A new coach for Ronaldo & Kuyt?

Kunpei & Takuro present a half-way-line chat between Cristiano Ronaldo & Dirk Kuyt, adapted from our OUP Story Tree graded reader "The return of the cleaning ladies".

Quizlet - a powerful learner's tool

 Last week I wrote about this class and the importance of taking a break/blowing off steam.

This week, the flip-side of the coin = letting them get on with some powerful self-propelled learning! We have 'learned' the long /a/ sound/spelling rule, and exhausted the text book & workbook examples.

I ("Lunateacher") recently made a large set of flashcards on Quizlet featuring the long /a/ sound, and sat the boys down in front of a PC each. I was curious to see how long they would remain interested...turned out I had to drag them away before they gave themselves a headache!

They were variously challenged with the set - to match words to pictures, true/false, dictation, against the clock. Working alone and able to 'make mistakes' (I really like the inbuilt correction functions) the boys were powerfully motivated and engaged.

Why don't you try it out yourself?

Choose a Study ModeScatterLearnFlashcards

Study these flash cards | Study english flash cards

Blowing off steam - rewarding hard work

 I don't think it is rocket science to realise that teaching children has to include games - from time to time. Ideally, everything you do has a fun edge to it...but you do also have to put the hard work in and actually teach stuff. Likewise, children are not going to learn stuff through osmosis! You can't learn to spell without picking up a pencil (and making mistakes)...you can't improve your reading speed without starting slowly...you can't learn new words without guessing/getting it wrong from time to time. You can't go a whole lesson without some kind of release!

I know a lot of teachers/parents view games with mistrust. Me too! They have to be relevant, and produce as much language (English!) as possible. What kind of output really depends on the game, but you can always insist on consistent game playing phrases. The teacher needs to be as involved or not as he/she sees fit to get the game working - sometimes quite a lot at first to get the ball rolling/model the interplay. Othertimes needing to step in as referee or to calm things down, manage time etc. Taking as much of a back seat as possible is my preferred modus operandi, as then I can monitor & interact non-verbally (stop cards getting put into mouths with a glare, get bottoms back on seats before an accident, mime a phrase to weaker players, encourage a potential loser and praise a generous participant). If I do take part, making mistakes or offering daft answers helps the fluency no end - if the teacher is making mistakes so can I - and I have to listen to other people or I might loose!

This A-Z game is an old favourite. Students can cover the first letter of a word from a set, which they are given by rolling a dice (and the teacher being quick to choose a suitably easy/hard topic from a deck of cards!). eg sandwich fillings or pizza toppings, football teams or girls' names. You need a timer/buzzer. The 'danger' aspect = one side of the dice (nominate a number) means you take tokens OFF the other players boards to the rubbish pile. Nice way of levelling the playing field.

And the winner is...? Everyone. Loads of vocab review, disagreements and laughs. What do you think?

The Magic Key - a quick read

The boys talk about illnesses

My perennially 'noisy' boys are always up for something different; today we had a go at creating a VoiceThread project, talking about illnesses (unit 10 of our textbook English Time 2 - I hope Setsuko & OUP can cope with the image used?)

They had fun trying to take each others' pictures, then trying to put each other off when it was their turn/asking the harder questions (involving pronouncing 'stomachache'). First effort with this technology which looks very easy to use & obviously a lot of applications for our various classrooms, collaborating on projects & sharing comments. Check it out; comments welcome!

http://voicethread.com/share/1065401/

Podcast S1 E2

Episode two features the singing voices of Jim's rambunctious Wednesday early evening boys - Toru, Tsubasa, Takuro & Kunpei. They are singing along at very short notice to a song in English Time 2 (OUP) describing where things are. We hadn't practiced at all, apart from a quick read through. It's a quickie this time (94 seconds!) - please take the time to listen, leave a comment...even better, SUBSCRIBE and never miss another epsiode.

Look forward to reading your comments & welcoming new 'fans'

http://www.podbean.com/podcast-detail?pid=63301

Luna podcast at Podbean