21-26. Five Online Tasks for Teenagers
On 28th February I had the pleasure of participating in the Trendy Teachers Online Conference. The focus of my talk was doing tasks online with teenagers. It will come as no surprise that Jamboard featured heavily. I continue to find it a great blend of user-friendliness and flexibility when it comes to scaffolding and focusing…
20. Relationship Stories
I’ve always found that the theme of relationships (of all kinds) is one that interests students and unfailingly inspires them to talk – of course, this will depend on cultural factors, and how well the students know each other. This task was dreamt up for a Valentine’s Day in lockdown, but will work well in…
19. Captured Scenes
Sharing our experiences of works of art – or simply entertainment – is, I think, a fundamental human impulse; whether it is a piece of music, a painting, a poem, a play, a novel, a movie or, as here, a scene from a movie – we love to share what we think it is about,…
18. Resolutions
Happy New Year (at least to those of us for whom it is a New Year already)! I’m pretty sure most of us are hoping 2021 will be an improvement on 2020, and that many of us are hoping to effect personal change in the upcoming months. I am – with this in mind, for…
17. A Bah Humbug Xmas (also: why I love online collaborative writing)
Here’s a pleasant surprise from my 2020 teaching online experience – I’ve really enjoyed lessons that focus on collaborative writing. More importantly, I think my learners have. This post will diverge a little from the format we normally use here. It’s a three-parter focusing on: a brief discussion regarding if or why we should bother…
16. Soap opera
Thank you to guest contributor, Thomas Rickman, for this post. For some years now from fairly low levels upwards I have been using clips from soap operas both to practice listening skills and also because they can provide highly effective and engaging vehicles for meaning-focused communication. Soap operas exist in many cultures so many learners…
15. Dream Festivals
Now entering a second lockdown, perhaps it’s time to indulge some dreams of escape. I thought of festivals because they are the very opposite of current social distancing and restrictions on behaviour. I was lucky enough to be free and have the money to go to Glastonbury once, and also have great memories of WOMAD…
14. Edutopia
“Education is what survives when what has been learned has been forgotten.” – BF Skinner “All I learnt at school was how to bend not break the rules.” – Madness Education is derived from the Latin educare – to lead out – but all too often it seems more like a process of content being drummed in! We’ve probably…
13. New Rules: part 2 (the one with Google Docs)
In New Rules part 1 (https://fluencyfirstelt.blog/2020/09/02/12-new-rules-part-1/), we looked at one way of generating possible rules / norms for a new class, using an opinion dictation. The lesson finished with the learners being tasked with writing their own set of rules for homework. This lesson follows on by asking learners to collaborate to create the final…
12. New Rules: part 1
“If you think your behaviour isn’t controlled by norms, think again” (Oyster, 2000, in Dörnyei and Murphey, 2003:35) Welcome to a new academic year, new courses, new groups and new rules! There are certain essentials we are always keen to establish in my first few lessons – rapport, group cohesion, expectations, typical roles and routines,…
Loading…
Something went wrong. Please refresh the page and/or try again.
Follow My Blog
Get new content delivered directly to your inbox.
Fluency First ELT 