Tag Archives: ELT

Books

Book of the Week: Christmas in Prague by Joyce Hannam

Dec 25 - Xmas in prague

In a house in Oxford, three people are having breakfast – Carol, her husband Jan, and his father Josef. They are talking about Prague, because Carol wants them all to go there for Christmas.

Josef was born in Prague, but he left his home city when he was a young man. He is an old man now, and he would like to see Prague again before he dies. But he is afraid. He still remembers another Christmas in Prague, many long years ago – a Christmas that changed his life for ever…

This award-winning collection of adapted classic literature and original stories develops reading skills for low-beginning through advanced students.
Accessible language and carefully controlled vocabulary build students’ reading confidence.
Introductions at the beginning of each story, illustrations throughout, and glossaries help build comprehension.
Before, during, and after reading activities included in the back of each book strengthen student comprehension.
Audio versions of selected titles provide great models of intonation and pronunciation of difficult words.

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Teachers, Training & Conferences

New Year Webquest

This New Year webquest by Gabrielle Jones includes activities designed to inform students about the history of New Year celebrations and the traditions which are practised today in a variety of cultures.

teacher-webquest

 

Note: The teacher’s notes for this webquest can be found at the bottom of the page by clicking the button marked “Teacher’s Notes”. We have also included a link to a student-facing page which does not have any links to the answers. You’ll find it by clicking the button marked “Student’s Page” at the bottom of this page. We suggest that you send students the link to the student page to prevent them from finding the answers too easily!

 

Warmer

New Year is an exciting time and many cultures celebrate it in a special way. This may include special foods and drinks, parties, religious festivals and other traditions. Answer these questions in pairs or small groups:

  1. How is New Year celebrated in your country?
  2. Do you know of any similarities or differences in New Year celebrations in other countries?
  3. How do you and your family celebrate New Year?

 

Activity 1: The history of New Year celebrations

Visit http://www.history.com/topics/new-years and read the sections titled ‘Early New Year’s Celebrations’ and ‘January 1 becomes New Year’s day’. Look for the answers to these questions:

  1. When were the earliest New Year celebrations and where did they take place?
  2. What name was given to the religious festivity, and where did the name come from?
  3. How long did the original celebration last?
  4. When people began to develop their own calendars, to what events did they tie the beginning of a new year?
  5. What event marked the beginning of the New Year in Egypt?
  6. When was the city of Rome established?
  7. Who included the first two months of the year to the calendar, and what were the names of the first two months?
  8. Who introduced January 1 as the start of the New Year?
  9. What changes did Christian leaders make in the middle ages?
  10. When was January 1 reintroduced as the beginning of the calendar year?

When you’ve finished, discuss what you found out with your partner.

Discussion:

Discuss one other significant festival in your country – do you know how long it has been celebrated, and why it became important?

Activity 2: New Year’s Traditions

Now go to http://www.history.com/topics/new-years and read the final section of the page titled ‘New Year’s Traditions’. Answer the following questions and then compare your answers with your partner.

  1. What do Spanish people eat 12 of at midnight on New Year’s Eve and what do they symbolize?
  2. Which countries eat legumes and what do they represent?
  3. What do pigs represent in some cultures and where is pork eaten?
  4. Which countries eat ring-shaped cakes and why?
  5. What is hidden inside the rice pudding eaten in Sweden and Norway at New Year? What will happen to the person who finds it?
  6. Which people first made New Year’s resolutions?
  7. What did they promise to do?
  8. What’s the most famous symbol of the beginning of the New Year in America?
  9. How long has the event taken place?
  10. What alternative objects are dropped in other American cities?

 

Activity 3: New Year celebrations around the world

New Year is celebrated on different dates in different places, and often involves very different traditions. In this activity you and a partner will find out all about two countries and their New Year celebrations.

Student 1 – Scottish New Year

Before you look at the weblink, decide whether the following statements are true or false:

  1. ‘Hogmanay’ means the first day of the year.
  2. Scottish people used to celebrate Hogmanay more than Christmas.
  3. Strangers are not allowed inside people’s houses during Hogmanay.
  4. It is considered very unlucky to enter a household without any gifts.
  5. A lump of coal is a traditional gift.

Now visit http://www.scotland.org/features/hogmanay-top-facts/ to check your answers.

