“Make You Feel My Love”

VOCABULARY

KEY: 1. D; 2. B; 3. E; 4. F; 5. A ; 6. C

KEY: 1. comforting ; 2. confident ; 3. selfless ; 4. sincere ; 5. supportive ; 6. committed

Make_You_Feel_My_Love.pdfDownload

READING

Make_You_Feel_My_Love.pdfDownload

KEY: 1. on your case; 2. warm embrace; 3. evening shadows; 4. dry your tears; 5. hold you for a million years; 6. made your mind up; 7. do you wrong; 8. no doubt; 9. go black and blue; 10. the storms are raging; 11. highway of regret; 12. winds of change 13. make your dreams come true; 14. go to the ends of the earth

LISTENING

The students listen to the song to check their answers.

SPEAKING

POSSIBLE ANSWERS:

a. unconditional love; support and comfort; commitment and hope; relationship uncertainties

b. The singer has strong, genuine, and selfless feelings for the person he/she is addressing, with a deep commitment to making them feel loved and supported in various circumstances.

c. “I know you haven’t made your mind up yet”: this line indicates that there may be uncertainty or indecision on the part of the person the singer is addressing; the other person is still contemplating their feelings or perhaps hasn’t committed to the relationship.

d. Some natural elements are used metaphorically to convey various emotions, including love, support, comfort, and commitment:

– rain: often associated with challenges, difficult times, or a sense of melancholy; in this context, the singer offers a “warm embrace” during these challenging moments, symbolising comfort and support in times of adversity

– evening shadows and stars: they evoke a sense of calm and serenity

– storms and rolling sea: turbulent and unpredictable phases in life; the singer’s promise to be there during these storms signifies a commitment to providing stability and support during challenging times

– winds of change: transitions and transformations; the singer may be expressing a commitment to stand by the person even during periods of change and uncertainty

WRITING

Make_You_Feel_My_Love.pdfDownload

The tumbleweed invasion

Lead-in

1. Have the students read four sentences with the following adjectives: “prickly”, “bouncy”, “rambling” and “restless”. Then ask them to match each adjective to their definition:

The_Tumbleweed_Invasion_1.pdfDownload

2. Explain that today’s lesson is about something that is prickly, bouncy, rambling and restless. Think-Pair-Share: have the students guess what it might be.

3. Confirm or explain that the lesson is about tumbleweeds. If necessary, elicit its meaning. Display pictures or videos of tumbleweeds in action!

Before Listening

4. Ask the students to write down what they know about tumbleweeds under the KNOW column in the K-W-L chart in Activity 1. Share with the whole class. Then ask them to think of anything they would like to know more about and to write a few questions under the WANT TO KNOW column.

The_Tumbleweed_Invasion_2.pdfDownload

5. Before watching a video about tumbleweeds, check if the students can label the different parts of a plant (these terms will be used in the video). Provide any words if necessary.

Listening

6. The students watch “Why do tumbleweeds tumble?” till 1:45:

As they watch, the students complete the line in Activity 3, “From seedling to dead tumbleweed”, writing down what happens at each time of the year during this process. Play again if necessary. Check with the whole group.

7. The students watch the rest of the video and complete the LEARNT column of the K-W-L chart with at least 5 new things they have learnt. Have all their previous questions been answered?

Writing

8. Explain that Alex is a teenager who woke up one day only to find that his house had been invaded by tumbleweeds! Have the students chat to Alex here, a chatbot that will provide details about what happened, how he managed to solve it, or how he felt.

To guide the students, encourage them to follow the grid in Activity 4 and write down the key information. Invite the students to add three questions of their own, too.

The_Tumbleweed_Invasion_2.pdfDownload

9. Alex will provide different information for each student, so before comparing what Alex has told each of them, you may want to have them write a short report or a first person narrative and put all the information together. (I personally had them practise reported speech structures and had the students write a reported account of their conversation with the chatbot!). Finally, compare and discuss the different stories that Alex may have come up with and how they might differ.

Speaking

10. Use these cards with different situations for alternative endings to the tumbleweed invasion at Alex’s, and have groups of students role-play the ending, provide a short oral presentation with further details, hold a debate discussing the pros and cons of each of them, or even have them persuade the rest of the class that their option is the best one (and then vote!).

