Archive for the ‘Motivation’ Category
Hijack Everything
Posted by: pterodidactics on: 19 March, 2009
So, the ultimate implication of this post, as implied in the title, is that there’s a learning opportunity in every activity – the challenge is to take advantage of that opportunity. As I’ve mentioned before, I already eat lunch with my students and sit in on the occassional non-English class (Science, P.E., Music and such [...]
Write What You Know
Posted by: pterodidactics on: 31 October, 2008
A few days ago one of my classes was set the task of writing a short description, in English, of a famous place in my town. I must admit that I thought that this was going to be a bit dull, but it turned out as a pretty good-fun exercise. Not only did the children [...]
English Salon
Posted by: pterodidactics on: 23 October, 2008
This morning when I arrived at work I was told they wanted to set-up an English Salon. Sadly, I didn’t get a facial and my nails painted, but what I did get was the conversion of the school library (which is quite small and not used much) into an English room where students can come [...]
Role-plays
Posted by: pterodidactics on: 25 September, 2008
A few times I’ve done role-plays with the children, and I’ve noticed a very strong correlation between the degree of realism of the activity, and the extent to which the children engage with the English within it. For example, I once did a shopping role play in which I just used the coins I had [...]
Pre-written Speeches
Posted by: pterodidactics on: 23 September, 2008
In preparation for meeting me, a number of my students have been asked by their JTEs to pre-write a self-introduction speech, to be read out in class. These speeches show a noticably higher level of English, often making reference to topics (siblings, future aspirations, parental occupations and so on) not found in speeches given on [...]
