Ideas for IELTS speaking practice.

IELTS is designed to be tricky, and even the best students can struggle to get those higher bands.

Over the next few weeks I will provide tips, ideas, and strategies which can easily be used by teachers and students to really help get that IELTS score that will open doors. As an IELTS teacher with several years experience and 100% of students who took the exam getting 6.0 and above I have discovered some great methods and approaches that really make a difference. I will share these below to try help those who are scratching their heads about this prestigious yet notorious exam.

Below are 2 strategies and ideas for each of the speaking sections.

IELTS Speaking part 1

This is arguably the easiest section yet many can make silly mistakes.

Strategy 1 - concise yet correct - In this section the examiner is focusing on the everyday speaking skills. The point of the section is to  reflect authentic conversation. Too often people speak too much and end up waffling. It may sound odd but simple yet effective answers are what the examiner is looking for. In real life if someone asked where you were from you wouldn't spend 5 minutes describing its precise geographical location, size, and your personal opinion.You would simply answer 'I am from...'. By the same token remember to use full sentences. A word will not be enough.

Activity 1: Question jumble: Write down as many get to know you questions as you can think up e.g. what is your name? how are you? what are your hobbies? Are you a student?. Cut them up word by word and give them to your partner. Next your partner should put them back together and finally they should try to answer the questions using full sentences but no more than 10 words.


Strategy 2 - Confident and creative - The examiner will have heard a million answers to the same questions. Usually these answers will be the same repetitive going through the motions dull answers but there will have been a few long winded yet boring answers and only a few that were unique and interesting. Your goal is to be the last type neither mechanical, nor a boring lecture. With the first few questions like 'where are you from?' your answers are bound to be mechanical, but as part 1 continues the questions become a bit more open ended and this is where things can get more fun.

Activity 2: Whose line is it anyway: This when done in a supportive class or friends will help build confidence and allow you to be able to give better answers. Participants stand in a semi circle facing the board. The teacher or leader writes a question down from later on in part 1 (great ideas can be found on here  https://www.ielts-exam.net/ielts_speaking_samples/387/ or by a google search). Participants step forward 1 by 1 and try to give the funniest or happiest, or strangest answer (you can change the tone to whatever you like).

IELTS Speaking part 2

Strategy 1 - Question the question - You are given your question and you must take notes. Most people script what they will say, which actually hinders many. A better suggestion is to take the question and see if you can think of any follow up questions. Try to think of 5 questions and write them down.

Activity 1: Question association: I'm sure we've all played word association where you sit in a circle and say a word and the net person says a similar word, this is similar. Make a circle and show a topic card to the group.  each person takes it in turns to think of a follow up question. You can then go around again and think of a answer to each question. Use this to talk about the topic for at least 1 minute to your partner.

Strategy 2 - Have an easy to follow structure to guide you.

Here is a link which provides structures for all of the question types. It is easy to follow, easy to memorise, and easy to use. Link


IELTS Speaking part 3

Strategy 1 - linkers - Use linkers of contrast and discourse to improve fluency and level.

Activity: linkers bingo: This is great for all stages of the exam but can really help here. Participants take a bingo card and are given a list of linkers. They write 1 word in each square. Participants are given a list of questions from task 3 (again a google search will bring many up) and have to take turns asking their partner. and answering. When answering participants should try use one linker. Participants should continue until they have used a line or full house. Note* Someone should listen for any mistakes usage.



One final thing use youtube: Type in IELTS speaking and watch candidates taking the speaking exam. Think about what was good and bad about their grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation fluency, and answer. Did they make any mistakes with grammar an vocabulary? Did they use different tenses, conditionals, a wide vocabulary etc? Were they easy to understand? Did they answer the question correctly? Did they give an appropriate amount of detail? Did they use linkers? These videos are great because they allow you to see the exam and what is asked and expected, and what happens in each stage, finally they tell you what band the candidate got (some tell you more than others).

Secret life of Walter Mitty: Past vs Present perfect

This is a great lesson for reviewing the past and present perfect tenses.

Level: Elementary/Pre-intermediate adults

Materials: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PW2JsQyqJl8, This presentation and its links, fly swatters, mini-whiteboards and markers, string, tablets/laptops, wifi, dice

Pre-class: Check the internet and technology works, its sods law that it won't.


