ORAL TASK: INVENT A GADGET. LEARNING SITUATION, SPEAKING

 The main target of this task is that our students use all the knowledge they may have on technology, science and the world around them to create a gadget and describe it in front ot the class. How?

JUANA MORAL'S ENGLISH SITE. INVENT AN GADGET. SPEAKING. UDL/DUA

First, students invent a gadget, it can be related to science, technology, medicine or any field of knowledge that can improve people's lives. 
Later, they make a poster with the elements seen in the picture above: 

• A description

• The purpose of the gadget

• Function

• How it will help people

• Conclusion

In this case, it is essential to be original with every single element and to engage the rest of the class with questions and trying to make them understand the purpose of their invention

CAVEATS AND OPTIONS:

- This can be used as a writing prompt, including the elements explained before

- Students can make it using online elements for their presentation and they can also do it in pairs.

- A fair can be created in the hall of the high school in order to present relevant projects and make everyone aware of the outcomings of this task. Several departaments may be involved in oder to create a profitable interdisciplinar environment. 

To Luisa Ramirez, the real English teacher. 

Ice breakers for speaking and writing all levels

 

ICE-BREAKERS for speaking and writing

This multi-level task was designed using different formats such as a spinning wheel and it's perfect to promote communication and getting to know our students on the first days. 

Ice-breakers for speaking and writing all levels. Juana Moral's English Site. ELT. 

It involves DUA/UDL principles as it is based on previous knowledge, it presents several forms of implication and promotes understanding in different languages. 

• 1st ESO. A1 levels

 

SPEAKING: I'M AN EXPERT AT... (from A1-B2)

What if every single student in our class is an expert at something? What if we all can learn and become more confident because we all know quite a lot about a topic or we have a surprising hobby? This short project is DUA or UDL oriented and focused on our students' needs.

This is the purpose of this task: make our students more confident when speaking and a collaborative learning. 

For that, students choose a topic, hobby or issue they know quite a lot and describe it in front of the class. It is a low preparation activity on the part of the students and they can bring special objects, make a presentation or be as original as they please. At the end of the presentation, it is essential to promote students' questions and dialogue so as to improve communication and uderstanding. 

SPEAKING: I'M AN EXPERT. DUA/UDL. COLLABORATIVE LEARNING. From A1 to C1

In my experience, this activity is enjoyable for students and for the teacher because it helps us to know more about our class and makes them feel the main characters of the story for some minutes, being a student centered task which fosters motivation as well as confidence. 

A further advantage is that it can be adapted to all levels increasing the difficulty in expressions and vocabulary. 

Buying a train ticket. ROLE PLAY FOR ELT

How about a role play? Learning how to use means of transport is very useful and easy. Let's watch a video on how to buy a train ticket:

This kind of activity may be used as a real and motivating "learning situation" (situación de aprendizaje) in which our students can plan a journey and use speaking and communication competences in order to achieve their learning goals. 

MEMBERS OF THE FAMILY. VOCABULARY

 CAN YOU NAME THE MEMEBERS OF THE FAMILY IN ENGLISH? 
Watch the following video from WOODWARD ENGLISH and focus on pronunciation

Together with this, there are more members to bear in mind: 

BOOTRAILER PROJECT FOR ELT. STEP BY STEP GUIDE.

Reading is essential to improve in any language. Together with this, it is a great opportunity to learn from different cultures, grammar an also enjoy. 

BOOKTRAILER PROJECT. JUANA MORAL'S ENGLISH SITE

This project uses Graded Readers as a basis in order to create BOOKTRAILERS in English.

In the following lines, I am going to offer a step by step guide to create your own project and combine reading with COMMUNICATION (SPEAKING), video creation (IT) and creativity. Don't miss it!

MODAL VERBS I. CAN, COULD, MUST, SHOULD BASICS.

What do you know about modal verbs? 

A lot! You only have to pay attention to the following pics and practice to learn more about them.

This post explains the basics of modal verbs together with CAN/CAN'T COULD/COULDN'T , MUST and SHOULD.
Do the quizz after reading the presentation!!

Now , let us practice using activities in different levels:

GERUNDS BASICS. ACTIVITIES AND EXPLANATION

GERUNDS are a non personal form in English. They are identified with -ing forms

When do you add -ing to a verb? Let's see and practice:

Now, let us practice with some basic activities.

