Teacher Discussion Forums

Hi all, Are you teaching present continuous to lower level students any time soon? I took a Road Runner cartoon and added present continuous captions to it. Now it's on youtube.com, here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MdPOnvRwSZw I thought it would make a nice warmer/review at the start of a lesson...

David-sensei That 'Nim' game sounds great - I'm going to use it next time I have a beginner class. Could also use it for practising the numbers 1-20. I think I once played a similar game in a pub - with three rows of matchsticks or something. The loser is the one who takes the last match. Cheers for...

Much. Thanks!

that hurts my eyes, Sally - how about some paragraphs??

Hi Ivy, I used to play an alpha-bet tennis game, where the class was divided into two halves. One half shouts 'A' The other shouts B' The first half 'C' ... and so on up to 'Z' You can play it several times, getting them to go faster and faster. Children also enjoy doing a whispering version of it, ...

Word Up is a very good board game which was made especially for ESL students. The best thing is, the packs of cards range from beginner (I think) right up to advanced ... so all levels can use it. My school has four sets and I recently used it with a level four class (intermediate). Some of the stud...

Hi Mariazc Three is so young!!! Maybe you could use some very simple songs that have numbers... Ten green bottles ? 1-2-3-4-5 ... once i caught a fish alive ? A very simple game is number tennis ... the class or group is in two halves. One half starts by shouting 'one' , the other half replies with ...

There's a good first conditionals board game in Reward Pre-intermediate resource pack. I think the same pack also has a great second conditional mingle activity called 'dream on'. When I teach second conditional, I often play an advice game called - 'if I were you'.... Four or five students play, an...

Juventa There are so many games that people use in ESL, and they can be used to teach just about every aspect of English. I've used games for spelling, vocabulary, reviewing work, practising discreet grammar points, generation discussion, role play, debate etc etc etc. So maybe in your report you co...

Hi Anood Much as I'd love to sit here and type out 200 jokes for you, I'm way too busy! Here are some more Q&A jokes/riddles that I find ok to use with lower level students ... What do you call a dead bee? A was. Why was six scared of seven? Because seven eight nine. Why didn't the skeleton go to th...

Hi Effie Sometimes that is the answer - students have a teacher they particularly like. That teacher seems perfect for them, and when they leave no other teacher can replace them. Or that's the way it seems. Sometimes it's very hard to follow in the footsteps of a well-loved teacher - but it's not i...

One way is to give the students the question parts for 10 jokes on a worksheet. The answer parts are all pinned up around the walls of the classroom. Students can mingle around the room, reading the answers and trying to match them to the questions to make complete jokes. When I do this, I usually u...

So Jacob

I'd love to get something cool like that for www.grammarmancomic.com ... did it cost you a lot of money?

And once the actual mechanics of the game was in place, was it just a matter of adding new words to the database to make as many different game possibilities as you wanted?

Brian

Hi Jacob

Your vocab site is excellent. I especially liked the crosswords - that's super slick. How did you do it? Is it Flash?

Brian


Grammar COMICS ... http://www.grammarmancomic.com

Hi Meli With lower levels I've used... Raindrops Keep Falling on my Head (in every line I give the studnets a choice of two words. They have to listen and circle the correct word) Tom's Diner - Suzanne Vega (great for present continuous) Only You - Yazoo / The Flying Pickets (I do it as a gapfill an...