Warmer: Spiders web - students stand in a circle. Teacher gets a ball of string and holds one end. The teacher throws the ball to a student creating a line of string. Teacher asks the student with the ball a question. The student answers and throws the ball while holding onto their part of the string and asks the next student a question. Repeat until the ball of string has formed a web and the other end is in a students hands.Try to keep questions in present perfect and past tenses try to make them personal.


Lead-in: When students are sat back down ask them 'Have you ever been on an adventure?' Get them to talk to their partners.

Next show them the video and ask them do you want to go on this adventure?


Vocabulary: Meaning - Show students the vocabulary with matching pictures. Answer any questions your students may have. Next show students the list of words and get them to define the words. When they have finished talking get them to come up 1 by 1 to write a definition the board for each word.

Form - Circle writing race: Show students the pictures without the words and get students to write the words on mini whiteboards. Students work in teams and each student must only write 1 letter each.

Pronunciation (optional) - Drilling followed by Slap and shout!: Students work in pairs and slap the desk with the fly swatter when they see the picture. The first person to slap the desk shouts the word. Any prior drilling should be done in a number of registers and be choral, group, and individual.


Reading: Gist - Students use their tablets/laptops to read the mini article on the link and answer the gist question. Give students 1 - 2 minutes

Specific information - Students answer the true and false questions on the next slide.

Grammar - Students read and find 1 example of present perfect simple, 1 of past simple, and 1 of past continuous. Students must match them to the timelines.

Pronunciation: Past tense regular sounds - Students are presented with the 3 phonemes used in regular past. Spend a short time eliciting these. Students work in pairs. They will see and hear the words on the slides below. and must write the correct phoneme. Fastest pair wins a point.

Dice game: Get a dice and on 1 and 3 write /d/ on 2 and 4 write /t/ finally on 5 and 6 write /id/. Students role the dice and must say a past tense verb with the sound the dice lands on.


Speaking: Sushi line - Students are given numbers 1-2. 1s. They stand in two opposing lines facing each other and a re presented with some questions. They must try to share their answers for 30 seconds. Students then share with the class. Move line 1 clockwise after each question so each person has a new partner.

Follow this with some quick error correction.


Homework: Students watch the film at home and next class share the story, and whether they liked the film or not.

4 great ideas for 1:1 classes

Here are some great ideas for 1:1 classes which focus on speaking and listening.

1) Headline - This is a great way to begin you lesson. Student writes down a 2-4 word headline about something they did this week. They have to talk about this for 1 minute.


2) IELTS speaking task 2 - Everyone wants to do the IELTS, and this can really show the student that classes are useful. Search google for some speaking cards from IELTS task 2. Explain the scenario to the student, let the student read for 1 minute, then get them to talk for up to 2 minutes. You can also take note of errors for a follow up activity.

3) Take a trip - You don't always have to stay in the classroom, there is a world of fascinating places that can really make learning more 3 dimensional. For past tenses and the present perfect, why not go to a museum? Take your student, and send them on a guided discovery task! They can find information to jot down using the audios, videos, information plaques, and artifacts. For food vocabulary agree to go to a little eatery and create a sheet for your student to complete. For discourse markers take them to an art gallery and get them to look around completing a sheet. There are so many options, and can easily be turned into a discussion afterwards.

4) Multimedia - We have a wealth of resources at our fingertips thanks to the internet. I have mentioned these before in previous posts but they are particularly useful for this context. TEDXESL, and Film English offer fantastic pre-planned lessons on a range of grammar and vocabulary topics for a range of abilities.

links
https://www.usingenglish.com/files/pdf/101-ielts-speaking-part-two-tasks-about-sports-and-hobbies.pdf
http://film-english.com/
https://tedxesl.com

Make a difference - Christmas appeal

Over the last few weeks I have been working with my school to fundraise for a fantastic charity called Xuan. They do tremendous work for children in some of Vietnam's poorest regions. Xuan helps build schools, provide sanitation, resources, and teachers for schools, and sponsor children for many years to help give them a leg up. A lot of their work is in the central highlands, which is very rural, faces typhoons, and has very little in the way of infrastructure or opportunities.

Donations are always welcome as are volunteers, and/or sponsoring children. If you want more information about the fantastic work that they do, want to donate, or get involved check out the links to their website, and youtube channel below.

http://assoxuan.org/

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXnRnUQQVoh06qvRZbGvLkA

CLIL lesson: Natural sciences - Animals

Below is a great lesson that you can use to teach natural sciences.