SIMPLE PAST OF TO BE: WAS/WERE; THERE WAS/WERE. EASY GRAMMAR

The verb to be is an auxiliary verb, threfore, when we have to write it in the past, we have to take into account the following aspects: 

PAST OF TO BE: WAS/WERE. JUANA MORAL'S ENGLISH SITE

THERE WAS/WERE. JUANA MORAL'S ENGLISH SITE. GRAMMAR

BRITISH FOOD. COMPREHENSION VIDEO ON CULTURE

What can you say about British food? Let us forget about the stereotypes and watch the following video. I'm sure you'll find some appetising treats. 

BEfore watching, please, you need to revise some cooking  words and ingredients to understand it properly: 

• We are what we eat. Food vocabulary.

ENGLISH PRONOUNS. PRESENTATION AND ACTIVITIES

Pronouns are a used to replace nouns and noun phrases. In this lesson, we are going to learn both pronouns (replacing nouns) and possessive adjectives (they accompany nouns instead of replacing them).

PRONOUNS IN ENGLISH. JUANA MORAL'S ENGLISH SITE

Pay attention to the following aspects:

• Learn them by heart
• Learn their position in the sentence to see the type of pronoun or adjective
• Focus on their function and meaning to distinguish all of them
• After that, do some activities to practice it. 

WRITING GENERATORS. HAVE FUN WRITING!

This is my first post on writing, thus, let me introduce a nice activity to improve writing skills, both if you are a teacher or a student. 

WRITING GENERATORS. JUANA MORAL'S ENGLISH SITE

This is my Halloween (or mistery) spinning wheel generator created with FLUKY (which is a free tool).

• Characters. 
• Haunted places
• Elements in the story.
• Setting and extra information
• Extra elements
• Adjectives

CREATING A CLUB BROCHURE. COMMUNICATIVE TASK

In this activity, students have to create their own leaflets describing a club so that their mates join it. With this, it is easy to improve communicative skills as well as writing at basic levels.

You can create a PBW (ABP) with this task if you plan it before hand and it can be really engaging for your students. 

How can we do it?

HALLOWEEN SPOOKY STORIES

This year, my students are going to create spooky Halloween stories. How?

They are going to use a Spinning Wheel plot generator. It makes writing look like a fun game.

This my HALLOWEEN SPINNING WHEEL GENERATOR created with FLUKY. Click on each topic and spin the wheel to select the elements in the story

• Characters. 
  
• Haunted places
• Elements in the story.
• Setting and extra information
• Extra elements
• Adjectives

TO BE AND HAVE GOT. GRAMMAR BASIC USAGE

Grammar basics are a must. If you have problems with to be and have got, the following presentation includes a special focus on form and usage.

It also includes a short quizz for you or your students to revise it.

ENGLISH GRAMMAR BASICS. 5 TIPS TO UNDERSTAND THEM

Do you find it hard to understand English grammar? Focus on the following ideas to improve from the very beginning:  

Learning the basics can be easier than you have imagined, for that, bear in mind the following concepts as well:

TIPS TO UNDERSTAND ENGLISH GRAMMAR. JUANA MORAL'S ENGLISH SITE

GRAMMAR BASICS A1: AUXILIARY VERBS

The following video shows one of the grammar basics: auxiliary verbs. It is usually my first grammar lesson for false beginners. 

It usually helps those people who have problems at understanding essential elements of English such as word order, which is fixed. 

Watch the following video and answer the questions: 

• Which auxiliary verbs do you know? 
• Which three tests can we make a verb to check if it is an auxiliary verb?

Learn English and enjoy!!

A2 /A1 GRAMMAR WITH KAHOOT!. REVISION AND ACTIVITIES

Have you ever tried Kahoot to revise grammar content?

In this post, I have created five sets of activites to play and revise A1/Beginner  contents in English (1st year or low level 2nd year of ESO in the  Spanish system).

THey include the following contents: 

• Word order (present simple, continuous, to be, have got, frequency adverbs)

• Present simple vs present continuous

ENGLISH FOR TRAVELLING I. AT THE AIRPORT

This lesson plan is focused on learning how to speak English when travelling. It is really useful if you are planning to go abroad. The first section shows some vocabulary at the airport , and a presentation which includes two dialogue examples, too. We are going to create our own dialogues using all we have learnt here.  

Then, you can also watch a video to practise useful expressions and pronunciation:  

First of all, let us see the following picture from Fluentland: 

Airport vocabulary items: Juana Moral's English Site

APRIL FOOLS!!! LISTENING AND CULTURE FOR TEFL

I'm sure all of you have heard of pranks, jokes and the rest, but most of you don't really know where it comes from. 

First, do the following quizz to check how much do you know about jokes and vocabulary related to it. CLICK ON THIS PUN TO FIND OUT