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Charting the skies: a lesson idea with Space Elevator

A few months ago, I shared Wonders of Street View: some activity ideas using Neal Agarwal’s fascinating website, neal.fun. One of the latest additions to the site, Space Elevator, allows us to simulate travelling up into space simply by scrolling up!

This interactive tool provides insights into the changes that occur in the atmosphere, including information about animals, various natural phenomena, or the types of aircraft we might expect to find.

So how about using this captivating content in an interactive lesson that allows the students to practise their reading and speaking skills?

LEAD-IN

1. Elicit the different layers of the atmosphere: Troposphere, Statosphere, Mesosphere and Thermosphere. How high does a regular passenger plane fly? And a monarch butterfly? How about the highest paper plane flight? Where would you need a spacesuit?

JIGSAW READING

2. Make groups of 6 and provide each student with a chart on one of the following categories: clouds, natural phenomena, aircraft and aviation, space, animals, and altitude-related records. Ask the students to explore Space Elevator and complete their charts with as much information about their assigned category as possible.

3. Encourage the students to use online dictionaries to clarify the meaning of unfamiliar words. You may also want them to write down any new or key words, or even write a collaborative glossary between the six members of each group as they read.

Space_Elevator_1.pdfDownload

(Please find a fillable PDF file version here.)

4. Ask the students to work together and share their findings within their groups. They can use this summary chart to write down the most interesting facts they have found for each category:

Space_Elevator_2.pdfDownload

(You can download the fillable version here.)

5. Allow each group to share a few interesting facts or examples with the whole class.

FOLLOW-UP

6. Ask each group to choose one thing they have read that they would like to know more about. The students use the internet and other resources to research and gather information, taking notes and collecting relevant sources for future reference.

7. Each group prepares a brief presentation to share with the rest of the class, followed by any questions the rest of the students may want to ask.

CLOSURE

8. Play this quiz game as a whole group!

9. Stand and Share: have all the students in the class write down one thing they have learnt or found interesting and have them stand up. Students take turns sharing their choices. If another student has written the same thing that their partner is sharing, they can sit down. The activity goes on until everyone is sitting down. (You can also focus on vocabulary and repeat the same procedure by having the students share one word they have learnt during the lesson!)

Oral presentations

I’ve written the following planning sheets to help my students think of ways in which they can start and close their oral presentations in class, and how to keep their audience engaged while delivering them.

Oral_Presentation_Planning_Sheets.pdfDownload

I’ve also put the ideas for the different stages together into one file for easier reference:

Oral_Presentations.pdfDownload

I hope you find it useful!

Dancing Teens

1. Ask the students to think of any films from the 1980s featuring teenagers dancing. Elicit a few titles.

2. Tell them that they are going to watch a video which explains why dancing in films was popular in the 1980s. The video is available on the BBC website and on BBC’s Facebook page (it’s a public post, so you don’t have to log in.) You can also find it on Twitter here.

3. Explain that for each time period (early 80s, mid 80s and late 80s) they will first have to answer one or two questions, they will look for a series of synonyms, and finally they will be writing the film titles mentioned in the video.

Dancing_Teens.pdfDownload

4. Play till 2:39, corresponding to the early 80s. Allow some time to answer the different sections. Play again.

5. Repeat the same procedure for the mid 80s (from 2:40 to 3:54) and late 80s (from 3:55 to 5:08).

6. Check the answers with the whole group.
VOCABULARY: Early 80s: 1. polished, 2. supported, 3. fad, 4. tanked, 5. mirrored, 6. blend or mash-up; Mid 80s: 1. ruled, 2. archetypal, 3. grown-up, 4. taking over, 5. defiance, 6. deemed; Late 80s: 1. diluted, 2. standstill, 3. heralding.

7. Have the students complete a summary using words from the vocabulary section (the synonyms they had found in the video) in the correct form.

