Before words #TESOLFR workshop

Nov 122011

Last weekend I had the honour of giving a workshop session at the 30th TESOL France Annual Colloquium, which was a great event as I’m sure all who attended will agree. You can read notes on some of the highlights for me here (more on these to come soon).

I have to say a huge huge thank you to everyone who came to my session. I hope you found it practical, useful and, above all, enjoyable. I certainly enjoyed sharing some small ideas with you for activities to do in the classroom. Below you can find a pdf of the presentation slides and a few notes on the activities I demonstrated (these are intentionally brief, as I plan to blog in more detail about using sounds and images in the classroom at a later date – watch out for posts here, guest posts and maybe even an article!)
Before Words TESOL France 2011

The four activities I demonstrated (plus one I just described) were the following:

Using sound effects to stimulate vocabulary production

Basically, play a sound effect (ambient SFX are best) and ask learners to write whatever comes into their head. They could even do so in their own language, as long as they share them in English after.

Using sound effects to set up a quick roleplay

Again, playing a sound effect, ask learners to think about where they are and how they feel. Guide them a little bit, but not too much (for example, playing a rainy sound effect tell the learners to imagine that they are on their way to a house party).

Using images to predict a poem

Show learners a set of images from a video of a poem (some examples of these to come in a post very soon!) and ask them to guess what they are (no wrong answers here). Play the video and ask them if they have changed their minds at all.

Using music and pictures as stimuli for a story telling activity

Play 4 excerpts of music and ask learners to draw or write whatever comes into their heads. Learners then share their pictures in pairs or small groups and come up with a narrative to link 4 of them.

Using pictures to analyse language and vocabulary

Ask learners to write a simple sentence and then challenge a second learner to turn it into a picture. Pass the picture on to a third learner who has to try and guess the original sentence.

Drawing introductions

Activity 12 Responses »

Aug 292011

Hopefully your learners are better artists than I am!

This post is intended to be part of the latest ESL/EFL/ELT Blog Carnival, which being hosted by Eva Buyuksimkesyan this time at her blog A Journey in TEFL. The theme this time is warmers and fillers for first classes, as many teachers will be starting a new academic year very soon. Here is my post for the carnival.

First lessons on a course, or starting a new academic year, can be tricky experiences – learners may be unfamiliar with each other and there probably hasn’t been a chance to develop a class spirit together yet. I often find that the best lessons involve some element of humour, and this could be particularly useful for a first lesson in the year. What follows is an adapted version of a post I have written about drawing as an introductory activity (you can read that post here).

What you need: plenty of blank paper (at least one sheet per learner); coloured pencils; Post-it notes (optional)

1. If you can, set up the classroom furniture so that the learners will be sat facing one another. As they come in, encourage learners to introduce themselves to one another. You could model this by shaking hands, or using whatever greeting is appropriate in the culture of the country you teach in.

Something like this is good

2. Give each learner a piece of bank paper and ask them to draw an oval or circular shape in the middle of the page. Ask them to draw the face of the person sitting across from them. If any learner really doesn’t want to draw someone or be drawn, you can provide images of people for learners to copy from. Make sure the learners do NOT write the name of the person they are drawing.

3. Circulate among the learners, asking them about who/what they are drawing, providing any language they are reaching for. Make notes about anything you would like to discuss with the group later.

4. When finished, ask the learners to display their portraits on the wall. Give each learner a Post-it note or two, and encourage them to look at every picture. On their Post-it they should write something they like about one of the pictures and stick it on the picture. Model this, a note could be something like ‘I like his blue eyes’. Monitor and provide any language help needed. Take a couple of Post-its and write your own comments for one or two pictures.

5. When everyone has stuck their Post-its up, collect all the pictures. Starting with the picture that has most notes, discuss them with the learners. Ask questions like ‘Who do you think this is?’, discuss the learners’ comments. Discuss any of the language notes you have made from your earlier monitoring of the activities.

Hopefully your learners are better artists than I am!

