sil toed Acrostics and anagge e St Oi e . ll [| : + a” NGHSt story is a4 i iNewsademic.com” Easy-to-read international news for English language Students Newsademic is an easy-to-understand international newspaper, written and edited in a style that assists English Language teaching and learning. Currently teachers and students in over 100 countries subscribe to Newsademic. Newsademic is a fortnightly publication (20 articles) and associated website. Both British and American English versions of the newspaper are available. The easy-to-read newspaper features the top world news stories that have made headlines during the previous two weeks. Produced in both a PDF and HTML format many ELT/EFL teachers and students consider ita hugely valuable resource. Newsademic Features: 26 issues in 12 months. Features stories currently making the international news. Articles, written in an easy-to-read style, include latest news plus background information and explanatio Each issue is accompanied by two sets of activities/worksheets and the respective answer keys. Articles featured reflect no political or religious bias. Stories are reported factually and every attempt is made to feature both sides of any situation in which opinions differ. Focus on international news events that shape and affect the world that we all live in today. Carries no advertising. It is now possible to order a Newsademic subscription from The Teacher, in Poland, at a discounted price of 79 zt for a limited time only. I crcaeeesiian intensifier Newsademic.com | The ntorative nyo ead itd twat ews Get the latest issue of Newsadem Asa sample you can get the latest is- sue of Newsademic newspaper plus the advanced and basic activities/ worksheets that accompany it. To do this visit, or click, the link below and complete a simple online form. www.newsademic.eu/pl Activities/ Worksheets For more information please visit our website www.teacher.plNOVEMBER Sse eeeneeee host stories go as far as to ancient times. They Were tales about spirits that returned from the dead to haunt people.and places that they left behind. These stories involved a great number of historical figures such as kings, queens, politicians, gangsters or writers who died in mysterious and/or violent ways. Why are ghost stories so popular and why do people tell them? It is believed that they have pagan roots. These tales, were probably meant to teach the young a lesson and came with a moral. Some of them simply made people avoid particular behaviors ot situations, ‘Asa child, | was told many scary stories but, to be honest, they left me more traumatized'than cautioned® | can remember one, which | was told wheriever | was caught lying. The Boy Who Cried Wolf There once was a boy who kept sheep not far from the village: He would often become bored and to amuse himself he would call ou, “Wolff Wolf,” although there was no wolf about. The villagers would stop what they were doing and run to save the sheep from the wolf’ jaws. Once they arrived atthe pasture, the boy just laughed. The natighty boy played this joke over and over until the villagers tired of him One day while the boy was watching the sheep, a wolf did come into the fold. The boy cried and cried, “Wolf! Wolf!” Noone came. The wolf had a feast of sheep that day. Ghost stories are still very popular among the young as well as the older audience. Their purpose is rather commercial nowadays. You can read more on the topic in the latest piece by Trevor Hill, entitled ‘Ghost Stories’ Story taken from: http://www. storyit.com/Classics/Stories/boyeriedwolf;htm — ie Patryk Blacha Editor-in-Chief 11 (133) 2015 4 »> sara = aN pase # 0 WZ DOS : °° Published by: Uu Ub lalebraeska 15l¢k. 21 (2.370 asco, Plana 4482045 1948 48 (22) 213 8440 ofiesoteacherp Edtorin-chief atyklocha ‘BE s48(02)357 2822 & patykateacherpl Adversog Sales Manager: ‘Saris Wanton BE ssesca01 9139 & rekanapieacorp| Design: “he Teacher OTP Stato 1 tpoteacheroh Suthers lara Flperk ww pikezersy.com Copy Eto: Magdalena Moxoawa teacher Sit Manager: ‘ania Wanatoce Beaanns Be saa506579907 comceatescherpl “8 22) 425 1946 448 (202138440 brudoaecachecl Prenumerstasteneher pl Printed by: JUS moat cpg of me ty eh ress you {hepuslane guns peemson rth ptssarn thse ages ‘rated photceae Gost poten ‘ercomencsnleng, Altoona pope emit ubliher “Teacher Tomasz Pos PhO UBalobracsk 186k 113 370Warzawe, olind vas aq2141250 Tolozajotescherp Wi reacher enti lanai If reading The Teacher has inspired you to contribute an article of your wn to the magazine, please send ito the editor: editor@teacher.plCONTENTS FISZKOWKA na 6 How to use stories Edyta Socha Running on empty? Hack your lesson planning! Milada Krajewska Acrostics and anagrams ot faill just put pen Aleksandra Szudy-Sojak ELT CuLrure seeeeee aun The dance of the elements English village culture: A short review on individual ‘Summer fetes and festivals differen ind their Michael Czajkowski implication for foreigr language teaching Ghost story Magdalena Torzecka Trevor