MEME news - Latest first :)Training course in Scotland - Best of MEME Tips from Edinburgh (23 July-3 August, 2018)
You can read about my trip and the course (CLIL Secondary) in detail (though in Hungarian) in my blog: http://lepoldagnes.weebly.com/blog . And here are five of the best tips for teachers: 1) Variety - How can you make sure that you use a wide range of activities, so you won't get boring for your students and/or bored of yourself? Make a list of the activity types and when you plan your lessons, tick the ones you plan to use, and as yo go along, try to include the ones, you haven't used for a while. You can even mark how well they worked. Keep adding new ones to your list! :) 2) The Sandwich Technique for evaluation You can use this technique with peer evaluation, i.e. your students giving feedback on each other's work. There should be three parts of the feedback given: a positive aspect of the work, something to work on, and a personal benefit. So two positive, with one negative in between. 3) Predictions about vocabulary To revise vocabulary at the end of a lesson or to introduce a topic, you can use this simple activity. If it is revision don't let them use their vocabulary lists, instead make them try to remember the new vocabulary items in the lesson. Students work in pairs and try to make predictions about each other's vocabulary. Students write a note in their notebooks of a vocabulary item for each of the following categories for their partner: - a word he/she surely remembers/knows - a word he/she should remember/know - a word he/she surely doesn't remember/know Students shouldn't show their partners what they wrote before the teacher asks them to challenge their partners about the meaning of the words. Then they tell their partner each word one by one, taking turns, and the partner should define it (or draw it or mime it, or give an example, whatever). 4) Encouraging the use of English in class (and discouraging L1 use) By creating learners' groups for a period, you can encourage competitiveness and this can help you. For example you can award extra points for the groups and not the individual students for a lot of things like active participation, nice drawings, great contribution to the work, helping someone, etc, and also, you can take away points from the group if a member speaks L1 instead of English (or any other unfavourable attitude). In this way the group members themselves will soon warn each other no to use L1 in class. 5) Cooperative evaluation (Elisa's tip) With group work or projects, especially lasting a longer period (a term or even a whole school year) you can evaluate the outcomes in a way that all the members of the same team get the same mark for the job. Before you start the work or project make sure your students understand that this is going to happen at the end and they should cooperate the best they can to achieve a good result. After a while the hard-working ones will start to complain, they they would deserve a better mark than the ones who don't contribute to the work so much. It is important that you must encourage your students to find tasks for the weaker/slower students that fit their abilities and interest them, and also to help them do their part. In this way your students will not only do better in the task, but also learn social skills that they will really need in real life. It takes a long time for the students (and parents too) to realize this, but don't give up and, very important, as a teacher you must also make an effort to assist your students if they have difficulties doing their task. New Year's Resolutions - an easy activity in MEME style:
You can practice the future tenses with this activity. It is simple but you can practice various grammatical structures with it so just feel free to adapt it to your own class. It is a mixture of 'Bet!' and 'Teachers are humans' (see below) plus a pair-work activity. 1) The teacher explains the activity and writes a few sentences about herself/himself on the board contain some future tenses. they should refer to resolutions for the new year but they don't have to be all true. Or you can just read out the sentences from your notes making sure that the students understand them. The students decide for themselves which sentences they think are true, which are false and write the number of the sentences in their notebooks with a T or F. 2) Also, the teacher asks them to place a bet on their answers according to how sure they are. For example if there are six sentences you can say that they have Ł12 and they must place a bet of at least Ł1 on each of their guesses and they must use all the Ł12. Explain that for each sentence if their guess is correct they will double their bet, but if it is wrong, they will lose it. (Once you play 'Bet' with them they will understand it much easier the next time and enjoy it a lot! :) 3) Read your sentences and ellicit their guesses. Give the right answer (true or false) and if you want, you can add a few comments as well. Students calculate how much money they have (in this case a maximum of Ł24, minimum zero.) This will be a reward in itself for them but you can have a fun moment over guessing how they know so much about their teacher :D 4) Ask students to prepare a set of similar sentences about themselves, but don't show them to the others yet. Go around the class to help them. 5) Students pair off and tell their 'New Year's Resolutions' to their partner and guess which ones are true, which false. (If you want, you can add a version of 'Bet' again.) 