Filed under: Classroom Tips, Conversation, Listening, Writing | Tags: English With Jennifer, Jennifer Lebedev, JenniferESL, online photos, photoblogging, photos in the language classroom, visual aids
As a continuation of my previous posting, here are two more whole language activities centered around online news photos:
2. Photoblogging. Some of the same sites that post weekly albums offer community interaction through photoblogging. Share one of the editor’s picks of the week with the class. Read the caption aloud and explain the meaning of any unfamiliar vocabulary or grammar. In pairs students can discuss their reactions to the photo. Prompts can be given, for example:
- Have you seen anything similar to this before?
- Does this photo help you learn anything new?
- What do you feel when you look at this photo?
- If you had to title this photo yourself, what title would you choose?
This brief oral exchange should serve as preparation for a writing activity. Have students write a personal reaction to the photo in 4-5 sentences. Once they submit it to you and receive feedback, they can be encouraged to post their comments online.
TIP 1: A selected photo can be the springboard for classroom discussion. On the MSNBC site, the editor includes a thought-provoking question that nicely suits this purpose.
TIP 2: Choose a photo with a caption that contextualizes vocabulary or grammar recently learned.
3. Audio commentaries. This is a variation of the previous activity and would have to be done in a language lab. Have students view 6-8 of the editor’s picks. Allow them time to select one photo and write 4-5 sentences about their personal reaction to it. Have them submit their writings to you for review. While you are providing corrections and feedback, students can work in pairs to come up with original titles for all the photos. Come back together as a class, view the photos again, and have volunteers call out suggested titles. Next, using their corrected writings, students must record their comments and send the audio files to you. As a class, you can playback these short recordings. The author will remain silent while the others guess which photo he or she is talking about.
TIP: Listen to the audio recordings once more after class and provide one-on-one feedback regarding each student’s pronunciation.
Filed under: Listening, Vocabulary | Tags: communicative activity, crossword puzzles, English With Jennifer, Jennifer Lebedev, JenniferESL
Crosswords are sometimes used in textbooks as a vocabulary review for a set of units. This kind of puzzle is great for independent study because it reinforces the students’ knowledge of definitions and spellings. In the classroom, I prefer crosswords that require communication. For example, one variation is to have no clues written. Instead, there are two copies. Copy A has all the down answers, and Copy B has all the across answers. Students work in pairs, offering spoken clues to aid their partners so that both can fill in the answers missing on their copies.
The good news is that you don’t have to wait until a textbook provides a crossword puzzle, nor do you have to tax your brain figuring out how to create your own and trying to get the boxes evenly spaced on paper with the aid of a ruler. There are plenty of online sites that build puzzles for free. Try this one: CreateYourOwnCrossword. The site gives the author the option of making the puzzle public and allowing viewers to solve the puzzle online. You could then give the link to students and ask them to complete the puzzle as an independent task. There’s also a printable HTML or PDF file, which allows for more possibilities. If you want to make the puzzle a communicative activity, simply cover the clues and finish preparing the copies for classroom use. The hard part is already done by the computer: it took the words you entered and created the puzzle for you. You just need to write in the answers to create Copy A (down answers) and Copy B (across answers). Make your photocopies and your ready to go.
If you really start to think, you can come up with some creative uses of an online puzzle builder. For example, you can use a crossword to get students to recall details from a listening or reading passage. Create the crossword yourself based on the assigned passage. Once the passage is covered as a class, have students work in pairs to complete the puzzle. Correct their work as a class.
Want to get even more elaborate? Have students create their own crosswords. For example, in an upper level class you could have students prepare oral presentations. Part of their preparation can include making and printing out a small crossword puzzle (10-12 words) based on their presentation. At the end of the oral presentation, the speaker hands out the puzzle for the class to complete. If the students were attentive, they should be able to complete the puzzle with ease, recalling details from the talk they just heard.
Filed under: Conversation, Listening, Reading, Writing | Tags: English With Jennifer, Jennifer Lebedev, JenniferESL, online surveys, SurveyMonkey
While attending the recent TESOL convention in Denver, Colorado, I was excited to see a strong emphasis on blending the latest technology with traditional teaching. Sessions on creative uses of digital media often had standing room only. At the Electronic Village Fair, I was fortunate to find intimate groups of two or three at each computer station. I joined one group led by Marianne Stipe and Lora Yasen of the Tokyo International University of America in Salem, OR. Their demonstration entitled “Teaching Techno-Savvy Students” detailed a project in which each student created and published a digital how-to presentation, from how to buy something on eBay to how to make an avatar.
It was this demonstration that introduced me to online surveys, and since then I have given some thought to their potential. I have taken online surveys myself, but I had never considered using them to aid instruction. Let me offer three possibilities:
- Listening comprehension. As an initial activity, you can demonstrate how to make an online survey. I agree with Ms. Stipe and Ms. Yasen that SurveyMonkey is ideal in its ease of use. It’s also free. You can check comprehension of your demonstration by having students complete a list of instructions as a cloze exercise.