Hill Emotions in teaching and learning English innovative teaching Angelika Skotnicka Famous and not so famous places in Britain (Part 3) Using literary passages Colin Elis in teaching English culture ahi Marura at intermediate level Karolina Hadzicka Praykladowa sekcja Srodki jezykowe z nowego Repetytorium maturalnego Assessing Leamersy Speaking Skis Longmana. Andrzej Raczkowski Poziom rozszerzony 11 (133) 2015DOS Marta Rosifska Grzegorz Spiewak TEACHER TRAINING SOLUTIONS wrazz entuzjastycznymi trenerami i DOS-ELTea Teacher Trainer Academy zapraszajq na super-intensywne warsztaty dla nauczycieli jezyka angielskiego eneramee (17205 Perms) (10-1236) 512 Lesson erm 6 ezyli neurodydaktyka wreszcie w praktyce! inspirujaca i uskrzydlajaca sesja plenarna — jak naprawde uczyé jezyka obcego przyjaznie dla mézgu trzy super-intensywne bloki warsztatowe — jak praktycznie zaangazowaé emocje, pobudzi¢ ciekawosé i rozpalié motywacje wspétezesnego ucznia Swieze pomysty na powtérki jezykowe, prace z tekstem oraz wykorzystanie nowych technologii - jak nauczanie przyjazne dla mézgu skutecznie wprowadzié do klasy jezykowej oUt CU UC) Beat Rim UH Ceca ST partnerzy projektu: BTeacher BAK aLCHECK IT OUT! IE FISZKOWKA na6 ~ an entertaining way to test your students Being a good teacher is not only about motivating students to learn, but teaching them how to do it properly. And the best way to make them understand - is to show it to them in practice... Bearing al this in mind, Cztery Glowy Publishing House launched a new project aimed at school teachers who want to support their students in enhancing their language skills by using most efficient learning methods. The project is called FISZKOWKA no 6 and is best suited to English students at primary schools, but can be also used at high schools, one-to-one classes ar group lessons at private language schools. What is surely worth mentioning is that the facilitated materials are absolutely for free! Every teacher can order them easily for his students at vaww.fiszki,pl/fiszkowka and they will be sent by post to the given address. The learning method worth popularizing The aim of the project is to show students how efficient and fun language learning with help of flashcards can be and to encourage them to explore the method of spaced repetition and selective learning, popularized in the 70s by the German psychologist Sebastian Leitner. The learning system consists of a box with compartments (MEMOBOX®), filled with flashcards. The learning technique consists in translating the Polish word or phrase from the flashcard into English. The English expression is to find on the other side of the card. If the translation is correct, the card can be put forward to the next MEMOBOX® compartment, ifnot - it goes back to the first one. This system enables to schedule the learning process by revising only the selected material that stil needs to be memorized more often that the already learnt one. Learning by doing As mentioned before, itis crucial for students to see in practice that using flashcards can be extremely helpful in reducing the learning effort and improving the results at the same time. It is possible by presenting them with the thoroughly selected flashcards and providing them with the prompt feedback with the help of the FISZKOWKA+test. The set of 20 cards with funny pictures, helping to memorize the material, should be handed out to each student, with a short explanation of how to select the material and learn in the form of a quiz (detalled guidelines for the teacher are included in every FISZKOWKA na 6 set). tte down ae Kase sie meee || Then, after one week, teacher hands out FISZKOWKA-test, which should be completed byall the students in no more than 15 minutes. What is important, thanks to the layout of the test (funny pictures and crosswords) it can be treated more like an entertaining exercise than a difficult test that students tend to be fearful of. Currently, there are three FISZKOWKA na 6 sets available to order at www. fiszki,pl = Irregular verbs (for beginners), = Phrasal verbs (for intermediate learners), ‘= Idioms (for advanced learners). Each of them contains: = 20 flashcards and a FISZKOWKA-test for each student, = guidelines for the teacher and the answer key. Just try it. Your students will love it! And you can be sure that they will appreciate all the attractive prizes there are to win for taking part in the project... For more details go to www fiszki pl/fiszkowka, 11 (133) 2015lang.com.pl/odn le twist.lang.com.pl AUTEN A C = i » CELTA VAY) ! > Young j . ee ee \ Ct N tylko dla nauczycieli z pasja : VAN A Warszawa \ AN ds PET) sere) Ulta oe ee PLANetarium - grammar lessons for adults& metody aktywizujace dorosiyer angielski w przedszkolu | drama dla dzieci eer Couric) Pee ene cnr nrHowTo... DOS-ELTea TEACH FRESH - How to ... series Episode 3 How to use stories Edyta Socha he TEACH FRESH - HOW TO ... Teme series, brought to you by DOS-ELTea and guest-edited by Grzegorz Spiewak and Marta