Ed Tech Ideas has published a very interesting post which we could easily turn into a very good activity for the English classroom.
Starting out with a very nice poster on student bullying in the U.S., some questions are placed, as well as some advice to students… very clear statements that can be easily discussed in class. Try to elicit other ideas and opinions out of the data which appear in the graphic poster. Data are shown really clear and can be easily understood.
Here are two examples of how we can work with short silent clips in the classroom: Vimeo has many high-quality video-clips which can be used in many different ways.
The first one we are showing here is a nice short clip of 2 minutes about the story of a seed. It is called “Seedling”:
Seedling from Lee Tao on Vimeo.
It would be nice to have our students describing what is happening, and predicting what will happen next… or, describing the characters appearing in the clip. I’m sure you can think of other possibilities!
The second one is “Paraphernalia”… a story of a girl and a boy… and a plane:
Paraphernalia from Sabrina Cotugno on Vimeo.
Why don’t you put text into pictures? The story is really easy to follow and there’s silent dialogue which can be easily completed… students can create a written dialogue or they can put voice to the clip! It is a very engaging activity which students will love.
Word on the Street is an extremely good website by The British Council and the BBC.
A series of chapters dealing with everyday situations with a set of definite sections which make students learn as they enjoy these nice clips.
The episodes are divided in sections: Those which help learners to focus first on comprehension, where we can watch everyday situations dealing with different topics.
These are followed by sections more focused on linguistic aspects which are exemplified with parts of the previous clip.
Some brief explanations are highlighted on the screen in order to clarify those linguistic aspects that must be learnt.
Finally, these clips are followed by some drills to help students evaluate what they have learnt in the episode.
This website will really fulfill the needs of those students who need some reinforcement on their listening skills as well as those who want to use some good-quality self-access material. Great production and crystal-clear explanations. for those who find it difficult, they can also see the transcript as they watch.
Dipity is a very good timeline creator if you want your students to work with time, tenses or describing events or someone’s life. Catchy interface that allows you to create your own timelines and add images, video, audio and Internet links.
The working area is really user-friendly, and element integration is really easy. We can later share it through our usual social network.
Bubblr lets you use Flickr images to create stories. Type tags and select pictures into your storyboard. Add as many frames as you need and place bubbles showing the story and the dialogue between the characters appearing in the pictures.
Once the story is finished… publish it! Share it through facebook, send it by email or paste it in your blog or website! It is a good tool to work on given situations appointed by the teacher… for example: “Create a Bubblr with a story related to a situation at an airport”. Type the tag “airport”, or “airport lounge”, or “passengers” and use the pictures you have in the appearing library
Time to say your thoughts instead of writing them down. AudioBoo has been created for users to create short audioclips and publish them online… brief thoughts and ideas to share with the rest of the world, or the rest of our classmates! Our Batxillerat/K12 students can register with their Tweeter accounts, and share thoughts about what they see in a given outdoors route, or what they watch on the TV/Listen to on the radio regarding some specific event, conflict or any other piece of news.
The Guardian have produced an interactive timeline showing the most relevant milestones which have arisen in the Middle East uprisings. A good tool to work time in English, and, of course, to foster oral skills… students can describe the “path” followed by events in these countries where people have risen against dictatorships in the last months.
You can navigate through time and see the different relevant events by country and category: People’s protests, political moves, regime changes and international responses.
Use it in class, or pass it to social science teachers who want to use English in their lessons.
This is good fun… and learn!!
Bombay TV is a nice and catchy website where we can add text to short Bollywood clips… amazing to foster oral and written skills, as well as vocabulary and accuracy.
Choose a clip containing different scenes, with typical bollywood actors and stories… traditional, religious, modern…
Add text into the clip: You can either write it down, record your voice or use the text to speech tool. All three ways incorporate your message into the clip, in text or soundtrack.
Have your students watch the clips, choose the most suitable one and then ask them to add a short story which matches the pictures… easy and engaging!
You can embed the clip or send it to others… share your work!
If you or your students are not Bollywood fans… try B Movie TV… the same interface, but related to those old movies from the 50’s… good fun as well!
Fodey is a simple but catchy webpage that lets you and your students create newspaper clips very easily. Add a made up newspaper, a title for the article, a date… and write. have fun and imagine incredible news. A very good resource to practice vocabulary and writing skills… easy peasy!!
