Creating a jigsaw activity for reading comprehension

Enjoying a maternity leave for a second time I  decided to take up some courses to improve my skills and catch up with new attitudes towards teaching and EFL.  I therefore, attended a course about teaching reding comprehension from a task based approach.The course explores ways of teaching reading skills in English as Second and Foreign Language and suggests new activities  beyond skimming and scanning. I have created a lesson plan based on a jigsaw activity. This is an approach to reading that involves the students in speaking and summarising skills.You can either hand out to students  texts on the same topic or split the text in two. Students can work in groups and then relocate to report to others their answers and findings. 

Below is a lesson plan about the refugee crisis that has affected Greece as well.  

 READ more about jigsaw activities below sample jigsaw activity

Break the ice activities

September is already here and most of us are  preparing for the new school year (at least here in Greece).
While tidying and organising my schoolmaterial I came across some nice activities to break the ice with new or-why not- old students.
It seems like yesterday when I was attending a two-year course with the school psychologist and other colleagues about how to deal with class stress and the burnout syndrome. We were introduced to some nice techniques and games. The following break the ice activities are based on those games. Learning more stuff about our students helps reorientate our attitude towards them.



And here is another one based on names. Teenagers seem to like it a lot. They can learn more things about each other.

Interactive games for kids

I came across some interactive material for the English lesson today. It's supplementary material for the lesson of English at Greek public schools. I thought it would be useful to share it with you on my blog. Just click on the START button.

                                                                    ACTIVITY ONE

                                                                   ACTIVITY TWO

Teaching about spoof ads!

Using ads and commercial spots in the lesson plan is an interesting way to challenge and motivate students talk about ads they like and dislike. Students and especiall teenagers love sharing ideas about ads and why not planning their own advertsing campaign.
Talking about spoof ads and the role they play, is a better and more unsual way to introduce the topic of advertising. Students can find out more about this type of advertising and  even create their own spoof ad .
Here, you can find two worksheets. One is based on a typical lesson plan about advertising and ther other is based on a spoof ad about Nike products.

WORKSHEET 1  

WORKSHEET 2

A SPOOF AD by halandritsa on Scribd

The Road not taken

We are all preparing for the start of the new school year. What should we teach our students the first days to spark their interest?

After spending the first day with breaking the ice activities to learn more about my new students, I introduce them to one of my favourite poems in the English language.

Teenagers love this and compare it to the famous phrase "Seize  the day". Even the weakest students participate every time I 've used this poem in my classes.

I' m going to use it this year as well and I've prepared the following worksheet. Don't forget to check the extra resources at the end of this post.

 




EXTRA RESOURCES

ONESTOPENGLISH LESSON PLAN 
ACTIVITIES FOR TEACHING THE POEM
ACTIVITIES FOR KIDS

The road not taken from lagmay08

A royal Inside Job

Teaching our students about famous landmarks and monuments in the UK can be a pain in the neck. You need to find material meaningful and interesting to them that eventually will entice them to find more info about these. 

Watching TV the other day, I came across TravelChannel documentaries "Greatest mysteries". It was an episode about  Buckingham Palace and mysteries about it.

 Click here to watch the video.

Below there is an online activity based on the video.

 

A Royal Inside Job » ProProfs Quizzes

And here is a crossword based on law and crime vocabulary

Educaplay activities!

I came across another great tool to create multimedia material to use in my classes. 
Educaplay is free-it offers a premium version- and it's really easy to use. There is a variety of activity types to choose from and you can also use time limit to make it more enticing for your learners!

Here is an activity based on hands and feet idioms!