An Attempt to Motivate Students

Motivation is one of our main concerns as teachers, especially if we teach teenagers, whose motivation span deflates at lightning speed. In an attempt to encourage my teenage students to adopt English learning habits at home, I've created classroom blogs and wikis to upload material for my students to use after class. Thanks to my Twitter colleagues I'm able to receive creative ideas I do my best to put into practice so as to prevent my students' motivation from fading.

In this post, I'd like to share some of the links I've used to update my students' blogs and wikis:

1) Quizzes: Definitions

2) WallWisher: Students' Expectations

3) Games: Synonym Toast

4) Songs: The 2010 World Championship Song

5) Surveys: Free Time Survey

6) Articles connected to the topics introduced in class: Extreme Sports

7) Interactive Stories: Inanimate Alice

8) Grammar Tasks: Multiple Choice

9) Intonation Awareness Exercises: English Media Lab

10) Bakcground Knowledge: 2010 World Cup Map

11) Listening Practice: Accidents at Home

12) Speaking Practice: Questions Recorded with Vocaroo

This list is just an example of the kind of material I upload, for which I am thankful to my Twitter fellows for sharing it.

I'm interested in knowing how you encourage your students to practise outside the classroom.

It's Worth Taking a Look at This blog.

It's Worth Taking a Look at This Blog!

I would like to thank Shelly Terrell (@ShellTerrell) for mentioning Linguistic Consultancy in her post about the ten blogs you should look at and for all her support and encouragement. Her blog Teacher Reboot Camp is absolutely resourceful and a great professional boost for educators.

It's difficult for me to select only 10 blogs among the set I always read and find highly insightful.

• Langwitches Silvia describes what international collaboration in education means. I recommend Experiencing the Winter Olympic Games
• A Journey in TEFL Eva has really creative practical ideas to be used in the classroom. I particularly enjoyed Liven Up Classroom With Music
• Teaching Village Barbara´s blog includes interesting reflections on the teaching profession and a section in which guest bloggers are invited to contribute their views and ideas. In Barbara´s post 30 Teachers from 13 countries it is possible to understand the aim of this blog.
• Marisa Constantinides-TEFL Matters In her blog, Marisa offers a training course for teachers of English to improve their classes. I've enjoyed the post: Animating your Coursebook and the practical ideas it includes.
• Kalina Go English I find Karenne´s conversational style really enjoyable. I recommend her post: Truthtelling and the Global EFL Teacher
• Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day it's really full of updated information connected to EFL teaching. I like the links Larry includes in his section "The Best places To...". The latest I've read is: The Best Places to Learn Web 2.0 Basics
• Blogging About The Web 2.0 Connected Classroom full of tools to be used in the classroom.
• Sean Banville's Blog Sean includes lots of practical ideas for EFL classes like in Jigsaw Listening
• Burcu Akyol's Blog This blog really reflects Burcu's enthusiasm, in particular her new series Spread your Enthusiasm
• Esolcourses with helpful tasks to be shared with students.

These are some of the blogs I follow but I always read insightful posts written by qualified educators I come across in Twitter.

Comprehensive Classes

Teaching a language implies the developing of reading, listening, speaking and writing skills, which should be integrated when dealing with a certain topic in class. The integration of skills contributes to effective learning and makes it easier for students to fully apprehend what is being taught.

In one of my latest classes with intermediate-level students, I had to introduce the topic "extreme sports". In the lead-in stage, I used the pictures that appeared in the coursebook to present and elicit the new vocabulary so the students were able to speak about these sports. For the students to remember the new vocabulary, we created a mind-map. Then the students were supposed to do a listening task in their coursebooks. They listened to a conversation about extreme sports and completed a chart. After that, they carried out surveys and interviewed their partners. When they finished, they had to express the results of their surveys to the whole group.

To encourage a freer application of the vocabulary, students participated in a problem-solving task through interaction. They exchanged views and ideas to solve a problem: the possible dangers of these activities. For this task, students had to use functional language to agree and disagree and they had to respect turn-taking.

As a follow-up, I´ve uploaded an article about extreme sports in their class blog, which they were supposed to read at home. I've also created a Wallwisher for them to express their views on the topic.

In brief, it was a multi-skill practice of the language: students talked to each other, in small groups and to the whole class; they listened to each other and to the recording; they read an article and they wrote about their opinion in the wallwisher.

Video Class: Spanglish

I) Read about the plot of the movie

This is a touching story of a strong woman with an idealistic vision for herself and her daughter, and a typical American family. The woman and daughter emigrate from Mexico seeking a better life in America. The woman starts working as a maid for the American family. The American mother is insensitive to the needs of her daughter and husband. The husband is a sensitive, caring, and thoughtful chef and father.

The contrast in cultures between the Mexican woman and the American family provides learning opportunities for all the characters. The daughters learn to appreciate each other's cultures. The husband and Mexican woman discover in each other a special connection which transcends language barriers and allows the husband to see what he is missing in his marital relationship. And the Mexican woman's daughter discovers that she appreciates her mother's values more than she ever thought possible.