You may also want to provide the words and have the students use the correct form:

Dancing_Teens.pdfDownload

KEY: 1. archetypal, 2. defiance, 3. backed, 4. ruled, 5. heralded, 6. blended, 7. fad, 8. had tanked, 9. were diluted, 10. standstill

8. Go over the film title sections and discuss any movies the students may have watched. Assign each film to pairs of students, and ask them to do some research about them. Provide the following as a guide:

– Film title:

– Genre:

– Release year:

– Director:

– Lead actors/actresses:

– Dance styles featured:

– Soundtrack:

– Plot summary:

– Notable Quotes (if any):

– Fun facts:

– Sample clips:

– Sources Used:

9. Have the students share their findings!

The seed vault

1. Ask the students to draw the scene you’re about to describe. Play this sound effect of a snow blizzard from BBC Sound Effects to help set the scene. Read the following:

I’ve been lost in the middle of this blizzard for almost half an hour. It’s difficult to see where I am, but I’ve just noticed a strange light square in the distance and I’m walking towards it. Could it be a house? Perhaps one of the houses in the town where I’m staying? I shouldn’t be too far away, after all.

As I get closer, I can see something similar to a tower made of concrete with a steel door and a tiny bridge in front of it. It seems to be carved into the side of the mountain! And then there’s the strange blueish light on a big square above the door.

I can’t help but feel a sense of mystery and intrigue. I’m now certain this is not a fancy hotel or someone’s house. I approach the door. It’s clear that it leads to something special. I take a deep breath, reach for the handle and turn it. The door creaks open, and I step inside.

2. Have the students share their pictures.

3. Display a picture of the Svalbard Global Seed Vault and discuss any similarities and differences.

(Source: Wikimedia Commons)

(Source: TIME)

4. Tell the students that they are going to watch a short video about this facility. As they watch it, the students first explain why the numbers in activity 1 are mentioned in the video.

The_Seed_Vault.pdfDownload

POSSIBLE ANSWERS:

1300 – the number of kilometres from Svalbard to the North Pole
200 – the number of years the seed vault has been planned to last
3 – the number of vault rooms
120 – the number of metres from the front door to the vault room that is in use
3,000,000 – the number of seeds that will be stored in the three vault rooms
500 – the number of seeds per sample there will be in the future
1700 – the number of gene banks around the world
9,000,000 – the amount of dollars it cost to build the Svalbard Global Seed Vault

5. The students work together to complete a short gapped text about the Global Seed Vault with one suitable word for each blank.

SUGGESTED ANSWERS: 1. seeds; 2. preserve; 3. tunnel; 4. bags; 5. boxes; 6. shelves

In their own words, the students explain why the Svalbard Global Seed Vault is important, and how it can help us in the future, using the information from the video. Share and discuss the students’ answers. You may even want to explore any possible problems or disadvantages this type of facility may have.

6. Ask the students to read the beginning of a story that takes place at the Svalbard Global Seed Vault. As they read, have them identify the setting, the characters and the plot of the story.

The_Seed_Vault.pdfDownload

7. Finally, ask the students to finish the story! Why not invite them to visit BBC Sound Effects, look for the sound effects that best suit their story endings (you can even mix different effects by clicking “Mixer Mode”) and create the perfect atmosphere for an intriguing story sharing session?

Wonders of Street View: some activity ideas

Wonders of Street View is a website from Neal Agarwal that collects weird and wonderful things on Google Street View:

By clicking “Random” on the upper-right corner, you will be taken on a trip to unique places around the world, including some really strange situations about which our students will certainly have a lot to say!

You can read where each Street View is located (upper-right corner), and you can get the address of a specific view by clicking “Share” (bottom-right corner) and copying the address provided, or opening the link on Google Street View itself.

The website is perfect for a whole-group speaking lesson in which the students use all kinds of descriptive language, together with functional language such as agreeing and disagreeing, or asking for / giving opinion.

I’m also attaching a choice board with task ideas that the students can do using this fun resource, first independently or in pairs/groups, but which can then be used in the classroom to practise other skills. Notice that these are general ideas and they will need to be specified to meet your students’ needs. I’ve tried organising them according to the level of difficulty, with the easier tasks at the top and the more challenging ones at the bottom. And if you’re following a structural syllabus, it might give you some ideas for actitivies you can do depending on the language focus you’re working on!

Wonders_of_Street_View.pdfDownload

I will be happy to edit the choice board with any other ideas you may have, so feel free to share them!

