Learning how to use the dictionary

Let’s face it, teaching how to use the dictionary can be a daunting and even a boring subject.  But it must be done.  Here are a few ideas to make teaching and learning about the dictionary more dynamic and fun. 

Vocabulary:

• Guide words
• Part of speech
• Pronunciation
• Definition or translation (depends on if you are teaching how to use a Spanish to English dictionary or a regular dictionary)
• Title page
• Table of contents

Grammar Structure

• What is the meaning of __________________________?
• Look it up in the dictionary. 

Warm Up:

Letter Line Up

• Procedure: Students are in small groups, and each group is given the letters of the alphabet (each on their own piece of paper).  The students race to be the letters in alphabetical order.
• Modification: Students spell words that teacher says with the letter cards (*hint* may need to have extra copies of some letters for the words)

Alphabetical Order Race

• Procedure: Students are given a list of words, in their 2^nd language, which must be put in alphabetical order. 
• Modification:
• Students work in pairs.
• Words are written on individual papers so the students arrange the papers in alphabetical order.
• Students race to write the words on the board in order.

Get in a Line

• Procedure: Students must line up in alphabetically order according to their first name or last name. 

Practice:

Dictionary Look Up Race

• Procedure: Using an actual dictionary or a copy of two pages from the dictionary, students race individually to find the word that is either said by the teacher or written on the board. 
• Modification:
• Once all students find the word, then they must identify the part of speech, pronunciation, or definition/translation. 
• Students must race to find the title page, table of contents, and guide words (on any page). 

Make Up Your Own Definition/Translation

• Procedure: Students are given a word (or short list of words) to write the part of speech, pronunciation, and/or definition/translation for.  Then they look up the word to see how accurate they were.

Production:

Identify the Parts

• Procedure: Students are given a word with its pronunciation, part of speech, and definition/translation.  They must then identify what each part is.
• Modification: Students are given the different parts of the dictionary (title page, table of contents, and guide words) and they must correctly label them.

Find the Word

• Procedure: Students will find words in a dictionary and either show the teacher or write down its definition(s). 

Identify the Parts of a Dictionary

• Procedure: Students will label, highlight, or circle the following:
• Guide words
• Title page
• Table of content
• A part of speech
• A pronunciation
• A definition/translation

Make Up Your Own Definition

• Procedure: Students are given a word and they must write their own definition.  They *must* include all the parts (word, pronunciation, part of speech, and definition/translation) to be considered correct.

Check back next week for more ideas as well as the Lesson Planning Series!

How to Plan a Successful Lesson Series: Backward Planning

Writing a lesson plan can be a daunting task for many, whether you are a new teacher or a teacher teaching in their second language.  This series will present different aspects about planning a lesson once a week during the month of June. 

A lesson plan can take many different forms but they all tend to include the same information.  For the sake of where I work, I will use specific language in regards to lesson planning.  While I want to keep this as general as possible for all my readers, I will use the following vocabulary today: warm up, presentation, practice, and production.  Because I work in a country that has specific guidelines for lesson plan, I will note that through out the lesson, but when I do I will use blue font.

English Lesson Plans

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This is specifically for the teachers in Costa Rica, erase the blue to fill your information

FREE download HERE

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When planning a lesson, what is the first thing you do?  Hopefully you say write the objective.  The objective molds the rest of the lesson.  When writing the lesson plan ask yourself, “What should my students be able to do by the end of this lesson?” and “How will I measure their learning?”

If you have a syllabus that breaks down things into units, then don’t forget to prepare your lesson within that topic. 

In the case of some, the syllabus includes not only the topic but also objectives to be covered within that unit.  If this is the case, look in the unit you are teaching and choose an objective to complete in that one lesson. 

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Once the objective is written, you need to think of the students’ production, where students demonstrate their understanding of the objective and how you will assess this learning.  This is the last part of the lesson plan, after the new material has been presented and students have practiced.  Ask your self, “How will the students show their understanding of the objective?”

The production must be where students show their learning without the teacher’s assistance and individually if possible. 

Production can be an oral report/presentation, a worksheet, a skit, a written report, a summarization, or many other things.  Teachers *must* note if the students’ accomplished the objective at this time.  This can be done through many assessments (evaluations), such as a rubric or checklist. 

