Activity 62- Stand Up If It`s Wrong! (TESOL 2012 special post)

                                                                          picture credits: planetaeducacao.com.br

Here is a nice strategy to check comprehension!

Level: any

Skills: reading, listening and speaking

Materials needed: 1 copy of a magazine article per student and a summary prepared by the teacher beforehand

Instructions:

Hand out copies of a magazine article and ask students to read it in silence. Ask them to put it away after they have finished. Explain that they are going to listen to a summary prepared by the teacher and that they should stand up everytime they listen to a wrong piece of information. When students stand up, pause the summary and elicit how they can correct it.

Variation: Students themselves can prepare sentences with information that is right or wrong.

Source: Vinicius Lemos

Activity 61- Oral Reports (TESOL 2012 special post)

                                          picture credits: ehow.com

Level: advanced

Skills: reading and speaking

Material needed: varied magazines and dictionaries

Instructions: 

Take students to the library and ask them to explore the different types of magazines and what kind of articles they contain. Ask each one to pick a magazine and read one article that they find appealing and interesting. Tell them that they should look up new vocabulary words in the dictionary. After they have read the article, they should sit in pairs or groups of three and orally report to their partner(s) what they have just read. As a follow-up, students can share the content of their articles with the whole group as well as the new words they have learned. Students can also vote which story they liked the best.

Tip: For lower levels, teacher can go to the library beforehand and pick the magazine articles students should read.

Source: Vinicius Lemos

Activity 60- The Advice Column (TESOL 2012 special post)

                                           picture credits: myblog0411.blogspot.com

Here is a great chance for students to discuss real life problems!

Level: Intermediate or Advanced

Skills: Speaking and Reading

Material needed: letters and questions cut out from a magazine's advice column

Instructions:

Divide students into groups of 3 or 4. Give each group a situation/question taken from a magazine`s advice column. Explain that they should read it and discuss what kind of advice they would give and why.
After a few minutes, ask students to pass the situations around  so that they can work on other different situations. To wrap up the activity, have students share all their ideas and suggestions once again so that everyone in class can have a chance to learn about them.

Source: Vinicius Lemos

Activity 59- Fill in the gaps (TESOL 2012 special post)

                                          picture credits: weheartit.com

What if students had the chance to make up part of a magazine article? That is the idea in this activity!

Level: Intermediate or Advanced

Skill: Writing and Reading

Materials needed: an authentic magazine article and enough copies with some words or sentences erased.

Instructions:

Show students an article taken from a magazine and explain that they are going exercise their creativity by writing part of its content. Provide them with a copy of the article with some erased words and sentences and ask them to fill the gaps with appropriate information. Then, ask them to share with the whole class their finished article. As a follow-up, read/show the original piece.

Source: Vinicius Lemos

Activity 58- Free-Association News (TESOL 2012 special post)

                                          picture credits: fraiing.blogspot.com

 In this activity students are challenged  to write a short piece of news using a set of pre-established words.

Level: any

Skill: writing

Materials needed: random pictures and words cut out from magazines

Instructions:

Explain that students are going to be journalists for a day: they have to write a short piece of news! Give each student a magazine picture and a set of cut-out words (about 5) and tell them they have 10-15 minutes to write the news contextualizing the given words. As a follow-up, students can display their works on the wall so that everyone can read them and vote for the most interesting story.

Source: Vinicius Lemos

Activity 57- Dictate The Picture (TESOL 2012 special post)

                                           picture credits: videojug.com

Level: Intermediate and Upper

Skills: Speaking and Listening

Material needed: random magazine pictures

Instructions: 

Show one student a picture of a person (doing something unusual or in a funny pose) or an interesting landscape and ask him/her to describe  the scene to the rest of the class with as many details as possible. Based on what is being said, the other classmates should try to draw it. Tell the students that they are allowed to ask questions about some details in case they want to. Later, students should compare their drawings and check if what they had just done is actually similar to the magazine picture.

Variation: Instead of drawing, students can mime the person's pose being described, turning it into a fun bodily-kinesthetic activity.

Source: Adapted from http://iteslj.org

Activity 56- List 10 Differences (TESOL 2012 special post)

                                           picture credits: tadias.com

Pick up a magazine , cut out any two pictures that have a theme in common and you have an activity ready for your class. Simple as that!

Level: any

Skill: writing and/or speaking

Material needed: pairs of similar pictures (two people, two places, two objects, two situations, etc) taken from any magazines

Instructions:

Pair up students or have them work in small groups. Explain that the objective of the activity is to look at the two pictures and list down 10 differences they are able to spot. Emphasize that the differences might not be very obvious, so that their creativity is going to be essential for the successful completion of the task. The winner is the pair or group that finishes the list first. 

Variations:

- Different pairs of pictures can be assigned to each  group.

- This can be transformed into a speaking activity if different pairs of pictures are displayed around the classroom and students rotate discussing the differences they can spot.

-Instead of listing the differences, students can work on the similarities.

Source: Vinicius Lemos (adapted from iteslj.org)

Special news about March posts!

March is a joyful and fruitful month for English teachers worldwide. Two of the most important events are taking place in the upcoming weeks: the IATEFL Conference in Glasgow and the TESOL Convention in Philadelphia. To keep the festive spirits up, our blog has a special gift for you all: Vinicius Lemos is presenting a solo project in Philadelphia (poster session: Achieving Excellence in EFL Classroom Language Practice Through Magazines) and has decided to share some of his ideas first-hand  before anyone else has a chance to learn about them at the convention! And that`s not all: this month we are going to post 2 activities every week! So, collect all those old magazines you were about to throw away and learn how to utilize them creatively in your English classes! We hope you enjoy this month`s special!

Activity 55- What would you do? (TESOL 2012 special post )

                                          picture credits: themothersofinvention.com

Here is a great opportunity for students to practice the Second Conditional in a very authentic way using random pictures taken from magazine articles or ads!

Level: Intermediate

Language Focus: Second Conditional

Skill: speaking

Material needed: random pictures taken from magazines (people, situations, places)

Instructions: Write on the board: "What would you do if you were there? What would you do if you were him/her/them?" Then, explain that students are going to work in pairs and answer the questions based on the pictures that they are going to see . Display the pictures around the classroom and ask students to rotate as they discuss each picture. Encourage them to support their answers with reasons and detailed explanations.

Source: Vinicius Lemos