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Feel free to send your ideas to my email: mariazabalapena@gmail.com / englishforeso@yahoo.es. To use the lesson plans in my blog, you do NOT need photocopies for students. You MAY need to print instructions or to use a projector and/or a computer.

For ESL VOCATIONAL TRAINING LESSON PLANS go to my other blog HERE
Browse LABELS to the right, underneath to find prompts and tasks.New!! VIDEO BLOGS on English for Communications and on English for Office Applications (Computers). See links below.

* English for Communications. Click HERE. By Beatriz Papaseit Fernández and myself, María Zabala Peña

* English for Office Applications (Computers :Word 2007 and more). Click HERE. By Beatriz Papaseit Fernández and myself, María Zabala Peña

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Street Signs: How would you group and categorize them?

Aim:  the aim of this task is to decide how you would group these street signs.

Any level but students need to be able to say simple sentences in:
  • Present simple
  • Conditional tense
  • Past simple (if you carry out the comparison of categories)
Attention! There is no correct answer. The most important thing is that you use English to decide how to group these street signs.

 Use these language items:
  • I think we could create a category called...
  • The Drunken Man can go under the category...
  • I think the category.... is better
  • We could create a new category called
  • How about including the street sign ... under the category...?
Once finished, compare your distribution/categories with other teams'
  • What categories did you create?
  • Where did you include the sign of...

    Wednesday, April 11, 2012

    Create an -ation poem

    Students add stanzas to the famous  ATIONS poem, by Shel Silverstain.

    You will need:

    • To show students some or all of the stanzas of the ATIONS POEM below.
    • To ask or provide the students with some words ending in -ation.
    1. For this go to google and write: words that finish in ation
    2. Pick the words that suit your needs.
    I suggest these but there are loads: abbreviation,  acclamation, conversation, asphyxiation, humiliation, inspiration, ovation, peregrination, popularization, meditation, organization, socialization, simplification etc.

    The sentences can vary from very easy to more difficult sentences, depending on the level of your students

    Examples:
    If we check the lock too many times
    This is overcaution

    If we are always scared
    This is overcaution

    See below, after the poem, some of my students contributions


    This  is the poem

    These are some of the proposals of my 2014-15 class  
    Attention: Students have added these stanzas. They are posted  EXACTLY as the students entered them.


    If we walk along st. Jack's way
    that's a peregrination.
    If we go to the Tibet
    that is meditation.
    If we go to a wedding
    that is a celebration.
    If my name is Pedro And you call me Pe
    That's an abbreviation
    If we love each other very much
    That's a relation
    If we decorate home
    That's an organization
    If we give important news
    That's  information
    If we chat someone
    That's conversation
    if I don´t speak to you
    That´s meditation
    if today I´am speaking
    That´s inpiration


    Friday, April 6, 2012

    How to use a bilingual (English- Spanish) dictionary

    Aim:
    The aim of this task is for the students to see that  grammar class and general meaning of a sentence are crucial before looking up words in the dictionary. Even then choosing the correct word can be difficult. Students need an English/Spanish dictionary. Ideally they should do the following exercise in the computer room using the dictionary in www.wordreference.com

    Download the documents  from this link: HERE

    You will need:
    • Answer Sheet for the Teacher 
    • Tasks for the students. 
    You need not make photocopies. Just project the document on your whiteboard.



    Download the documents  from this link: HERE