Visualising Music

While I was sitting on the metro listening to my ipod I realised that visualising music could be a fun way to exploit vocabulary in class and to use song in other ways...so here's what I did.

I chose a song with plenty of flowery vocabulary and LOTS of phrasal verbs and fixed phrases. I then picked out a set of 15 different words or phrases from the lyrics. The students had to, individually draw a picture representing what they thought the word/phrase meant.

Following this, the students showed each other their pictures and their partner had to try to identify the word/phrase (and a lot of the time they chose correctly!!) Then we looked at the words, their ideas and had a feedback session, focussing in on the more difficult words. We then did the usual drilling and putting the vocabulary in context.

After, I showed the students 10 song titles and they had to guess which one was the song where the vocabulary came from. They then were allowed to listen to 15 seconds of their chosen song before confirming. This gave them time to think about the vocabulary and listen to the tune and see if they matched.

I gave the students the lyrics cut up and they had a race to put it in order while listening to the song. Finally, the students had to decide what the music video was like, write a short description adn compare it to the real thing.

Fun class

“Behavior is the mirror in which everyone shows their image” Goethe

Recently, a friend of mine passed me a link to their flickr album to look at some photos. After browsing for a while, I found that FLICKR has some really good and interesting photography...and it got me thinking.
With a group of students (young teens) I decided to exploit flickr a little and bring some photography into the class. We were studying adjectives of feelings and emotion at the time. During the class, we looked on flickr on the "most interesting photos from the last seven days" section. I had previously selected the photos I wanted to show the class.
While the students looked at the photos they had to write down an adjective for each to show how the photo made them feel. After, they compared the adjectives with their partners and chose their two favourite adjectives for the photos...but not tell anyone.
The students then had to go home and take a photo to reflect that adjective and bring it to class. We then made a powerpoint with all the photos, the class had to individually write what they thought the adjective was.
In the feedback session, each student had to say the adjective and the "photographer" had to say whether it was true or false and also explain their photo/adjective choice!

Long time coming

It's been a while since my last post...guess things like summer holidays and the like can get in the way. You get out of the loop a little and it takes some time to get back into the swing of things.

Anyway enough of the excuses and on to some ideas....

Great little video

I saw this video today on TeacherTube - think it really makes a good point!Enjoy!

"A good film is when the price of the dinner, the theatre admission and the babysitter were worth it" Alfred Hitchcock.

I am a film lover - especially Pixar films. I think they are great - the animation is really well done and the storylines are entertaining...even for an adult!
Some of my students were showing some Pixar short films on the internet recently and we came across one know as "Presto". I really liked it so started wondering how I could use it with other students who hadn't seen the film...and finally had a brain wave! Hope you like it.

Firstly, I split the class in two. Half the class were magicians and the other half were rabbits. The students then had to pair up (magician and rabbits) and get into role. The story is that the magician has the control over the lives of the rabbits, but the rabbits don't was to go on stage. The pairs have to try to negotiate an outcome. The main objective is that they come to an agreement of terms and conditions of the rabbit going on stage BUT remembering at all times that the magicians is really the one who calls the shots. You will probably find that in the end the "rabbits" give in to a lot of their demands and accept that the magician will give them a carrot or something similar if they go on and do the act. Also, the students (and I did this with adults) really get into role!

After you listen and watch the debates, you can then show the students the clip, and then ask them what was the difference in their roles and the roles they saw?

Following this, the students get back into role but this time the rabbits are in control (as per the clip). The magicians now have to sweet talk the rabbits into continuing to work with them.

It's lots of fun - give it a try.

"The summer night is like a perfection of thought" - Wallace Stevens.

Delayed bloggin of late! Apologies but school's been a bit hectic at the end of term!

So summer has arrived, and yesterday was summer solstice so I thought about a lesson that could incorporate this ancient tradition and the end of term.

Firstly, you need to elicit the meaning of Solstice from the students (maybe hinting that it comes from Latin). Then you can explain to them the root of the word:
http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=4807555635768398200

Sol = sun
Stice = to stand still

From this, see if they can figure out why the first day of summer is thus known in groups.(As the days lengthen, the sun rises higher and higher until it seems to stand still in the sky). The groups then present their ideas to the class and see who is closest to the truth!

Then, send the students on an information quest on different computers to compare view points.
One groups finds out about the astrological aspects by visiting http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Summer_solstice
Group two finds out about the pagan origins by visiting http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/paganism/holydays/summersolstice.shtml
Group three learns about religions and their adaptation on the solstice by visiting http://www.religioustolerance.org/summer_solstice.htm

The groups then explain what they learned to each other - giving the different view points.

