El Rincon del Profesor - Teacher's Corner - August/Agosto 2007

From the teachingenglish website: www.teachingenglish.org.uk

Another exciting new feature comes from the Books section, where we have a new resource pack for you to download. This Resource Pack provides practical activities for teachers to be used in the classroom primarily in Latin America, although these can be adapted to suit other international contexts, as a tool for understanding other cultures and promoting reflection in order to avoid cultural bias and challenge stereotypes.

http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/download/books.shtml

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Using the OHP
Alan Finch, British Council Paris

Of all the technological resources that are available to teachers, in my opinion, the one which is the most underused and sometimes misused is the OHP, or overhead projector. In this article I’m going to try to give guidance and ideas for exploiting the OHP and look at:

What an OHP is
The advantages of using an OHP
Techniques
Some do’s and don’ts
Conclusion

Complete Text: http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/think/resources/ohp.shtml

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Guided writing: Writing a story on the OHP
Alan Finch, British Council Paris

This activity can be used with intermediate and upper-intermediate students and practises fluency as well as story-writing skills. It offers free practise of narrative tenses and sequential linking words, and helps foster cooperation and a sense of achievement as students work together to prepare and write their stories. It also solves the problem of giving up valuable class time to lengthy writing exercises and stops writing being such a lonely experience.

Preparation
Cut up an OHT into three strips for each group of 3 -4 students.

Procedure

Step 1
Tell your students they are going to write a story entitled ‘A Wonderful Day’ and that they are going to be the narrator in the story.
Draw 4 big circles on the board. In the first circle write ‘Who am I?’ and ask your students to decide on the main character of the story (You could use a picture to stimulate imagination):

How old am I?
What do I do?
What do I look like?
What am I like?
Who are my friends?
What family have I got?
What kind of relationship do I have with them?
What do I like doing?
Etc

Write up their ideas

Step 2
In the second circle write ‘Morning’ and ask the students to decide what I did to make it such a wonderful day and write up their ideas.
Repeat the procedure for the third and fourth circles substituting ‘Morning’ for ‘Afternoon’ and ‘Evening’.

Step 3
Put the students into groups and tell them each group is going to write one part of the story: morning, afternoon or evening. Hand out a strip of OHT to each group as well as OHP pens. If you have a large class you could divide them in two and have them write two stories.

Step 4
Give the students about twenty minutes to discuss together and write their part of the story then collect the strips back and arrange them together on the OHP.
I find it helps if you read the text aloud and the students follow. Go over the text with the students and tell them what you think they did well.
If you want you can also analyse the texts for errors.

Variations:
You can vary this theme to incorporate other ideas like’ ‘An Awful Day’ or ‘An Unexpected Day’ etc.

http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/try/writetry/story_ohp.shtml

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Teaching Children to read

by Tom & Shelley Cooper

One of the biggest milestones in our children's education is when they learn how to read. You've probably asked yourself, "When is the best time to teach my child to read?" You can research this until you are blue in the face, but the answer is really very simple. You've already started, because from the moment your child is born, you are teaching him. We talk to our babies. We read to them. We sing to them. We recite silly little verses while we change their diapers or put them in their car seat. We hug and cuddle our children. We play with them. We laugh with them. We read to them. In this way we are teaching children to read.

Complete Text:
http://www.estarilibros.com.ar/News/Agosto/5.html
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Understanding student behaviour

By Dr. Yanni Zack- ESL Teaching Tips and St

I received this article from the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development and wanted to share it with everyone. It deals with student behaviors found within a classroom.

Here is the article:

Research Brief, Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development
March 27, 2006 | Volume 4 | Number 3
Student Behaviors and Teacher Use of Approval versus Disapproval
Dan Laitsch

The Question

How do the ways in which teachers express approval and disapproval of student actions bring about change in individual and group behaviors?

More information http://www.estarilibros.com.ar/News/Julio/4.html
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Reading skills lesson plans: Reviews
http://www.onestopenglish.com/section.asp?catid=59408&docid=155212

Author: Jackie McAvoy
Level: elementary, upper-intermediate
Type: general lesson plan

Jackie McAvoy asks students to think about restaurant reviews.

Elementary
Skills: Reading skills including making decisions based on a text and a writing task where students write a review of a restaurant of their choice.

Upper intermediate:
Skills: Reading skills including determining opinion in a text and responding by agreeing or disagreeing. Follow-on speaking and writing tasks.

Reading lessons: Reviews: Elementary - Teacher's notes (51k)
Author: Jackie McAvoy Level: elementary Type: general lesson plan

Print material

Reading skills including making decisions based on a text and a writing task where students write a review of a restaurant of their choice.

http://www.onestopenglish.com/section.asp?catid=59409&docid=155206