Alphabet Books - Sharing Internationally

My students finished their alphabet books a couple of weeks ago, but I have been so busy I haven't had a chance to write about them!

One of the grammar points written into Advanced I is Participial Phrases! Normally, as a way to practice, I have the class write an alphabet book together which we then share with a friend of mine who has little children.

This year, I had a goal to be more global with my students' activities. As a result, I wanted to take this project one step further. In small groups my students each made their own alphabet books about animals, fruit, video games, or whatever they wanted the theme to be.

When they submitted the final I would grade it, but they would NOT receive the book back because we sent our books to other schools around the world!

In addition, the students had to submit their books in electronic form (PPT, PDF, etc.).

Not only was this a great grammar activity, my students and I also increased out digital literacy by finding sites with graphics they could legally attribute and use. They were quite shocked when I said that just Googling an image and attributing it is not an acceptable practice.

The fact that students were sending their work to other schools made this at least a little more exciting than most school projects (some students were REALLY excited!). In fact, the next class after they had submitted their final books one student asked me, "Teacher what the the students think?"

Well, once I hear back from them, I am excited to let my students know!

In the end, I definitely think I need to make it clearer that students need to correct their grammar when I tell them to correct their grammar, but overall I am happy with our final project and am sending out the e-books to teachers today!

I am hoping to do something similar next semester, so if you are interested please contact me.

Here are some sample pages from the e-books: 

Videos and Participial Phrases

This blog is written for the 36th edition of the ELT Blog Carnival focusing on how to use videos in education!
 
I've talked about using videos with participle phrases before with music videos. This blog will talk about another way I like to use videos with participial phrases.

Some background. This lesson is designed for high school students whose overall semester has covered multiple themes of tolerance (e.g bullying). They have been introduced to the topic of participial phrases and appositives and this activity is to help them practice adding them to normal sentences, finding errors in sentences and producing their own sentences.

This movie is in German, but I find that works well with my students because the dialogue is limited (only 6 phrases) and they focus more on the actions (useful for participial phrases!). It is also really brief (just 3 minutes!) meaning you can play it a few times without eating into your class time too much. If you study the holocaust at all with your students this is a really great video to incorporate into your class.


 

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The lesson:

1. Show the students the video. Have them describe the different characters. Using these descriptions have them re-write the sentences to give more details using appositives (This really works for most topics: relative clauses, adjectives, better verbs, more accurate nouns, etc.)
2. See if the students can identify the errors in the participial phrases (normally I play the video again as they are doing this). Have them re-write the sentences correctly. (Again you can do this and focus on any grammar point. Proper verb tense, proper punctuation, word order, etc.)
3. See if they can produce any of their own emotions using participial phrases (e.g Seeing the woman open the box made me sad.) (This can also be adjusted to have students produce the grammar point that is your focus)
4. At the very end I assigned their project which was to take the 6 lines used in the script and make their own plot. We watch a few other videos to get an idea of how many different stories can be told with the same words if we just change the characters, setting and tone

My students tend to really enjoy making videos. We have done video adaptations for literary comprehension, but this one is fun because there is a lot of talking within the group. They really have to think about how they will make the dialogue fit their purpose. Students got really creative. In addition to the video, they had to give me a script which included actions, feeling, music, etc. It was a fun assignment and the different interpretations were very amusing.

Honestly this was one of those assignments I created because I thought it would be fun and I LOVED the video. I think in the end it turned out to be educational as well :)

Participle Phrases Alphabet Book

Every year my Advanced I students learn participle phrases.

Part of them practicing is to create a children's alphabet book using participle phrases (e.g. A is for Alligator: Looking beautiful in her tutu and ballet slippers, the alligator danced across the floor..)

In an effort to get my students to see that their work is about more than just a grade, I had hoped to send copies of the book to other teachers who could read it in their class. No cost would be present for teacher other than promising to send back pictures, letters, drawings or videos from their class so my students could see that their assignment did affect others.

This would not happen until the fall (probably November, but maybe October).

The book would NOT be anything professionally made. If I can get school approval for some budget, it will be bound with wire binding. If not, it will be stapled. Illustrations will probably be drawn by the students.

If you are interested please let me know by filling out the following form:



If you have any questions please leave a comment below.

Thank you so much for your time!

