Young Learners, Level 6: London Screen Test

5th December 2020

To kick off – Know your country

This class is grouped into South Korea, Spain and Brazil. Ask about capital city, language and what their country is famous for or produces.

What country is this and what is happening ?

Moving on …

Name some responsibilities your parents have to do.

Name as many privileges that you have.

Sentence building:

If I do my homework, I can play video games

Students have to make sentences with, a conditional with a responsibility followed by a privilege (based on the lesson flash cards).

Responsibilities include ‘go to bed early,’ ‘scrub the sink,’ while privileges include, ‘have a party,’ and ‘sing karaoke.’

Hold up two flashcard, one responsibilities, the other privileges. Students must make sentences. Use as part of a team game.

And Finally – Screen Test

What are you responsibilities on the London Tube ?

What do you have to do ? What should you not do ?

Example: You should not stand on the left side of the escalators.

Extra conversation:

How do you travel in your country ?

What are your responsibilities ?

Subject Index: ESL Games & Student Surveys

4th December 2020

Games

Adult level activities (compilation) // Adult C, L 3 // 27th November 2019:

https://thaypaulsnotes.com/2019/11/27/adult-class-level-3-games-without-frontiers/

Activity sheet for young learners // Young Learners 2 // 25th August 2019

Activity sheet (3) // Young Learners 3 // 14th December 2019

Activity sheet (4) // Young Learners 4 // 7th December 2019

Anecdotes // Young Teens // 17th January 2019

Birthday horseshoe // Young Teens // 29th November 2018

Blind Date // Adult Class, Level 1 // 20th February 2019

Break a code // Young Learners 5 // 17th November 2019

Call My Bluff // Teenagers // 12th January 2019

Call My Bluff // IELTS 5-6.5 // 28th August 2019

Call My Bluff // Adult Class, Level 3 // 26th November 2019

Can you see … (a frog ?) // Young Learners 1 // 24th April 2019

Chinese Whispers // IELTS 5-6.5 // 4th September 2019

Countries // Young Learners, Level 3 // 7th September 2019

Countries (Brazil, South Korea, Spain) // Young Learners, Level 6 // 19th November 2020: https://thaypaulsnotes.com/2020/11/19/young-learners-level-6-round-round-get-around/

Countries (Canada, Egypt, South Korea, Spain) // Young Learners, Level 6 // 6th January 2021: https://thaypaulsnotes.com/2021/01/06/young-learners-level-6-collecting-information-making-a-presentation/

Describe an everyday object // Adult Speaking Class, Level 3. Theme: London 3rd March 2020

Describe the people (photo back to board) // Adult Class, Level 3 // 8th October 2019

Desert Survival // Adult Class, Level 3 // 27th November 2019

Exchanging information // Adult Speaking Class, Level 2, Part 6, 25th January 2020

Eyewitness // Adult Speaking Class, Level 3. Theme: Crime & Punishment

Family Fortunes // Young Teens // 27th February 2019

Family Fortunes // Adult Class, Level 3 // 6th November 2019

Family Fortunes // Adult Class, Level 3 // 27th November 2019

Food – organise a work party // Adult Speaking Class, Level 3, Part 5 // 4th February 2020

Fortune Teller // Young Teens // 31st January 2019 (// Adult C, L 3 // 12th December 2019)

Four People (likes, dislikes etc) // Young Teens // 21st February 2019

Friends (hobbies and creativity) // Young Learners 4 // 1st May 2019

Friends (job and personality) // Adult C, L 3 // 27th November 2019

Friends (men) // Teenagers // 12th January 2019 https://thaypaulsnotes.com/2018/12/28/friends-men-teaching-sheet/

Gather information (countries) // Young Learners 5 // 29th August 2019

Guess the countries (pictures) Signs // Young Learners 4 // 22nd June 2019

Guess the music (countries) // Young Learners 5 // 27th October 2019

Horseshoe Birthday // Young Teens // 29th November 2018

Interview your (famous) partner // Adult Speaking Class, Level 3, Part 4 // 27th January 2020

Just a Minute // Adult Class, Level 3 // 14 November 2019

Just a Minute // Adult Class, Level 3 // 21 November 2019

Magic bag // Young Learners 2 // 26th April 2019

Make a presentation (famous people) // Adult C, L 3 // 23rd September 2019

Match the image to the fact // Young Teens // 31st January 2019

Mime // Young Learners 3 // 7th September 2019

Mr Paul’s Wonderful Store // Adult Speaking Class, Level 2: Gift of the gab // 10th May 2020

New Persona // Adult C, L 3 // 21st November 2019

Picture description // Adult Speaking Class, Level 3, Part 6 // 8th February 2020

Plan a day for visitors // Adult Speaking Class, Level 3, Part 4 // 27th January 2020

Plan a day out (children) //Young Learners 4 // 23rd November 2019

Plan a luxury day // Adult Speaking Class, Level 2: luxury day // 12th March 2020