 

Student 2 – Jewish New Year

Before you look at the weblink, decide whether the following statements are true or false:

  1. Jewish New Year is a celebration of the creation of the world.
  2. The celebration lasts a whole week.
  3. Jews believe that God will decide what the next year will be like for someone.
  4. A special song called the ‘Shofar’ is sung in the synagogue.
  5. A round loaf is eaten to symbolize the circle of life.

Now visit http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/religion/judaism/rosh_hashanah.shtml to check your answers.

Compare your answers with your partner. Then together, copy the table below and fill it in using the information on the websites:

 

Scottish New Year

Jewish New Year
Name of celebration
Customs
Food eaten

Activity 4: Quiz: International New Year’s Eve customs

Use the following website to access this quiz based on New Year’s Eve customs around the world. In pairs, discuss each question and decide which option you think is correct. When you have finished, you can check your answers on the screen.

http://www.topics-mag.com/internatl/holidays/new-year/quiz/new-years.htm

Post-quiz discussion:

How many of the customs are also practised in your own country?

Activity 5: Round-up task

Imagine that you have friends from another country coming to celebrate New Year with you and your family. In pairs, plan the evening, considering the following points:

  • What kind of food are you going to serve?
  • Which local traditions are you going to show them?
  • Will you visit any special people or places?
  • What are you going to do at midnight?
  • Will you make any resolutions?

When you have finished, compare the plans you have made with another pair.

Optional activity

Make your own list of New Year’s resolutions. Compare your list to your classmates to see if any are similar.

 

We wish you a happy New Year!

[button color=”red” size=”small” link=”http://www.onestopenglish.com/webquest-new-year-teachers-notes/553260.article” target=”blank” ]Teacher’s Notes[/button]    [button color=”green” size=”small” link=”http://www.onestopenglish.com/webquest-new-year-student-page/553450.article” target=”blank” ]Student’s Page[/button]

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Teachers, Training & Conferences

The Perfect Classroom Gift: A Gift of Words

giftofwords

“A Gift of Words” is a very simple lesson.

Tell your class:

“Okay, class, here’s what I want you to bring to class with you on the last day of school before winter break. I want you to find a poem, a saying, a paragraph you like — something that speaks to you because of its message, its beauty, its format. I want you to copy it onto a piece of paper, put it into a box, wrap it, and bring it to class. Be sure to include, before you wrap it, the name of the author and your name as the giver.”

When the day comes, students will place their packages on the teacher’s desk. They should vary from huge to tiny, from carefully wrapped to hurriedly tossed together. And yes, there will be those who forget, who scribbled “Just do it” on a piece of notebook paper, folded it like a paper football, and added it to the pile. You should provide a few extras, just in case.

How to start:

“Whose birthday is closest to Christmas? Okay, you’re first. Pick any present you want.”

Suspense:

What would she/he get? You won’t be disappointed. The contents will vary — favorites from “Where the Sidewalk Ends” by Shel Silverstein to Bible verses, song lyrics, and short sayings like “Just do it.” The experiment will be a success. Everyone in the class will have a gift and you will have the greatest gift of all-happiness.

Students, Teachers, Training & Conferences

Interesting Words And Expressions – Actions speak louder than words

“Actions speak louder than words.”

What does it mean?

Just saying that you’ll do something doesn’t mean much. Actually doing it is harder and more meaningful.

Where does it come from?

In the 1500s, French writer, Michel de Montaigne, was quoted as stating:

“Saying is one thing and doing is another.”

Teachers, Training & Conferences

Small, Safe Steps for Introducing Games to the Classroom

Some educators are nervous about using games in the classroom or fully implementing all aspects of game-based learning (GBL). However, there are a few small, safe steps that all educators can and should consider to leverage the power of engagement that games can bring. Finding games isn’t as difficult as it used to be. Sites like Educade provide game ideas, links, resources, and even lesson ideas. This is a great start, but educators should take some of the following next steps to feel even more confident and safe about using games in the classroom.

Play the Games

When educators want to know if a game is appropriate for the classroom, they shouldn’t just rely on someone telling them it’s great, whether that someone is a company or even a colleague. To truly understand if the game will work with your curriculum or your intended goals for learning, you need to sit down and actually play the game. Spend the time to explore this software, app, or board game to your satisfaction. As you play, you can experience what students will experience and learn how to support them when they play. You’ll develop an understanding of what can be learned from this game, whether it’s content, thinking skills, or both. One of the best professional development experiences on games and GBL is to play a digital game like Civilization solo or a board game like Settlers of Catan with a group of friends.

