Picture Activities

Asking students to make up dialogues is always a great way to use the language you have exploited. I showed my 3 afternoon class students the example below that I had created from MakeBeliefsComix and then got them to create their own above. It took a few moments only and they told me it was a lot of fun.


Speechable is another great site for adding captions to your photos. The photo below was used to great effect as a warmer and to present and practise new language. The personal element makes it a little bit more interesting. This simple photo has a lot of vocabulary in it and is good for discussion.
Listen to some questions that I asked about this picture. Voki is a great little tool that can easily be embedded in your blog or other sites.




The photo below also from Speechable shows you how you can get your students to invent short dialogues between famous people. The pictures could be related to topics of the day.



I have just created another speechable about President Obama's Nobel Peace Prize.

I decided to carry on trying to fix an initial problem I had with this particular link above and my perseverance has paid off!!

Read the English Blog's explanation of a cartoon relating to the same Obama Peace Prize theme.

The Dogme Way

I did it! A lesson the "Dogme" way. No props, just me and a few ideas in my head. Did it work? Yes, absolutely! It was difficult to stop my students chatting. I had to interrupt the flow in order to try another activity out. In hindsight, maybe I should have let the conversation continue until the buzz had died down naturally. So, I'm not actually sure if I followed the "Dogme" rules. The night before I had read an article written by William Gomez in the English Teaching Professional magazine. called "Dog Days". The following are two activities that inspired me.

My WorldI wrote the countries from where the students were from on the board:
Kazhakstan, Switzerland, Portugal, Angola, Iraq, Jordan, United Arab Emirates, Poland and France. In different nationality groups, I asked the students to find out a few things about each others' countries. After about 10 minutes, I asked them to change groups in order to find out about the other students' countries. The room was buzzing with the sound of students all talking animatedly and enthusiastically. They really wanted to find out about each other and when I asked them to stop, they continued speaking.

Me to Them
I wrote up 5 things to do with me in a circle on the board . Eg phrasal verbs, Dogme, dogs, motorbikes, perfume bottles.

I quickly asked the students to guess the connection to me and my life.

• I love teaching phrasal verbs.
• I was teaching the Dogme way as an experiment
  
• I don't really like dogs but I have 3
• I don't really like motorbikes and yet I have ridden about 7,000 kilometres on the back of them
• I like collecting perfume bottles

I then asked the students to connect the topics to themselves. Again, the non-stop chatter was amazing and when the bell went, there wasn't an immediate rush to go and have lunch. I briefly asked them if they had enjoyed the "Dogme" way and the response was very positive.

Student Feedback and Involvement
For homework I asked the students to write for 5 minutes about how they felt about this particular lesson. Did they enjoy it? Did they feel bored? etc. I was delighted to find out that all of them wrote positively about the experience. So what was it that was different from a normal lesson? The only difference was not going to class with anything. The 2 simple ideas I had were in my head. The rest came straight from the students themselves. The vocabulary they wanted to know were written up on the board. as it cropped up. Nothing was pre-planned. The language all came up spontaneously. It related to a real-time need-to-know basis. As far as I could see, everyone in the class was engaged in the activity. There was a genuine interest in finding out more information about the different countries.

What did I learn?
Well, I realised that I have in fact been teaching the Dogme way without ever having called it by this particular name. The lesson was a series of opportunities to communicate without any pieces of paper or a coursebook. The main flow came from the students themselves. I was just a floating facilitator. I could easily have left the classroom and the flow would have continued. I am sure. Would it have been the same if I had left the class to get on with some grammar exercises?? I am not so sure!

The Future
Yes, I will most certainly do this again. The amount of vocabulary that came out spontaneously was a lot. New words were written up on the board and recycled. My students liked talking about each others countries, about each others thoughts on various topics. Each student was given the chance to explain open class some of the ideas which had come up. A lot of noise,but something positive came out of it. Luckily, I am not constrained by a coursebook, so I could literally throw them away if I wanted to, and use my own materials. This is a great feeling of freedom. Maybe not all teachers have this luxury.

Please refer to this previous posting here for more on Dogme.

Back to the Chalkface

I really enjoyed interviewing 16 Swiss German students last Wednesday for an FCE mock interview exam. It was a very gentle introduction back to the chalkface after a few weeks' absence. I repeated the opening instructions for Part 2 of the FCE exam 16 times. Below is one I have made up using my own photos.

You have one minute to compare and contrast these two places and say which of the two you would prefer to live in and why

Well, both pictures are similar because they show a road of some sort. However, they differ because the roads are set in completely contrasting environments. The road in the top picture is in the middle of the countryside and the photo was taken during the day, whereas in the second picture the scene is a very busy one and it is night time.
I like the fact that the place in the top picture is in a quiet and unspoilt location, far from the madding crowd. I would be able to feel free and relaxed in such a place. The view of the city at night time doesn't appeal to me because I don't really like busy places. It looks as if this road runs through a historical city and I can make out a tower in the distance. Probably a lot of visitors would come here and this city would generally be very crowded.
I personally would prefer to live in the countryside such as shown in the top photo, as the pace of life there is much slower, less frenetic and more healthy.