Production example: Internal Organs "cereal"

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Once you have planned how you will measure the students’ learning, you need to plan a guided practice that will prepare the students to demonstrate their learning individually. As you prepare this section, ask yourself “What activities can the students do to help prepare them to show their understanding of the objective?”

A practice is where students work in pairs or small groups using the newly presented information while the teacher helps answer questions and *gently* corrects mistakes. 

Practice can be a game, pairs completing a task, and more.  As long as it uses the vocabulary and grammar taught *that day* and prepares them to complete the production successfully. The practice should be about half of the class period. 

Practice Example: labeling the organs of the body

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Once you have planned how you will measure the objective and the practice, you need to think of “What vocabulary, grammar, and sentence/question structure do the students need to know to complete the practice and production?”  This is the presentation. 

The presentation is where you give the students the vocabulary, grammar, and structure they need to be able to successfully and confidently complete the practice and production.

Presentation can be a PowerPoint slide show, notes on the board, a diagram, a graphic organizer, a video, etc. The presentation only needs to include the things students need *that day* to successfully accomplish the objective.  The presentation should be short, about 10 to 15 minutes. 

Presentation example: a graphic organizer students fill in

ESLprintables.com

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Only once the rest of the lesson is planned do you need to think of the warm up.  The warm up is at the beginning of the class to get the students ready for the day’s lesson.  As you plan this last part, ask yourself “What short activity can get the students ready to learn about today’s objective?”

The warm up is to activate students’ prior knowledge and get them thinking about what they will learn that day.

Warm up can be a song, short video, question that they must answer, survey, etc.  The warm up *must* be short, 3 to 5 minutes.  It is best to have this ready as soon as the students walk in your door. 

Warm Up Example: Race to label the organs in 1st language

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That was a short rundown of preparing a lesson plan.  While this blog is specifically focused on teaching English, this series can be for any type of teacher.  The items that are in italic will be addressed later on in the series. 

Check back next week of a new post in the “How to Plan a Successful Lesson” series!  And stick around for new teaching English ideas each week! 

Parts of the house (beginner learners)

Being able to identify parts of your own house is another step towards conquering your second language.  Today we will focus on parts of the house along with the furniture that occupies that space. 

As usual, example vocabulary and grammar structure will be included along with warm up, practice, and production activity ideas.

Vocabulary

• Parts of the house and its furniture
• Window
• Door
• Kitchen
• Stove 
• Refrigerator 
• Microwave 
• Oven 
• Sink
• Living room
• Sofa 
• Television
• Rug
• Lamp
• Dining room
• Table 
• Chairs 
• Plate 
• Knife 
• Fork 
• Spoon 
• Cup
• Bathroom
• Sink 
• Shower 
• Toilet
• Bedroom
• Bed 
• Dresser 
• Closet
• Laundry room
• Washer 
• Dryer 
• Clothesline
• Grammar Structure
• Where is the ______________?
• ________________ is in the ________________.
• There are _____________.

Warm Up

Draw your family and where you live

• Procedure: Instruct students to draw the family members that they live with (and label who they are to them) as well as draw their house. 
• Modification: Students draw the inside of their house with their family members in different rooms.

Dream House

• Procedure: Instruct students to draw what their dream house would look like. 

Different House

• Procedure: Compile pictures of the inside of different houses and show these to the students.  Ask what they all have in common (students can answer in first language).

Practice Ideas

Giant House

• Procedure: Pairs of students are given a blank sheet of paper and instructed to draw a certain room in the house.  They must draw the furniture and label them.  Then all pairs lay out their “rooms” on the floor.  Students take turns asking where a piece of furniture is or what is in a room.

Charades

• Procedure: Students are divided into two teams.  The teams elect the first person to go first for each team.  The first two representatives are shown a room of the house and told to act out (without saying anything) what they do in that room.  The rest of their team must guess what room they are in.  The first team to guess correctly gets a point.  Then the teams elect another player to act out a room next. 

Pictionary

• Procedure: Students are divided into two teams and elect on player to be the first artist.  The two artists are shown a room or piece of furniture.  The artists must draw it while their teammates guess.  The artist cannot act out the word or say anything.  The first team to guess correctly gets a point and both teams elect a new artist. 

Production Ideas

Draw what I describe

• Procedure: Students listen to or read a description of a room or house.  They must draw what is described. 

