Young Learners

While a lot of people are working on their New Year's resolutions, I'm still reflecting on 2017. It was a year full of changes and challenges for me, in both my private and professional life. In addition to moving to a new country and starting learning a new language, I found myself job hunting again. Looking for a new job is always a stressful experience that makes me anxious, but I was lucky enough to be offered a few teaching positions. As well as teaching English to teens and adults, I was given the opportunity to work as an English teacher in a bilingual nursery&kindergarten. I've always been very comfortable working with the former group of learners...the latter one,however, was definitely a bit out of my comfort zone. Nevertheless, I decided to take on the challenge and teach English to toddlers and young children...and it's been bliss!

  In this post I'll share some of my observations about teaching English to very young learners. I'll also share some of the resources I find very useful when working with children. 

Even though I gained some experience in working in childcare in my early twenties and then I taught primary school students for 6 years, I didn't really know what I was getting into when I was about to start working in the nursery. I wasn't sure If I was going to enjoy working with little children...and, to be honest with you, I wasn't even convinced that teaching English to toddlers and kindergarteners was a great idea...However, the last few months have been surprisingly joyful and productive!

One of the most important conclusions I have drawn so far is that in order to be able to be effective in teaching very young learners, one needs to like little children and be able to connect with them. In her TED talk called "Every kid needs a champion", Rita Pierson talks about the importance of forming relationships with students and points out that kids don't learn from people they don't like. I couldn't agree more. Enjoying being around kids is a must when working with very young learners. Everything else will fall into place ;)

While doing my research on working with children, I was given plenty of helpful advice from fellow educators. Everybody I spoke to stressed the importance of singing, storytelling, playing and having fun together. I must confess: I'm not a singing type...I don't feel very comfortable singing. Nevertheless, I've been playing a lot of nursery rhymes from my tablet and my kids have been thoroughly enjoying it, dancing, humming and trying to repeat some words. Even I have warmed up to some songs and I find myself singing along ;)
The links below will take you to my favourite websites with songs and videos suitable for toddlers and kindergarteners:

Super Simple Songs
Jbrary
DreamEnglish

Singing isn't my strongest suit, but I have been definitely enjoying reading and storytelling with my children. I strongly recommend "that's not my..." series (Usborne children's books) and lift-the-flap "busy..." books (published by Ladybird)...or any lift-the-flap books as kids always love those!













You can also try playing the shows from  SuperSimple Online if your little ones are able to concentrate long enough (FYI www.supersimpleonline.com is full of great resources for those who work with very YL).

Singing and reading together have been very fruitful, but doing arts and crafts has been both educational and entertaining to kids and me alike. I have been thoroughly enjoying involving my children in various crafty projects and they have learnt a lot of English and other skills by doing things. Colouring, painting, finger-painting, drawing, cutting out, gluing, modelling plasticine, making posters and handprints have all proved to be a great way of learning new vocabulary.
The websites below are full of ideas and resources for fun arts and crafts for kids:

Activity Village
Ichild
Mes-English
pinterest
Art and Craft ideas (facebook page)

                                                                       

If you're interested in what I do with my children, feel free to visit my  instagram account :)

Apart from buying a few books and some arts and crafts supplies, it's worth investing in a few puppets. Kids love colourful puppets and you'll surely grip their attention with them.

If you're still not convinced puppets are a good idea read 6 reasons why puppets will change your classroom forever.


Here are other websites and articles I consider very helpful in working with little ones:

Genki English
Jolly Learning
The Dad Lab
English for little kids
Twinkl Early Years
How can young children learn languages
Active English

Besides the aforementioned, I make sure I talk to my kids all the time. I talk them through everything we do trying to use simple terms and vocabulary. I try to repeat the same words and create routines so that they associate actions with words. And even though they don't always answer and they don't always seem to understand what I say, I don't lose heart because I know they are taking everything in and sooner or later they will comprehend and use the target language.
Just before Christmas a small girl, who had never spoken English before,  shouted "See you, Alex!" when I was leaving the room :D They do learn, even when we think that they don't! 

                             Please, share your experiences teaching English to very YL :)