A Speaking Activity: Can You Define It?

Hi all!

Today's activity is a speaking one and I remember being a part of it when I was in U.S. - Spring International Language Center. My experience was definitely amazing, so I wanted to share it with you. 

The activity is appropriate for any levels if you can adopt it based on the needs and abilities of your students. My version will work better if you work with at least intermediate level students who are at least secondary school students. Also, your class size should be 20 at most. You can also divide the class into 2 groups if you prefer that.

Here are the steps:

1. Prepare the class setting. You will need a wide screen TV or a projector. Also you need to arrange the seats. Considering that you have 10 students in your class. Place 5 chairs facing the screen and the others facing the opposite. 
2. Tell your students to have a seat. When they sit down, 2 students will be facing each other. (One is looking at the screen and the other is not!)
3. Turn on the projector and explain the procedure. 
4. The procedure: The ones facing the screen will watch a movie for two minutes and telling what is happening in the movie. After a minute, the students will switch their seats and the other student will continue talking about the movie. 
5. After they watch it, they will be summarizing the movie together discussing and filling the gaps in their minds if they have any. Or you can ask a possible ending!
6. At the end, you can re-play the movie or show the end, this time all the students are watching.

For the movie, I advise you to use Pixar's short movies. Here is a link!

Please share if you have any advice or concern,

Best,

Ayca

A Writing Activity: Self-Storming

Sorry for neglecting the blog for such a long time due to my busy schedule! Yet, I am back here :)

Today's activity is an enjoyable one aiming to improve the writing skills of the students. Most of the students start writing without any graphic organizer, so they lose the track of their ideas. With the help of this activity, one can teach students how to conduct a brainstorming on their own and organize their thoughts on a specific issue before starting writing.

Here comes the steps:

1. Specify the topic that you want to work with. It can be about anything appropriate to the level of the students. (Animal rights, environmental issues, social responsibility, impacts of social media, world history, sharing a memoir, healthy food...) 
2. Share the topic that you have chosen with your students by simply writing the title onto the board.
3. Explain your students the process: First, they will be listening to a soothing music and taking notes on the topic in general. Second, they will be grouping and organizing their ideas based on a graphic organizer. Third, they will be sharing their ideas in an organized way in pairs and they will give feedback to each other. Last, they will start writing after they receive a consent from the instructor. 
4. Turn on a soothing music. You can use this link if you wish.
5. Tell your students to start working individually. Ideally, they can work for 10 mins, but you can extend the time if you think they need more time.
6. Use the graphic organizer and explain how to use it with specific examples.
7. Tell your students to work with the graphic organizer and give feedback to their peers.
8. Check out their graphic organizers and give feedback before they start writing. 
9. Collect all their papers (brainstorming, graphic organizer & the writing) at the end of the class and give feedback to their writings.

I believe that many students start writing without concentrating on their ideas, so they need to learn how to organize their thoughts. This activity can be adapted to various levels and can teach many students the importance of using a graphic organizer.

Love,
Ayca