Teacher Discussion Forums

Hello everybody,
My name is Agnieszka. I'm from Poland and I'm new here
I work in secondary school and I'm trying to teach my students English. I would like to ask YOU, my friends, how to use different texts on my lessons, I don't want to use the same exercises all the time
Have you got any suggestions?
Thank you.
Agnieszka

Hi!

I use a variety of texts, my own or short stories or articles.

They are first summarized then discussed under a variety of aspects.

Best wishes
Siân

Hi,
Thank you for your reply. How often do you work with text on lessons? In what way do you discuss these topics? What exercises below the text do you use? I know some of them:
-put events in correct order;
-true/false questions;
-answer the questions;
-discussing the moral of the story. Do you know any other?
Hear you soon
Agnieszka

Hi!

Every day about 5 courses.

I adapt the order to the student's needs.

Best wishes
Siân

Hi,
Would it be possible if you show me one of your texts with set of exercises?
Best wishes,
Agnieszka

Hiya!

Text & tasks


http://www.fun2learnmore.de/modules.php ... le&sid=229

sorry I am ill flu

Siân

Agnieszka:

One book that I've found extremely helpful is the teacher's resource book Headstarts by Natalie Hess. This one has over 100 activities to introduce a new text, including discussion tasks, games, role play, and a lot more. It's perfect for a reading class, especially if you want them to do more than just sit and read. I've been using it for the past year and I think it's one of the best ESL books around.

Hi Agnieztka,

I use to ask for texts to my students. they can be from magazines, internet, newspaper or text books. When they bring their own text it is because they are interested on so the activity is going to flow easily. Some times I ask them to make questions about the topic without reading, just looking at the title and then after reading they to answer their own questions. They have enjoyed this kind of activity.

Try to find some good sites on the internet with different kinds of texts and create your own assignments with them. children like that.

Dear Marpi,
Thank you for your reply. It is a good idea to ask students first what they are interested in and accept their texts. The problem is that one person is interested in the topic and the other is not. So what do you do then?
Kind regards,
Agnieszka

Dear lien81,
Thank you for your reply. Any suggestions of internet pages and your examples of assignments? Sometimes it seems for me that I use only one type of exercises or is it only the illusion?
Thank you for all suggestions they are really important for me and I learn a lot then.
Kind regards,
Agnieszka

Dear Agnieszka,

I think it takes background knowledge and experience to find a text interesting, and interest usually comes from getting involved in a matter, not the other way around.

Interest has got to be stimulated, and it may well be that one or the other of your students is a natural communicator who makes something dear to him sound interesting to others, too - but this is bound to be the exception, rather than the rule.

You, on the other hand, you have a wealth of experience to draw from. When you read an article on the net or somewhere, you'll be less hampered by vocabulary issues than the students are, you'll be more familiar with the culture it comes from, and more apt at assessing the value of a piece of writing. And you have means to get your enthusiasm across that may not be open to the students.

Marpi,

I would be delighted if students of mine brought texts they were interested in, because they wanted them discussed in class. It has actually happened a few times, especially when students needed to fix their Harleys and couldn't read the instructions and wanted me to do their work for them. Those without Harleys, however, they were bored stiff, and the students who had brought the written material, well, their focus was not on getting their classmates interested, but on figuring out how the repairs would work.

Maybe your students are more mature and more motivated than mine. With mine, I feel, as if I have to act as the prime motivator, over and over again. And I feel comfortable playing that role...

One activity that I use to revise texts is gap-filling.

It's easy to find texts on the internet that are similar to the ones used in class, and that use the same sort of vocabulary. I usually transfer these revision texts into WORD, leave out phrases that the students are meant to fill in, and have them complete the passage.

I'm also very fond of explanations of terms in English - because I believe that explaining what they mean is vital, especially as they generally don't memorise each and every word.

The way I have them practise this skills is by having them construct and solve cross-word puzzles. If you put "CROSSWORD MAKER" into the google search engine, it takes you to sites which allow you to make crossword puzzles with words of your choice. It really goes down well with my bunch.

The most important way of revising texts, however, is by talking about them, over and over again, summarizing them, putting them into different perspective, discussing them, turning them into a topic of class interaction.