Presentation: Vietnamese cities // Adult Class, Level 3 // 21st November 2019

Role-play: Job markets and interviews // Business English: Role-playing 6 – 8 May 2020

Role-play: shopping// IELTS 5-6.5 // 28th August 2019

Role-play: shopping // Adult Class, Level 3 // 14 November 2019

Role-play: shopping & haggling // Adult Speaking Class Level 2: Going shopping // 7th April 2020

Run and Write (past tense) // Young Learners 5 // 29th August 2019

Run and Write (personal likes) // Young Teens // 29th November 2018

Run and Write // Young Teens // 27th February 2019

Runaround // Young Learners 4 // 9th November 2019

Runaround (space) // Young Learners 4 // 16th November 2019

Runaround // Young Learners 5 // 10th November 2019

Screen Test // Summer Holiday // Young Learners, Level 4 // 23rd November 2019: https://thaypaulsnotes.com/2019/11/21/young-learners-level-4-were-all-going-on-a-summer-holiday/

Screen Test Christmas // John Lewis TV ad (and Summer Holiday) // 23rd December 2020: https://thaypaulsnotes.com/2020/12/23/young-learners-screen-test-game/

Sentence rewrite // Young Teens // 29th November 2018

Shopping on a budget // Young Learners 3 // 17th August 2019

Sticky ball (animals) // KG Safari 1 // 2nd March 2019

Stop the Bus // Young Teens // 27th February 2019

travel:plan a luxury day //Adult Class, L 3 // 14th November 2019

True or false (3 statements) // Teenagers // 12th January 2019

True or false (4 photos) // Teenagers // 12th January 2019

TV talkshow interview // Young Learners 4 // 1st June 2019

What difference (definitions) // IELTS 5-6.5 // 25th September 2019

What do you see (cartoon picture) ? // Young Learners 2 // 25th August 2019

What happened next ? (video clips) // Young Teens // 31st January 2019: https://thaypaulsnotes.com/2019/01/31/young-teens-unesco-sites/ Adult C, L 3 // 12th December 2019:

What happens next (video clips) // Adult Class, Level 1 // 30th January 2019

What my friends can do in Sai Gon / / IELTS 5-6.5 // 21st August 2019: https://thaypaulsnotes.com/2019/08/15/ielts-5-6-5-i-come-from-a-land-down-under/

What would you do IF … // Adult Class, Level 1 // 2 January 2019

What’s My Line // Adult Class, Level 3 // 3rd December 2019

What’s the story (Tom Cruise) // Young Teens // 17th January 2019

What’s the Story (Chinese film) // IELTS 5-6.5 // 11th September 2019

Where am I going ? (info gathering) Signs // Young Learners 4 // 15th June 2019

Where am I going ? //Young Learners 4 // 23rd November 2019

Whisper run ‘n’ write // Young Learners 3 // 13th July 2019

Word bomb (hobbies) // Young Teens // 29th November 2018

Student surveys

Are you able to ? // Adult Class, Level 3 // 12th December 2019

Future activities // Adult Class, Level 1 // 30th January 2019

General questions // Adult Class, Level 3 // 8th January 2019

Hobbies // Young Teens // 29th November 2018

IELTS introduction // IELTS // 31st December 2018

Internet survey // Adult Class, Level 1 // 20th February 2019

Mobile phone survey // Adult Class, Level 3 // 21st November 2019

What did you do / like // Young Learners 4 // 1st May 2019

Where do you want to go ? // Young Teens // 27th February 2019

Young Learners classroom games: word battleship, snakes and ladders.

24th August 2020

I’ve spent so much time reading books about classroom activities, looking at websites and blogs only to reject the vast majority as not being suitable for my level of students. Here are a couple of games that have been successful over the years, in different centres and with different ages, though I usually employ them with students aged between 6 and 10. Adapt them as you wish, and have fun.

Word Battleship

This is based on the old paper and pencil game (later upgraded for the electronic and computer age).

	A	B	C	D
1
2
3
4

Word Battleship

Board a grid as above (add more cells as required). Put the class into teams.

[I let them choose their own names, and if a student says, ‘Errrrrr,” then that’s the name I give them … additionally, this always gets a laugh]

Ask the teams questions based on previous lessons, general knowledge, whatever suits your class. You could either elicit an answer from the team as a whole, or individual members.

If the student answers correctly, they are allowed to choose a cell, example “C3.” On a separate sheet, have the same grid with scores assigned to each square. In the example that follows, C3 would score 25 points.

The following questions were used to review past tense grammar, as well as forming collocations:

Put the sentences into the past tense (simple past). Say complete sentence.