6) As feedback you can ask the students some questions about the activity and reward them with some titles as in these examples: "Who guessed all of them correctly? How did you know?" - The best gambler! "Whose partner couldn't guess any of therm correctly?" - The best pretender! "Which one was the most surprising/funniest resolution that was true?" - The best/the most surprising/the funniest resolution! etc. ENJOY! AND HAPPY NEW YEAR! 19 December, Szombathely, ELTE-SEK
Christmas afternoon with English teachers I had a short presentation about MEME and also gave some tips to my colleagues. Below you can see some of the slides - they describe useful and easy activities. The first one is a nice speaking and also pairing-off activity that will help you organize pair-work during the school-year: I have already recommended the 'teachers are humans' activity (see 'The first 10 tips' below) and here's the slide for it from my presentation: Ideas for dialogue practice in MEME style: And an example of 'Let them do the hard part' (see 'The first 10 tips')- our BODY IDIOMS project: 1) Students collect idioms connected to some body parts in a list (we had head, foot, hair, heart, and hand) for homework - at least one for each. They also write down a definition or synonym for the meaning of each idiom.
2) In class make groups and share your idioms with each other using some sheets of paper and coloured fibre pens to make drawings. - Each group draws a sketch of one of the parts of the body and writes the idioms they collected and at the same time explain to each other what the idioms mean. (The teacher monitors the work and helps if necessary. Insist on simple drawings, otherwise it will take too long.) - They pass the sheets around to the other groups who add and discuss their idioms. - In the end the teacher collects the drawings, later photographs them or scans them in and posts them in the facebook (or other social media) group of the class. 3) For homework each student will write sample sentences as comments to the pictures in the facebook group. The sample sentences should illustrate the meaning. (The teacher asks them to correct any errors they make before the next step.) 4) The teacher prints out the list of comments for each picture and asks the students to create a poster with all the things produced in the project. This could be done on a volunteer basis in the afternoon, you don't need to sacrifice valuable lesson time for it. IMPORTANT: reward the students for the hard work they have done! :) And don't forget to put the poster on the wall! :) :) (In my presentation I had a lot more slides of course, this is only a selection.) |
I HAVE REALIZED THAT MANY OF THESE TIPS ALSO WORK WELL IN MY MATHS CLASSES. :) :) :)
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The first 10 tips - with sub-tips ;)
Don’t waste your time reading all this if after the first 5 tips you still haven’t found anything useful. ☺
- "Gallery walk" – motivating, involves movement, little preparation – much to do in class:
The teacher puts questions or problems to be solved on the walls of the classroom. Students go round in groups and solve them within the given time. Each group starts at a different question. - Works with any subject. I've tried it with maths, too and the students enjoyed it very much! :) - Bet! – motivating, no extra materials or preparation needed, almost any traditional exercise can be transformed into a great activity! This is how it works:
Students bet on their answers. If they are quite sure they write 2 next to their answer, if they are not sure, write 1. After checking the questions they add up their points: plus if the answer is correct, minus if its not correct. - Students love it!!! :D - "Teachers are Humans" or "Personally the teacher" – interesting, useful to present almost any grammar point:
The teacher writes a few statements about herself/himself on the board, but some of them are false. The satatements reflect ther grammar point. Students decide whether they think each statement is true or false. (You can add Bet! too :) Works individually, in pairs or as small group discussion. - Get them to do the hard part – Ss collect data, devise questionnaires, produce pictures and posters, etc. – they love it! Reward them of course for the hard work they have done! Weaker students can do a great job, too!
- Tablet for flashcards sets – easy to store and select, no photocopying (your boss will be happy, too!), colourful pics downloaded from the Internet. Use PDFzilla to make pic files from PDF.