A Game Is Voluntary

You want to know what makes games the most effective? They are voluntary. If you make students play the game, you are missing the entire point of games and GBL. Jane McGonigal, author of Reality is Broken, states:

When you strip away the genre differences and the technological complexities, all games share four defining traits: a goal, rules, a feedback system, and voluntary participation.

Voluntary participation means that players actively agree to the rules and procedures of the game, rather than having those forced upon them. When we are forced to do something, the work we do in games actually becomes less safe and less enjoyable. Consider offering games as a voluntary activity for true engagement.

Games as Differentiation

Not every student in your class needs to be playing the same game at the same time. In fact, games can be used as just another tool to differentiate. As teachers formatively assess their students, they may find that some students didn’t quite get either the content knowledge or 21st century skill they were focusing on. Also, educators might find that some students are ready for a greater challenge. Educators can use games as a tool to support either revisiting the material or pushing students farther on new material. Not only do games help differentiate for students, but they also free up the teacher to meet the needs of more students.

Team Games

Even though many games are played individually, playing games together can be a great way to build classroom culture. When paired with other culture-building activities, games can provide low-stakes, competitive ways to build collaboration skills. In fact, games that involve teams can help support the principles of “helping each other out” and sharing. Some games, like Pandemic, require that all players work together toward the same goal instead of working competitively. Collaboration is key in that game, so consider games like it for building classroom culture, and pair them with reflections and discussion to assess the learning.

Remember, depending on the access to technology, teachers can pick both high-tech and low-tech games, or offer both. Educators can try all or some of these steps to use games in the classroom. It’s important that we start small with implementation, and that we continually reflect on the learning and push ourselves to try new things for the sake of our students, their engagement, and their achievement.

What games have you introduced in your classroom, and how did you make it happen? Please share in the comments below.

Teachers, Training & Conferences

Reteach and Enrich

teacher-in-class

When English Book in Georgia’s (EBG) Chief Executive Officer, Maia Gurgenidze, was asked about EBG’s extensive work with teachers, schools and other educational institutions in Georgia, here is what she said. “We at EBG believe that education always has a positive impact on people’s lives and we are committed to making a difference ourselves by promoting English language teaching in our country. Our main goal is to create the best educational environment for students throughout Georgia.

We’re passionate about our work, because it helps people understand, achieve and discover more. Inspired by our proud history, we look for 100% commitment to the quality and integrity of what we do. It’s the passion we have for our work that gives us purpose. It helps us to think independently and stand up for what we believe.

The teacher training and conferences we offer are central to the successful development of Georgian English language teachers. New methodology is developed every day world-wide and it is very important to spread these innovations to all of our teachers.

We look forward to revolutionizing English teaching in Georgia with you…”

So with that in mind, we would like to introduce you to a new teaching strategy developed in the United States by teachers at Mesquite Elementary School in Arizona state.

The system is called Reteach and Enrich (R&E), and it happens every day, school-wide, from 12:30 p.m. to 1 p.m. During this period, teachers give students who are struggling with a concept extra time and attention, and students who have mastered the basics receive instruction that takes their learning to the next level. The system is based on a shared curriculum map, with objectives defined for every week of the school year. At the end of each week, teachers assess students on those objectives. Depending on the results, they assign students to either a reteach or an enrich session the following week. There is no stigma attached to going to reteach; almost every student has been assigned to it at some point. Students see it simply as an opportunity to learn something better than they did the first time.

Mesquite Elementary school uses these techniques for Mathematics but this technique can easily be altered for any school subject.

Teachers, Training & Conferences

Macmillan Summer Training 2014 – Handouts and Materials

Below you can download the materials used during Macmillan Summer Trainings in Georgia (14-25 July, 2014). Please feel free to contact  English Book Team (englishbookteam@englishbook.ge) if you have any questions or concerns.