“Romeo and Juliet”: a post-reading mini-project

To check comprehension of a B1 graded reader based on Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet”, I asked my younger students to choose four key scenes or snapshots from the play and plan a short oral presentation explaining their choices, including:
– a description of each “snapshot”, including the setting, the characters and the action;
– which part of the plot they belong to;
– why they think they are important, providing at least three reasons.

Working in pairs, the students created a paper diorama for each scene which helped them both with the planning process and as a visual aid in the presentation. To make these dioramas, we simply used regular DIN-A4 white paper:

1. Fold the paper to make a square.

2. Fold the paper again so that it is folded on both diagonals.

3. Cut on one of the folds to the centre.

And there you go!

We even tried some stage curtains on each diorama!

stage_curtains.pdfDownload

This type of diorama makes it easy for students to take home before assembling and gluing them together, and for pairs to distribute the amount of work to be done.

The pairs of students finally took turns explaining their choices, followed by several questions from the audience. (And they did really well!)

For other similar post-reading ideas, you may want to check the following:

– “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”: an alphabet book.

– One-pagers: “The House on Mango Street”

– 15 post-reading activities.

Life in the year 2100

In 1966, BBC’s “Tomorrow’s World” featured a number of students from the UK sharing their own predictions about what they thought life would be like for them in the year 2000. The selection in the video around which this lesson revolves is certainly not the most optimistic, but I thought it would still be a good exercise for the students, and it might even help them refine their own predictions about our future.

LEAD-IN

1. Ask the students what they think life will be like in the year 2100. Have them compete the table on the worksheet with their own predictions for each of the categories provided: population, advances in technology, quality of life, housing, climate, and health and medicine. If necessary, elicit and/or model the structures they may want to use to talk about future predictions.

life_in_the_year_2100.pdfDownload

2. Have the students share their predictions and discuss any major differences.

LISTENING

3. The categories in the table are the main areas that are discussed in the BBC video broadcast on 28th December 1966. The students listen to the video with the English pupils’ predictions for the year 2000 and take notes for each category as they complete the table.

Here are some of the main ideas in the video:
– Population – The world will be overpopulated.
– Advances in technology – There won’t be enough jobs because of computers and robots.
– Quality of life – Life will be dull and boring. / People will be regarded more as statistics than as actual people. / Possessions will be rationed due to overpopulation.
– Housing – People will live in very small houses. / People will live under the sea or in the desert due to lack of space.
– Climate – The world might be too hot because of nuclear explosions. / The sea level will rise. / There may be another Ice Age.
– Health and medicine – There will be more cures and not so many sick people.

4. Encourage the students to discuss some of the predictions, and what they think of them in general. Are any of their predictions for 2100 similar to any of the predictions in the video?

FOLLOW-UP

5. Have the students write a few more predictions for the year 2100 related to other categories: school, transportation, food, clothing, relationships, and happiness. Are they now ready for a whole group discussion about each category?

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Food waste

1. Write or read the following definition:

“unwanted or unusable material, substances, or by-products”

___ ___ ___ ___ ___

Elicit the word “waste”. Brainstorm different types of waste (electricity, paper, glass, food, wood, water, plastic, metal, chemicals, heat, clothes, etc.)

2. Tell the students you will be focusing on food waste. Why is food waste a problem? Write down a few answers.

3. The students watch a series of short videos with specific ideas or measures to reduce food waste. Each of them has a different focus, from school projects to other types of measures implemented at a national level. The students watch the first three videos and write down the country and/or city where each measure is being implemented and a brief description of the solution that is suggested in each video.

Food_Waste.pdfDownload

In South Korea, an innovative push to cut back on food waste

Young Singaporeans’ smart answer to the world’s food waste problem.

Insects As A Solution To Food Waste

4. Have the students choose one of these videos based on originality, creativity and usefulness, but also thinking of how feasible it might be to implement the suggested solutions where they live.

5. Repeat the same procedure with the next three videos.

How Rotting Vegetables Make Electricity

Pennsylvania students invent solution to their school’s food waste problem

School Food Waste Solutions

6. After choosing the best idea, have the students discuss which solution they would choose, including its strengths and any weaknesses they can find.

7. Encourage the students to think of specific measures we could try at our school to reduce food waste:
– Which are some of the problems they can identify within the school premises?
– What are some solutions they can put forward to help prevent food waste?
Teams work on a list of solutions and prepare a short presentation to be shared with the whole group.