Teaching Ideas - Page 5 of 5

Group Activity For ESL/EFL Classes: Famous Stories With A Twist!

My students love creative activities, especially the younger kids and teenagers are always thrilled when we play a game or do some acting. I did this activity with students from 14 to 19 years. It was always a success. The best thing is, there is almost no prep and you can do it the whole lesson, or shorter versions as a warm-up.

This activity is a cross of telling a story, inventing your own and acting. I use famous stories with three or more characters so the kids can work in small groups. Then I assign the story and let them draw a card with a specific genre.

So, for example, we can have the story of Shrek and the genre is a documentary. We have three main characters: Shrek, Fiona, Donkey. If needed we could add one extra character: Gingerbread Man, or Puss in Boots. Then I give the students some time to prepare, usually 10 minutes. After that, they take turns in acting their stories, as a theatre troupe :).

You can download the activity with my stories here or prepare your own, using stories well known in your culture.

Download >>>>>>>> Stories with a Twist

Extra activity: if your students don’t know the stories or the characters in the stories, don’t tell them. Let them use their phones or school computers to do their own research.

ESL Picture Description: Exam Skills Practice

I put together picture prompts on different topics that can be used when practicing general speaking with your students or preparing them for various certificates and exams. I will later add more resources on different topics.

Download the PDF >>>>ESL Picture Description: Exam Skills Practice

Similar resources

ESL Picture Storytelling Activity

Picture Based Speaking Activity For ESL/EFL Classes

Picture Prompts for Speaking and Writing: An ESL Activity

esl picture description — *Taboo card games*

Play and Learn! Kahoot: A Free Learning Platform.

Are you tired of marking vocabulary and grammar tests?

Do you want to revise vocabulary and chunks of grammar quickly?

Do you want to engage your students?

Do you want to have data about your student’s performance in neat Excel sheets readily available for you?

Do you want to play a game as a warm-up or filler, no prep whatsoever?

Do you want to have access to countless learning games?

Are you creative?

Do you enjoy creating your own games and quizzes?

If you answered YES to at least one question, you will love Kahoot. Continue reading Play and Learn! Kahoot: A Free Learning Platform.

Bean Boozled in ESL Classroom: A Funny Way to Warm Up, Engage And Motivate Your Students.

Who doesn’t like jelly beans? Most kids love them. Why not use that love for them in your classroom?

I’m sure most of you know the naughty version of Jelly Beans- Bean Boozled. It is a game which features a spin wheel and 14 different flavours of the jelly beans. 7 of the flavours are weird and wild and quite disgusting, especially rotten egg or dog food, others are more or less harmless, like toothpaste and lawn clippings. The other 7 flavours are regular jelly beans: peach, coconut, lime, etc.

The fun thing is, the seven regular flavour look identical to the other seven disgusting flavours. Can you tell them apart? You spin the wheel, which shows you what colour you have to eat. Will it be tasty lime or lawn clippings?

So far, it sounds fun, but what can you do with this game at your ESL/EFL lessons?

Plenty of things. I used it for the first time as an icebreaker in September, during that first lesson when everyone feels awkward and uncomfortable. I prepared a set of quiz questions, mine was general knowledge but you can make it anything you want: tenses, vocabulary, spelling, etc.

I asked a student a question and when they didn’t answer correctly they had to spin the wheel and eat a jelly bean. It was exciting because they didn’t know what flavour they would get, so they tried to answer correctly as the game progressed, hence the motivation.

You can use it as an energizer when your students seem in need of a little excitement and fun. It can be used at the end of the lesson as a filler, or as a form of a reward after a difficult test. You can also hack the spin wheel and add different questions to each section. If the student answers correctly, they don’t have to eat the jelly (or they can, if they want to risk it). If they can’t answer the question correctly, they have to eat the jelly.

My favourite way how to use it is to let them write the questions, and I mostly use it for vocabulary revision. I prepare vocabulary cards on certain topic and each of the cards contains the word which they need to explain and colour of the jelly bean.

They spin the wheel, and if they can’t explain the word they have to eat the bean of the matching colour. Which can be delicious or quite sickening. Just make sure the kids are ok with this kind of game and have some tissues ready, some spitting may occur!

Other games and speaking activities:

28 Conversation Starters

Role plays- Travel

Online Vocabulary Activity With Pictures.

I want to share with you a fun activity which I found on the website of the Merriam-Webster dictionary. It is called Name That Thing, and that is exactly what you do. They show you a picture of an everyday object or a part of it and you have to choose the correct word. Sometimes, the object is not that familiar, like for example flying buttress.

You will have 15 seconds to guess each word and the faster you are the higher the points. The game is a lot of fun and a great way how to learn new vocabulary.

There are also many other games, quizzes, crosswords, and puzzles. Have fun!

Some more vocabulary activities for ESL students >>>Travel/Holiday Vocabulary Cards, Media/Entertainment Vocabulary Card Game Based on Taboo, Business English Vocabulary Card Game | Forbidden Words,

Business English Vocabulary Card Game | Forbidden Words

Forbidden Words is a game card activity based on Taboo. The aim of the game is to explain given words, but without those words that you would most likely use because those are taboo – that means, you can’t use them. The simplicity of this game allows for endless variations and you can use it to teach any vocabulary you wish. This is a Business English Vocabulary game for adults and teenagers.

This version contains 27 cards, each with 5 words, which gives you together 105 words you can use for teaching or revision with your students.

Each card contains one keyword (the word you have to explain) and 4 forbidden words which may not be used when explaining the keyword. If it is too difficult to explain the keyword without using forbidden words, you can allow your students to use one or more of the forbidden words.

Download >>>> Business Vocabulary Card Game I Forbidden Words

Download Travel card game >>>>Travel&Holidays

Download Media card game >>>>Media Card Game

28 ESL/EFL Conversation Starters to Spark Conversation

There are not enough conversation questions in the resource universe to satisfy the needs of an average EFL/ESL teacher. We need more, more! Especially, when you teach one-on-one, the search for good questions can be excruciating.

I put together 28 questions which can help the conversation to get going. Some of them are closed questions, they can be answered by yes or no, but it should be made clear before you start the activity that the students are not allowed to do that.

I suggest that they talk about each question for about 2 minutes, and only after that time the teacher can ask follow-up questions.

Some of the questions can be viewed as a bit controversial, so I recommend you use them with adults or older students.

Download >>>28 Conversation Starters

You can also try my other speaking activity >>>> Role plays- Travel