6. Finally display the pictures on the walls or on the board, and ask learners to match names to pictures. End the activity by asking learners to tell the class one thing they learnt today, such as an item of vocabulary, or how to talk about why they like something.

Before words: ideas for using drawing, images and sound in the classroom

Talks & Workshops 4 Responses »

Apr 062011

Before words ISTEK 2011

View more presentations from Mike Harrison.

These are the slides from my session at ISTEK, which took place at Yeditepe University on Sunday 3rd April.

First of all, if you were in the audience for the session, titled ‘Before words: ideas for using images and sound in the classroom’, thanks for attending! One thing about the ISTEK weekend (more on that to come later) was the fantastic choice of concurrent plenaries and workshop sessions. Even though presenting was a great experience, one I will treasure for ever, it was a shame not to be able to see all the other wonderful presenters in action. So, I understand that you made a difficult choice in coming to see me, and for that I am truly grateful. My appreciation also goes out to the fab bunch of friends from Twitter who were there – your support was immense, thank you!

A brief overview

I was conscious to make my workshop as practical as possible, so wanted the activities I presented to be simple and relatively easy to implement for anyone wanting to try them out. I managed to talk about 4 such activities in my 45 minute session:

Where are you? - a sound effect-backed quick role play activity
Drawing monsters – a collaborative drawing (party) game explained in this earlier post
Predict a poem from images – considering the content of a poem by looking at images taken from a YouTube video before watching/listening explained in this post
Musical stories – stream of consciousness writing/drawing while listening to music and then telling a story from the words/pictures

What I’m happy about

I wasn’t quite prepared to feel as nervous as I did beforehand, before getting into the hall (oh yeh – that’s another point, Burcu assigned me a hall with capacity for 50-60 attendees! I only found out about that about a week before the conference – didn’t help my nerves!) BUT it was actually ok in the end. I had enough pieces of paper (just about), and (I think) we started and ended on time.

Areas for improvement

I was conscious to move about the room as much as I could, and ventured in during the activities (I made my attendees into students for 30 minutes or so) to listen to their suggestions and ask questions. However, I wish I had asked more people I talked to their name. Another thing I wasn’t sure about was sharing my email – I did have my blog, Twitter and Facebook Page information, but maybe email would have been a nicer contact. I’m not sure. Next time I will be sure to have a sign up sheet or pad for people to give their emails (if they want to keep in touch).

If you were in my workshop, I would be grateful if you could complete the following quick poll: http://twtpoll.com/f2wjt2

Thanks!

I may also add/remove/change activities, so watch this space for the remix!

On tour – upcoming workshop

News, Talks & Workshops 19 Responses »

Mar 122011

In just three weeks I will be in Istanbul for the 2nd ISTEK Schools International ELT Conference (click the link for more info). The general theme for the conference is ‘Reflections and Innovations in ELT’ (for those of you reading who are not in the field, ELT = English Language Teaching), and I’ll be taking part by giving a workshop for the very first time on my own. I’m a little nervous, but also very excited.

I’m looking forward to meeting a few familiar and some new faces at the conference, which I am sure will prove to be a very successful event.

Below you will find the title, abstract and summary for my workshop:

Before words: ideas for using images and sound in the language classroom

Often while teaching languages we can become fixated on writing. This workshop aims to look at how images and sound can be used in the language classroom and help our learners, especially those who struggle with the written form. I hope to give you some practical ideas for using these stimuli in your teaching.

The aims of this session are threefold:

To contextualise the reasons why I started using images and sound more with my students. I will also make brief reference to theories of language acquisition and learning that underpin the use of such stimuli.
To demonstrate some straightforward activities with images and sound that I have used with my learners. The audience will be given the opportunity to experience these activities from the learner’s perspective. These will be practical ideas that you will be able to use with your learners straightaway. The activities I plan to show will include: using student-generated images as a way of developing vocabulary, using sounds as a basis for creative writing and speaking activities, predicting the audio to a poem from pictures, as well as quick and simple filler activities.
To provide time and space for a swap shop where the audience will be able to share their ideas for using images and sound in the language classroom.