Rosiriska, aims to offer fresh, hands-on, tried and tested activity scenarios on a range of aspects of teaching English to learners of various age groups and levels of language competence. In episode 3, Edyta Socha takes a fresh look at stories, suggests a renewed rationale for using them more often, and as is the trademark feature of this series, offers several ready-to-use activity scenarios for different proficiency levels. “after nourishment, shelter and companionship, stories are the thing we need most in the world’ Philip Pullman Throughouthistory, storieshavehelpeduslearn about the world, understand complex concepts and most of all, preserve information. Stories are everywhere: in novels, films, pictures, fairy tales, folk tales, newspaper reports, anecdotes, gossip, childhood memories. Their power lies in how entertaining and thought-provoking they are. As psychologists Green and Brock claim, stories are literally able to transport our mind to another place. We empathise or identify with the characters. Being involved, our brain does not let us quit a gripping story without asking “what happened next?" DOS Edyta Socha Edyta graduated from Foreign Language Teacher Training College in Sieradz and English Philology in ddd. She has been teaching English to secondary school students but she has worked with other age groups of language learners as well. She is a proud graduate of DOS-ELTea Teacher Trainer Academy. Her main areas of interest include brain- friendly teaching and using new technologies in ELT. 11 (133) 2015www teacher. pl seee and desperately seeks for the resolution. It is hard to find a better motivation for learning. The examples of storytelling techniques below show that stories are truly flexible - they can be one sentence in length or very long, simple or complex, they can be done at any time of the lesson. These activities may create a perfect beginning of the lesson, they could be the core of the lesson or a time filler; they may also be a great kind of homework task. They can be used to practice listening, speaking or writing skills, and they may also explore every aspect of a target language vocabulary, grammar structures and even pronunciation, Therefore, storytelling is one of, the most powerful linguistic and psychological tools that can be used to teach a foreign language to virtually any group of students. Chinese whispers (ELEM+) Avery popular children's game, underestimated or simply forgotten by many teachers, is actually ~ potentiallyatleast -anincrediblyusefulstorytelling technique for your language classroom. Students sitin a Girdle or stand ina line. The teacher whispers a sentence or a phrase to the first student and hey she has to pass it whispering to the next person. ‘The process continues. The last student says it out loud, The aim of the game is to pass the sentence unchanged. Students may want to start the game themselves, which raises their self- confidence. itis a good warm-up for a storyteling lesson. It creates a tremendous opportunity for pronunciation and listening practice. Story circle (ELEM+) Students sit in a circle. You give them a story starter, eg. "Once upon a time...” and the person next to you continues the story. Then the next person builds on what the Previous students said, etc. until the story comes to a resolution. You can pre-select a title or a subject to guide the improvisation. Try recording the story circle on any digital device for later listening. it is a great warm-up activity that aims at building a story together and thus enhances students’ confidence, Go on an Selfie Adventure (PRE-INT+)' Prepare a slideshow of 20 selfie photos that show your story. The pictures will include: your favourite food, a group selfie (a photo that presents you and a group you belong to), 1 Activities adapted from: Terrel, S. (2015) Back to Schoo! Seifie Adventure Activity for Students. wiv siceshove net 41 (133) 2015 goal that you want to reach, your achievement or talent, a book or film you enjoyed, a phobia, a new friend, the great outdoors, a photo of you taken “from a different perspective", someone you love, you playing dress up, a hero that you admire, a selfie with an animal, a photo in ‘@ vehicle, a local landmark, a collage to describe an adventure you took part in, your friend, you in someone else's selfie and a selfie changed with a funny app. Tell your story to your students, write down useful words and phrases on the board, Then ask them to prepare their own “Selfie Adventure” and share it during the next lesson. It is a great way to present yourself to your new students, get to know them and build a friendly group atmosphere, Change the story (PRE-INT+) Use a text from your coursebook. When you finish working with it, divide it into two parts. Give the first half of the text to student Aand the second half to student B. Their task is to look at their parts and choose 10 words that they think are important, attractive and which they want to remember. When the words are