Icebreaker: Show me a picture of

Introduction

In a new class students are always keen to learn a bit about their new
teacher and if youre willing to share and personalise your classes the
students will reciprocate with you and each other. So start by projecting
some photos of things from your life on to the board with some sentence
stems for deduction.

Intermediate levels:

He/she/it could/might/may be his girlfriend (possibility)

He/she/it must be his brother (almost certain)

He/she/it cant be his sister (impossible)

Higher levels:

Id say that

Id hazard a guess that

I bet you X thats his brother.

I (dont) reckon that

Im absolutely certain that

Theres no doubt in my mind that

Theres a good/strong/slim chance that

I could be wrong but I think

Drill sentence stress and intonation. Then put students in pairs and show
them some of the pictures. Monitor them as they make guesses about who
the people in the pictures are and have students share their deductions with
the class. Award points for correct guesses.

Here are some example pictures from my life:

Other useful language:

You look just like (your mum)

You dont look anything like (your sister)

You are the spitting image of (your Dad) (you look exactly the same)

You take after (your Dad) you look/act the same.

Step 2: Pair work

Put students in groups of 2/3 and tell them to take out their phones and go
to their photo albums. They must then take it in turns to show their group a
picture of the following things:

A parent

A grandparent

A pet

A very close friend

An activity you love

A great meal

A fantastic day

An amazing view

A selfie
The others in the group must use the language of deduction to guess what
the picture is and then they can ask questions to discover more information
about their partner.

You might want to model some questions on the board:

When was the photo taken?

How long ago did you take this photo?

Where were you when you took the photo?

What does your Dad do?

How long have you been ing?

Language for reactions:

Wow! That looks amazing/lovely/gorgeous

No way! Me too!

Your Dad works in finance? No way, mine does too!

That must be (amazing/fantastic etc.) present event/state

That must have been (amazing/fantastic/so much fun) past experience

Give SS 10-15 minutes to talk, encourage the use of the vocabulary, award
points to groups using the most.

Students then report back to the class about the favourite photo their
classmates showed them. If you can, project the photos onto the board so
the whole class can see them.
 Follow up/Homework

Story behind the picture. SS write a composition (150-200 words) telling the
story behind one specific picture. Encourage them to copy paste the picture
at the top of the page. This is a good opportunity to practice narrative
tenses: I had been walking all day, thats why I look a bit tired in the photo.
The sun was shining, the wind was blowing in the trees It was the scariest
thing I have ever done. I was walking down the street when I saw a

Drawing dictation FCE Speaking Exam Focus

The FCE speaking exam lasts 14 minutes, and for part of that time students are expected to talk about and
compare a pair of photographs. This lesson is designed to help them prepare in an entertaining way.

Lesson aims:

To practise description
To develop listening skills
Procedure:
Place students in groups. Tell them that one student is going to describe and the others are going to draw.

You should enforce a strict English only policy during this activity.

The student should choose a picture at random (without being able to see what it is). He or she then has 4
minutes to describe it to the rest of his group. They group are to draw what they hear. The teacher should monitor
the language carefully, writing down errors.

After the time is up, the students should compare the original picture to their versions.

Its very simple, surprisingly fun and it tests a number of skills.The students will be able to see how well they
described when they see the results.

At close, the teacher should write mistakes on the board and use peer-correction to conclude.

Choice of photograph

The more interesting the picture, the better. You can spend hours trawling the internet looking Ive found
searching for surreal is enough. Ive included a few pictures to get you started.

More lesson plans based on the pictures below to come.

Speed Discussions speaking activity (see pdf table)
Speaking activities often rely on pairing students up with the same speaking partner.
This might result in boring, predictable, and demotivating speaking practice. In
order to mix things up and expose students to a variety of speaking partners, I
propose a speaking activity which I called Speed Discussions as its format
resembles Speed Dating. Speed Discussions is a very dynamic activity and
guarantees plenty of student talking time. It is a great idea for larger groups but
might also be adapted for smaller classes.