Participants will be encouraged to take an active part in the session, through drawing and listening activities. There will be a number of opportunities for participants to share and compare ideas. Real examples of how I have used the activities will be shown, via images of students’ work (shown with permission) on a computer presentation data projection. Feedback on participants’ own ideas will be collected on forms during the session and there will be time for Q &A at the end.

Wish me luck, and if you’re going to be at ISTEK I look forward to seeing you there =)

Finally, DON’T FORGET YOUR PENCILS!

Image credit: Artists by quinn.anya on Flickr

[Teacherstream] Drawing in the English language classroom

Tips 7 Responses »

Dec 212010

I’ve recently asked people to tell me if they do drawing with their English language learners, and if so, how they do this. My fora so far have been in comments on this blog, on Twitter and on Facebook. Some of these places are pretty ephemeral (you just try finding that tweet you read last week!), so I thought I would collect what has been said so far.

If you fancy adding to the discussion, you can leave a comment below, @ message or DM me on Twitter (@harrisonmike), or pop along to my Page on Facebook, Mike Harrison’s Blog.

Here’s what has been said so far on Facebook:

Do you use drawing in your classroom? If so, what do you use it for and what do you and/or your students draw? If you don’t draw, why not?

Tyson Seburn: I used to, but at one point or another, started to feel it a little juvenile for the contexts I was teaching in. I tend to draw one-offs here and there myself to help explain something, but also have felt that having students do so used up time I’d rather have them practising and producing the language. Having said this, I’ve read lately and can see the value of doing so from time to time if it’s facilitating understanding.

Vladka Michalkova: Hi Mike, I love drawing and try to make my students draw as often as possible. We usually draw flashcards-phrasal verbs, idioms, phrases and so on (we keep them and use for revision after some time). I also have my favourite drawing activity for the first lessons (i think i mentioned it sometime in September) and from time to time we draw something as a review of vocabulary-their notebooks usually.

Anyway, I was thinking do you have any nice ideas on GRAMMAR drawing? I am [not] talking about timelines, charts and stuff like that but “real” drawings.

Me: I don’t have anything explicitly on that, but Jamie Keddie does:http://www.jamiekeddie.com/teflclips/?p=293 Passive drawings
A nice pecha kucha of his too: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1lK-tq8g_IY

Ian James: Sketchcast http://sketchcast.com/ is a really nice tool which enables students to do a bit of online drawing accompanied by a recorded commentary. I blogged about one possible use here http://tefltecher.wordpress.com/2010/05/12/exploiting-famous-photos/ Please pardon shameful self-promotion!

Miguel Mendoza: I used to draw massively in the classroom! For example, I used to draw to introduce certain grammar aspects (e.g. Present Continuous/ Comparative-Superlative) and for easy-to-draw new words (e.g. dog / “however” how can you draw that)…I also used drawing for asking students to listen to the description of, say, an object and represent that on paper…In my good old times, teaching general english (I am currently teaching ESP), I even went further and design a whole book-like material for children and draw all the pictures myself…!!!!!:)

Dave Dodgson: I draw on the board to explain unknown words (where appropriate). My students also draw on the board if they are struggling to find the English word for something (I usually knowthe translation of the Turkish word they say but I push a bit them to draw and explain it )

While here’s what was said earlier today on Twitter:

Me: Has anyone had a really good/bad experience of using drawing in the language classroom? Would love to hear from you. Pls RT

@AnnaMusielak: RT @harrisonmike Has anyone had a really good/bad experience of using drawing in the language classroom? Would love to hear from you. PlsRT

@FaizaK: @harrisonmike Here are a few examples where students have used drawing to learn difficult English words http://bit.ly/8ZwCHy

@SueAnnan: @harrisonmike I can’t draw so I do have my students in fits sometimes. have to be especially careful with thermometers

@vladkaslniecko: @SueAnnan @harrisonmike I try to draw with them regularly, we have a box with their drawings.. and they remember phrasals/idioms better

@SueAnnan: @vladkaslniecko @harrisonmike I use cartoons a lot for idioms

@sabz17: @harrisonmike Pictionary when playing in two teams using the whiteboard worked well last week, except when I was asked to draw a sledge!