Describe what Seen

• Procedure: Students look at a picture of a room/house.  They must write or orally describe the room or the parts of the house, including the furniture.  

Giving and Receiving Directions (beginner/intermediate level)

Being able to follow directions or even give them, is a great boost of confidence for the new language learner.  This blog post will provide the ideas to practice giving and receiving directions.

Vocabulary

• Locations:
• Grocery store
• Bank
• Police office
• Bakery
• Pharmacy
• Barber/beauty salon
• Park
• Restaurant
• Gas station
• School
• University
• Prepositions:
• In front of
• Behind
• Next to
• in between
• across from
• diagonal from 
• Directions:
• North, south, east, west
• Straight, turn around, go back
• Left, right
• _______ blocks from
• Sentence Structure:
• Excuse me, where is the _______________?
• Could you please tell me where the _________________ is?
• It is ___________________.
• Walk _____________.

 Warm Up Ideas

Give Directions in 1^st language

• Procedure: Have students give directions to a well known spot from the class in their first language to each other.

Mirror

• Procedure: Students are in pairs facing each other.  One student is the mirror (who mimics the other persons movements) and the other is the person looking in the “mirror”. 
• Modification: Students who are not in the pair give commands to the person looking in the “mirror” to do.  (This practices body parts as well as giving basic commands)

Draw a Map

• Procedure: Have students draw a map of the school, town, or other area. (can use for practice or production activities)

Practice Ideas

Giant Map

• Procedure: Students create a map of the town, school, or other area on the classroom floor (if it is a tile floor a whiteboard marker can be used to draw the map OR students can create small-scale 3D models of the town, area, etc.).  The goal is for students to be able to walk on the “road” of the map.  Once map is made, students work in pairs to give directions to go from Point A to Point B on the map.

  

  You can make the map smaller and of a town, school, or room.
  But make it big enough to walk through.

  Source found here

What is Missing? Map

• Procedure: In pairs, students are given a copy of the same map.  However, while the maps are of the same place, each map has different buildings or rooms labeled while others are not labeled.  Using a prompt, students ask each other where are the missing buildings or rooms. 

Obstacle Course

• Procedure: Divide students into pairs and with in the pairs decide who will close their eyes and who will give the directions.  The students that are closing their eyes need to go out of the classroom (and have another assignment to work on) while the partners that will be giving the directions arranges the desks into an obstacle course for the others to walk around with their eyes closed.  Once room is arranged (give students 2 minutes to arrange the room), have them call their partners in one at a time (staggering them though).  The partner giving directions must safely get their partner from the door to Point B without touching them or running them into anything. Then they switch roles. 

Production Ideas

Give Directions

• Procedure: Students must write or tell directions on how to get from Point A to Point B in a well known area (school, town, classroom). 
• Modification: Students can actually have someone follow their written or verbal directions. 

Draw A Map

• Procedure: Students are given written directions of an area (school, town, park, restaurant, etc.) and they must draw a map of the area according to the directions.
• Modification: Students are given a copy of What’s Missing map and must finish according to some written directions.

Basic Personal Information (Beginner Level)

The year is flying by!  I can’t believe we are at the end of May.  While this blog has taken a backseat to other projects I have going on, I hope to focus on it more now and as we begin the second half of the year.

A huge portion of successfully speaking in your second language, is being able to convey information about yourself.  Today’s post will provide the basic grammar and some activity ideas to do just that. 

Vocabulary

• Months of the Year
• January
• February
• March
• April
• May
• June
• July
• August
• September
• October
• November
• December
• Numbers
• 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10
• 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17,18, 19, 20
• 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30
• 31
• Directions
• Street
• Road
• Drive
• Corner
• North, South, East, West
• Greetings and Leave Takings (formal and informal)
• Good morning, Good afternoon, Good evening
• Hello, Hi, Hey
• How are you?, What’s up?
• Fine, Doing Well, Thank you
• Good bye, Bye, See you later
• Nice to meet you, Pleased to meet you
• Self Statements
•  My name is __________________.
• My phone number is ________________________.
• I am _______________ years old.
• My address is ________________________.
• I live ________________________.
• My birthday is _____________________.
• Questions:
•  What is your name?
• How old are you?
• What is your phone number?
• Where do you live?
• When is your birthday?