Literally Incorrect Participial Phrases

I love teaching participial phrases! They are relatively easy, lend themselves to tons of fun hands on activities and native speakers mess them up all the time so you can give your students confidence by having them find incorrect sentences in a newspaper or magazine for extra credit.

One of my favorite assignments to give with participial phrases is the "Literally Incorrect Phrases"

First in class I show them dangling participials, such as, "Running to catch the bus Bob's wallet fell out of his pocket." As a class we find the participial phrase (running to catch the bus) and the noun it refers to ... but we can't! The sentence isn't clear and suggests that Bob's wallet is running to catch the bus. We discuss why the sentence is wrong and then I show them an example of what the sentence meant literally.

This example is from a student, but you can find examples online using your friendly local search engine.

Once I believe that my students understand why dangling participials are incorrect I hand out a list of ten sentences containing dangling participials and have students pick two. They have to 1. Illustrate why the sentence is wrong and 2. Re-write the sentence correctly. As an example:

INCORRECT: Riding along on my bike, the dog hit me.

CORRECT: Riding along on my bike, I was hit by a dog!

Now, some of my students are very artistically blessed, but others have my artistic skill. That's OK. This example below was very well done and not as artistic as others:

INCORRECT: Being flat, Kelly changed the tire.

CORRECT: The tire, being flat, was changed by Kelly.

OR
Being flat, the tire was changed by Kelly.

OR 

Many other options, because unlike math English usually has more than one right answer.

I like to rotate this list with each class so I get a new bunch of pictures each time. Below is an example of some of more of my favorite work from past students.

   Literally Incorrect Pariticipial Phrases by ESLCarissa

Modifier Memes

In class we were reviewing the importance of where things are in a sentence. Participial phrases, appositives, relative clauses, and all other modifiers need to be near the noun they are referring to or the sentence changes. To prove this fact a student made this.

Not perfect grammar, but the point is there :)

Not another Cloze! How else to use songs in EFL classes

Songs are awesome! And I have seen SO many gap fill assignments (which are nice) but let's look at how else to use songs.

For the sake of continuity I am going to use one song for this entire post (though other songs will be mentioned). Let's look at It is a music video mixed from two K-op music videos (Fantastic Baby by Big Bang and Scream by) 2NE1 the song is actually by Regina Spektor and it is called, "All the Rowboats." I like to use videos students haven't seen, so this works well because even if they know the song my Mexican students won't know the K-Pop visuals, and if my Korean students recognized the bands they won't know the lyrics.

1. Make your own songs: So for this one instead of: "All the rowboats in the paintings they keep trying to row away, and the captains' worried faces stay contorted and staring at the waves." you could change it so something to review parts of speech, "All the nouns stay in the paintings they are objects or things. Without verbs they have no action there is no moving." or whatever. Songs are a great way to review concepts you have learned or just give students something to humm during tests.

2. Use songs to describe grammar points: This would be an easy song to use for prepositions (and you could follow up by asking about the people in the video: they are on the table, under the fence etc).

3. Practice Punctuation Lyrics are hardly ever punctuated properly as they are arranged by rhythm and rhyme rather than syntax. Have your students avoid comma splices and run ons by punctuating a song,

 "First there's lights out, then there's lock up
Masterpieces serving maximum sentences
It's their own fault for being timeless
There's a price you pay and a consequence
All the galleries, the museums
Here's your ticket, welcome to the tombs"

"First there's lights out, then there's lock up: masterpieces serving maximum sentences. It's their own fault for being timeless; there's a price you pay and a consequence. All the galleries, the museums, here's your ticket; welcome to the tombs."

4. Describe music videos! I LOVE music videos.

• Write ten sentences describing the video. Have five of the sentences be incorrect. This can be any grammar point. Participle phrases, appositives, tense, proper modifiers, etc. Examples:
• The owls eyes, looked right at you, are scary.
• The people attacks the fence trying to destroy it.
• There are much people dancing at the party
• Students should correct the five wrong sentences 
• The owls eyes, looking right at you, are scary.
  
• The people attack the fence trying to destroy it.
  
• There are many people dancing at the party.
• Use the  grammar point. Tell students that they need to write ten sentences using participle phrases / adjectives / adverbial clauses / whatever to describe what is happening. They get really specific and sometimes funny!