Click to see a full Interview for Part Two of the Cambridge First Certificate in English exam from UK Student Life.
Click on the link to hear Part Two of the Interview exam from The British Council.

Teaching Unplugged

I have slotted in 45 minutes on Wednesday 7th October to try out teaching the "Dogme" way as an experiment. As suggested in this article on Teaching unplugged by Scott Thornbury written in "It's for Teachers" in 2001, I will walk into class with nothing but myself. No photocopies, no props, no realia and I will just see what happens. I am going to study this post here by Scott Thornbury , this interesting article from Tech ELT Blog on Dogme and Technology, and also read Karenne Sylvester's postings "The Dogma of Dogme"and "Any Given Dogme". I am just so curious about this form of teaching, which is all about flexibility, creativity, spontaneity and empathy with the learner. The teacher and students learn and develop from each other. I usually hope my lessons involve all of these factors. However, deliberately armed with mental props only, I am intrigued as to how the lesson will pan out. I need to mention at this point that I am usually very well prepared for my lessons and I like to have a "plan" of action. So not having a plan goes completely against my very essence of being the teacher I am. "In bocca al lupo" = Into the mouth of the wolf!

ESL/EFL/ELL Blog Carnival

I remember attending the circus a long time ago in my childhood. It was the one and only time until today. The thrill of the big trapeze act, the clowns, the fearless tightrope-walkers performing at dizzy heights. The fear intermingled with the excitement. The skill of the acrobats, the dexterity of the jugglers. The laughter, the applause, the popcorn. The huge audience in the big top, loving every moment. Priceless memories.


The Greatest Show on Earth
I was thrilled to be featured in the 13th Edition ESL/EFL/ELL Blog Carnival as a trampolinist! Other great circus acts include Larry Ferlazzo the Ringmaster, Karenne Sylvester the Lion Tamer, Shelly Terrell the Aerialist, Barbara Sakamoto the Acrobat, Chiew N Pang the Flying Trapeze artist, Nik Peachey Pyrotechnics and Sound, to name but only a few of the amazing acts in the circus.

Thank you ELL Classroom for organizing this fabulous show.

Ars Collaboratorium Improvisorium

I have recently been involved in a courageous "live" online exercise in improvised collaborative story-telling instigated by Chris Adams from Bits'n'Bobs/Show'n'Tell I first came across this particularly fascinating and delightful blog when "popps" first popped up in one of my comments' boxes with a comment. I was intrigued and as one does, I visited the profile page and then had a look at the blog. What struck me immediately was the fact that this blog was different, out of the ordinary and very honestly written. From the heart. I began to follow the posts and so began an online dialogue which has developed over the past few months.

Rising to the Challenge
Vicki in America, Anne in Germany, Dave in Ireland and myself in Italy took part in the 7-Day Improvisation Challenge. We suggested various challenges, some far more complicated than others! One of the biggest challenges for Chris in France was when he invited his readers to feed him lines to incorporate into the story which would be written "live" and totally improvised on Day 6. Please read how it all evolved imaginatively here. I thought Chris as the principal omniscient narrator, rose to this difficult goal admirably. The story is multi-faceted, certainly far-fetched, at times amusing, in some parts risque, in other parts, madcap, overall cohesive (apart from one tiny little bit, which I think stands out because it doesn't somehow "go with the flow" - you'll have to read it and find out for yourself) and in the reflective finale, rather poignant.

MOGification
This for me was something which echoed through my brain long after the story had come to its conclusion at 9am Central Eastern European Time. The feline element in the guise of Victoria had been subtly introduced (by myself) and then successfully disposed of (by I think Chris). This cat had played a major part in the enfolding high drama in the boardroom... The writing had flowed and creativity was taken to new heights with the inclusion of this strange-sounding word. If you are asking yourself "what on earth does MOGification mean?", well, I have an idea. It must be a neologism(unless I stand corrected), created especially for dramatic effect so in this case, it must be something to do with the process of being changed into a cat?? That is my guess, anyway.

Feedback
Writing ad hoc was not an easy thing to achieve and of course, not knowing when sections of the story was going to be included in different countries, was quite tricky, but despite this, I think the idea was an ingenious one and from a participant's point of view, I felt it was a challenging and imaginative creative writing activity and it worked, despite Chris' misgivings. As an experiment, it was innovative and daringly courageous. It could have been disastrous but in my view, it wasn't at all. It probably pushed Chris to the limits of his improvisation skills but he managed it skillfully, whatever he may say and think to the contrary. Bravo! Bravissimo!

I recommend you have a look at Bits'n'Bobs/Show and Tell blog. It's a good'un!