Conversation topics

The best way for someone to learn anything is by practicing - learning languages is surely not the exception, but rather a bodily personification of this. In my six years of experience teaching English as a foreign language, one of the really important things I learned is to let your students talk. 

This can be particularly difficult in classes in which you have 0% enthusiasm -usually the case whenever you have teenagers - or if you are the one doing all the talking (yeah, I know there are plenty of us overenthusiasts, and often overdoers). I hate to break it to you, but you are like that overly-caring, overly-protective parent who only manages to scare their kids away - Sorry!

To really help your students - whether they are 5 or 99 year-olds - I encourage you to take a deep breath, exhale... And bite your tongue until your students talk(!). Don't force them to talk, throw bait at them and slowly pull them towards the conversation until bam! - they have no way out and are trapped  - mwahahaha (clarification: evil laugh).

Here I have written a list of topics. I will be constantly updating the list as I find interesting and useful conversation- stirring topics. Remember to [gracefully, as to not be noticed] insert devil's advocate comments or questions to keep the conversation flowing. 

1. Conversation Topic # 1 - Minimalistic lifestyle.

- Tell your students roughly what it is (don't want to kill their imagination)

"Something that is very simple and has few decorations"  (sound too simple? Read my blog post #1 tilted K.I.S.S. It!)

- Give them/ draw an example

It can refer to a house or your wardrobe - meaning, a house with simple decoration, a wardrobe with only the things you really need 

- Let them talk

- "Bait": 

An article about it: Just type "minimalism" into your favorite search engine. Here is one interesting article I might have chosen to give my students. It is written by the self-proclaimed minimalists - "the minimalists" (I bet you never would have guessed their name)

A quote:

2. Conversation Topic # 2 - 

(Coming soon...)

One last tip: if the conversation dies, put the pressure on them - not on yourself. Tell them that each person will have to stand in front of class and give a summary of what minimalism is for 30 seconds - timed with a stop watch (or your cellphone) and without any pauses! :-) have fun!

Reviewing with Jenga

Jenga is a game many people like, and so it' s the perfect activity to use for Review. 

The rules are of course the same, you just tape numbers on all the Jenga pieces corresponding to a question written either on the board or on a separate sheet of paper (for best results, write questions beforehand). You can use this to review any topic and, to add extra learning opportunity, if they answer incorrect, they will have to copy this question and answer on their notebooks for homework. 

Not much more to it :-) 

Give life to a short story

So, there's something kids really enjoy about having the liberty of being creative. Reading a story with pictures can be nice, don't get me wrong. But letting your imagination be its co-author takes reading to the next level. 

I searched for a couple of sites that had free short stories available and ran a cross this one I really liked ( http://www.short-story-time.com/halloween-spider.html ). I chose a particular one I thought my kids would love and let them get to it. They had to give life to the short story by drawing each scene. Here are my suggestions if you want to give it a try as well. 

1. Choose a relevant story

Whether it's a topic related to what they are seeing in class or something you think they would be interested in, take a moment to think about the most appropriate story for the group you have. Another idea is to choose one according to the season- summer, winter- or the celebrations in your country-Halloween, independence day, whatever comes to mind (and that has its corresponding short story, of course!)

2. Write the story for them and divide it into a couple of class periods

Writing the short story completely AND then drawing it might make them lose the joy or patience for the activity. If you want to practice listening skills, you can leave one page of the story blank, or a few blanks throughout the whole story for them to fill out. 

Dividing it into more than one class period also helps the activity stay interesting and you can squeeze prediction activities (For example, get them to write what they think will happen in the story, talk about it, or even act out in class)

3. Type it in the computer and print it out (if it's possible for you)

As you can see in the picture, I decided to write the whole short story. Initially, i thought it would save me time. But in reality, it made me lose more time than it would have made me spend in money. Just advice :-) 

4. Spark their creativity

Tell them to use their imagination. It might be obvious they have to use it, but something magical happens when they are reminded of it! 

5. Reward outstanding work and big effort

A few kind words can last a lifetime in a kid's heart. I know it because i had some great teachers who impacted my life with short but sincere comments. Kids really need love, and they give so much more when they feel your approval and desire to help them.

Review game

This game is great for review and, as most of my posts, works perfectly for kids as well as adults!

Draw the game on the board and bring the biggest die you can find around the house (the bigger, the better!). Tell your students to draw an animal, character or symbol to represent them in the game and then give them masking tape to stick it right on the take off spot.

