I was once a counsellor on an American summer camp many moons ago. At the end of our contract, after all the children had gone home, our boss got us to sit down one evening and create Star Jars for each other. It was a silent activity and it was lovely! Our boss had gone … Continue reading
This year I have noticed that my adult students have developed a whole bunch of reasons for learning English. Some are doing exams and want lots of explicit exam practice. Others want to improve their prospects for employment and some just like the social aspect of coming to class. Imagine these different needs and expectations … Continue reading
I’d like to share with you a quick starter or plenary activity that can be used to revise vocabulary. Being very busy, I love activities that can be adapted and used with most of my groups. As inspiring as I want my lessons to be, sometimes finding tailor-made activities for each group is impossible! Therefore, … Continue reading
Do you need a quick activity to warm your students up at the start of class? Maybe you need to fill some time at the end? Try this activity! Tell your students they are going to have a conversation. The catch is that they need to work through the alphabet! You can put them in … Continue reading
Do you have students that tend to dominate class discussion? Maybe quiet ones that have great ideas but tend to hold back? Do you want to engage your students in preparation for a reading activity? Well, here’s an activity that enables everyone to have their say in a safe environment and improves reading skills. Materials … Continue reading
This game is simple to set up and can be done at any stage. Rules: Each student picks 9 secret numbers between 1 and 15. They need to write these 3 down and 3 across. This is an example grid: 3 9 11 14 1 15 8 7 2 There are a number of ways … Continue reading
I recently used this video with my students as we have been studying future tenses. It shows us how clothes and technology are coming together and what items we might be wearing in the future. 1.) Show your students the still image of the jumper at the start of the video. Get them to predict … Continue reading
This activity is great to create displays for your classroom. It also encourages group work and citizenship skills. It is also low-prep which I love! Teacher involvement is minimal. The only thing you need to organise is display resources: coloured paper, pens etc and some information. Okay, so there is some prep involved but once … Continue reading
This idea comes from Raising Boys’ Achievement: Derbyshire County Council. It can be used as a starter to assess prior knowledge of a topic. As well as that, you can use it as a plenary at the end of a lesson to sum up what has been learnt. It’s easy! It works best with teenagers. … Continue reading
Pearltrees I love Pearltrees! It makes sharing resources with students and colleagues so much more enjoyable. Click on the above link to access a range of links for Teaching and Learning. Continue reading
Agent English 