Resolutions

My teen students learned how to talk about resolutions by using GOING TO. To wrap things up, they were asked to illustrate a song. I apologize for the rough sketches, but this particular group was not very into drawing. However, I haven't showed them the video yet, so I hope that when I do, they feel motivated to finish them up, so I can edit it eventually. Nevertheless, I wanted to give you an idea of what the video could look like, so here's the result:

 

My Best Friend

After learning how to describe people´s physical characteristics, my students have been asked to draw, color and write about their best friends.

Board Game Project

Despite all the technology available in the classrooms (iPads, data show equipment, computer labs, etc…) I still think that drawing, coloring and cutting out are fun. Also, the project below promotes collaboration/ cooperation among students. My Junior students were learning the affirmative, negative and interrogative forms of the verb THERE TO BE. After some significant practice and in order to wrap the lesson up, students were arranged in small groups (3 or 4 tops) and I assigned a different task for each member.

BOARD GAME

MATERIAL NEEDED: Brown paper, magazines, glue, markers, colored pencils and scissors.

FOCUS: Any Grammar Point or Vocabulary Practice.

Student A: Selects and cuts out pictures from the magazines.
Student B: Draws and colors a START/FINISH track on the brown paper.
Student C: Creates the tasks to be performed in the game. (Assisted by the teacher/peers.)
Student D: Pastes the cut outs. (In case the group has three students, student A selects, cuts out and pastes the pictures.)

Possible tasks to be performed when playing the game:

1) Fill in a blank:

(For instance, in one of the squares, you see the picture of a cat on the couch and you read:  Is there a cat on the couch? Yes, ________. Or: ____________a cat on the couch? Yes, there is.)

2) Answer a question:

What is there in the picture?________________________. 
Are there any cars in the picture?__________________________.

3) Ask a question:

__________________________? Yes, there is.
________________________? No, there aren´t.

4) Correct the mistake.

There is three children in the picture.
There is a dog in the picture?

The teacher has to make sure (and students should be told that) that during the entire time that they are performing their tasks, they should discuss every decision they make with their peers and collaborate with each other whenever necessary. After they finish making the game, they play it.

In the end, the teacher can have the board games laminated for future classes.

My favorite singer

Students are learning how to describe their talents. After practicing the structure " I can... but I can´t ..." and learning the names of the musical instruments, I assigned the following written task: Draw and color you favorite singer and write about him/her.

Digital Tools

The activities presented here have been designed for an elementary group and the ultimate goal was to incorporate  a digital tool to it. At the time, I was working with Dani Lyra on this project that we developed and which consisted on devising lesson plans which enabled teachers to use digital tools. We called it "DIGITAL COMMUNICATION PROJECT - WEB 2.0 AND EFL YOUNG LEARNERS". For the first activity, students started out by drawing and coloring the foods they liked. Then, they wrote on the back of their drawings three sentences using the structure learned, the verb LIKE. They wrote two true sentences and one false. In the end, I digitalized their work using PHOTO PEACH, which allows us to make a slide show presentation. In the slides, students could read the true and false sentences written by their peers and guess which sentences were false, based on the drawings presented. They enjoyed seeing their drawings in the activity and had a lot of fun. For the second activity, students drew their bedrooms and wrote sentences using the structure learned, the verb THERE TO BE. Afterwards, the illustrations and sentences were digitalized and in the end, which could be the next class, students watched the slide show and guessed which of the three sentences was the correct one. Needless to say that they had tons of fun seeing their drawings projected on the wall.