- Speaking , writing, and reading skills. Begin a collaborative project by placing students in either pairs or small groups.
1. Each group must create a survey on a topic. The students may either have complete freedom in choosing their topics, or you can have them draw slips of paper with topics that relate to earlier lessons (a great way to review vocabulary previously studied).
2. Using SurveyMonkey, each group creates a survey of four or five questions. You can correct their work on screen, or the students can print out a copy of the survey and submit it. Once corrected, the survey can be sent by e-mail to all class members.
3. Either during class or as homework, students should complete one another’s surveys.
4. Meeting back in their groups, students can collect and analyze survey results. (SurveyMonkey makes this very easy with a click of a button called “Analyze”.)
5. Findings (conclusions and inferences) should be shared orally with the class. This final step provides a great exercise for critical-thinking skills. Discussion based on the survey results should be encouraged.
- Classroom feedback. To find out how students valued a certain activity or lesson you can use an online survey. Create questions to elicit their opinions and comments.
I offer my thanks to Ms. Stipe, Ms. Yasen, and other TESOL attendees in the Electronic Village for inspiring this post.
Note: Before posting this entry, I ran a survey on favorite days of the week among friends and family. I used SurveyMonkey, and it was an easy and enjoyable experience from beginning to end.
Filed under: Conversation, Listening, Reading, Writing | Tags: English With Jennifer, how to teach literacy, Jennifer Lebedev, JenniferESL, language experience approach, lea
For those who are not familiar with the Language Experience Approach (LEA), it was created as a way to develop literacy for native-English-speaking children. In time, the approach found application in the ESL classroom as well. The basic idea is for a teacher or aide to transcribe an oral account as told by the learner and turn it into a readable text. The process integrates speaking, listening, reading, and writing. It is characterized by a high degree of personalization: the content and the language are chosen by the learner. This ensures engagement. How can one’s own story not be of interest to the learner?
I am hardly the first to consider experimenting with the LEA in order to develop the language skills of more advanced adult learners. From one-on-one (as is the tradition) to a group format, and from oral readings to forms of publication, there are probably a dozen or so possible variations of the LEA. Let me offer this one:
ACTIVITY: Story Scramble and Retell
STEP 1 – Place students in groups of 3 (or 4 if necessary). Write two topics on the board and ask the group to initiate a conversation about ONE of them. Choose topics that have broad appeal but are specific enough to quickly inspire personal stories. Examples: (1) Pets I’ve Owned / (2) Bad Food Experience. Allow groups about 5 minutes to converse freely. Give them a 1-minute warning before you tell them to stop.
STEP 2 – After this initial period of conversation, ask each group to choose one student to retell a BRIEF story from his/ her past (less than a minute). If it’s difficult to choose one student, have them flip a coin or draw straws (slips of paper). Tell them each person will have a special role. Student A tells the story. Student B sits next to Student A and transcribes the account exactly as it is told. Student C (and D if there are four) listens and asks questions either for clarification or to prompt Student A.
STEP 3 – The roles change slightly. Students B and C now look at the transcribed text suggest corrections. Student A must give his/ her approval for changes to be made. Student C rewrites the text starting each new sentence on a new line with wide spacing. Ideally, there should be about 8-10 lines. Model (based on a true story):
My family had a cat while I was growing up.
It was an outdoor cat, and it liked to hunt.
It usually brought home whatever it killed.
One day it brought a chipmunk.
The problem was that the chipmunk wasn’t dead.
It was hurt and scared.
The cat chased it into our house.
It took my brother and his friend and two hockey sticks to get the chipmunk out of the dining room and back outside.
I stood screaming on a kitchen chair the whole time.
STEP 4 – The text is now cut out line by line to create strips of paper. Ask each group to shuffle the strips and hand them over to another group of students.
STEP 5 – With their set of strips, each group must assemble a story in what they believe is the correct order. Once they feel that the order is logical, they must rewrite the story in paragraph form. Editing and revision are allowed.
STEP 6 – Using the final drafts, the groups read their assembled stories to the class. The original story-teller may comment on the accuracy and quality of the final version. Final drafts can be handed to the teacher for additional corrections.
STEP 7 – (Optional) – Independently, each student may write a short account on the other topic that was not chosen by their group and submit it to the teacher. Once revisions are made, these stories may be shared orally in a later lesson.
While unique on its own, the above activity still respects the basic characteristics of the LEA. The content is student-generated. The language is chosen by the students. The level of skills integration is high: it embraces a whole language approach.
