International House Veracruz Authorised Centre MX 150 TKT Warm Ups Create new words: Language and skills Level Time Materials Preparatio n vocabulary, spelling, combining letters into known words beginners / intermediate / advanced minutes and more (depends on teacher and learners) paper and pen (dictionary for checking spelling) none Procedure Pair, group or individual work The learners should write as many words as they can using letters in the words JOB ADVERTISEMENT They can use fewer letters but not more Examples: men, read, red, advent, tea, a, an, the, tear etc The teacher can decide on categories such as nouns, verbs, adjectives and learners have to write words that fall into the category or the topic is given such as PROFESSION, HOBBIES, TRAVELLING etc and learners should write words that would fall under the topic label Fill in words: Language and skills Level Time Materials topic related vocabulary, spelling, dictionary work intermediate / advanced minutes and more paper, pen, dictionaries Procedure: Individual/pair or group work The teacher writes words job advertisement on the blackboard like this: J O B International House Veracruz Authorised Centre MX 150 TKT These letters are initial letters of words learners must write Less advanced learners can write any words, for advanced learners teacher can state the topic area such as JOBS (examples given), INTERESTS, ENVIRONMENT In case the teacher uses this activity as a warm up activity for the lesson that aims at making use of job advertisements in developing language and skills, such areas as WORK, PROFESSION, WORK PLACE are strongly recommended The learners can check their words with each other or in dictionaries This activity can be organized as a competition with a time limit Jobs around us: Language and skills Level Time Materials Preparatio n thematic vocabulary, spelling, dictionary work pre-intermediate / intermediate / advanced minutes and more paper and pen (dictionary for checking spelling) none Procedure: Individual work leading to class work The teacher writes the alphabet in a column on the blackboard The learners must use every letter as an initial letter of a job If necessary the teacher can deliberately omit letters which are not initial letters of any job Less advanced learners can use dictionaries, for advanced learners a time limit can be set Example: Accountant, Businessman, Correspondent, Designer, etc Who is this job for? Language and skills Level Time Materials Preparatio n scanning / answering questions pre-intermediate / intermediate 10 minutes copies of several adverts questions written on the blackboard or transparency Procedure: Learners work in pair and skim job adverts to find answers to the following question: International House Veracruz Authorised Centre MX 150 TKT Which job would be suitable for someone who: - Enjoys traveling? - Has business experience and wants responsibility? - Can't work during the day? - Has got telephone skills? - Can't work in the evenings or at weekend? In the feedback session learners justify their ideas by forming statements such as: Sales representative is a good job for someone who likes traveling "Describing Something" Make up a handout with pictures or names of famous people (around 20 is good) Give some hints, such as, "He's American," "He's black," "He's a sport player," "He plays golf." By this time the students will have guessed Tiger Woods They will then cross Tiger Woods off their list Turn it over to the students and they will take turns describing the people to each other This game would also work for almost any topic (animals/food/clothes, etc) Shootout at the ESL Corral Divide the class into groups of two You can this on sides of the class, at their desks standing up or get the kids to make a line at the front of the class as well Then, there are variations The first one is that the first students play rock/scissor/paper The loser has to answer a question about what you've been studying I used it a lot of math when I was studying that for a couple days with the kids I'd say what is 5x8 and give them seconds to answer If they got it, they went to the back of their line, or remain standing If not, they sit down and the game is over for them The second variation is to just ask a question to both students and the loser sits down It's a fun, high energy game with a lot of excitement to it The kids seemed like International House Veracruz Authorised Centre MX 150 TKT they couldn't get enough of it And you can use pretty much any topic you want And it's definitely heavy on the listening and speaking skills Boggle Make a grid on the board, maybe 6x6 Then fill in the squares with common letters Then the students make words, with at least letters Each word can only use each letter once and the letters must be touching You can go diagonal, up, down, whatever The Alphabet Put them in teams of and have them write the alphabet on a piece of paper Then you can give them a topic Example: "Words to describe a city." B-Busy, E-Exciting Give them or minutes, collect the papers, check for the crazy answers, add up the points and you have a winner! The Toilet Paper This is the perfect way to start your first class, if there are less than 15 students Bring in a roll of toilet paper Tell students they can choose between and pieces It's up to them how many they take Tell them no other details When everyone has some paper, tell the students that they have to say one sentence about themselves for each piece that they have Example: name/favorite food/ hobby/ members of their family International House Veracruz Authorised Centre MX 150 TKT English as a Second Language Students Write the vocab words on a flip chart of some sort Divide the class up into teams 5-8 people/team works well One student from the team comes and sits at the front of the class facing his or her teammates Show one word at a time to the team but not the person sitting at the front The team has to give hints about the word, in English only, using no body language An example: EYE Hints students give: 2, on face, I can see or rounds of minute each and the goal is to get as many words as possible in that minute If the team uses body language or Spanish, discount that point Comic Strip Challenge There are lots of simple comic strips that you can find on the internet to use for this activity Post it up on your powerpoint and there are different things you can do: Blank out the dialogue and have students make up their own Put them in groups of 2-4, depending on the size of the class Award a small prize for the most interesting one Leave the dialogue, and give the students a few minutes to read and try to understand what is happening Then, take the comic off the screen and ask a few understanding questions Steal the Eraser Divide the students into teams Have desks at the front of the class, facing each other, with an eraser in the middle of the desks One student from each team comes and sits in the hot seat Rotate through so that all the students get a chance to play You then ask a question of some sort The first person that grabs the eraser can try to answer the question The rule is that you can take the eraser whenever you want, but I"ll only say the question once Count 10 seconds down on my fingers Their team can help them with the answer, but only International House Veracruz Authorised Centre MX 150 TKT in English If correct, they get point If not, the other team gets a chance to answer the question This week in class, we're studying "When I _, I / I when I So, I would say something like, "When I feel happy, I _." Or "I'm late for school when " To make it even more exciting or if one team is behind by a lot of points, have a "Bonus Round," where the teams pick their best players and each question is worth or points Famous People Put the students in groups of 2-3-4 Have them pick famous people, dead or alive that they'd like to invite to a party they are having Then, they have to say the reason why they're inviting them Example: Person: Michael Jackson Reason? He can play some dance music for us Also, I want to know why he got so much plastic surgery Give them a few minutes, depending on the level Then, I get the student to pick or of the people, depending on the size of the class and tell the rest of the class their answer S-O-S If you get three "S" in a row or three "O" in a row you draw a line through it and get a point Draw a grid on the board, usually 6x6 Give them numbers and letters to make it easier for the students to pick what box they want Then, divide the students up into teams of or and give them each a symbol (triangle, square, star, heart, etc) Then, ask review questions, going from team to team Simple, easy questions with a definite right or wrong answer are best to keep this game moving quickly A correct answer gets them a square on the board Do or rounds, and by this time the good teams will have or points The top team gets a prize, this International House Veracruz Authorised Centre MX 150 TKT game gets boring after 20 minutes or so, so don't plan on playing this for an entire class It works best as a warm-up review kind of game The World Cup First, write up some questions "What time did you wake up this morning?" or "How long did it take you to come to school this morning?" Then, in class count up your students and make up a "draw." You know, the round of 16, quarter-finals, semis and the final If you have an odd number and it doesn't quite work, make up some "last-chance spots." So all the people who lost their game in the section of the draw can compete against each other for the last spot Write up student's names in the draw, randomly To add some more fun, and for smaller classes you can get students to pick a country For bigger classes, wait until the semi-finals before you allow country picking Anyway, ask the students a question from your list and the person to answer the fastest gets to move onto the next round That's it!