Friend of mine sent me this by email this morning, I found it very funny do thought I’d share, click it to listen
and you can download it to share here
Anti Christmas Song
Can we do a Xmas song says class, bah humbug says me….well ok then let’s do this one. Gap fill worksheet here.
An Activity using pixuffle
One of the things I picked up of twitter last week was the site pixuffle.net. This basically allows you to ‘mix up’ a photo so it ends up looking like one of those children’s puzzles where you have to rearrange the picture. It turned out to be quite useful way to create a speaking activity that my students really liked.
It’s really easy to use – upload a picture to the site, move it around using the arrows and save back to your desktop. You can then print for class, show it on the IWB or via a data projector to the board. You can shuffle it as much as you like. You also have the option to save in the gallery (assuming you can find it again).
You also need the original picture to show them if you want them to ‘reconstruct’ the picture.
I used a picture from a recent trip I made so the context had already come up but it occurred to me that I could have got them to ask me questions to get an idea of the context of the picture i.e. Is it Prague, Is it indoors? Why did you take the picture? And so on.
If it is an exam class and you want them to practise navigating around a picture, i.e. it’s on the left etc then reconstruct it by talking together i.e. I think that goes on the left.
In my class I simply asked them to work together to work out what they thought was in the photo and why. They spoke for twenty minutes and got useful language practice, as well as providing me with some areas of lexis to deal with in feedback.
I have illustrated the way it works with a seasonal picture. Enjoy and if you have any other ideas for how to use it feel free to leave a comment.
Enjoy,
Shaun
Dictionaries with a difference
I was tidying up my bookmarks, is it just me that ends up with cluttered bookmarks after a week of tweeting? And realised I had accrued a number of links for dictionaries that were a little different from the norm so I thought I share my favourite three of the moment.
combines a dictionary with a mind map. Great for visual learners and works both as dictionary and thesaurus. It can be used for self-study and looks good on an IWB. Clicking on the words brings up the definition and then you can also click on the word to get on the pronunciation.
Google dictionaries. This came recently came out and as there was no fanfare it might have been overlooked. At first glance it looks similar to the google search page and entering a word gives you the definition as any online dictionary would. However what makes it a bit different is the fact that after giving you a definition, it also lists definitions from other sources on the Internet. But by far the most useful thing is that (assuming you have a goggle account) you can ‘star’ words. Adding a star to the word creates your own word list so it becomes a very useful tool students.
I have been using this since June but now it is out of beta, wordnik has an impressive list of features for both students and word-loving freaks like me. You can use it without an account but creating one gives you more options – such as creating lists, making words favourites and so on. When you search a word you get the definitions, examples from the web and also examples of use on twitter and a whole host of other things about the word. Two features that are useful for classes are the ability to twitter words to each other and also to create and share word lists.
One final site mention though not actually a dictionary, it is on the same sort of lines. Savetheword lists words which are being underused and in danger of dropping out of the dictionary. On the site you can adopt a word – maybe only the more advanced students will get something out of the site but there is something quite cute about the words calling out ‘choose me’ as you hover them.
Here’s hoping this post didn’t show signs of boreism and you read it with lubency.
Critical thinking talk slides
These are the slides we promised to teachers who have been attending our critical thinking ‘tour’ as part of this year’s Oxford University Press Methodology day in the Czech Republic. They won’t make sense to those who haven’t seen the talk but to make up for that here is a video clip that illustrates one of the points of the talk.
This is the first talk (there are three in a day) and covers some of the basic points about critical thinking.
Critical ThinkingTalk 2 looks at the word argument and how building a line if argument is needed in exams (though we mainly illustrate it with the new Czech maturita exam)
And finally here is talk three where we explore attitudes to teaching grammar and look at these attitudes in coursebook material.
Itsnotbnw
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