Creative Character Quizzes

These aren't the quizzes that your students have to study for! These quizzes make your students use their critical thinking skills, inference skills, grammar skills and technology skills...what more could you want?

If your students like taking Buzzfeed quizzes or any quiz online then they will appreciate this assignment.

My students were reading the Crucible, but it can be easily adapted to any book (or even classmates, teachers, local politicians, etc.). For classes that don't read literature I've also used quizzes to review vocabulary.

As a class we discussed what types of questions we could ask. There were two types we discussed:

1. The literal question.

• These questions asked about things we could literally see. 
• For example: Would you cheat on your significant other?
• Never! I am a good honest person.
• Yes, but I would feel awful later!
• If they were cute and I liked them.
• I am very religious so of course not!
• In this questions we can tell who the answers refer to based on actions or words stated.
• Elizabeth is a good and honest woman who never cheated.
• John cheated, but he felt bad.
• Abigail had an affair with John,so she would be OK with cheating.
• Hale is a reverend, so he is religious.

2. The symbolic question

• These questions require more interpretation.
• For example: What is your favorite color?
• Black
• White
• Red
• Grey
• In these question the answer may depend based on who is writing the quiz
• John Proctor is depressed so he is black.
• Elizabeth is very innocent so she is white
• Abigail is passionate so she is read.
• Hale is grey because he is confused by what is happening in the town and getting more and more depressed.

Once the students understand the differences I gave their requirements.They had to create a 10 question quiz involving four characters. In addition to the quiz they needed to give me a paper that explained their answers.

Once they completed their quizzes they put them online (tryinteract.com is a great site for this) and take at least two other quizzes.

It is a fun project that makes students cite evidence from the text and shows how well they understand the characters.

You can buy the directions and worksheets that go with this for The Crucible on Teachers Pay Teachers at this link

Otherwise be inspired and make your own! Here are two examples from my students

Powered by Interact

Powered by Interact

Interested in Making Dream Flags?

I am leaving ITESM in about a month!

As such I am putting together packets to pass onto teachers who will be teaching the levels I teach.

One of these packets is the Dream Flag Project!

I really think that the Dream Flag Project is an amazing opportunity to get your students connected internationally.

If you are interested in starting I am offering the packet for free! I believe that ANYONE who wants to should have the chance to be involved and this is my chance to help :)

You can download and view the packet below or download it from Teachers Pay Teachers (if you haven't registered yet you can do so here)

It contains too much information (some worksheets you can certainly skip) but it gives you plenty of options.

Dream flag 101 from Carissa Peck

I really hope you take part of this project and that your students enjoy it as much as mine have! 

What's the buzz, and other bee idioms

As I promised in the last post, here's a post about different bee idioms. At the bottom you can see handouts you can use in your class!

1. What's the buzz?- What's new? 

Why? When people are in a room talking quietly it can sound like buzzing. "What's the buzz on your new student?"

2. Buzz with (something)-Be excited about (_)

 Why? As with above, the sound of many people sounds like buzzing, so these terms are very similar.  "The teacher's lounge buzzed with strangers only present for the conference at lunch."

3. Make a beeline for / to- To head straight for something

Why? Before we understood the science of the bee's waggle dance people noticed that bees tended to leave their hive and go straight for the source of nectar (usually flowers) , that is, 'make a beeline' for it.  "When I get to school, I make a beeline for my laptop."

4. Like Bees to honey- to be attracted to something

Why? Since bees are normally where honey is, people assumed that they must be attracted to it. Hence, "Women are attracted to him like bees to honey"

5. Buzz off- Go away!

Why? When you want a bee to leave you alone you can have it, "buzz somewhere else." Hence you ask it to buzz off. The same applies to people, cats and dogs :) "I've told you a million times; I won't date you because you're marries. Now buzz off!" NOTE: This is pretty rude.

6. Hive of activity- Very busy!

Why? Have you ever looked inside a hive? It is normally swarming with bees all very purposefully working. Hence, when a place is busy it becomes a hive of activity. "Normally the airport is quite empty, but Friday nights it turns into a hive of activity."

7. None of your beeswax- None of your business.

Why? This is a juvenile play on words because business and beeswax sound similar. I wouldn't suggest using it in an official setting, unless you're making a pun. "Stop asking me for your friend's grade! I told you it's none of your beeswax."
NOTE: Also MYOB: Mind Your Own Beeswax :)

8. Bee in his bonnet- To be very focused on one idea

Why? Imagine that you were wearing a bonnet like the one pictured on the left. Suddenly a bee flies into your bonnet. Would you be thinking of anything other than the bee?  "First time blog readers must think I have a bee in my bonnet about Springtime"

9. The birds and the bees

Why? This is what we say as a euphemism for birth (including sex). It become this as many parents would try to explain birth by using an example that didn't require mentioning intercourse, hence: the birds and the bees. "If I am not ready to explain the birds and the bees to a child, then I am probably not ready to have a child."

