Are you fed up with using the same old methods to introduce your lesson topic? Look no further! Here are 35 ways to kick off your lesson. How many have you tried?
Lesson Ideas
Fluency practice: What do you know about Britain?
Here’s a fun way to get students sharing information, in the context of history and culture. I originally got this idea from waygook.org, which is a good source of lesson inspiration if you’re a teacher based in South Korea. Let’s… Read More ›
Lesson idea: UK politics and the election
Today I taught one of my best lessons ever. It’s a massive day for the UK, and there was no way I was going to ignore the general election in class. I had a group of 14 year old intermediate… Read More ›
Lesson idea: quick conditionals review
Here’s a quick idea for revising some conditionals. I used this the other day and it worked well: Ask students the following: What would you do if you were the last person on earth? Encourage creativity: If I were the… Read More ›
Lesson idea: using sports commentaries in class
Have you ever heard of the ‘instantaneous present simple’? I hadn’t until a recent diploma module. Apparently it’s used to describe events or occurrences with some level of immediacy. You find it in newspaper headlines (like ‘Brad marries Angelina’), verbs… Read More ›
British History Lesson: Boudica
I recently taught a great group of upper-intermediate Italian college students. They were from a humanities college, they requested lessons in history, psychology, sociology and so on. It was International Women’s Day the weekend before, so I thought it was… Read More ›
Lesson idea: exploring the characters in a short movie
Here’s a great video to shape your own lesson around. In a previous blog I mentioned a few websites where you can find one minute long videos, which are great for a lesson starter. Here’s my favourite: Source: http://filmschoolrejects.com/features/10-fantastic-short-films-that-are-only-a-minute-long.php I think… Read More ›
A fun lesson idea using Ed Sheeran’s ‘Thinking out loud’
How do you encourage a really shy class to express themselves? It’s a question I’ve been asking all week. My latest group of single nationality pre-intermediate teenagers are a lovely bunch, but they can be so timid. I haven’t found… Read More ›
Using Google Doodles to revise dates
I read a great post from Svetlana Kandybovich yesterday on using Google games in the classroom. Her comments on Google matched my experience. I used to fight against technology and hated it when students always tapped away on their smart phones… Read More ›
Video resource: a one minute guide to planet earth
Here’s a fluency based activity to challenge those adult advanced classes. I am always on the hunt for activities that will stretch my strongest students, and get them talking about rather alien topics. After all, if you’ve mastered a language… Read More ›
ELT Planning 