chosen, ask them to tell their partner a story, e.g. describing their last weekend. When student A describes his/her weekend, student B calls out his/her words from time to time and then student A has to include the word and change his/her description spontaneously, which brings a lot of fun. Then they change the roles. This technique aims at developing students’ vocabulary and speaking skills and it is truly involving, Music, questions and a film story (PRE-NT+? Select three pieces of music, each about two or three minutes long. Make sure they are of very different kinds. Tell your students that they are going to write a film story opening. Ask them to close their eyes and play the first piece of music. As they listen, they should imagine a place, look at it, listen to it, feel it and smell it. After two or three minutes ask them to open their eyes and write down words and phrases describing the place. Give them two or three minutes to do it. If they ask for help, write the vocabulary on the board and say that anyone can borrow anything written there, Tell the students to listen to the second fragment of the music with their eyes closed and to imagine a person or people in their place. What are they 2 Wright, A. (1997) Creating Stories with Children. OUP ~ academy »> 7HowTo... doing? What do they look like? Who are they? After two minutes ask them to write any words describing the people. In pairs the students tell each other their ideas. Play the last piece ‘of music and ask the students to imagine their characters again and see where they are and what they are doing. They write this down as well. The students now make new pairs and tell each other their film story opening, based on the notes they have made. Finally, the students write up their stories. You can ask them to develop their stories as a homework task. Colour or advance the story (PRE-INT+) Tell your students the beginning of a story. Ask individual students to continue the story, but the way they do it depends on two instructions you are going to give them. They are: colour = which means they have to give more details to this point of the story, or advance - they need to follow to the next stage of the story. With weaker students you can split the class into two groups - colouring the story and advancing the story. This technique is particularly useful for practising speaking skills and vocabulary. A story in 140 characters (INT+) Students work individually or in pairs. Ask them to think of a story: it can be a story from your coursebook, from a book they have recently read, etc. Ask them to write the summary of the story in exactly 140 characters. It is a very demanding activity that involves a lot of, deep-processing since it is much more difficult to write a summary than to develop a story. sandwich story creative writing (INT? Dictate to your class the first lines of a story, eg. ‘Do you know why dogs in Papua New Guinea always sniff each other's tails when they meet? Well, youll soon find out. Long ago all the dogs ‘on the island came to the hilitop for a meeting.’ Then ask them to describe all the different kinds of dogs which came to the meeting place. Give the students time to write. Then dictate the next sentence: The meeting place was a huge hall at the top of a hill’ Then ask them to describe the sort of building they imagine and give them a few moments to write their description. Then dictate the next part of the story: Before they went into the great hall ail the dogs had to go and hang their tails up in a special tail-house.’ 3. Rinvolucri,M. (2008) story telling: the language teacher's oldest technique. wis (eachingenaish org.uk D@S Ask the students to explain why the dogs could not enter the great hall with their tails on. Give them time to write the explanation and then continue dictating. ‘Halfway through the meeting the dogs smelled something burning. They rushed for the doors of the great hall and saw smoke billowing out of the tail-house.’ Lastly, ask the students to finish the story in any way they like. ‘The Papua New Guinea ending is that the dogs rushed into the tail house and grabbed any tail they could find in the smoke. From that day to this all dogs have wanted to find their own tail, lost on the day of the great meeting! Group the students in threes and tell them to read their text to their classmates. They read both the dictated parts and the parts they have created. The dictated part is in fully correct, English. Psychologically, they consider the teacher's part to be their own one because of their own creative input. Thus, this technique truly enhances students’ linguistic confidence. Stories are a tremendous source of linguistic input for a language classroom and an excellent tool to practice listening, reading, speaking and writing skills. They can have a huge impact on the relations between a teacher and his/ her students. They can bring invaluable contribution to your lessons so collect them and share, share, share! si References: Green, M. C., & Brock, T. C. (2000). The role of transportation in the persuasiveness of public narratives. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 79(5), 701-721 Morgan, J., Rinvolucri, M. (1988) Once Upon a Time... Using stories in the language classroom. CUP = academy ‘an Innovative, highly intensive teacherdevelopmentprogramme, developed by DOS-ELTea and coordinated jointly by Greegorz Spiewak and Marta Rositska 77 hours of tuition, face-to-face and on-line, with some of the world's top teacher trainers. Edition 2 was launched on October 25, 2015. Find out all the details at wirw.e-dos.org and stay tuned for other teacher development ‘opportunities coming up soon! 11. (133) 2015wwwteacherpl Running on empty? Hack your lesson planning! Milada Krajewska ustyna is an amazing trainer and a dear friend of mine - always candid and demanding: If you come to a lesson unprepared, you can’t possibly enjoy teaching. ‘As you stand there, you can°t think of a single excuse or justification for your unpreparedness. That fact will ruin your pleasure, It is true for any profession. You face these people, aware of what you should have accomplished prior to the meeting. Even if you pretend ‘you are not bothered and declare your blind faith in the course book author's masterplan, you end up stricken with a thorny pang of remorse - and, no, you cant delight in helping your students to learn, not fully. | met up with Hania at the airport, the day before | heard those words. She's equally amazing and very dear to me. Unfolded over a cup of aromatic coffee, her story reflected the same point exactly: “You discover the genuine pleasure in teaching only after you discover the joy of lesson planning. I've been there.” she said 11 (133) 2015 eee eeee eee eee Milada Krajewska A teacher, author and trainer, Milada can’t get enough of learning how to teach and teaching others how to learn. Academie Development Manager at ODN Lang in Warsaw, Milada thrives on exploring new teacher training platforms (Facebook's Pomysly na_lekeje - iezyki obce) and formats (TWIST conference & PLANetarium lesson planning workshops) »»> METHODSMETHODS 10 NO CARAMEL 10 VANILLA NO BULLSHIT MeO; 737 We are not talking about heaps of lesson planning paperwork here, nor of elaborate conspectuses or —_hyper-creative _time- consuming teaching solutions. Think: deliberate lesson design - lean in shape, rooted in good activity formats, filled with juicy language and ‘composed with passion. The only way to enjoy teaching is to enjoy planning your lessons. Especially, as it saves, time in the long run, Have you lost your passion for lesson designing somewhere along the way? Hack your lesson planning! Alternatively, end up asa burnout. So what makes us teach lessons stripped of planning? Let us have a sneaky peek at a couple of lesson planning traps. TRAP! NOT QUITE M¥ THEIR TEMPO. In the movie Whiplash, Professor Fletcher would torment his most talented students LANG... with: “Not quite my tempo”. Watch the scene when he conducts a jazz ensemble’s rehearsal and each subtle gesture is intended to bring about silence and make music die. That's his plan. Hey presto. Cana teacher, any teacher, realistically expect to remain in total control of the situation? Isn“t it perfectly ok to plan flexibly and then give in to the lesson flow, depart from the lesson plan and follow in the direction that your students lead you? Isn°t it more human and more effective to fail, pick up the pieces and make the plan work out differently? Students will photo-bomb your lesson plans and you should let them do so. Flexi-planning works. Error-free lesson plans do not exist. Get to grips with that. TRAP! COVER TO COVER Can you think of one great movie, which has either a really bad cold open or a really poor final scene? If so, | owe you. Just as with the best film scenario, you can’t skip the lead-in and wind-down when planning lessons. They make all the difference to your students emotional engagement. Plan to start and finish your lessons with a strong emotional ... thud Both lesson parts - beginnings and endings - are of the utmost importance. The favour will be returned sooner than you expect. TRAP! THE OK PLATEAU. = What turns professionals into experts is the way they override the OK Plateau phase ~ the stage of skill acquisition when you feel so ‘good enough’ and comfy that you switch on the autopilot. The automatic mode means ‘good enoughness forever and youstandingno chance of mastering the skill. Plus your frustration will increase when other teachers keep raising their own bar. If you reach the OK Plateau with your lesson planning, the mere thought of composing a lesson can turn your stomach. 