using realia - magazines

[Sherrin]

Hello,
I am teaching middle school students in a public school (not hakwon) in Sth Korea. I have over 100 magazines (all in English) that friends have sent me. They range from "National Geographic"s to "Aviation World" with everything in between: outdoors, Hollywood stars, Women's Weekly, computing, windsurfing, archaeology, photography etc.
I realise i have a great teaching resource but i'm not sure how i could go about using this stuff.
I'm hoping someone has some ideas on how i can best use this material in the classroom. I teach "normal" classes of about 40 students and a "special" class of about 20 higher level students.
Any help would be very much appreciated. You can email me directly if you wish on [email protected].
Sherrin

[eslweb]

This is going to look like a recipe, but this is what I do when using Magazine Realia...

1. Find a subject that is likely to interest them. I find surveys work very well, gadget, sports articles for boys, fashion for girls etc.

2. Go through the articles and highlight the difficult vocab, so that it can be elicited on the board before they read the article.

3. Create a question to encourage scanning/skimming
(Normally I try to find something about 2/3 of the way down the article.)

4. Create 5-7 more questions for more detailed reading.

5. Think of any discussion questions that the article might raise.

Run the class...

Also if I have a secure classroom, then leave the magazines in the classroom for casual reading and I was very surprised that students were happily reading or at least looking at the pictures during breaks/lunch/before class. I just used to leave them on a spare desk...

James
http:/www.jameasabela.co.uk/

[Sally Olsen]

I used to buy magazines at the airport on my way back to my school as I always went back to Canada for holidays. I would buy the number that were in my class and as you buy them in the lounge after they have settled your ticket, they don't count as baggage although they weigh a ton. Like you, I got friends to send me some as well so I always had more than the students in my class. I also went to the comic book stores and got the promotional comics they have with just one story and got enough for half the class so they shared. With the comic books it was easy to make a lesson as if it was their textbook with ideas like those above. We then tried to make comic books with some children who were good at illustrations making the drawings and the whole class thinking up the story. I usually displayed the magazines at the front of the class and allowed the students to come and choose one or share one with a friend. They chose an article and made a small report on it which they presented to a group of four and if they wanted to the whole class. We also discussed ads and what they were trying to do and how they influence your opinion. For the younger grades who could not read the articles we had a word hunt for words in their vocabulary. They chose an illustration and wrote a small story to go with it or asked me for a summary of the story. The older students chose words they didn't know or words they would like to know to put up on the word wall with an illustrating sentence and a translation if possible. When the magazines got thoroughly used up we cut up the pictures for the picture file in the teacher's lounge and used some on the English Bulltetin Board with a student's story underneath. We also saved titles for the bulletin board - you can cut them up word by word to make new titles with neat fonts and colours. In Greenland we were able to compare articles from the Danish magazines on the same topic and the students often followed up with a search on the Internet for more information. For the younger children I cut out figures to play paper dolls (mounted on cardboard) and they made clothes for them from their national costumes to every day items when they were learning clothing vocabulary and once we even got small samples of materials to learn vocabulary - polka dots, courderoy, etc. The very young children chose a picture for the picture dictionary and pasted the illustration in a book under the right letter - those few who didn't think they could draw - and wrote the word underneath. We compared articles from different magazines about the same subject but in general most of the interesting articles were too difficult for most students up to grade 9 or 10. Even the fashion magazines had difficult constructions with slang and new words or references they didn't get. But it all provoked a lot of discussion. I always brought back some adult magazines for the teachers as well and those were really appreciated.

[ibrahim21]

Hi ,
pls check your yahoo email.

[strider]

Something that is often overlooked in magazines is the advertising - but it can be very useful in teaching. All sorts of language is used (comparatives, superlatives, conditionals) as well as puns and idioms. Why not select some ads for products that the students would like to have and go from there?

You can also use the images and slogans but mask the product, get the students to discuss what the ad is for.

Or use an ad as a basis for a radio or TV commercial that the kids students have to make themselves.

[GrannyGrump]

1. Picture Cards. I just cut out interesting pictures (I like half-page or larger), paste them on plain white paper, and laminate them. These are great for a variety of games and activities.

2. Scavenger Hunt. Send the kids looking through the magazines for things on their list. Depending on whether you want to keep the magazines, you have have the kids show you their finds or cut and paste them onto pages.

3. They're great fodder for pictures for homemade flashcards, especially clothing and everyday items.

4. Vocabulary collage. Whatever your topic is, you can have the kids find appropriate pictures. If the topic is food, give the kids a page with a sketch of a table, and the kids have to find, cut out, paste, and label foods. If it's toys, give them a sketch of a set of shelves. If it's clothes, give them a sketch of a suitcase, etc. This is great because it teaches new vocabulary for things the students find in the magazines that weren't on the official vocabulary list. I give them points for each properly labeled picture to ensure that they actually write the words rather than just cutting and pasting the pictures. This can be done solo or in teams.

We actually established a box in our teacher's room for old catalogs and magazines to use for these and other activities. The only problem is that we got way too many women's and baby magazines, and nothing like Time, Car & Driver, or Field & Stream, so there's always a surplus of girly things and not enough animals, tools, and other guy stuff.

I bring my in-flight magazines, free brochures, etc. The free movie fliers that you can get in theaters are often a lot of fun.

[fernanda]

try to subscribe Newsweek and Time magazine they will help because they have a programme for teachers

[simplyesl]

Use the pictures in the magazines. Get one student to describe a person in a magazine and have the other students draw what they here.
You'll find that they come up with some funny results!