II) Presentation of the Topic: Discuss in pairs

Have you ever acted as an interpreter between a foreigner and a Spanish-speaking person?

If you have, how did you feel?

What problems did you have?

How did you solve them?

Were you successful?

If you haven't, have you ever communicated with a foreigner?

What problems did you have?

Did you manage to understand and be understood?

III) Spanglish: What does the word mean?

Click the following link to read about it: Macmillan Dictionary

IV) Silent Watching

Watch this scene in which Cristina, the Mexican woman's daughter, has to act as her mother's interpreter. You won't listen, just watch. Discuss:

Where are the characters?

What do you imagine they're talking about? In which languages?

How do they feel? How do you know?

Interpreting Scene

V) Watch and Listen: Check if you've been right after watching silently.

Discuss:

What's the source of the misunderstanding?

Is the girl successful as an interpreter?

How does she solve linguistic problems?

Do they manage to understand each other's point?

VI) Role-play

In groups of three act out the situation.

Marisa in Edtechland

My Intermediate and First Certificate classes have started this week and I have managed to encourage my students to start their learning year in a motivating way by putting into practice what I had learnt thanks to my PLN members.

Some of my students felt flabbergasted to see I had devised a blog for their class. In this class blog I included a link to a Wallwisher for my students to share their plans, expectations and wishes for this learning year. I have also introduced a link to a dictionary for my students to look up words and phrases at home. Besides, there is a link to a picture dictionary so that my students can develop visual and auditory skills as they can see the picture, read and hear the word. Apart from that, I have included a Website through which they can practise pronunciation in a motivating way.

As I enjoyed Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland and found it interesting for teenagers, I decided to use it as an introductory conversation topic for the first class. I started the class by asking the whole group about the films they had seen during Summer holidays. Then, I asked them if they had seen Alice in Wonderland and made them work in pairs to create a chart with what they knew and what they would like to know about this movie (plot, characters, setting, ending). When my students had completed their charts, we talked about it with the whole group and I showed them the movie trailer for them to check if they were able to find replies to what they would like to know. Finally, we watched the video of the soundtrack, for which I use safeshare TV and my students were supposed to identify words and phrases from the lyrics. As all this material is linked in the blog they can continue watching and listening to it at home.

We are going to use this blog as a tool for communication with my students and they can make comments or solve their doubts. I have also invited them to share what they find helpful. I have designed one page for each of the students, where they can do homework and upload material.

In brief, I have managed to encourage my students to become independent learners and to do extra practice after class in a motivating way. I am extremelly grateful to my PLN members, with whom we have shared all these helpful links via Twitter, especially to the soul of my PLN: Shelly Terrell (@shellterrell), whose generosity is endless.

Your Name Is......

The Importance of Remembering Students' Names

I'm starting my group classes in a week and I'm making the necessary adjustments in my mind to be prepared after the three-month holidays. I've already planned how I'll do my best to motivate my students to be more exposed to English (see my previous post). Now I'm thinking about key factors I should bear in mind to feel my classes are successful. One important ingredient from the very beginning is remembering my students' first names. I'll have two group classes this year with about 15 students each. One of the classes won't offer my memory much trouble because I had those students last year in their upper intermediate class. So it'll be a question of looking at them again and their names will reappear in my mind. But I'll have a group of new students and it'll require a little effort to ensure their confident participation. For students to be called out their names is of utter relevance to feel they belong to the group. You can recognise that fact in their faces and for that reason I do my best to remember new names. I always use some kind of nemomic that instantly matches the face I'm looking at and that student's name. Generally, I make connections in my mind between that student and another person I know. Anyway, that memory aid should act in seconds.

Former Students' Names

As time passes and I come across students of mine, I continue making efforts because I feel embarrassed about not remembering that person's name. The instant I see their face, my mind starts the searching function and while I hear: "Hello, Marisa. How are you?" I put my memory in action. Many times I'm successful, others I'm not.

What about you? Do you use memory aids to remember your students' names?

Brainstorming Before Classes Start

Inspired by my PLN and specially by @ShellTerrell I've thought of ways of applying everything I've been learning through Twitter exchanges in my group classes, which start at the beginning of March. So far, I've devised some goals:

• I'm going to use Edublog to create a blog for each class, where I'm planning to include interesting links I've been bookmarking for my students to feel motivated to do extra practice outside the classroom;
• I'd like to have my students create their own individual blogs so that they can feel encouraged to have an active participation in their learning process;
• I'm going to add my students' blog to my blog roll, thanks to @suewaters detailed instructions;
• I'd like to welcome my students to class with a message using voki;
• I'm planning to use Wallwisher for my students to express their wishes, plans, likes and dislikes for the learning year ahead;
• I'm going to design mind maps for my students to find it easier to remember new vocabulary and concept networks;

So far, these are my goals and I'll add new ones as classes approach. Please feel free to make suggestions so that I can be a better, more motivating educator. Thanks!