Finally, the whole class develops their own interpretation of the solstice, a "Modern Day Solstice".

A man is literally what he thinks - James Allen

Hi there everyone,
I'm not sure if you've seen a so called "literal music video" or not so I'll post an example below.
After seeing this video I thought it would be fun to try it.
It seems much more difficult than it is - in fact all you need is a movie maker programme like Windows Movemaker, Real player and a microphone.
All you need to do is

• download the video you want to make to your computer.

• Get your students to watch it and brainstorm their ideas.

• Re-write the lyrics and synch them so they fit the original lyrics

• Put the video on the movie maker
• Add subtitles with the new lyrics
• Lower the volume of the original song
• Practice practice and practice some more :)
• Record over your new lyrics
• And you're done!

Word of warning though - it's a LONG project to do - you are going to need at least 5 hours of class time to do it effectively. So you need lots of time and patience (I also brought chocolate brownies to class for some added motivation).

So here's an example of a "professional" one from Youtube.
Enjoy

"Life itself is the most wonderful fairytale of all". Hans Christian Andersen

Last week I was substituting a class who had been learning a bit about Wallace and Gromit previously. Their teacher told me I could do whatever I wanted with them...so after some pondering I decided that we would make a storyboard for a music video.

I started the class by showing them a video clip from Youtube for a new Wallmart advert , after watching the storyboard we then watched the "real" clip of the advert (sorry about the poor quality). After atching the two versions we compared the differences and similiarities between the two.

After this, we focussed on some filming vocabulary, like "zoom", "close up" and so on. To highlight the meaning of the words, the students, using a camcorder, practised "doing" the filming of this specific vocab.

Once the students were ok using all the new words, I put them in groups of three. In their groups, they had to brainstorm ideas for a story - basic plot, characters, timeline and so on. When they had the plot outline ready, I then gave them big sheets of paper to draw the 6 most important scenes of their story as a storyboard, highlighting the camera movement and angles.

Following on from this, the students had to present their stories to the rest of the class, explain how the final version would look.

For homework, each group had to decide on and agree to a song that would appropriately fit their story.

The final (and most fun) part came next. Each group had to make a powerpoint animated music video to match their storyboard and add the song to the background!

Try it out - not only is it really fun but also it raises imaginations and gives way to multiple intelligences in your class :)

Great website

Just a short post today to share a really fun website - with funny videos.
My favourite is this dog one ..made me laugh!
Enjoy

“With high hope for the future, no prediction is ventured.” Abraham Lincoln

Quick activity to get students thinking and predicting:

• In pairs sts think of the best excuses.
• Do a role play to act out the excuses focussing on pronunciation and intonation
• Show first part of the clip and sts predict what is happening next - think of ideas why an excuse might be necessary then?
• Repeat for each section of the clip until the end.
• Predict what happens after he gets put in the box.
• Watch and check if they were right

"Accent your positive and delete your negative" Donna Karan

Accents and pronunciation can make or break communication in any language. What happens to you when speaking another language and you mispronounce something? Many times you cannot be understood, which can lead to you feeling self conscious or embarrassed. For our students, pronunciation is the key to success (at least in my opinion).
Here's an activity you can try with higher levels is:

1. Brainstorm different accents around the world.
2. Discuss the differences beween them - see how much your students know (or don't)
3. Next you could do one of two things:

• Show the video below and see how many of the 21 accents the students can hear OR
• go to www.voxopop.com and get some peers to record a 2 second piece (for example everyone say "Good morning, today it's sunny").
• After listening and brainstorming ideas the students could then record their answers onto voxopop, saying something like; "speaker one, we think you are from Australia".
• After, ask you colleagues to go back to voxopop and reply to the students, saying something like "Hi, I'm Anna, speaker one and I'm from Canada".

After listening, and comparing their answers, to the reality the class can then focus on the different intonations and stresses of different accents.

Benefits of this? Well, in real life the learners are going to be exposed to lots of different types of English and they should be aware of different accents. For higher levels, this is always a factor impeding learning.

Welcome

This blog is to share ideas for teaching English with technology. Until last year, I was teaching the "old fashioned" way, using technology as a fancy resource. Over the past 18 months, I have developed and incorporated technology into all my classes. The results have been amazing. The students are contributing more, their level is increaing more rapidly and the motivation levels have increased.
My aim with this blog is to share some of the ideas I've had to try to help you incorporate more ICT in your class.
Enjoy