Warm Up

Video Clip

• Procedure: Watch a short clip from a well known movie where people introduce themselves and give personal information

Greeting Race (in 1^st language)

•  Procedure: Give students a set amount of time (no more than 3 minutes) and have them greet and ask one question to as many students as they can.  Once time is up, ask each students how many people they met and what they learned about each person. *This is done in their 1^st language*

Greetings at the Door

•  Procedure: Teacher or student greets everyone in the 2^nd language at the door before the class starts.  Change up the greetings as each person comes in. 

Sing a Song

• Procedure: Teach them a song that has to do with greetings and giving person information.

Practice

Dialogue

• Procedure: Students read a prewritten dialogue in pairs.

Board Game

• Procedure: Students play a board game in small groups.  When it is their turn, the students roll a dice to see how many spaces they can move if they can correctly respond to the question correctly.  Personal information questions are written on different cards, after a student rolls they pick up a card and answer the question (the correct prompt is on the back).  If they can correctly respond to the question, they move their game piece the amount of spaces the dice says, but if not they cannot move their game pieces.

I don't know the source.
If you do, let me know.

I also can't remember the sources for this one either.  

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Hot Potato

• Procedure: Students plan Hot Potato like normal but when the Potato is stopped the student must answer a personal information question. 

Who Am I?

• Procedure: Teacher tapes the names of famous people on each students back without the student knowing who is on their back.  In order for students to find out who is on their back, they must ask the following questions:

o   How old am I?

o   Am I a man? 

o   Am I a woman?

o   When is my birthday?

o   Where do I live?

Created by sticky notes and notebooks

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Signature Scavenger Hunt

•  Procedure: Students are given a paper with the following statements on it:
•  Someone who is the same age as you
• Someone who lives in the same town/neighborhood as you
• Someone who has a birthday in the same month as you
• Someone who has a birthday on the same day as you (can be in a different month)

Created by sticky notes and notebooks

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Production

Dialogue

• Procedure: In pairs, students write a dialogue introducing two famous people, two teachers, themselves, etc. 

Interviews

• Procedure: In pairs, students will interview one another like they do on television.  One students is the interviewer and the other is the interviewee.  Then they present their dialogue to the class (the rest of the class is the audience).
• Modification:
• Students pretend to be famous people.
• Audience can ask questions after the interview

Poem

• Procedure: Students write a poem about themselves

Sharing Ideas

Hello again!  The month of April flew by with the completion of two conversation clubs, training the new TEFL Peace Corps group, seeing the US President, and sharing our house with the trainees.  Now we are in the middle of May!  When did that happen?

I wanted to have my first post after my break be about the ideas I learned from the teachers I worked with in the conversation club.  I love learning new things from these wonderful people.  

I hope you enjoy these as much as I do!


Warm Up idea: 

 Mirrors 

• Procedure: Students are put in pairs facing each other.  One is the person and the other is the mirror.  The person starts moving and the mirror must do the same action while facing the person (like a mirror reflects).  Students can vote on who is funniest and what not.  created by: Ileana and Everardo (topic: locating people and places)

Practice Idea: 

Commands

• Procedure: Student or teacher gives other students commands (stand between Maria and Jose or sit in front of Brandon) created by: Ileana and Everardo  (topic: locating people and places)

Who Am I?

• Procedure: Students write a short (2-3 sentences) description of an occupation without saying what it is.  Then they read their description and classmates guess what occupation. created by Mariela and Yirlen (topic: occupation)

Missing Song Lyrics

• Procedure: Students listen to a song one time without doing anything else.  The second time they listen to the song, they have to fill out a worksheet that is missing some of the words of the song BUT they have to fill in the word that means the opposite.  The third time they listen, they sing with the words they wrote in.  created by Daubin and Sheila (topic: antonyms and synonyms)

Tips:

• When making a slideshow to teach new vocabulary include pictures, vocabulary word, questions/answered that will be needed about that topic, and an example sentence for each vocabulary word.  from Mariela and Yirlen
• To encourage more student participation, use Random Name Selector (and other options)!  This website picks a name from your class list (can make one for each class) so the pressure is off you choosing students.  from Sheila and Daubin
• Use a top or small spinner with an arrow drawn on it to help choose students to answer questions or do a specific job in a small group.  from Warner

And to thank the wonderful participants that shared with me in the first conversation clubs of the year...a collage of pictures.  

What teaching ideas do you have that you want to share?