Level: Elementary -  Pre-intermediate

Age: 9 - 12
Materials: Kids encyclopedias of animals, fact file template, paper, crayons, pencils, Koalas gapfill, words, blindfolds, pictures, soft ball
Pre-class: Put books in each corner of the classroom. Cut the words for the reading like  a grass skirt.

In class

1) Put students into teams and get them to choose team names. Each team gets a castle when they win they choose whether to build their castle or destroy another.

2) Warmer: Blindfolded pictionary with animals - Bring one person up from each team and get each of the participants to draw an animal. When finished change participant.

3) Lead in: Make a circle - A soft ball is passed around and questions about animals are asked e.g what is your favorite animal? what animal are you scared of?... To make this extra fun you can put a bomb timer on.

4) Vocabulary: Meaning - Give students a list of words in the reading: Show pictures for 3 seconds for each word. Students then check with a partner.
Pronunciation - Drill the vocabulary.
Form - Take the words away and do a board race, teams are given a word and have to write it letter by letter.

5) Reading for gist - Students have 30 seconds to read and find out what country koalas live in. pass the ball to the student who knows and get them to answer.

6) Reading for specific information -  Students read and complete the factfile on koalas. Use the softball for answers asking on student for one answer.

7) Project skills research: Corners - In each corner put some facts about one animal. Choose tropical animals like tigers, elephants, monkeys etc. Students are given a blank piece of paper and told to work in pairs to choose an animal, find the information, and make a poster. Students will either be a runner or a writer but should find 1 fact and change runner.

8) Project skills presenting- Students have to present the poster and the information they have found to the class.

9) Extra craft activity: Make animal masks - If you have any extra time you can make animal masks.

Below is a link to the reading and fact file activity.

Koalas

Special needs and EFL: Activities, ideas, strategies, and a working understanding

 Here is a workshop that I recently facilitated.It comes with a free open source document that I masterminded. Special needs is often an elephant in the room in the EFL world. Teachers can feel overwhelmed, underprepared, and challenged by the presence of special needs in their classroom. Due to a lack of training and resources, it can and often does feel like a minefield. I have heard 'I don't know what to do' and seen some people fake the competency they feel they should have with often harmful consequences too many times. I remember the first time I encountered special needs as a brand new teacher fresh of of the CELTA, and being unable to find help. I felt out of my depth and as though I was an awful teacher for not being able to help the student reach their fullest potential. Not only this but I was angry for the child who was not getting the support that they needed. I encountered the same problem several times, and each time no one could help, no one understood what students with autism, ADHD, Dyslexia and much more were experiencing, or how to overcome barriers. Eventually I said enough is enough!

 I began some action research. I went onto futurelearn took two amazing courses by the Universities of Kent and Southampton, took on volunteering at an orphanage which cares predominantly for children with disability, and undertook extensive reading. Finally I decided not only to start the ball rolling for myself but for others who had shared my experience. I decided that through networks of teachers, managers, TAs, and parents that together we could combine our experiences and learning to help address this issue.

 If you would like to know more about special needs in EFL, and would like to develop your teaching practice this will be very useful. Likewise if you are an experienced teacher and would love to give this workshop or want to contribute some of your own ideas to the open source document, you are more than welcome to. I also invite you to share this with anyone it may be useful to.

Presentation

Materials 1: Jigsaw

Materials 2: activity idea

Open source document

CLIL art lesson

Aim: Students learn about making art about emotion.

Level: elementary upwards

Language: Warm colours and cold colours, emotion vocabulary, The life and art of Vincent Van Gogh

Skills: Listening, Reading, Speaking, Creating

Time: 2 hours

Materials: Paper, Van Gogh pictures of Starry Night, Sunflowers, Self portrait, Cafe terrace at night, Paint, Paintbrushes, pencils, colour pencils.

Before class: Put Starry night, Sunflowers, and self portrait around the room.

Class

1 Warmer: Colour board race - Students write as many colours as they can.

2 Brainstorm: Draw two spider diagrams and write warm in one, cold in another.
                     - Ask students to decide if they are warm or cold.
                     - Students share.

3 Lead in/Art gallery: Tell students they should stand up, look at the paintings around the room with their partner and decide if they are warm or cold, how they make them feel, and if they like them. Students spend a few minutes and then share with the class.

4 Reading - Around the room are little snippets of paper with facts about Vincent Van Gogh. Students have to find out about his life and art and write down about him on a question sheet. Give points for each team 1st to 3rd to finish.