5. Mess up the lyrics Write the lyrics incorrectly and have students try to fix them.

• You can mess up the words for minimal pairs/homophones "Thirst their's lights out," instead out "First there's lights out." Depending on the level on your students you can either have them do it without listening (and then let them listen to check), have them listen without the paper and then pass out the paper and have them work from memory, or have them do it while listening.
• Mess with the tenses:  "First there's lights out, then there are lock up" have students read messed up lyrics and fix the verbs. Then listen to the song to check. To differentiate tell some students how many mistakes are in each column, and don't tell others. Or, give one student a worksheet with more/more difficult mistakes.

6. Work the Paragraph Have students find a Topic Sentence in the song. It can be literal (Tequila makes her clothes fall off) or deeper "This song discusses immigration policies" "This song is about how people don't appreciate art" "This song is about a holocaust museum" Then have them find support in the lyrics. This really makes students follow paragraph structure using evidence from the song and then explaining it in their own words.

7. Spice up a song Take lyrics out of a song and have students make them better

• Remind them to use synonyms. She says, "all the rowboats" a lot, what else could she say?
• Have them add adjectives or clauses to make better sentences.
• Underline phrases that could be changed to phrasal verbs or phrasal verbs that they have to change to phrases "First there's lights out, then there's lock up" --> First everyone has to make the rooms dark, then everything gets locked

8. Make it active! TPR doesn't have to just be for kids! Give each group a chunk of the song and have them make up a quick dance/collection of hand movements WHICH MAKES SENSE with the lyrics. This really means they have to focus on meaning and think outside of the box to prove comprehension.

There we have 8 easy ways to get songs into the classroom. How do you like to incorporate music? How else would you use this song?

DIY Parts of Speech Poem

When I was in high school, college and even throughout my masters I met a LOT of students who didn't know the basic parts of speech.

When I was in elementary school I learned a poem which started, "Nouns are just the names of things like rice and birds and snow and rings" it went on to explain other parts of speech, "When something is done the adverb then tells how and why and where and when" etc.

I heavily altered the poem to focus on what I teach in one of my classes and review the basics.

I also wanted to make it  more dynamic and interactive than just a poem so I made it into a mad libs like assignment.

You can download it for free at TeachersPayTeachers or BusyTeachers there also is a sample of the poem once it is completed. If you haven't signed up for Teachers Pay Teachers yet click here to go straight to their sign up page (Remember it is free!).

Participial Phrases

I was reviewing the wonderful world of participial phrases for class on Friday and I came across this gem: Movie Segments to Assess Grammar Goals

I took the lesson and changed it to be able to use a music video (we all know how I love music videos in class). I recently used "Earl had to die" in class to review Cause and Effect. A fellow teacher friends of mine who teaches the same level took the idea but used Lily Allen's smile. A video that I LOVE and am glad she reminded me of. So, this activity uses that:



First, students watch the video and we talk about getting revenge and such (which they like, as we seem to end up on this topic quite a lot).

NAME: CLASS TIME:
First, underline all of the participle phrases; then circle the noun they modify. Half of the sentences are grammatically inaccurate. Re-write them correctly below (include the number).
1. While remembering her ex-boyfriend, Lily gets depressed.
2. Leaning against a wall waiting for a man, the man approaches Lily and she gives him money.
3. The gang, having nodded in agreement, takes money from the man.
4. He was hit by them laying on the floor.
5. After telling her he was just jumped, Lily invites him to coffee.
6. As they are finishing their coffee men are destroying his apartment.
7. When going to the bathroom, laxatives were put in his coffee.
8. Needing to use the bathroom he ran to the toilet only to find it filled with his clothes.
9. DJing he discovered his discs were all ruined.
10. Lily smiles feeling very happy with her successful day.
# __ _____________________________________________________
# __ _____________________________________________________
# __ _____________________________________________________
# __ _____________________________________________________
# __ _____________________________________________________

Later students watched Daniel Poweter's Bad Day video and had to describe it using their own sentences. Some of them:

Closing his eyes he playes[sic] the piano.
Smiling she draws on the wall
Having a bad day he rolls out of bed.

Some of them used the lyrics and got pretty creative.

(Copy of the Lily Allen worksheet can be found here: http://busyteacher.org/8539-lily-allens-smile-and-participial-phrases.html )