10. The bees knees- Awesome / Amazing

Why? This is a fun one! When I was younger I was taught it was 1920's slang for business. As in something was good business so it was the bee's knees. Others have suggested the bee's knee is where pollen is kept hence making that a great spot! In truth we may never know, but it is still fun to say :) "The new coffee place is the bee's knees" Note: Officially (in dictionaries) I see this bee's knees. I've also seen it bees' knees. In most newspapers it is bees knees. I am not sure there is a solid punctuation rule.

So there you are TEN idioms related to bees. There's one I left off just because I felt it was too easy :P If you think you know it you can leave it in the comments!

Following is a worksheet of five pages. Two are designed for children, two for older learners and the final activity page can be used with anyone.

 

Bee Idioms from Carissa Peck

Cut a worksheet for a change of pace!

What is my student doing at the window? Admiring the view? Taking a break? Trying to get warm by leaning against the window heated by the sun? Actually he's working on a worksheet!

There are a lot of people who feel that worksheets for the most part are no longer needed in class. It is an interesting and environmental idea, but sometimes I just like having my students use worksheets.

However, I do think worksheets can become a crutch. Like PowerPoint, webquests or any classroom tool, if we use it the same way too much, it doesn't provide the variety our students need.

This blog is not about a brand new technique. I think teachers were doing this back when I was in elementary school! However, it is an easy technique to use a worksheet in class, but vary the format a little. Students tend to like the fact that get to move, and I like the fact that they are getting work done.

Step 1. Select the right type of worksheet. In this case I used a "correcting" worksheet. It had 25 different sentences that were not parallel. The students needed to re-write the sentence to make the sentence parallel. If also you teach parallelism in writing here are 15 sentences your students could fix.

Step 2. Cut the worksheet up into strips (with each question / sentence being a different strip).

Step 3.  Tape the strips everywhere around the classroom.... I mean everywhere! On desks, on windows, on walls. With little ones putting them under tables and chairs is fun, but my high schoolers care too much about their clothes to crawl under a chair. If you write in a really big font you can tape it to the ceiling and have them look up find that sentence.

Step 4. Give the students a set amount of time (I gave 20 minutes for 25 questions) to walk around the class and try to fix as many sentences as they can. Encourage them to work with a partner as long as they keep the communication in English.

Step 5. Give a final 5 minutes to compare their answers with another person / pair.

Step 6. As a class go through the answers. If they can't fix a sentence try to lead them towards the answer, but don't give it to them. If they still can't find it skip it and go to the next sentence. Sometimes they just need time away from the sentence to see the mistake. Normally they figure out all of the sentences, but when they don't I prefer to assign the ones they don't have as homework rather than to give them the answers.

Things to keep in mind
Control: You need to make sure the groups are controlled. If they start aren't actively working give them a warning and then have them sit down on their own with the worksheet.
Type of worksheet: Make the answers easy(ish) to write. You don't want to do this if each answer requires a two paragraph answer. On the other hand, just having them write down A or B doesn't get much writing practice in (nor does it help them study later)! Short answers are your best bet.
Time: Set a time limit and stick to it Some students are faster than others, that's fine. I like to give way too many problems. For example I may give 25, but I think getting 20 done is good. IN the last minute I encourage students to check with other groups and finally go over it as a class. This way even if they didn't get to all of them they have the answers in the end and there (usually) aren't fast finishers.

Like I said, nothing new, but always fun! Enjoy :)

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.


 

Click the pick do download the worksheet
Register for free here if needed

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 :)

Fun video for Business idioms

We are doing business idioms today and I found this great video!

The actual cartoon starts at the 5 second mark. I used it as an attention getter. We watched the video and then went over what the idioms meant figuratively versus literally. We talked about different ways to express the same idea as the idiom. Then we went into our lesson. The students really enjoyed the video!

Since once of the idioms used was, "It's curtains for you," I also mentioned Dr. Horrible. Some students recognized the reference and laughed. The rest just thought I was crazy.

You can grab a simple free worksheet (which includes the transcript) here at TPT. If you don't have an account it is free to create one; just register here!