Filed under: Conversation, Grammar, Listening, Methodology | Tags: cinematic collocations, English With Jennifer, Jennifer Lebedev, JenniferESL, music in the classroom, song lyrics, teaching through music
Music is a powerful medium. Why not bring it into the classroom? While we shouldn’t attempt to turn an English grammar presentation into an aria, we can certainly use music to aid our instruction. For example, in a past entry I presented the activity Cinematic Collocations, in which students’ creativity is stimulated by an excerpt from a film soundtrack, and then in groups they use targeted vocabulary to write a film plot. Here are three additional ways to use music in the classroom:
- Listening/ Pronunciation. Choose a song that targets sounds or clusters of sounds you’ve practiced in class. The lyrics to Elvis Presley’s Heartbreak Hotel are full of words with /l/ and /r/, a common difficulty for Asian speakers in particular. As a class, listen once. Pass out the lyrics and review them. Listen again. Practice pronunciation. Listen a third time and encourage students to sing along. Need a slower and more clearly sung song? Try Elvis’s Can’t Help Falling in Love with You. There’s plenty of opportunity to practice /l/.
- Listening/ Grammar. Songs illustrate meaningful use of grammar. Have you just covered modal verbs? Do students need more exposure to modals used in the past? Try listening to a song like Beverley Knight’s Woulda Coulda Shoulda. The lyrics are online, and the video is on YouTube. Give students a copy of the lyrics with all the modal verbs omitted. Their task is to fill in the blanks. Let them work together and give them a chance to hear the song at least twice. When the lyrics are complete, listen a final time.
- Listening/ Writing/ Conversation. From country ballads to Broadway hits, there are songs that tell powerful stories. Let your students listen to one and then have them write down a summary of what they heard. You can try Tracy Chapman’s Fast Car for this exercise. Ask: “Why is this song titled Fast Car? What is she singing about?” Once the summaries are written, students can compare their interpretations. Identify the main theme(s) of the song and discuss the problems the artist sings about.
Filed under: Listening, Pronunciation | Tags: accent reduction, American accent, American pronunciation, American speech, communicative activity, English pronunciation, English With Jennifer, Jennifer Lebedev, JenniferESL, minimal pairs, North American English, pronunciation activity, pronunciation game, Sound Search, vowel sounds, vowels
Vowel sounds can be troublesome for all language learners, beginner to advanced. The use of minimal pairs in classroom exercises helps develop recognition and production of vowel sounds. Some pronunciation textbooks offer exercises based on minimal pairs, but they are often limited to controlled practice. With the help of minimal pairs lists, such as the ones offered by John Higgins (based on English RP, but useful regardless), you can create communicative activities of your own. Here’s one idea:
“Sound Search”
Targeted skills: Vowel sound discrimination and production via minimal pairs.
Level: High intermediate to advanced
Number of students: 9+ (If you use my lists. If you use your own, you can set the number.)
Materials needed: Index cards
STEP 1 – Prepare two stacks of cards in advance: role cards and item cards. You can use the nine role cards BELOW or create your own. Each role card should list four items (things that the student will search for). Each item is part of a minimal pair – each on a different role card to ensure the need for discrimination between the two given vowel sounds. Some role cards may be duplicated so that there are enough cards for each student in the class. You need to have a separate stack of cards with the individual items listed (one per card). Note: If you duplicate a role card, say “Baseball Player”, then you’ll need two item cards for “a ball”, two item cards for “a bat”, and so on.
SUGGESTED ROLE CARDS:
Baseball Player Cook Nature Lover
a ball a bowl an owl
a bat some pepper a boat
a cap a cup a tent
a good pitch a good peach hills
Seamstress Hairstylist Doctor
collars curlers a pain
a curtain a tint cotton
a cuff an oil heels
pants a new cut a cough
Writer Jewelry Maker Hotel Manager
a pen beads beds
some paper a disc paints
a desk a pin a new cot
tales tools towels
STEP 2 – Pass out the role cards. Ask students if they have any questions about vocabulary. Then explain that they must assume their assigned roles and search among their classmates for the items on their list. They may inquire however they’d like: I’m looking for…/ Do you by chance have…?/ I could really use…
STEP 3 – Now pass out four item cards per student, making sure they don’t receive items on their own lists. These are the cards they must give away to the appropriate person. When asked about an item, one student must confirm the other’s request: Did you say a PEN as in P-E-N? / A pen? You mean something to write with?/ Etc. If a student has the item requested, then the asker may take the item card. Each student’s goal is to collect all four item cards to match the items on his or her role card. The game is over when all students have collected the necessary items on their lists.
SUGGESTION: Encourage creative dialog among advanced students. They can make, grant, and decline requests with more than one line:
- Hi. I’m a writer. I’m old-fashioned. I don’t use computers. I write with a pen. Do you have a pen?
- A pen? No, I’m sorry. I only have a pin as in P-I-N.
