SOME CLASSROOM PRACTICES

WALL DICTIONARY
OBJECTIVES: help students to learn and review their vocabulary. help them with the alphabet (lower primary) and spelling.

Procedures:
Prepare a colourful piece of paper which can be used as a background for the wall

dictionary.
Sew 26 pockets on it (or use glue/sticky tape) and label each pocket with a letter of the

alphabet.
Ask the children to prepare sets of letter cards by writing the 26 letters on some small

pieces of paper. They put their letters into the pockets as soon as they can.
Use this wall dictionary at any time to practice spelling. For example, divide the class into three or four groups. They listen to words and then

choose letters from the pockets to spell the words. The words are then written on the board and students spell them Clean the board and ask them to spell the words individually Ask students to write sentences based on the words spelt Carry this out as group work activity and to make it more challenging as a competition among the groups

ACTIVE LISTENING ACTIVITIES

OBJECTIVES: to encourage students to listen to each other in a more active way. help them build their ability and confidence in real-life situations i.e they need to focus on both listening and speaking. help students to concentrate more to remember information. ( encourages students to listen to each other.)

1.

DUAL DICTATION

OBJECTIVES: students have to listen carefully

remember important information and details

Procedure:

Ask students to get into pairs to write(for good classes) or read (for weak classes) a dialogue.

When student A is speaking, student B should write down what he are saying and vice versa.

When they have finished the conversation, they should check what each other has written and put the two sides of the conversation together.

You could then ask students to perform their dialogues again to the rest of the class, or to swap with other pairs.

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This activity works best if you give students a theme, role-play or a situation, e.g.

A conversation between friends about holidays An argument between siblings An interview with a famous person A scene from a film A dialogue about an interesting book read A discussion about a news report

2.

CLASS MEMORY QUIZ

OBJECTIVES: students have to listen carefully remember important information and details

Procedures:

Ask one student at a time to go to the front of the class. Ask the rest of the class to ask them any questions they like (as long as they are not too personal!), e.g:

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What is your favourite colour/ food/ band? What did you have for lunch? Which country would you most like to visit?

Try to make a note of some of the answers. When all of the students (or half of the students, if you have a large group) have been interviewed, explain that you are going to hold a quiz about the class.

Get the students into small teams and ask them to put their hand up if they know the answer to a question, e.g.

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Which student likes Oasis? What is Marie's favourite food? Which two students would like to be famous actors? Award a point to the first team to answer correctly. If you have a good group, ask them to formulate the questions themselves and to take turn asking and answering the questions between groups

3.

LISTEN FOR CHANGES (IN INFORMATION)

OBJECTIVES: students have to listen carefully remember important information and details

Procedures:

Divide the class into two teams A and B. Ask one student at a time to come to the front of the class and read aloud a passage which you have chosen, e.g. a story or newspaper article.

Then ask them to read it aloud again, but to make some changes. Each time a lie (or change) is read out, the students must stand up. (Give students some time to make the necessary changes maybe the time of the event, the venue, the person involves etc)

The first team to stand up gets a point The true information is written on the board Ask students to come up with other possible changes that is suitable and relevant to the text

Accidents anecdotes OBJECTIVES: students exchange authentic personal anecdotes. The teacher provides a model students are given time to prepare their own anecdotes before doing a mingle. To provide a lot of fluency practice

 can be used with any level from pre-intermediate upwards. Preparation Think of an anecdote involving an accident or an unfortunate mishap. Try to think of something that isn't too serious and is perhaps a little humorous. Procedure Students need a pen and paper in front of them. Tell the students to sit back and relax and that you are going to tell a true story. Tell your anecdote.

Give the students 3 minutes and ask them to draw their favourite moment of the story. Ask the students to work in pairs and retell the story together using the pictures to help them. Elicit from students 8-10 key words from the story. Tell students to think of their own anecdote. Tell students to write down 8-10 keywords for their story. Tell them that these are the only words they will be able to look at when they tell the story. During this preparation stage encourage students to ask you for any new vocabulary they might need. Allow 5 - 10 minutes. Ask the students to work in pairs and tell their partner the story. This gives them a chance to practise their story before they talk to the class as well as a final opportunity to check vocabulary. Tell students that they will tell their story and listen to the other stories. They must listen and decide which is their favourite story. Students mingle freely and tell stories. Feedback on which were the students'/your favourite stories and why.