 You can either ask them to help you find good questions for each slot (related to what they are learning in class) or make them yourself (depending on how much time you have and how much your students participate in class because the game itself already takes enough time). Make sure there are some that make it more exciting, like:

- Go back 3 spaces
- Go back to the beginning (my kids decided it would be fun to put this in the slot before the finish line)
- Miss a turn

They throw the die to see how many spots they will move and answer the question of the slot where they land.

In my case, I give them 2 opportunities to get it right (In cases Where you have that one student who falls behind a bit. After all, the point is to learn and have fun in the process! :) )

If their answer is incorrect, you can decide what you do. One option is that they have to move back 3 spaces or so. You can get creative with this :)

Describing the face

!Get your students- no matter the age- to do this as a way to practice describing how people look. In this case, we'll focus just on the face.

First, review basic facial feautures: 
- Hair: curly, wavy, straight, bald, short, long, afro, dreadlocks, etc.
- Nose: Big, small, medium-size
- Ears: Big, Small, medium-size
- Eyes: Blue, green, Brown, black, Big, small
- Eyebrows: Brown, black. Big, small, unibrow
- extras: freckles, birthmarks, eyelashes, beard, mustache, hat, glasses

Second, give them a sheet of paper to draw a BIG face
You can recycle old worksheets and work on the back. Tell them that they can get creative with he faces and to keep their drawings private! This part is specially important. If not, the activity loses its purpose.  Let them use markers and colored pencils (but only the colors you have for the board as well). You can go one extra step and give them the sheet of paper with the oval shape of the face already drawn, so you don't have that one student who draws a super small face.

Third, draw the oval shape of the face on the board and call one student up to the board
By asking questions, they have to draw the face their classmate is describing. Questions can to along the lines of:
- Does he have a Big nose or a small nose?
- Is it a boy or a girl?

When they are done, tape the original picture next to it so they can compare and get a laugh y out of it! :) have fun! 

Keeping students motivated in class

Planning your classes beforehand is an important factor to keeping your little- or not so little- ones motivated and interested in class. But, sometimes, giving  them an extra goal can work miracles.

In my case, I like to use candy. Extra points might work too but you always have that one student or two who couldn't care less about their grades. In that case, your efforts will probably not have the desired results.

As you can see in this picture, I get a bit too excited. Kids or adults are not that judgemental, so just a normal piece of candy. I offered a seven-year-old student I had some time ago to choose his prize from this assortment of candy  and (not ashamed to show his disappointment at all), he asked me if I just had a normal lollipop. I was apalled. So the K.I.S.S. it rule from my last Post applies here as well :-) 

How can you use candy in class? you might be wondering. 

1. First, to get them to speak only English in class. 

Specially in ESL classes where all the students have the same mother tongue, it is easy for them to fall into talking only that language or try to translate everything. If speaking English the whole class is too difficult at first, try starting with 20 minutes (kept with a timer). Let them know that you will be keeping time and that ANY word in Spanish, French, or whichever language they speak will take them back to zero. If they make it, they'll get to choose a piece of candy. 

2. Second, play games with hidden English. 

People learn best when they are having fun. Take out a Jeopardy, Guess who, Jenga and offer a piece of candy as reward. 

3. Third, award completion.

Of course, there are always groups in which one person seems to win every game. Changing game dynamics to fit other students' strengths is always a good idea. You don't want to get that one student to draw away instead of getting motivated. Awarding completion is a good alternative. Ask them to do an extra assignment and award those students who make that extra effort. This can apply to adults as well. Ask them to write about a particular topic you have been covering in class. For example, if what you have been looking at is Infinitives and reading about goals! you could ask them to write a Bucket List with a minimum of 15 sentences using "I want to...". Those who bring it the next class, get a reward for it. 

-Beff :-)

First day of class? ... Kiss it!

I have been teaching English for a bit more than 6 years. Now, I can say I'ver that I feel I got the hang of it.  But, no matter how long you have been trying to master the art, there's always ONE piece of advice that never gets old. Everyone can use a bit of this- and it's to KISS it!

This doesn't only apply just to first days. It applies to all activities you might come up with for your class- or at least most of them!!

Disclaimer: Of course, as you might imagine, this does NOT AT ALL mean you have to go around kissing your students. Pheeeew, right? 

Here it is:

Keep

It 

Simple (and)

Stupid

Sometimes we want our activities to be successful- so much that we tend to OVERexplain, OVERtalk, OVERdo. Keep this simple advice at hand and let things fall into place. When you don't give students everything, they are the ones who have to make things happen. I promise you will be surprised by the results! 

Please leave comments if you have any questions, comments or concerns. I'll be happy to read them! :-)

- Beff