Uuuuuuuuu...(Do you believe in ghosts?)

Talking about ghosts is another good option to work in a conversation lesson. Almost every student knows a ghost story and we can even implement our class with a part of a DVD - the movie “Ghost” is only one example among many other good films about it, or with some pre-selected questions so that they can, in pairs or in groups, discuss the subject and come up with different opinions and conclusions concerning the theme. Ideas of questions: a) Do you believe in ghosts?; b) Have you ever seen one?; c) Do you know any story about it?; d) If you saw a ghost what would you do?; etc. Another idea would be to print some images from Google so that students can take a look at them and conclude if they think they’re real or not. See you tomorrow, colleague!

Top 10 Banana Printables!

6 – “PLANS FOR THE WEEKEND” (Using Modal Verbs) – Students fill out a chart with things they should, must, can, will or might do on their weekend. If you have to teach this content next week, it’s a great idea for some extra practice! Have a lovely Sunday!

About a magazine article.

A few days ago I found an old magazine (Cláudia October 2009) which had an article that caught my attention (English, English, English!). They were writing about the importance of learning English nowadays and also about the way regular schools treat the matter. I selected some parts of it for you to take a look:
• “It’s time to speak, write and think in English with fluency and security.”
• “Nowadays, English students start studying the language earlier than before.”
• “Modern strategies of teaching focus on the abilities of communicating and try to use daily language, proposing interactive activities and putting the student as an important role not only as an expectator.”
• “English is the most used language in business world.”
• “Teenagers nowadays are one step ahead because of Orkut, facebook, Twitter, videogames, etc. So it makes sense learning the language.”
• According to Paulo Sérgio Rezende (he’s a consultant), "learning English doesn’t depend only on the situation, the material or on the school. The most important aspect is that it’s gonna be necessary for the students to be dedicated (they need to study frequently) and always have a good teacher.”

Have a great day, colleague!

It's Friday!

I wish you a very happy weekend, colleague!

I like pasta. (Teaching Do/Does)

I guess we, teachers, always get a little bit anxious when we have to teach Do/Does. My very first class was related to this topic and I remember I had to teach a group of other teachers who were there to avaluate me...God...maybe a trauma. I don’t know. Well, yesterday I tried something that worked really well and maybe it works with your group/student, too!! I got some pictures that I already had in my folder and they were all about food. Easy vocabulary. Cheese, pasta, bread, pie, apples. I wrote those words on the board, placed the pictures on the desk and started by saying: “I like pasta, cheese and pie” then I said: “I don’t like apples very much...”. Then I asked my students (there were two students having class at the same time) to make sentences just like me, and afterwards I presented the interrogative form as well. In order to present “Does” I only told them that I’d like to test their memory about the other’s tastes. So I asked: “Luana, does Bruno like cheese?”, and so on. Have a great day, colleague!

Answers on the wall???

Yes. Students usually get really bored when they have to read a text and then answer thousands of questions about it. A veeery dynamic way to make them participating is the following: In advance, teacher should write the answers for those comprehension questions in pieces of paper. Each answer in one piece of paper. Then, before class, the instructor chooses a place to glue all those anwers with a tape. When I did this activity I used the door because I wasn’t allowed to use the walls. So you gotta place all those answers on a certain surface and they should be out of order. Each pair or group has to choose someone to go there and choose the correct answers right after you read the question. The one(s) who gets first scores the point!! Have a nice day, colleague!

Do you believe in UFO's? (A great topic for a conversation class)

UFO’s can be a great topic for us to have a fun conversation class!! I remember a long time ago when I used to teach at an English school and they had this very nice video related to this topic. So, every time I had a lesson about the subject, I was first showing the video to my students and then we were talking about it. Great ideas used to come up! If you know a movie or even a documentary about life in outer space it would be a good idea to use in order to introduce the theme of the lesson. We can also prepare in advance some simple questions about the subject for the students to ask and answer in pairs, or in my case, for me to ask the student before we start our conversation class itself (Yes! It’s possible to have a conversation class even in private lessons!). Besides, it’s really nice to know what our students think about certain subjects, isn’t it? Have a class from outer space, colleague! See you!