35 fun classroom practice activities for Present Continuous (Present Progressive) By: Alex Case |Audience: Teachers|Category: Teaching English The simplest use of Present Continuous is to talk about things that are in some way in progress now/ presently/ currently/ at the moment, which is the main focus of this article. This use is often contrasted with Present Simple for present routines/ habits/ repeated actions. In normal communication, Present Continuous is perhaps more useful to talk about future arrangements such as meetings, dates and appointments, but this is so different from the basic meaning that there will be another article on that future use. There are a couple of activities in this article for the much rarer use of Present Continuous to talk about regular habits – often annoying ones – like “She’s always sucking her teeth”. For all these uses, students will need to practise different forms of “be” (“I am”, “he is” etc.), pronunciation of contractions of “be” (“she’s”, “we aren’t” etc.), and spelling rules for “-ing” verbs. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9.
2-Page Mini-Lesson | Public Transport UK might ban food on public transport Download this mini-lesson Try easier levels of this lesson: Public Transport - Level 0, Public Transport - Level 1 or Public Transport - Level 2. Download the 27-page lesson | More mini-lessons The reading The United Kingdom's government is thinking about banning all food and drink on public transport. Make sure you try all of the online activities for this reading and listening - There are dictations, multiple choice, drag and drop activities, crosswords, hangman, flash cards, matching activities and a whole lot more. Professor Davies reported that there are twice as many overweight schoolchildren today as there were 30 years ago. Sources:
multiple uses of newspapers & magazines for ELT | TeachingEnglishNotes Newspaper fire orange (Photo credit: NS Newsflash) I love using real things for teaching English. By “real things” I mean something from real life – and not something specially developed for learning or teaching. Talking about the newspapers, their use in class (and outside too) is limitless. Newspapers can be used for: jigsaw reading (in a group, assign each student a small extract, then ask them to report on their part and put all the parts into the right order/ for one-to-one putting the parts into the right order would also work greatly) reading-and–retelling-and-discussing (very close to real life – when you read a newspaper in your language, you would often discuss what you’ve read with your friends or colleagues) scanning, finding the most interesting bits and extending on them (to be honest, that’s what I usually do with newspapers in English and in my native language- I scan the headlines and read only what catches my eye. Like this: Like Loading...
11 no-prep warm up activities 11 no preparation warm up activities to keep your students occupied while you do some last minute photocopying, grab a much needed coffee, etc. (For more stimulating warm up ideas check out Penny Urs’ Five Minute Activities.) Due to popular demand here are 11 more no-prep warmers and fillers. 1. Make the most words Write a topical vocabulary item on the board. 2. Write a target word vertically down the board, for example. winter. 3. Using whatever resources they have at hand, students find and write down an appropriate adjective that begins with each letter of their first name. 4. Write a sentence on the board but mix up the word order then challenge students to reconstruct the original sentence. 5. Write a sentence on the board but this time scramble the letters of each word. 6. In groups students think of and write down as many facts as they can about bananas (or cats, Belgium, David Beckham, etc.). 7. Students sit in silence for two minutes and write down every sound that they hear.
English idioms | Learn English | EF English idioms, proverbs, and expressions are an important part of everyday English. They come up all the time in both written and spoken English. Because idioms don't always make sense literally, you'll need to familiarize yourself with the meaning and usage of each idiom. That may seem like a lot of work, but learning idioms is fun, especially when you compare English idioms to the idioms in your own language. Learning to use common idioms and expressions will make your English sound more native, so it's a good idea to master some of these expressions. The tables below are organized by how common the idioms are in American English. The most common English idioms These English idioms are extremely common in everyday conversation in the United States. Common English idioms & expressions These English idioms are used quite regularly in the United States. Familiar English idioms & proverbs
I tried to help my kids have a great school year by helping less. Here’s what worked and what didn’t. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky) Last year, Jessica Lahey, mom, teacher and author of The Gift of Failure: How the Best Parents Learn to Let Go so Their Children Can Succeed, gave me the permission to stand down and provided me with the push I needed to send my older son into the wilds of middle school without me hovering, smothering or freaking out. [5 ways to help your kids have a great school year. Hint: don’t help them.] Of course, his lucky younger brother got to reap the benefits of having a mom who’s been there/done that, which made me a much mellower fourth-grade mom the second time around. What went well: I didn’t rescue them (much). I backed off, and they rose to the occasion. I did not obsessively check my middle schooler’s grades online—and to be honest, it was quite liberating. Occasionally, however, a teacher wouldn’t get back to him, and he’d be more inclined to drop the issue than press for an answer and seem rude. What didn’t go so well: What I’m going to work on this year:
7 ESL Video Activities That Your Students Will Love There’s never been a better time to use video in the ESL classroom. Remember the old days of VCRs, VHS tapes and trips to Blockbuster? When I started teaching, my classroom video material were well-worn, borrowed cassette tapes or ones I recorded at home. Finding a good quality video was like striking pure, untarnished gold. Once you’d acquired the precious item, you’d need to find a room, set up a TV, plug in the video player and then hope to goodness that everything worked. Sometimes, you’d accidentally stick a VHS tape in a Betamax machine (yes, I’m that old!) To be honest, it was such a hassle that you just didn’t bother most of the time. Fast forward a few years, (sorry about the pun!) Websites like FluentU have made life much easier for students and teachers alike by curating authentic video clips and providing all the scaffolding that students could ever need. Why Use Video to Teach ESL Students? There are a number of reasons why video is a great resource in the ESL classroom: 1. 2. 3.