The Task
Decide on the seating before the lesson. You might arrange the desks in a horseshoe
or a single row with chairs on both sides of each table. This way students will be
facing each other while they discuss each topic.
Let your students take their seats and tell them they are about to discuss X different
topics with X different classmates. The number of topics depends on the class size. I
prepared 6 different topics which is perfect for a group of 12. Be ready to step in in
case not everybody in class has a speaking partner or arrange for a 3-person group
(two students who dont switch places sit together, waiting for a new speaking
partner).
Each discussion will last approximately 5 minutes. After this time, on your signal, one
row of students (specify clearly which!) will move over one chair to their right to
switch speaking partners and discuss next topic from the list.
Before the discussion begins, your students need to write down their opinion on each
topic on a scale of 0 (totally disagree) to 5 (totally agree). They should write down
the name of each of their speaking partners and their opinion about the topic before
they start discussing it. If they have differing opinions, they might try to persuade
their partner and change their mind. At the end of each discussion they should write
down the Result (have they managed to change their partners mind? Did they both
agree with each other to begin with and just exchanged similar opinions?)
After all the topics have been discussed, see whether your students stuck to their
guns or were flexible in changing their opinions. Ask individual students to recap one
discussion they had and report on its final result. It is a good way to find out which
topics proved to be more controversial than others.
Dont forget to listen to your students English while they are discussing and be able
to offer some particular feedback (common mistakes, false friends, examples of good
grammar or vocabulary).

Personal Experience
I have been quite lucky teaching groups of eager and talkative students who dont
shy away from expressing their opinions and interacting with their classmates. Or so I
have thought until I realized that even though each group I teach is different, the
dynamic is pretty much the same: students keep doing all speaking activities with
the same partners and with each lesson they have less and less to talk about. This
resulted in lazy speaking, relying on their partner too much, getting away with
I dont know, it depends and general apathy during speaking practice which could
potentially be the most interesting and engaging part of the class.
Speed Discussions were meant as a remedy to this near comatose state some of my
groups were nearing and it worked like a charm. The choice of topics was actually
secondary to the fast-paced, dynamic setup of the activity. Moving around the
room, meeting a new partner, hearing a new voice (yes!) these were all
factors behind this really simple activity being successful. I got quite a lof of feedback
from the students right after the class and it was overwhelmingly positive. I was
thinking to myself Why havent I done this earlier, its always been right there under
my nose!
I observed my students closely not so much to listen to what they were saying
(grammar, vocab, etc.) but to see how they were interacting with each other. It was
interesting to see usually quiet students liven up when they had to talk to a new
speaking partner and they contributed more than what I remembered of them from
their usual pairwork. I learned never to underestimate the power of shaking up the
routine and its incredible effect on students (and my!) morale and performance.

Problem solving speaking activity

The aim of this speaking activity is to practice problem-solving in English and
brainstorm solutions to five different problems. It is perfect for conversation
classes, bigger and smaller groups, levels intermediate and above.

The Task
Students work in pairs or small groups trying to find solutions to 5 different problems.
It is a good opportunity to practice the second conditional (I would, If I were in this
situation), modal verbs (should, might, mustnt etc.) and negotiating
(agreeing/disagreeing/expressing your opinion/asking about your partners opinion).

Personal Experience
I have used this activity both with adult and teenage students, levels intermediate
advanced. It works well as a warm-up (giving the students just one problem) to a
regular class, and may also be used during conversation classes (takes around 20
mins.) Make sure to allow some time for the groups to present and compare their
ideas at the end of class.

Problem solving speaking activity: part 2

I have compiled a list of 15 problems to which students need to brainstorm
solutions. This list is a result of classes I have taught to teenage and adult students. It
is a perfect fit for conversation classes. The topics include: family life,
relationships, neighbours, and shopping.

The Task
Students work in pairs or small groups trying to find solutions to 15 different
problems. It is a good opportunity to practice the second conditional (I would, If I
were in this situation), modal verbs (should, might, mustnt etc.) and negotiating
(agreeing/disagreeing/expressing your opinion/asking about your partners opinion).
Past modals lesson plan: deduction and speculation
https://prezi.com/ed6xlwkxsexg/past-modals/

Past modals lesson plan deals with a pretty important grammar point for the FCE and
CAE students: using past modals for deduction and speculation. It is also
suitable for upper-intermediate and advanced students. Past modals lesson plan
might also be used for conversation or 1-1 classes as it offers a lot of speaking
practice and works well with both smaller and bigger groups.
The Task
Use the presentation to introduce the topic, show examples and elicit some other
from your students. Make sure your students understand the level of certainty each
past modal implies:
must have happened= it surely happened
may/might have happened = maybe it happened
cant have happened = it surely did not happen
Students use must / cant/ might + Present Perfect to come up with logical
explanations for pictures and situations. Encourage your students to be creative and
pay special attention to the participle form of the verb. they might work in pairs or
individually. At the end of the class, make sure to compare their answers and choose
the best ones for each situation.
Personal ExperienceThis mini-lesson complemented the book content nicely and
allowed the students to take some control over the language. My students enjoyed
the visuals and contributed numerous (more or less) logical explanations using past
modals. Some of them were really funny and I chose those to be put on the board for
the rest of the class to copy.