Thanks very much everyone for adding to the discussion. If anyone reading this has any other tips and ways of using drawing (or reasons for not drawing at all), I would be really interested to hear from you. =)

Music video stories – lesson activity

Activity 3 Responses »

Dec 122010

Pick a music video where both the lyrics and the visuals have a strong narrative. A good example of this is the song Bad Day by Daniel Powter:

NB – There is an official video but it’s not possible to embed. Here is the link if you would like to watch it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gH476CxJxfg

Split your class into 2 groups. You will need some way of showing the video without playing the sound and playing the song without showing the video.

Showing the video with no sound is simple enough, just play the video as you would normally, but mute the sound or turn off your speakers. You could be playing this on a laptop, class computer and data projector, or even on an iPod touch, iPhone or other Smart electronic device.

Playing audio without video may be trickier, but there are some ways in which you can do this:

buy Bad Day on iTunes
play as normal but don’t let your class see the screen
use a media conversion site to convert the YouTube clip to an mp3 [bear in mind that you will be breaking terms of use and copyright if you do this]

More tricky will be making sure your two groups of learners do not see/hear what each is watching/listening to. You could set up watching and listening stations in your classroom (i.e. one group around the laptop, computer, mp4 player, and the other listening to a CD or mp3 player). Otherwise you could ask one group to wait outside the classroom. Anyway, enough with the set up, on to the task!

Challenge your group watching the clip with no sound to come up with the lyrics (or, for a simpler task, write a short story) and your group listening to the song with no visuals to draw the story.

This could be done with both groups in the same or different rooms. When both groups have finished, they reveal their work to each other and discuss anything interesting. Ask the groups to discuss who they think had an easier task – watchers or listeners? Finally, watch the video clip with the sound turned on, then you can discuss how the lyrics and the images work together to tell a story.

Collaborative drawing – activity

Activity, Fun 9 Responses »

Dec 102010

Sabrina asked for it, so here you all are: how to draw monsters!

You will need: A4 paper, pens or pencils (you don’t need coloured pens or pencils, but they might make the activity more fun), and at least 4 students (it will probably work with 3 students, but 4 or more is best)

Model this for the students (see right for diagram):

fold a piece of A4 paper in half, score along the fold, and open
fold the ends of your piece of paper towards the centre (which your score line should now mark), score and open
you should have a piece of paper that looks like #4 in the diagram below, with 3 visible score lines and 4 equal sections
next, mark the paper as shown in #5 below; note – these small lines should be perpendicular (90 degrees) to the score marks and should cross the score marks (VERY IMPORTANT)
#6 below shows where different parts of the figure will be drawn, but these should not be marked on your pieces of paper; instead follow this process:

This should ideally be done with chairs and tables in a circle or horseshoe shape

tell your students to draw a head in the top section of the paper (A) with the neck ending at the marks (a1); when this is done, tell your students to fold over their paper so you cannot see the head
students then pass their papers to the student on their left (NO PEEKING ALLOWED!)
in the second section (B), your students should draw the upper body (i.e. bottom of the neck, shoulders, torso, arms down to the wrists); then as before, fold over their paper so you cannot see the body
pass it to the student on their left
repeat step 1 in section C drawing the hands (c1) the upper part of the legs, ending at the knees (c2)
pass it to the student on their left; then fold over so you cannot see
in the final section, students draw the lower part of the legs and the feet
students pass it to the student on their left and then open up the paper
language ensues!

Have fun!

Monsters

Activity, Fun 4 Responses »

Dec 092010

A drawing activity I did with Level 1 this morning, which resulted in these:

Beetle – lesson activity

Activity, Fun, Tips 2 Responses »

Nov 302010

A small diversion in the midst of sorting out bits and pieces about my professional development as a teacher (more on that in a future post or two) and documenting the TESOL France experience over at mikeharrison.edublogs.org, here is a quick idea for a drawing game that you can do in class.

