Young learner classes at our school are mostly organised by age. This means there can be quite a range of abilities, and differentiation* is an important part of planning. I generally find that our materials can be a bit on… Read More ›
Lesson Ideas
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 ›
Workstations for reviews (young learners)
I saw my boss use a simple workstation activity during a peer observation. It was a really good way to prepare students for their final task. I often include a quick 10-15 minute workstation activity in my YL classes now…. 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 ›
Teaching pronunciation: contractions
Contractions often come up as a pronunciation point in our Elementary level lessons. My students don’t have much trouble with ‘I am’ becoming ‘I’m’, but contractions with ‘you are’, ‘we are’, etc seem a bit harder to produce. I feel… Read More ›
Highlighting success criteria to young learners
This post explains simple coding you could use to help learners notice key features of a model text. I know this type of stuff is common in primary schools, so I’m not trying to reinvent the wheel. It’s just not… Read More ›
Lesson idea – self-portraits
I love the book Being Creative by Chaz Pugliese. It’s full of great activities and ideas for personalising learning. It’s also a great book for new teachers to have around as it will encourage you to experiment. I first used… Read More ›
Breaktime games
Does anyone have any good suggestions for break time games? I have an interactive whiteboard and I’ve started to leave a game on the board (if I can trust the class with the equipment!). I prefer using things like Quizlet… Read More ›
Classroom games – Dobble!
Dobble is a great card game for quick thinking and bit of new vocabulary. I trialled it during a ‘fun and games’ social club last week and it went down well. Actually, the students enjoyed it so much that they… Read More ›
Planning tasks for young learners
To an experienced YL teacher this post is just stating the obvious. To me it’s not, because I’m new to teaching primary aged learners. I’ve got in the habit of tweaking almost every activity to try and make it fun…. Read More ›
ELT Planning 