As an assignment, have your students create their own PicLits. Begin the activity in-class by sharing the inspirational visual poetry of ee cummings. Beginners can practice adverbs or adjectives using the drag-and-drop function which allows students to choose pre-selected words categorized by noun, adjectives, adverbs, and verbs. High-beginners or intermediate students can use the freestyle function to craft creative sentences or poetry with their own words. The photo element adds meaning and visual spark to students' creations. Students can post their PicLits to the class blog or class Facebook page for peer feedback and assessment.
Remember the refrigerator magnet poetry of your college days? Now imagine the creative possibilities for your ESL students. PicLits is a creative writing website that allows writers to choose from a selection of photos and either add their own words or drag-and-drop from pre-selected keywords.
As an assignment, have your students create their own PicLits. Begin the activity in-class by sharing the inspirational visual poetry of ee cummings. Beginners can practice adverbs or adjectives using the drag-and-drop function which allows students to choose pre-selected words categorized by noun, adjectives, adverbs, and verbs. High-beginners or intermediate students can use the freestyle function to craft creative sentences or poetry with their own words. The photo element adds meaning and visual spark to students' creations. Students can post their PicLits to the class blog or class Facebook page for peer feedback and assessment.
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This activity is designed to help students see that synonyms are not always interchangeable but have subtle differences in usage, connotation, register, collocation, etc. Students will use online dictionaries to compare synonyms.
Procedures
1. Divide students into pairs or small groups. 2. Each group will work on the same sets of words. Students should discuss these words with each other, then use online dictionaries to support their ideas. Some online dictionaries which are suitable for learners include Macmillan Dictionary and Merriam-Webster's Learner's Dictionary. Example sets of words:
3. Students feed back as a class.
Notes A. This could also be given as homework if online access is not available in the classroom. B. Students may require pre-teaching to supply vocabulary for explaining subtle differences between synonyms. Reference Adapted from Ur, P. (2012) Vocabulary Activities. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. pp. 162-163. In this activity, students practice forming yes/no questions while watching a Wallace & Gromit video.
Procedures 1. Show the video which is available at http://youtu.be/vTL33W3XFBU . 2. Students may work in pairs. Using the worksheet (above), have students make a list of things they see in the video, using the structure, “There is ____.” Examples: There is a dog drinking tea. There are letters on the ground. 3. Ask students to turn these statements into Yes/No questions. Examples: Is there a dog drinking tea? Are there letters on the ground? 4. Tell students to include a few false items into their list. Example: Is there a mailman? 5. Have students practice asking and answering these questions using long and short answers. Note This is a short activity. Students may complete the worksheet quite quickly. Remember Mad Libs, those funny fill-in-the-blank stories you created with friends as a kid? These silly and interactive stories are a great tool for teaching or reviewing parts of speech with learners of all levels. Or, use them with intermediate readers and writers to help develop students' understanding of sentence structure as you have them predict which part of speech belongs in the blank.
The second method requires some preparation on your part. See the image below for an example.
This activity uses Wordle.net to create “word clouds” which can be displayed and utilized for a pre-reading activity. These word clouds display all of the words from the text in a manner such that the most-frequently used words will appear larger than the less-frequent words. This helps to highlight main ideas or important vocabulary.
Preparation
1. Go to http://www.wordle.net/ . Click “create,” then copy and paste the text of the class reading. The website will generate a “word cloud” picture. If desired, the word cloud can be customized to a font of your choice. 2. If you intend to project the word cloud in class, then save a screen grab of the word cloud. If you intend to hand out copies, then print. Procedures 1. Project or hand out copies of the word cloud. Explain to students that the largest words are the words which appear most frequently in the text they are going to read. Some pre-reading questions might include:
2. If there are unknown words, explain them. It may be useful to first ask if any students know the meaning and can explain the words. Note Some of the script fonts on the website may be illegible to international students who have never learned to read cursive. DVD movies and online video clips are great resources that students can use as models for correct pronunciation. The film needs to contain English subtitles or closed captioning. Alternately, students could have additional listening practice by transcribing their own scripts. This method would also allow students to annotate their scripts with intonation markings.
Students can use two methods:
Above is a video I created to model these methods to students.
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How should I organize my Evernote notes?
Ever feel like you need a second brain? As teachers, we have so many things to juggle and keep straight. Evernote is like a faithful teaching assistant that helps me remember teaching ideas, keep track of resources, organize lesson plans, and archive whiteboard photos and audio notes. One colleague I introduced it to called it a life changer, and I certainly agree!
You can think of Evernote as an ever-expanding database to which you keep adding all the good ideas you want to remember. Its powerful search functions mean that unlike throwing items into a physical filing cabinet, you can quickly and easily retrieve anything you put inside it! The best way to learn to use it is to see it in action, so here is a video of a seminar which I presented at the 2013 California TESOL convention on the many ways teachers can use Evernote to maximize their efficiency. Here you will find teaching activities as well as ideas for using resources, ranging from tips to detailed how-tos. If you find something useful or have a question, please leave a comment! I would love to hear from you. Thanks for stopping by!
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