5 Listening: Tell students we are going to try and recreate one of Van Goghs paintings (Cafe terrace at night).
                   - First students listen and draw the features.
                   - Then they colour.
                   - Now they share (don't worry if they look silly, the main thing is that they are practicing                          listening in a fun and creative way).

6 Creation: Tell students to choose an emotion (1 minute), now they choose 4 colours with that emotion (1 minute) finally they choose something that makes them feel that emotion (1 minute).

Students now draw and paint a picture.

7 Presentation: Students bring their paintings to the front and present. Students answer the earlier questions and give constructive feedback.

Halloween storytelling lesson idea

Age: 9 - 13

Level: Elementary - intermediate

Language: Review - Lower levels - Furniture, rooms, word class review Extra: adverbs for storytelling, Narrative tenses

Skills: Listening and maybe writing.

Materials: Colour pictures of a haunted house and its rooms, blu tac, paper, pencils, cup, bubble wrap, celery, balloon, microphone

Before class: Place the pictures of the house and room around the room on the walls, make sure you place the outside view of the house on the board.

In class

Step 1 - Students enter and you elicit what is on the board.

Step 2 - Students stand up and explore the haunted house. You ask then what each room is and whats in each room?

Step 3 - Students predict what might have happened.

Step 4 - Tell students they are going to hear a story about the haunted house. They are given a number between 1 and 3 1s write verbs, 2s write nouns, 3s write adjectives.

Step 5 - Get the microphone and tell the story (Break the celery for the breaking of branches, roll the cup over the bubblewrap for the crunch of autumn leaves, bang the cup on a hard surface for stairs, whisper for ghost voices, scratch a balloon for creak
ing door noises.

John was playing hide and seek in the woods. He loved the woods from the day he moved to the little town near by. He could hear Ricky was coming by the breaking of branches and crunch of leaves. He ran through the trees and leaves of autumn gold, red, and purple flew by. Suddenly he saw something far away. John was interested and rushed over before Ricky had time to see him. He got closer and realized it was an old house. Perfect! He thought, he saw the old broken door was open a little… As he opened it, it creaked noisily. There was a little light to his side. He opened the door and saw writing on the dark walls. John couldn't understand it, the letters were different it was some strange language. He heard a whisper upstairs. He listened and heard it calling his name. He thought it was Ricky being silly, he went to find his friend. He walked up the staircase clomp clomp clomp he opened the door with the blue light. Ricky he said. He heard the front door Slam. Ricky wasn't in the room either. Suddenly the lights went out and then!!!!!!

Repeat 1 or 2 times.

Step 6 - Ask students to put the story together in their groups.

Step 7 - Ask students to finish the story (Set this task just before break to build curiosity).

Step 8 - Get students to share conclusions.


If you have more time, or would like a follow up lesson or something more challenging. You can follow the previous stages but with some changes:
For steps 4 - 6
Students write the words
One day
He
but then
Suddenly
Finally
Get

They then listen and complete the story.

You can follow this with step 7

Next put students into groups of 4 and get A1 or larger size paper. Draw around a child
Students write the name John write his personality and thoughts inside the body shape and physical attributes outside.

Get students to do the same with a new character on a new piece of paper. Get students to invent a character for a new story.

Finally they can use the story structure and character profile to write a new story either in class or for homework.

Craft ideas

Crafts can be a fun way of reviewing language points with younger learners. Crafts build soft skills and use kinaesthetic learning something often neglected. Below I will list three ideas and a lesson plan.

Superhero (Can and Can't) - Students need - scissors, glue, crayons, cut out body features, background templates, and a superhero template -

• Give students the materials, get them to colour the superhero and the background.
• Next Get them to cut out the features and the superhero. 
• After this get them to glue the features to the superhero.
• Finally get them to stick it to the background. 
• As a follow up get them to write 5 things their superhero can do and 1 thing they can't.

Make a cup and ball game (Verbs e.g cut, stick) - Students need - scissors, tape, paper, string -

• Get students to add a design to their piece of paper.
• They should then colour it in.
• Get them to cut the bottom corners landscape.
• Get them to roll the paper into a cone and sellotape.
• Next get a small piece of paper and scrunch it up.
• Sellotape this to a piece of string and the cone.

Origami (infinitives, any nouns) - Students need - paper -

• Provide a list of instructions in the infinitive.
• Students decipher the instructions.
• They follow the instructions and make.
• You can make this a race for extra fun.