What you will need are the following: a die (or a few dice with a big group), blank paper (any will do – printed too many worksheets? use the back!), and finally, most importantly, a group of willing students (3-4 minimum is probably best; artistic ability not required)

The end result will look something a little like this (hopefully…)

This is a game that you play by rolling a die and draw particular parts of the beetle that have been designated on a key. If we look a little closer, you’ll see what I mean. Numbers below correspond to the number rolled on a die.

antennae – a beetle has two of these; can only be drawn once you have a body and head
eyes – a beetle has two of these; can only be drawn once you have a body and a head
a head – the beetle has just one; can only be drawn when you have a body
body – you need to draw this before you can draw any other part of your beetle
spots – beetles have 4 spots; can only be drawn once you have a body
legs – beetles (like all insects) have 6 of these; can only be drawn once you have a body

The winner is the first student to draw a completed beetle. Can be played in one big group or several smaller groups; students have artistic licence for other features of their beetles (for example, they can draw as many stripes as they like and don’t need to roll any dice to do so). You could also add or remove features of the beetles and corresponding dice scores if you want to.

I have used this most often as a filler or end-of-year type activity, but you could definitely encounter a teachable moment or two during the beetle games, whether to do with in-game banter (‘My beetle’s loads better than yours!’ ‘I’m so gonna win this game’ for example) or functions of language to describe the finished drawings. I’ll leave those to you to develop =)

(Thanks to my grandmother for teaching me this game!)

Saying things about faces

Activity, Thoughts, Tips 7 Responses »

Oct 252010

This is to explain how I ended up with the board as it was in the photos you can see in my previous post.

This was an evening class with my Entry 2 (elementary/pre-intermediate) students, who are quite a lively, fun group of people.

The idea in this lesson was to practise describing people’s physical features using the present simple.

Here’s how the lesson went:

For a fun, quick start to the lesson, I gave my students each a piece of blank paper. I then asked them to pick someone at their table and draw their face! I was quite lucky, since they all got on with it, and no one reacted like this. (of course, if they had, I wouldn’t have forced them to do this activity – I would have suggested copying a face from a celeb-gossip magazine or something like that)
After revealing their pictures to each other and laughing a little, we moved on to the next part of the lesson.
I handed each student another piece of blank paper and asked them to draw two ovals like this:

Then I asked my students to draw on one of their ovals a man’s face and on the other a woman’s.
Then I asked them to work together to name the different parts of the face in English, working from their pictures (if the students were having difficulty, then they could use the picture dictionary section of an Oxford Essential English Dictionary)
Once all the students had had a chance to compare and share their ideas on the language, we pooled the vocabulary on the board, ending up with 2 faces and lots of words
Then we looked at different ways we could describe the parts of the face (like, a big nose, green eyes, and so on)
Next I asked them how we might talk about this in English (as if we’re describing a person to one another) and elicited phrases using the verb ‘have’ (checking that they were saying ‘has’ as this is a big thing they have to make sure they do for the exams)
To finish off, almost all of them had brought a photo, of which they then wrote a brief description (I provided those that didn’t have a photo with a printout of some Creative Commons pics I had found on Flickr)

All in all, a successful session!

Have you ever done something similar? And how do you deal with teaching (or checking) vocabulary?
grenbanat

Suffusion theme by Sayontan Sinha

mikejharrison

Before words #TESOLFR workshop

Drawing introductions

Before words: ideas for using drawing, images and sound in the classroom

On tour – upcoming workshop

Image credit: Artists by quinn.anya on Flickr

[Teacherstream] Drawing in the English language classroom

Music video stories – lesson activity

Collaborative drawing – activity

Have fun!

Monsters

Beetle – lesson activity

Saying things about faces

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Image credit: Artists by quinn.anya on Flickr

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