(All credit for the above cartoon goes to Judy Horacek. Visit her website here.)
Teaching punctuation can be a chore, but it needn't be! I've included a fun lesson on apostrophes to give you some inspiration. This lesson demonstrates how punctuation lessons can be dynamic and fun. This lesson will appeal to your visual and kinesthetic learners in particular.
Package includes:
Lesson Plan
Apostrophe Matching Game
Apostrophe Search Activity
Apostrophe Search Answers
Apostrophe Sildes
Real-life Apostrophe Mistakes Worksheet
Download the lesson plan, Powerpoint presentation and worksheets
Wednesday 19 June 2013
IPA Flash Cards!
I have recently been working with a student from China, who is learning English for the first time. She is having a hard time differentiating between different sounds (e.g., /I/ (ship) and /I:/ (sheep)). I have been teaching her IPA so that she understands that the number of possible sounds in English are not as infinite as they seem! She is doing really well, and these flashcards really seem to help. To use them, print out both sets of cards (word cards and IPA cards) and stick them back to back on a piece of cardboard. You can laminate them if you like. The cards are in corresponding order, so no need to panic if you can't match them up by yourself! I have provided sets for vowels and consonants. I like to do my vowels in one colour and my consonants in another. Enjoy!
Download Consonant Word File
Download Consonant IPA File
Download Vowel Word File
Download Vowel IPA File
Monday 10 June 2013
IPA Charts for Classes or Teachers
I'm currently studying phonetics myself and thought I would upload these charts for any teachers doing the same. I find that using IPA can sometimes be useful when demonstrating the difference between two sounds when teaching second language learners. In the pdf I've included a regular chart with all of the symbols on it and a second one which also includes my doodles (which help me to remember which vowel is which!). Hope that this is useful for some of you!
Monday 3 June 2013
Homemade Erasable Mini Whiteboards
Mini whiteboards are a great way to engage your students. Unfortunately it can be expensive to buy them for a whole class. That's why I came up with this idea. Each whiteboard is simply a piece of laminated paper. You can customise your whiteboards by laminating lined or patterned paper. I find these mini whiteboard very useful for plenary activities. Give your class a mini quiz and gauge their understanding by having them show their answers on a whiteboard.
Download the lined template here for free.
Monday 27 May 2013
Adjective-Preposition Dominoes
Help your students to understand the relationship between adjectives and prepositions by having them play this dominoes game. The aim is to match each adjective with an appropriate preposition (e.g. pleased with, happy about). If there is nowhere to place, the player misses a turn. The first person to use up their dominoes wins. Your students will understand preposition combinations in no time!
Download for free
Monday 20 May 2013
A Winning Lesson Structure Formula (for those pesky observed lessons)
This article introduces my preferred structure for English Language and Literature lessons, and offers practical examples of activities that you can use in your classes. These are the guidelines that I follow in most of my lessons available on hanplans.com.
Planning lessons requires creativity, but is also about following a simple recipe. Without a plan and a structure, a lesson can seem to be going nowhere despite hours of work. When this happens, it’s important to view the lesson as a series of connected elements. I use the following structure:
- Starter
- Teach Time
- Study
- Success Criteria
- Activate
- Assess
- Plenary
While this structure is perhaps more elaborate than other structures you may have come across, it’s become my new standard. Not only will it break down your planning into manageable “chunks”, but it reduces “teacher talk time”, will allow you to gauge whether your students are meeting learning outcomes, and is bound to impress any external observers.
Download a free lesson plan template here
Download a free lesson plan template here
This template can help you to design your own lesson based on this structure.
1. Starter
This is a short activity or game that will engage your learners and introduce the lesson topic in an interesting way. You are far more likely to get the class’s attention if their interest is piqued within the first five minutes. Remember, this (short!) part of the lesson is about fun, not new material. Starters are also an opportunity to find out how much the students already know about the lesson topic.
Example activity: Word tennis. Split your class into two teams. Take turns pointing at members of each team, and ask them to give an example that fits the theme of the lesson (e.g. words that start with capital letters, verbs, famous people). Each time a team member takes longer than five seconds to think of a word, or repeats a word that has already been said, award the opposing team a point. When all class members have taken a turn, tally the points.
2. Teach Time
Begin by sharing your objectives for the lesson. After all, how can students be expected to meet targets that they don’t know exist? Then, introduce any new material by using a “student led” activity. The strongest activities tend to be those that require students to work out some of the new material for themselves. Make sure to discuss the correct answers at the end.
Example activity: Information Jigsaw. Give each pair of students a set of cards. On half of the cards, write down any new terms and their definitions (e.g. “Adverb: a word that describes a verb”), and on the other half, give examples of each of these terms (e.g. “He ate his cereal slowly”). Ask students to match the examples with the terms/definitions. This activity introduces lots of new information, and requires students to demonstrate their understanding. This activity works especially well for topics like: figurative language; parts of speech; new vocabulary lists, and types of conjunctions.
3. Study
During this part of the lesson students practise their new skills and confirm that they have understood the new material correctly. I often employ cooperative learning techniques that allow students to teach and assess their peers.