- Organize your materials – files, subfiles in logical arrangement, labels of books or courses
- Warm-ups and games to minimize teacher load and maximize student practice
- quick questions around class – wrong answer -> sit down
- Simon says
- Bang
- Vocabulary rush
- Vocabulary collections in groups – check and cross common ones
- Bingo without bingo cards – use pics in coursebooks, exercise-book notes, lists of vocabulary etc. - What pairs can do (apart from practising dialogues):
- check homework
- challenge each other with questions or vocabulary practice
- correct errors in each other's assignments
- discuss answers to even to the simplest questions (students love to chat during class :) - How to make the activity quicker:
- Set the time and check how many are done -> winners
- Set the time and slow ones lose points
- Fastest answers win points
- Bomb! - use a "bomb" toy to be passed around class - How to make answers more accurate:
- group members check grammar
- pairs help each other improve
The next 10 tips! :)
First of all, I want to give you suggestions on how to prepare great activities easily with the help of online resources.
Then I will explain some of the "sub-tips" from the first 10 tips.
Great online resources to prepare great activities:
1. CROSSWORDLABS - Easy Crossword Maker online
https://crosswordlabs.com/
2. ESL Printables
It is worth registering to sites like this and upload a few worksheets you have made. In return, you'll be able to browse and download worksheets that are ready-made and usually also editable.
http://www.eslprintables.com/
3. Macmillan Dictionary online
Great to get definitions for words, find phrases, sample sentences etc. Blog, humour (see below), Buzzword, etc. Especially useful with intermediate-advanced learners.
http://www.macmillandictionary.com/
4. Youtube
Video sharing sites with lots of great and enjoyable videos!
https://www.youtube.com/
5. BBC Learning English
Great resources for learners and teachers, some are printable, too.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/learningenglish
6. 5 perc angol
A great site for learners of English. Sign up for the daily free lessons, too, you may use them in class.
http://www.5percangol.hu/
7. Online games
The most enjoyable homework! Or if you have access to ther internet in class you can use them in your lessons too.
It's a never-ending list.
Here's a collection of memory games:
https://www.eslgamesplus.com/memory-games/
Here are a few for maths:
Shapes game:
http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/mathgames/earlymath/shapes_shoot.htm
http://www.crickweb.co.uk/ks2numeracy-shape-and-weight.html#quad
Collection of games:
http://resources.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/maths/shape.htm
http://interactivesites.weebly.com/geometry-shapes.html
Quadrilaterals and triangles:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/ks2/maths/shape_space/shapes/play/popup.shtml
quadrilateral quest:
http://teams.lacoe.edu/documentation/classrooms/amy/geometry/6-8/activities/quad_quest/quad_quest.html
8.-10. Details of how some warm-ups work
8. Warm-up: Vocabulary rush
Excellent for vocabulary revision, no special preparation needed :)
The teacher (T) asks students some words from the previous lessons. As cues T can use:
- mother-tongue equivalents
- definitions
- pictures, etc.
Students (Ss) write the English words on the board: they can write anywhere, it shouldn't be a list, instead, a "jungle" of words. The words should more or less fill the board.
Then T puts students in two groups and explains the rules of rushing:
- one S from each group will compete together in each round
- they should stand with their backs towards the board at least a metre from it (for example use the front desks as start lines)
- each competitor uses a piece of chalk or pen for marking the words
- the T gives them a cue for a word (as before) and they must find it on the board and mark it
- the first one to mark the word gets a point for their group
- no pushing!
- other members of the group must not help
Play until only very few words are left on the board, then count the points and reward the winner group.
9. Quick questions around class
Start with the whole class standing up. Explain that you are going to ask questions from the previous materials covered. You can choose to concentrate on:
- grammar
- vocabulary
- the content of a reading text
- any content connected to your subject, e.g. maths
Students who give a wrong answer sit down. The winner(s) at the end is/are awarded.
To make it even more exdciting you can divide the students into groups before the game and each group can win points for correct answers, too.
10. Vocabulary collections in groups
Students work in groups of 3-5.
Give a topic and studens collect words. You can make it harder by giving them letters to start the words with. Tell them how much time (e.g. 3 minutes) they have for the task.
Then check the words by asking the students to read them out. Others cross out what they also have. Then count how many reamined in their list and give them points.
Play at least 3 rounds, then award the group with the highest score.