Proverbs in the EFL class

I've been reading a lot about including culture in the classroom. I think it is important to note that you should never shove your culture down someone's throat. It will only turn them away from the culture and harm your relationship. That being said, most students want to learn English AND they want to know more about the culture. Besides, culture shows up on the TOEFL so they need to understand at least some of where the test is coming from. An easy way to do this is by adding some proverbs in your classes. There are TONS of ways to do this!

This website lists proverbs via repeated sounds making it useful for pronunciation practice.

• If your class struggles with the sound a "J" makes try: Every Jack has his Jill.

The British Council has some suggestions on how to use proverbs in class (and when to avoid them).

• Don't teach more than 5 a day (I'm going to break that rule later, but it is a great rule of thumb)

BogglesworldESL has a communication exercise using proverbs

• In this exercise students become the "experts" on one proverb and go around explaining it to classmates. At the end they take a quick quiz to see how many proverbs they understood.

 I also think proverbs are great to use for a dictogloss

• Not on their own, but many proverbs are based on a story. Telling a short story and ending with a proverb makes this a great activity.

 There are also quite a few songs you can use that have proverbs.

• There are multiple ways to use a song, just try to steer clear of clozes if you have already done one that month.

Finally, here's a packet I put together. It plays off of this graphic you may have seen floating around:

Essentially it gives funny endings to proverbs, so I thought, "my students could do that."

This packet contains: The first part of 20 proverbs for students to try and finish. 20 funny endings given by other students. It has opportunities for pair and group work in finding their favorite proverb, a matching section where they can match the start of the proverb with the real ending, 6 different homework assignments (I like to let them choose which one they want).

For upper level students who are practicing writing I also included my essay prompt, essay outline, sample outline, and sample essay all on proverbs.

 The packet is available for free on Teachers Pay Teachers. If you don't already have a membership it is FREE just sign up here.

I'd love to know more about how you use proverbs in class. Do your students like them? Do you?

Coffee and Dress Codes

It no surprise that I wasn't thrilled with my last minute Summer class, but I vowed to make the best of it and my small EFL class and I have had a good time studying different TOEFL techniques. We've played BINGO, used some jokes, and have rocked out to some tunes in class. Nonetheless it can be exhausting having the same class day after day and today I decided that we all needed coffee.

In the normal class

All of my students (who have been smiley-faced to protect their identities) and I meet in a perfectly fine classroom every day for three hours. We started class with business as usual with a quick idiom review in the form of BINGO and then taking the partial exam in our class and then students took their break (while I graded the exam and calculated their partial grade).

At the coffee shop

The possible dress

After, I told them we needed to get the heck out of the class and I took them to a cafe nearby (a short 5-10 minute walk of about 600 meters). There we talked about my friend's upcoming wedding and how I was unsure if we could wear a pink dress to a wedding because it had a cream top and you shouldn't wear white to a wedding. We talked about other wedding rules (like not to wear black to a wedding or how some cultures consider wearing green to a wedding bad luck). It was funny to me how one of the students whom I had always considered a tomboy was adamant, "Of course you can't wear cream to a wedding!" whereas the more feminine students were oblivious to any possible faux pas.

This transitioned well into the "actual" lesson about dress code. The lesson plan the curriculum called for was based on an article from the Christian Science Monitor on a middle school student who died his hair blue and earned detention. It is a good article, and a great topic, but it is over 10 years old. So I used this one about banning yoga pants in school instead. If you have school-aged students talking about dress code is usually great because it is something they love to discuss! Here's the quick worksheet available for free on Teachers Pay Teachers that you can use to help discuss this topic. I don't usually make my students fill out the comprehension questions, rather we use them as discussion points during the lesson. When we got stuck on a word I could quickly google it on my tablet and show them the google image result.

I am not sure if it was the topic, or the fact I got the students out of the classroom, but it went over really well. They stayed in English and relaxed as we talked about their opinions. Normally my EFL classes frustrate me a little, because they all share the same opinion. This time we had varied ideas. Some thought dress codes were essential especially in middle school since the students were too young to make their own decisions, but in high school they should be able to learn their own restraint. One thought that dress codes should never be implemented.  Finally one student thought that teenagers need regulations because they are too eager to show off.

Before they left I had them write a quick paragraph about how much of an influence they felt a school should have over students. Their casual attitudes were seen in the their writing too. They seemed to have less anxiety even though writing is their least favorite skill.

One student's answer

So there we go, a simple three skill lesson: Reading, Speaking and Writing. And like Mary Poppins said, "A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down." Or, in this case a few cups of coffee!


If you have older students who you don't think would want to discuss school dress codes check out this Breaking News English mini-lesson about the dress code for train drivers.

Have you ever taken your students out of the classroom? How did it work?