1 Last week we learn about technology

2 I buy a new iPhone last night.

3 Michael Jackson write many good songs.

4 Oh, no … I do not do my homework !

5 Have they decide what printer to buy ?

6 He see all the ‘Avengers’ films in one day !

7 It’s Friday ! I think today was Wednesday !

8 On holiday, I walk along the beach.

9 My grandmother send me an email.

10 Have you play the new video game ?

Complete the collocation

11 (go) to the cinema [I _______ to the cinema]

12 (play) guitar

13 (take) a photo

14 (chat / go) online

15 (do) voluntary work

16 (make) a decision

	A	B	C	D
1	25	50	10	5
2	10	25	100	25
3	50	10	25	5
4	5	25	10	50

Snakes and ladders

Another activity based on a classic game. I first used this in a very energetic class of 9 – 11 year olds and, thanks to the size of the room, I was able to draw a grid on the floor and use students as ‘counters’, to move around the ‘board’.

If that isn’t possible, just board a grid like so:

START		GO FORWARD 2
			GO BACK 1
GO FORWARD 1
	HA HA BACK TO START
		GO BACK 3		FINISH

All you need is a die or dice and different colour board markers. As before, arrange the class in teams, then ask each team a question. The student who answers then throws the die (preferably NOT at the teacher but one thing at a time), and I chart their progress on the board. You can decide whether or not the students need an exact score to land on Finish or not … play it by ear.

[ ‘dice’ is generally accepted for both singular and plural. For English-language learners it’s probably better to use ‘dice’.]

Young Learners, Level 2: Group work and review.

21st August for 25th August 2019. Everybody Up 2, U 7 L2

This is an early morning class, and quite typical; one or two very good girls, one, possibly two good boys. The rest range from those who cannot speak without shouting at the top of their voices (the Vietnamese, bless them, are not the quietest nation on Earth), those who pay attention to anything save the lesson, and those who are so inactive and immobile as to be positively catatonic.

One way to counter this negativity is to make the lessons more kinetic, more active, though the size of the class and the dimensions of the room are not conducive to much activity. It is also important to realise that these are children, ‘forced’ to come to extra school on their weekend, and their motivation levels plummet from, “Please teach me English,” to “Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn … I REALLY don’t give a damn.”

We recently had a project activity, cutting out and colouring a room. This proved quite successful, and even those who are permanently seated, chin in hand, yawning thick and fast, were engaged and doing something. So, today, I’m going to mix things up a little. We’ll start by rearranging the chairs into islands of four, as opposed to the traditional horseshoe arrangement.

Warm Up: A quick game. I’ll give each island a board and marker and I’ll review the last lesson, ‘time’. I’ll call out a time and the students have to write it, in figures. This can be extended to cover other lessons, including basic maths (to practise the use of the words ‘plus’, ‘minus’, ‘times’ and ‘divided by’. Also, for general knowledge, do they know any countries where English is spoken (as first language) ? What countries are there in Asia … Africa … South America ? Then look at this picture for 30 seconds. Write down what you remember. I’ll be listening for adjectives as well as nouns, and encourage the use of full sentences, e.g. I see a big white mirror, I see a small green cupboard etc.

Now I’ll go straight into bookwork, subject ‘meals’. Here, I’ll follow a standard school lesson plan:

Show the four flashcards and review as a class, especially pronunciation, then pass them one by one around. First student (make sure said student is a top cat, or the activity goes down like a lead Zeppelin) takes the card, says the word, then passes to the next … after the third student has spoken, introduce a new card to the first student and so on.

Next, a run ‘n’ write. Two students must run to the board and write one of the new words. For the top cats, they can write two words, or even all four.

There are four pictures, but I prefer to say the words myself rather than play the audio (which is often a monotone, transatlantic drone). Students shout out (this class like shouting, to a fault !) the words.

Grammar structure – focus on the key sentence – have students repeat.

Book work, page 66. Elicit information about the pictures, just try to get the students speaking English as much as … Encourage them to ask each other. Use a top cat to start e.g. “What do you see in picture 2 ?”, “What are they doing here ?”, “What time is it in picture 3 ?” etc.

This should take us up to break time, with drilling and substituting pronouns, noticing how the verb changes i.e. I eat breakfast at 7:00, He eats breakfast at 7:00.

After break, in their gangs of four or threes, I’ve prepared an activity sheet; some questions, some things to do, some information to gather, something that requires the students to listen:

Everybody Up 2 Activity sheet

1) Write five buildings that you find in a city

2) Write three words that begin with th … / ch … / sh … / wh ….

3) On a clock, show: 10.15 / 2.30 / quarter to five

4) Draw a picture of your bedroom. What do you have in your room ?

5) Tell me three things you like to do after school.

6) Draw a girl wearing a yellow hat, pink coat, green pants and blue boots.

7) Draw a bald man playing guitar wearing an orange jumper and black pants.

8) What does Teacher Paul like ? Write two things ?

9) What are the five senses ?

10) A doctor works in a hospital. Write a sentence.

Where does a teacher work ? / Where does a cook work ?