Example activity: Round Robin Lists. In groups of four, ask students to write a list of examples related to the lesson topic. Each member of the team takes a turn to add one word to his or her group’s list, helping one another if necessary. Once one round has been completed, students share their examples with the class. If mistakes arise, discuss them as a group.
4. Success Criteria
At this point in the lesson, it can be tempting to give students an assignment and let them get on with it. Before you do that, however, it is important that students know exactly what they should be aiming for when they begin their assignment (i.e. success criteria). An example of a success criteria table is given below. Ideally, students should be given a copy of this success criteria to help them revise.
Example activity: Success Criteria Table. When I create success criteria, I list the major skills expected of my students, and offer them examples of three different “levels” of marking criteria (e.g. A-C grades). I always stress that all students should be aiming for the top level. These charts can, and should, be based upon your local curriculum. Adding a simple mark scheme can help your learners to peer assess later in the lesson. Here is an example of success criteria that you might use after teaching a class on descriptive writing techniques:
Zooming
|
Appealing to Senses
|
Descriptive Detail
| |
3 Points
| I “zoomed” in at least two details in my writing so that the reader could visualise both the big picture and the details of my scene. I linked these two segments smoothly. | I gave the reader enough information so that they could imagine how the scene I was describing might look, smell, feel, sound or taste. My writing appealed to at least three senses. | I focused on writing about the details of my scene rather than writing a plot-driven text. I maintained the reader’s interest without writing a narrative piece. |
2 Points
| I included some description of the wider scene before focusing on the details. | As above. I appealed to at least two senses. | I included lots of detail but my writing may have started to sound more like a list than a descriptive piece. |
1 Point
| I did not use the “zooming” technique”. | I only described how my scene might look to an observer. | I simply wrote a list of all of the things that I could see and did not include finer details. |
5. Activate
Give students a short individual assignment (ten to fifteen minutes long) that will put their new knowledge to work. Ask students to refer to their success criteria as they work.
Example activity: Writing task. In a writing or composition class, you might give students a (short!) essay or story to write. In the past, I have asked students to “Write a well known fairytale as a different genre”, or “Rewrite this poorly written email using formal English”. If you are teaching a grammar lesson, you could ask your students to write a short passage on a given topic, including three underlined sentences that demonstrate a given grammar rule.
6. Assess
Peer- and self- assessment can be valuable learning tools and can reduce marking loads. The success criteria can now serve for assessment. Ask students to give both formative and summative feedback when assessing others.
Example activity: Peer Assessment. Students exchange their assignments with a partner. They use the success criteria to tally the number of points that their partner has attained (summative feedback). They also provide one “What went well...” comment and one “Even better if...” comment (formative feedback).
7. Plenary
The plenary activity is an opportunity for you to gauge class understanding. You could employ a simple “thumbs up, thumbs to the side, thumbs down” approach to determine student confidence. I, however, find that this can lead to embarrassment and insincere answers. I generally prefer a more private plenary activity.
Example activity: Ask students one final question about the lesson topic. Students write down their answer on a small piece of paper, with their names written at the top. After you have collected the slips, reveal the correct answer and explain. If you have collected a number of incorrect answers, you can later follow up.
Monday 13 May 2013
Mini Book
Four Ways to Use the Mini Book
1. Unit testInstead of giving your students a traditional test, have them create a "mini book" which summarises the content of the previous unit.
2. Revision tool
Have your students create a "mini book" for each new topic that they study. These can later be used for revision purposes.
3. Vocabulary book
Have your students use a mini book to record new vocabulary. Ask them to create themed books (e.g. adjectives, days of the week)
4. Book reports
Make book reports more interesting. Ask students to create "mini" versions of the book you are reading. If you are giving a test, you could allow students to use only the notes that will fit into a "mini book".
Download Mini Book Template
Download Mini Book Folding Instructions
Monday 6 May 2013
Adjective Cards
1. Character Study
If you are studying a book or novel, this is a good way to do some character analysis. Show one of the words at random and ask students to tell you which character can be described using this word and why.
2. Adjective Discussion Starter
Give pairs of students a full set of the cards. Students turn the cards over so that they cannot see the words. Students take turns to draw one of the cards. They must then discuss a time that they acted in such a way (e.g. a time that you were "Angry").
3. Adjective Flash Cards
Give the words to second language learners as a vocabulary list and have them use the cards as flash cards.
4. Adjective Charades
Play charades using the adjective cards. Students act out the words on the cards and their classmates must guess what the word is.
Monday 29 April 2013
Word Wheel
Ask students to use the wheel to come up with a story idea (e.g. “an explorer” “is given” “a ring”).
2. Tenses
Use the wheel when teaching tenses. Ask students to change sentences from the wheel into a given tense. (e.g. “An old lady takes a photo” put into past tense becomes “An old lady took a photo”)
3. Subjects and objects
Use the wheel to teach students the difference between the subject and the object of a sentence. Point out that all of the words on the outer wheel are subjects as they are performing the action, and that all of the words on the inner circle are the objects.
4. Prepositions
Use the wheel when teaching prepositions. Ask students to finish off the sentences that the wheel creates by telling the reader where the event took place. Ask students to underline the prepositions they have used (e.g. “A dancer steals a plant at the garden centre”).
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