11 (133) 2015www_teacher Fs aut Joshua Foer (author of Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything) advocates deliberate practice as a solution. Foer concludes that music and sports champions achieve mastery thanks to the three rules = Remain goal-oriented = Tackle only the most challenging tasks = Expose yourself to feedback on your performance In other words, champions succeed by taking over the steering wheel and forcing the struggle back onto themselves, by deliberately taking on the toughest challenges. TRAP! ALL BY MYSELF Jf you want to go fast; go alone. if you want 0 g0 far, go together. [African proverb] As teachers, we tend to be insecure about our command of English or our teaching style. That makes us steer clear of comparison and feedback, or even friendly collaboration. But why not pair up with a teacher friend and tackle lesson-planning challenges together, bit by bit, in small bites? Trust me, seeing two different plans for the same lesson is a bit of humble pie and a major eye opener. Seeing your teaching through a pair of friendly glasses is nowhere near a threat to your professional existence. On the contrary, it boosts confidence and unblocks new avenues. Some ideas | would never ever have come up with alone, but for the inspiration from fellow teachers. Start small with a friend or reach out for a group, to tap into their ideas and share yours. 11 (133) 2015 Hack your lesson planning! Now! Here is a bunch of take-away solutions to help you reclaim the joy of lesson planning, HACK! TEACHER IN A BOX Imagine each teacher is ... a cornflakes box. Each of us is shelved, on display, each in a different box. The box design reflects our teaching style and favourite techniques. Can you picture your box? Take a marker and design your own packaging as a teacher. Yes, now. Put the features by which your students could easily recognize you and define your teaching style on the box: your favourite activities and fixed elements of your lessons. Here is mine: TORIES « INAGES - SENSES - AssocinTiONS »> 11 METHODSMETHODS 12 Based on what | put on my box, it was easy to work out which activities, lesson formats and teaching techniques are within my lesson- planning comfort-zone. They were my IN-THE BOX lesson plan features; they were easy, cosy and boring, as repetition breeds monotony. And it was just as easy to put my finger on the techniques | tend to avoid - my lesson-planning stretch zone: songs, pronunciation drilis and drama, to name but a few. This was a shocker, in a positive sense Listall the techniques you tend to avoid. Put up the OUTSIDE-THE-BOX list on your desktop, or elsewhere but within your sight. Each time you stumble when prepping a lesson, challenge yourself: reach out for one of the items from your OUTSIDE-THE-BOX list. Smuggle the item into your lesson plan. See how that move stretches your comfort zone and flexes your creative muscles. Enjoy the ride - planning and running that ‘stretch-zone’ lesson HACK! WORK THROUGH CREATIVE BLOCKS Don"t get bogged down easily! If your ideas pool dries up, take advice from people who tackle creative challenges on a daily basis: designers, poets, painters, musicians, authors and innovators. Here are just 5 tips. Bizarre or verging on ridiculous as they might seem, do not shy away. Diversity is the spice of life, Out-of-the-ordinary is the new standard in some contexts. @ Take a walk with a teacher friend. Walk and talk as you brainstorm a lesson idea. Movement boosts creativity. lnspired by Nilofer Merchant*s TED talk: Got a meeting? Take a walk] @ Choose a route to/from work different than usual. As you walk, look around the new surroundings, take photos and seek topics to wrap your next lessons around {Inspired by Daniele Quercia’s TED talk and app: Happy maps] Give serendipity a chance. Combine two random —ideas/objects/locations (e.g. a job and an object; two sentences taken from two random pages of two random books straight off the bookstore shelf; two random Editor's Choice images found on pixabay.com; two songs found on Spotify or YouTube). See how this random combination acts as a trigger for an intriguing warmer, lead-in, language presentation or a revision activity, with a twist. [Inspired by Keri Smith*s book LANG... © ET] projects, which blend the familiar book format with extraordinary creative. challenges] Don’ twrite out your lesson plan - doodle it Use sketchnoting, mindmapping or totally imperfect drawings to create a strong visual version of your lesson plan. See how you ‘helped yourself think’ with drawings and colour. [Inspired by Sunni Brown's TED talk: Doodlers Unite and Mike Rhode*s “The Sketchnote Handbook"} Break the rules. Yep! Photo-bomb your initial lesson plan before your students get to do that in class. Subvert your own ideas, Get out of a rut. Having said that, look at the 5 tips above as a budding lesson idea in its own right. From my experience, students love sharing their experience in overcoming all kinds of obstacles. Their own contributions in class may well give you even more options on the OVERCOME YOUR BLOCKS list. HACK! DIG SOCIAL MEDIA FOR IDEAS What does PLN stand for, apart from the Polish national currency? Personal Learning Networks are groups of educators who choose to meet up online to share their ideas and inspire one another. To start with, try these two: #ELTchat (eltchat.org) offers weekly Twitter chats (Wednesday 12:00 and 21:00 GMT). It is enough to follow the hashtag #£LTchat on Twitter to participateinatopic-based conversation with teachers of English from around the globe. Every Saturday you can propose a topic or vote for the topics suggested by others. An inspiring way to toy with new ideas and bounce your ideas against those of other teachers. 