ACTIVITIES FOR USING COMIC STRIPS

Comic strips can be used from beginner level to advanced level for a variety of

language and discussion activities.

OBJECTIVES:

tell a complex story in a few images provide comments and provoke thoughts on events and issues in the news give examples of vocabulary related to current trends and fads provide easily identifiable characters to form the basis for sketches show culture in action with the ways that men or women are behaving and are expected to behave

TELL THE STORY Procedures:

Cut up the pictures and get students to reorder the story. Make this more difficult and challenging linguistically by giving separate frames to each student in a group and ask them to not show the pictures until they have arrived at an order through describing the pictures.

Remove the last picture of a cartoon and ask students to think of an ending. Artistic students may like to draw the last frame. Vote for the best ending.

Remove the sentences under each frame and either ask lower levels to match them to each frame or ask them to write the sentences that tell the story. Lower levels might need vocabulary prompts on the board.

MAKE THE COMIC STRIP Procedures: 1. Give students a comic strip with a short paragraph for each frame. Ask students to reduce each paragraph to one sentence for each frame. Compare their efforts to the original. With higher levels you can discuss techniques of summarising your message. 2. Give students a story. Groups confer to guess what might be missing. Give them the comic strip version. They must fill in the blanks in their written story by using the comic strip pictures. Then ask them to think of speech bubbles for the comic strip. This might also include thought bubbles for characters. 3. Remove speech bubbles from a comic strip. Cut them up and give out. Ask them to imagine what the story or situation is. Groups can act out their version for the class. uAsk them to write out the speech bubbles. Then give them the comic strip and ask them to see if their speech bubbles fit the story there. 4. When you use a short story with younger learners ask them to make the story into a series of 4 pictures. This can be a group effort or a whole class task with

each group drawing one part. If you use a black and white comic strip allow time for younger learners to colour their versions. 5. Make an information gap using a photocopied comic strip. Blank out details or change what characters are saying. Make sets which are coloured differently. Set up spot the difference activities using the comic strip and then lead in to storytelling and acting out the comic strip.

EXPLOIT CHARACTERS Make a comic strip character

Look at different comic strip heroes. Get suggestions from the class of names: Spiderman, Garfield,Hagar the Horrible,Kees World or others. Describe popular characters for their age range. Encourage the students to tell you about local comic book characters. Ask them to describe one character in pairs.

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What makes this character special? What can they do? Have they got special powers? What are their weaknesses? What do they look like? What are their special interests or ambitions? Then ask each group or pair to choose a favourite character and make a simple situational dialogue which is typical for them.

Ask students to work in pairs or groups to invent their own character. If appropriate students can draw the character, give the character special powers, a name and a special mission.

The final stage is to tell an everyday story involving the character.

EXPLOIT SHORT SEQUENCES FOR SKETCHES AND IMPROVISATIONS.

Choose a key situation which would involve language students might need to practice, such as agreeing with opinions, asking permission or saying you are sorry.

Use a sequence from a cartoon with the sound off so students describe what is happening, imagine what is being said and can then use the sequence to improvise a sketch. Listen to the real sketch at the end.

ADOPT A WORD At the start of the school year I ask my students to 'Adopt a word' and share it with the class. Procedures:

I give my students templates with headings: Word Meaning Part of speech

Example of usage

The students choose a word that they would like to adopt and do some research on it using the template above.

Each student then gives a short presentation on his or her adopted word until all the class has had a chance.

The words are then stuck to a large paper chart on the wall. This activity carries on the entire year with students sharing more and more words. In between we have quizzes about the new words. The students greatly enjoy contributing words, researching and presenting.

Abridged and adapted from BBC.