Classroom Management:
Classroom Management – Power Point Presentation
Classroom Management  – How would you rate yourself at
Classroom Management  – Jigsaw Dictation for differentiated learning
Classroom Management – Case study cards

Grammar:
Grammar 1-8
Grammar worksheets – teachers’ copies for Lesson Planning and Grammar

Lesson Planning:
Lesson plan 1- 6
Session description – Lesson Planning and Grammar – 60 mins

Pronunciation:
Pronunciation

Teachers, Training & Conferences

How to Activate and Use Macmillan Starter Pack

Video

2014 წელს, კომპანიის „ინგლისური წიგნი საქართველოში“ შუამდგომლობით და რეკომენდაციით, გამომცემლობამ Macmillan Education ქართველ მასწავლებლებს შესთავაზა უფასო რესურსები დაწყებითი კლასებისთვის. ყველა მასწავლებელს დაურიგდა ინდივიდუალური საიდენტიფიკაციო კოდი.

ჩვენს YouTube გვერდზე ავტვირთეთ Macmillan Starter Pack-ის აქტივაციისა და გამოყენების ვიდეო ინსტრუქცია. ეს ინსტრუქცია, ქართულ ენაზე შედგენილ დოკუმენტთან ერთად (გადმოსაწერად დააჭირეთ აქ) დაგეხმარებათ გამოიყენოთ თქვენთვის უფასოდ განთავსებული რესურსები.

დამატებითი ინფორმაციისთვის შეგიძლიათ დაუკავშირდეთ კომპანიას “ინგლისური წიგნი საქართველოში”, გისურვებთ წარმატებას!

Teachers, Training & Conferences

Using Ball Games to Teach English

Ball games are a great way of practicing all kinds of language with young learners, particularly kids who struggle with more traditional classroom activities. Because they have so many possible uses, ball games are particularly good for revising a load of old language before moving onto presenting the new language point of the day.

Throwing or bouncing balls to drill language

playing-ball-line-drawing-mdThe simplest use of a ball is for students to throw and catch it while drilling something like months of the year or pairs of infinitive and irregular past forms of verbs. This can be done with all three of the ways mentioned in the introduction above – one student on their own, two or more students cooperating, or a more competitive version with more challenging throws or things said to catch the other people out. You could also have one or two people throwing and catching while everyone else chants, perhaps as teams. Other sequences which students can drill include Days of the week, Numbers, Times and Dates, Adjectives and adverbs, I me my mine, you you your yours, etc.

Going beyond drilling with throwing and bouncing balls

Another obvious activity that could be considered one step above drilling is brainstorming as a ball goes back and forth, e.g. “banana”, “apple”, “grape” etc if the topic is fruit. The same thing can be done for grammar by brainstorming things like past participles (“been”, “seen”, “watched” etc) and uncountable nouns. You can also do the same thing for pronunciation, brainstorming words with “iz” ending (“passes”, “churches” etc), words with long vowel sounds (“arch” etc), single syllable words (“fan”, “bar” etc), words stressed on the first syllable (“power”, “waterfall”, etc), and so on.

Target practice games for practicing English

Target practice in the classroom can be played with students aiming balls at the places that the teacher or a student says or writes up on the whiteboard. If you don’t have enough balls for one per student or don’t want lots of things flying around the classroom at the same time, students can use paper (screwed up into balls or made into paper aeroplanes) or one person from each team can throw, with their teammates helping them work out where to do so. To add extra language, you can let students try again if they can describe where their ball actually ended up (“It’s in front of the box” “That’s right. Try to throw it behind the box again then.”). You can also play the opposite game of one person throwing and the other students competing to be first to correctly shout out where the ball has ended up.

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Ball actions

As well as listening for where the ball has gone, students can listen for what someone is doing with the ball, e.g. “You are bouncing it on the door” and “You are kicking it”. Students can also race to do the action that is shouted out or written up (“Balance the ball on your shoulder”, “Hold the ball between your knees”, etc), challenge each other to do tricky things (“Can you head it four times?” etc), or think of and do actions that no one else has (“We are holding it with our little fingers”). One person or group can also do a whole sequence of actions that the other people must try to remember, as practice of Past Simple and/ or sequencing language (“after that” etc).

TEFL dodge ball

This is kind of the opposite of the throw and catch games at the start of this article. People try to avoid the thrown ball, and if it hits them they have to answer the question, come up with the next word, guess the next missing letter, etc. If they are wrong, they lose a point or are out of the game. If they are right, they can throw the ball next, perhaps also setting the next challenge. If you and the students can stand the chaos, this works best with everyone running around freely, rather than gathered at opposite walls as in the normal rules of dodge ball.

Article written by Alex Case for UsingEnglish.com
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