11 (133) 2015www teacher. pl weeelpooee Facebook: Pomysty na lekcje - iezyki top grammar. new talent II that, find your clan and mn planning tribe. In other th Godin helping like a plan and a game changer? To play a wrong note is insignificant; to play without passion is inexcusable. Ludwig Bee 11 (133) 2015 UTC by b ecdicy =e Bites a r Wet ‘ Hamlet Tn crs TTT see ete) X eur) \ reiyseria Lyndsey Turner Set ene hare cy Cera 24 i 30 listopada, 19:00 17 grudnia, 19:00 Pesce rede es Sa @@ COUNCIL SEZON Ploy ee SATOMI 0) PAJACE See eee ec sten ater tis ce DZIADEK DO ORZECHOW Batter cahirn aus RAPSODIA / 2) DWA GOLEBIE RELIANT eT SRN Rae LCL men Moc. om Bo OsRAM @ Pa ep, gl Ere an dalMETHODS Acrostics and anagrams You shall not fail! Just put pen to paper. Aleksandra Szudy-Sojak he end of summer is evident. And so is the beginning of a new school year, JL with its” surprising challenges and wonders, as well as tiresome duties. After all, are theses not two sides of the same coin? Before we submerge into sometimes rainy, yet - hopefully - more often colourful and Sunny autumn days this season, let me share three SUMMER poems, which my junior high school students wrote just before holidays, in order to introduce the topic of my article. seen eee eee Aleksandra Szudy-Sojak Aleksandra teaches primary, secondary and tertiary students, She is interested in trying out new perspectives on teaching practice in order to boost students’ linguistic confidence. She has written many articles for The Teacher, in which she has shared her ideas, observations and experience concerning language teaching, as well as rea: plans. In her free time, Aleksandra enjoys spending time with her family and friends. She loves cooking and riding a bike. She also likes — to her eldest daughter's amusement ~ reading dictionaries. 11 (133) 2015www teacher:pl aes Sunny days Usually are My favourite ones in My memories in which | can Especially appreciate Reminders of the days gone by. (ulka Géralska, second grade) sun Under My Majestic Eye Rises jan jurkiewicz, second grade) Shining water Unique voices Memories like butterflies My heart will stay there Everything to Remember (Kasia Krzemiers, first grade) For the aim of this article is to share a few ideas for creative tasks that might startle your teenage students before they hibernate along the classroom present - practice = produce grammar and vocabulary vicious circle. Poems If you ask your teenage students whether they like poetry, you will probably get a dirty look at first, followed by an array of answers, from that’s rubbish (to put it mildly) through | don’t get it to blushing /'m writing for my drawer ones. Poetry - the art of graceful arrangement of words so that they express beautiful, imaginative, important (or quite the opposite) thoughts, or as Merriam Webster's Encyclopedia of Literature defines it, ‘writing that formulates a concentrated imaginative awareness of experience in language chosen and arranged to create a specific emotional response through its meaning, sound, and rhythm’ (p. 893) - sounds pretty serious There are different types of poetry, each characterized by its own style (and the level of difficulty @). For example, there are sonnets 11 (133) 2015 with their 14line verses, often in iambic pentameters, having one of several conventional rhyme schemes Shakespeare's Shall 1 compare thee to a summer's day each line is 10 syllables tong, with the rhythm of each line in an interesting soft-LOUD-soft-LOUD-soft-LOUD-soft-LOUD- soft-LOUD pattern, but there are still different patterns in Petrarchan and Spenserian sonnets). There is an elegy, that is, a poem. or a song composed especially as a lament for a deceased person; or an ode ~ a lyric poem of some length, usually of a serious or meditative nature and having an elevated style and formal structure. Beyond question, these seem difficult genres to tackle; and, without a shadow of a doubt, they are impossible to write without diligent preparation. Then, there is a slightly more approachable limerick. This is a humorous and often nonsensical verse of five lines, in which the first, second and fifth rhyme with one another, whereas the third and fourth lines are shorter and also rhyme with each other, Edward Lear, the English artist, illustrator, musician, author and poet, is widely known now for his limericks, a form of literary nonsense he popularized, or as the blurb on The Book of Nonsense and Nonsense Songs says, ‘invented’. His limericks are most enjoyable and largely enlightening (especially in terms of place names and fancy adjectives - these are emphasized in the examples below). Just look: There was an Old Person of Gretna, Who rushed down the crater of Etna; When they said, “ts it hot?", He replied, “no, its not!’ That mendacious Old Person of Gretna. There was a Young Lady of Welling, Whose praise all the world was o-telling: She played on a harp, And caught several carp, That accomplished Young Lady of Welling. METHODS 15METHODS 16 There was an Old Person of Spain, Who hated alf trouble and pain; So he sat on a chair, With his feet in the air, That umbrageous Old Person of Spain. Haiku, an unrhymed Japanese form, written in three lines, traditionally with five syllables in the first and third line, and seven syllables in the second one, is another poetic type which appears fairly easy. A haiku captures an idea in a few succinct words. For example, The last winter ieaves Clinging to the black branches Explode into birds (from http://www.creative-writing-now.com/ how-to-write-a-haiku.html) All in all, however, even the shorter forms have some rigid rules, which might put a teenage writer off. Still, there is a type of poetry everyone can write without much preparation. Itis an acrostic. The term derives from acronym, which is a linguistic expression for words that are made up of the initials of other words. For example, NATO translates into the North Atlantic Treaty Organization; scuba comes from self-contained underwater breathing apparatus, whereas laser stands for light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation. Anacrosticis 2 poem in which the firstletters of each line spell outa word or a phrase. The word or the phrase can be a name, a thing, an idea, or whatever you like. Usually, the first letter of each line is CAPITALIZED. This makes it easier to see the word spelled out vertically down the page. Acrostics are easy to write because they don't need to rhyme, so you neither worry about the rhythm of the lines nor the number of syllables. Also, each line can be as long or as short as you want it to be. Moreover, the poems can be about anything. You can use a word (SUMMER if you want to write about the much-loved season), a phrase (for instance THANK YOU as an unconventional expression of gratitude) or even sentences (how about @ persuasive | LIKE GRAMMAR) in your acrostic poems, There are just a few tips you have to follow if you want to create an acrostic with your students. First of all, you have to decide what you want to write about. Then, write the word down vertically and think about words or phrases that best describe your idea and begin with appropriate letters. Then just put pen to paper and complete the rest of the lines to create a poem. In a memorable scene in Lord of the Rings Gandalf stands before the Balrog and says “You shall not pass’. Encouraging teachers might ensure their students with a misquote You shall not fail to write a poem. Just put pen to paper’. By the way, as far as fictitious characters go, any similarities to actual teachers/ students are purely coincidental ©. Anagrams English is as a ‘punnery anguished’, crazy language - these are phrases which Richard Lederer coins and beautifully explains in his books (like Crazy English, which is where the examples below come from). For English is 11 (133) 2015www.teacher: ply oe full of homonyms (words which are spelled the same but have different meanings, for example: bat - in cricket or a flying mammal, or bank {yn ~ a place where money is kept or a slope of land near water), eponyms (nouns which derive from people's names, for instance sandwiches and wellingtons), or metonymies (for example, when we talk about something to refer to a groups of people - crown for a monarchy, skirt for a girl, saxophone for a musician). There are indeed many linguistic idiosyncrasies in English which make ita fascinating language. The paradoxes include ironic words like sweetmeat, which actually is a piece of candy or crystallized fruit; ladybird, which is a beetle; as well as slightly absurd idioms, for instance - putting your best foot forward {as if there were three feet, taking into account using comparative and superlative adjectives) and inconsistent plurals - if one goose and two geese, why not a moose and two meese? And so, anagrams make intriguing linguistic phenomena. An anagram is a word, name or phrase formed by rearranging the letters of another, using each original letter only once. Act can transform into cat, flow into wolf, how ~ who, iced - dice or fast can become fats. Easy? So far, so good. The best anagrams, however, manage to link the new words to the original ones in some way. Fans of ‘the King’ believe that Elvis - lives, a gentleman is believed to be an elegant man. What do the eyes do? They see. Listen - silent. Just look and study these word puns: vacation time — 1am not active the detectives + detect thieves 11 (133) 2015 OFERTA SPECJALNA Roczna prenumerata magazynu The Teacher wraz z zestawem FISZKI dla Anglistéw 129 zt »> METHODS 17