Sundial (time) - Students need - paper plates, crayons, paper, scissors, glue

• Get students to write clock numbers on a paper plate and colour and draw.
• Fold the paper diagonally, and cut anything that sticks out.
• Glue it to the paper plate with the tallest part facing 12.

Teaching literacy through film

Reading and writing can often feel like a slog for learners, it requires a lot of concentration and can overwhelm students. Films however can be used to brighten this up, not to mention make grammar and vocabulary all the more interesting. Films are something we can all enjoy, they form one of the pillars of culture. Through image and sound they connect with to of our most powerful senses and bring the others to life. Not only this but recent studies in neuroscience show that the brain is not a fact machine, but instead it connects with and learns new information best trough stories (The neuroscience of storytelling). Stories like those contained in movies can enhance us in so many ways, and provide a thought provoking way of tackling lesson aims.

Below are some film ideas that you can use to really enhance your classes.

Film English: http://film-english.com/ - This website comes with a short film and a lesson with vocabulary, grammar, listening, and discussion activities. You can search by grammar point, vocabulary, level, and age to find the best film for your class.

Into Literacy Short Films: https://vimeo.com/album/3601739 (password: literacy teacher) - This was created by the British Film Institute and is very child and teen friendly. It contains many short films and invites us to create lesson plans about character, content, sound, image, and much more. Characters could be used to tackle verbs or adjectives, content could be used to tackle narrative tenses or reported speech, sound and image could be used to inspire a writing task. There are many more choices but these are a few options.

Character work: Watch a clip of a film with several characters. Give students a predictive task and/or descriptive task worksheet with questions about the character. At the end students share with their partner. Then you get a sheet of paper larger than a student. Get someone to draw their shape (repeat for number of characters). Students then write about the character using this to brainstorm. They can write personality, thoughts, and intent inside and they can write other things outside. You can then use this for a descriptive writing task, storytelling writing task, or role play activity.

Storyboarding: get a story board and give students a reading task, get them to draw the scenes and summarize. You can use this to get them to write a review or another story.

Storylinking: On the board write 5 words.

• one day
• he/she
• but then
• suddenly
• finally

Tell a story and get students to complete. Get students to write a new story, dialogue, or a blurb.

Foley sound: Foley sounds are the sounds of birds tweeting, leaves crunching, wind blowing, footsteps in the dark. They help set the scene. Get students to close their eyes, and then tell a story. Include some simple foley sounds (Foley sound ideas). Ask students to think how they feel and to guess the sounds. Get students to finish the story or to write a new story with the Foley sounds.

Fun games for kids classes.

Here are some fun games you can play in class to practice a range of skills.

Classroom games for juniors book

Here is a great resource, which i came across. It offers some great activities and tips so check it out.

Classroom games for juniors

A few speaking activities

1 Carousel

Students write a headline about their week or a 3 word opinion of a topic.

draw 2 cirlces (one inside the other).

Give students number 1 or 2

1s stand in the middle circle

2s stand int he outer circle.

They face each other and talk about their headline and ask questions

after 1 minute 2s move clockwise to a new partner.


2 Guided dialogue

Students are given unformed sentences using the language they have learnt.

what/you/do
I/Karate

They have to form full sentences. This can be done as a group or whole class activity.

Ask students to write their own dialogue in pairs or groups.



3 Barometer


Write numbers 1 to 5 left to right across the room.

1 Means completely disagree

5 means completely agree\

The other numbers are for mixed opinions.

Show controversial statements, give students 30 seconds to think and move to what they think.

Ask students why?

This is great for starting debates, meta-cognition and using linkers.



4 Describe and draw\

Students work in pairs back to back.

1 student has a picture and the other has paper.

Student A tells student what to draw and student B draws it.

They then swap. This engages listening too and is great for new vocabulary.

A useful workshop

For those who tackle learning through the connectivist or PBL (Project based learning) approaches it can be difficult to engage your students creative side or to get the most out of this. Below is a workshop that I created and ran, which will hopefully provide some insightful ideas.


The workshop explores why creative and critical thinking are important, how we can incorporate them without going out of our way, and offers useful reflection and activities for teachers. Below is the workshop presentation and the activity list.

Critical and Creative thinking and projects.

Activity list

Professional development opportunities: Future learn

I would really like to recommend a great website for professional development. Futurelearn is a free online platform created by the Open University. It offers a range of courses in Education and other disciplines. The courses are run by other universities globally and prestigious organizations.