11 Drawings to Remember English Rules Forever This blog post was so popular that I turned it into a book: 102 Little Drawings That Will Help You Remember English Rules FOREVER (Probably). It’s available as an eBook and paperback. Click here to get your copy. Have you ever had a problem that you just couldn’t solve for ages? Then suddenly someone says one word, or just shows you one simple picture, and you get that “aha” moment — you suddenly understand everything? Well, over the many, many years I’ve been teaching English, I’ve found that some simple images can help explain rules in English that cause so many problems for people. Hopefully, they’ll help you, too. So here are some of my most effective little pictures to help you remember English rules. Forever! Maybe. In, on or at for place? I’ve actually talked about this in a previous post, but it’s good to see it in a different way. Usually (but not always), we use: “In” when it’s 3-dimensional I’m in this really dark room, and I can’t get out. “On” when it’s a straight line A or the? OK. OK.
100 herramientas gratuitas para crear materiales educativos Generadores de cuadernos, libros y publicaciones digitales Cuadernia online (Consejería de Educación y Ciencia de Castilla-La Mancha). Herramienta fácil y funcional para la creación y difusión de materiales educativos digitales. Permite crear de forma dinámica y visual cuadernos digitales que pueden contener información y actividades multimedia. Tal vez también te interese visitar la sección de recursos de Cuadernia.Tikatok es una aplicación en línea que permite de forma muy sencilla la creación de libros virtuales que contengan imágenes y textos. Generadores de webquest y cazas del tesoro 1,2,3 tu WebQuest generador de webquest de Aula 21. Generadores de cuestionarios y ejercicios Generadores de cuestionarios de autoevaluación (4Teachers). Generadores de listas, sopas de letras y tarjetas de vocabulario Generador de tarjetas de vocabulario en PDF (Personal Education Press). Generadores de hojas de caligrafía y papel pautado Generadores de líneas de tiempo, mapas conceptuales y mentales
Vytvořte si vlastní online testy a "klikačky" | Digitální_lektoři – Digitální lektoři Taky tvoříte závěrečné testy pro vaše studenty? Nebo jim chcete vytvořit nějaká cvičení z gramatiky? Nebo pro zábavu? Zkuste skvělý nástroj BookWidgets, který se hodí na všechny tyto účely. Já v něm vytvářím online testy pro své studenty a ulehčuje mi to můj lektorský život. V tomto článku vám ukážu, jak na to. Je konec semestru a já právě tvořím testy pro své studenty ve Francouzském Institutu. Na stávajícím systému mi ale vadí 3 věci: Testy se studentům dávají během jedné z posledních lekcí (přijde mi, že je to ztráta placeného času).Musím pak opravovat stohy papírů se škrabopisem.Nemáme k nim se všemi kolegy jednoduchý přístup, a myslím, že si hodně kolegů tvoří své testy sami. Rozhodla jsem se, že letos nepůjdu vyšlapanou zaběhlou cestičkou, ale udělám to jinak. Chtěla bych vám představit skvělý nástroj pro tvorbu autokorektivních cvičení, quizů, testů a zábavných her, který si určitě oblíbíte stejně jako já. Už jste slyšeli o BookWidgets? Jak se vytváří takový online test?
The Big, Fat English Tenses Overview (With PDF) Would you prefer to read this post as a PDF? Click here. Also, check out the Ultimate Guide to Numbers in English. First, take a look at this image. Want a closer look? OK. Yes, it’s a little confusing at first, but don’t panic! Let’s start with the past… The past tenses in English What’s going on here? OK, so as you can see, we have three main tenses going on. When we talk about the present, we’re just looking at what’s happening now and reporting it. When we talk about the future, we’re making plans and predictions. But when we talk about the past, we’re actually telling a story. If we go outside this story time frame, it’s important that we show it so that our story is clear and we understand what happened first and what happened second and, most importantly, what happened outside the story time frame. 1. Why do we use it? We use the past simple if we want to express a single action that happened in the past: I met a very friendly giraffe on my last visit here. …or a state in the past: OK.