I made this activity up in class and it worked well! Really creative, loads of interesting language, and also a good way to practice ‘used to’ for describing past appearance. Procedure: Students work in pairs Everyone has some scrap paper… Read More ›

grammar
‘so’, ‘such a’, and cheap cocktails
Another one of my ‘making things up as I go along’ reflections. This time, something that actually worked! The materials from one of our in-house, pre-int lessons the other day reviewed so/such (a) in the context of travel / holidays… Read More ›
Twist on a classic: Harry the Hippo
A nod to TESOLTOOLBOX here… Harry the Hippo is a fun guessing game to use in the class. It can be adapted for practicing various grammar structures. I can’t remember where I first played the game or who taught it… Read More ›
Lesson idea: present perfect time markers
Here are a few fun activities for practising time markers used with the present perfect. There’s a review of these markers in a B1 level teen coursebook we’re using (Gateway, Macmillan). I found the meaning/rule activity in the book useful,… Read More ›
Past continuous: sporting experiences
More football! Give me more football! I heard it’s less than a month until the start of the Premier League season. Here’s more football related content for the post-World Cup/pre-PL football hungry students.
Teaching functional language
A newly-qualified CELTA teacher has asked me for advice about how to deal with functional language. So… this is one of my approaches to teaching functional language! The example is from a lesson I did last weekend about the World… Read More ›
Lesson ideas: football and conditionals
Looking for a way to teach/review conditionals? A former colleague at LTC Eastbourne (cheers Angel) told me that football was his ‘go to’ topic for conditional structures… Show the students a league table (or part of it): source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/football Use actual… Read More ›
Present perfect game
I’m on good form! It’s been a fun weekend of classes. Today I tried out a new task for practising the present perfect (life experiences). Well, it wasn’t exactly new, just a variation on a few well-known tasks. Still, it… Read More ›
Lesson idea: should and shouldn’t…
A repeat of the must/mustn’t game I mentioned a while back. I used this for should/shouldn’t the other day, in the context of illness. Choose an illness, or some kind of problem related to your context. Prepare three pieces of… Read More ›
A fun way to drill
A bit of repetition never hurt anyone! It might not be the most riveting stuff, but sometimes I come across these ‘listen and repeat’ drills in our materials or in books. They’re ok. I used to like substitution drills myself…. Read More ›