I recently took a course called understanding language which was co run by Southampton University, and British Council. This course explored how we learn first and second languages, approaches,  andpedagogical approaches. Learning is broken up into units or weeks and is conducted through video lectures, audio interviews, debates, quizzes, and reflection. This course re runs regularly and is highly interactive. You learn from professors, practitioners, and course mates.

I am currently taking Education for all: Disability, Diversity, and Inclusion which explores barriers to learning faced by children and young people with disabilities. It covers learning, physical, and mental disabilities, and it looks at teaching, parenting, communities and how we can make them more inclusive without great expense. It uses case studies, video lectures, discussion, interviews, and published works by professors in the University of Cape town.

I am also taking teaching literacy through film: a course looking at how we can engage students of English with reading and writing through making and analyzing films. It is similar to the above two courses in learning approaches but aims to give teachers practical ideas to engage students with an often tricky area.

The web address is below and I cant recommend this enough.

https://www.futurelearn.com/

5 great new school year lessons.

The new school year is just beginning. Teachers will have new classes, new challenges, and much more facing them. Here are some great ideas to start your new school year with a bang.

1) Star game - Show students a personal side of you with this.

On the board draw a star and write your name in the middle.

At each of the points write something about you (keep it simple no more than 2 words)

Students have to guess and ask questions.

You can also ask students to do the same, come to the front of class and take it in turns.


2) Two truths and a lie - Maybe you've played this game before or maybe not but it is great for showing a more personal side.

Write 2 things on the board that are true and 1 thing that is false.

Students have to guess which is false.

Ask students to play and find out more about your students.


3) Class contract - Show a video on advice for life like the one here (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZfsyrNKhNTE)

Ask students to write down 3 pieces of good advice they hear

Ask students to give themselves and each other advice for the comingschool year.

Get students to choose the top 10 most important.

Write it down on an A3 sheet of paper.

Get students to sign it.

Put it on the wall every class.


4) rules board race

Get students to write down as many rules as possible in teams on the board one after another.

The team with the most rules wins.

Choose 10 and use them as the rules.


5) Mingle - This is a great way for students to get to know each other personally and for you to listen to what they have to say.

Students are given a list of 10 verbs in a column of a table, they have to form questions with them.

Ask them to think of 3-5 more questions.

Students then stand up, move around the room and ask each other questions.

Project based learning idea talk show

Here I would like to talk about a project idea involving media. Media is all around and plays a central role in 21st century cultural identity. Students watch a lot of TV so why not use this to engage students with learning.

I am currently teaching the 2nd conditional and modal verbs of advice to my teens.At my school we have also started 21st century and PBL learning. The idea is that we teach and test language in an authentic way. The projects involve the language so with some of my teens I am creating a mini talk show. All you need is a camera, some chairs and 3 students. One to present, and two guests, one with a problem and one with a solution (think Oprah Winfrey). Students learn to use the camera, devise a script and problem solve meaning that they use some great technical, creative, and critical thinking skills. They talk about a problem and find a solution and present the mini programme to their peers.

1st stage use some kind of video about teen problems: a good one is it's ok not to be ok.

2nd stage: brainstorm several problems that effect teens, try to get them to think about their own lives.

3rd stage: choose one and elaborate more

4th stage: choose roles

5th stage: begin devising a script

6th stage: edit for mistakes

7th stage: trial the technology and have a few practice runs.

8th stage: Produce final recording

9th stage: present to the class

10th stage: feedback

If you don't have a camera, do it as a radio show, or for a low tech version just do it in front of the class.

Metacognition activities (media)

We live in a media age. Pop culture, social media, the internet, marketing, television and so much more dominates the psyche of our times. We shouldn't shy away from these but instead embrace these and use these in a constructive way.

• Videos - There are some great videos on youtube such as: 

'All the world are related' (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O9JTjk75-yk). This can be used with questions about whether students would like to find out or to guess what happens next. This is great for practicing past tenses, and the present perfect.

'Everybodies Free to wear sunscreen' (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xfq_A8nXMsQ). This video can be used to talk about advice and you can ask students whether they agree or disagree with the video and create their own advice for their future selves.

'Smart phones and dumb people' (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-wtKU2ef_S4&t=17s) This is great for practicing linkers, technology vocabulary and modal verbs of prediction.

(Attached is the link to a channel, I created with lots of great videos. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLX7ccHT4AinhlekgGCNVNLlsChRFFatFK)