Nice activities using technology

Make a long story short, family tree and other activities to make your students enjoy internet resources in the classroom and learn more effectively...




1. Family Tree

It is hard to make students learn family vocabulary without using L1 if we do not show them a family tree. If you are not good at drawing or prefer something more hi-tech, check this new way of presenting family members vocabulary.

First you will need to download a free 1.2 Mb software called “Grow a tree” (click here ). The program is really simple to use and you can add as many family members as you need to your tree.

Start the lesson by showing pictures of famous families (such as The Simpsons, The Flinstons, etc) and then show them a picture of your family (if you feel comfortable with the idea of doing so).

Open the software and show students your family tree. As it is not possible to make and save your tree previously, you will have to do it in class – which can be even more interesting because you will be able to elicit from them how those members you are adding to the tree are called.

A good follow up to this would be handing students a family tree graphic, where they will write the names of the members of their families. After making their family trees, students could ask each other the ages of the people of their partners' families, their jobs, what they look like, what they like doing and so on.






2. What's your opinion?

This activity is very good for one-to-one students and groups which like debating.

You will need to sign up to Voxopop, an online community in which you will find discussion forums where people debate by voice-recording their opinions.

There are lots of opinions on different topics. In “Advanced English” a wide range of topics are being discussed. Another forum where people often participate is “Health, Wellbeing and Relationships”.

You can play some different opinions on a chosen topic to your students and ask them to tell a partner who they agree with and why, or even ask them to, in groups, write reasons to support both ideas.

It is also possible to start a new discussion forum and ask your students to join it and record their contribution to the debate as homework.





3. Making a long story short

Do you know Twitter? It is the web thingh everyone has been talking about. It consists of a micro-blogging service where people should say what they are doing at the moment they are posting in 140 characters at most. However it has been used for many different purposes.

You can create one account for a writing project with your students. You should post the beginning of a story. The idea is to assign one student to post 140 characters continuing the story per class. It should be assigned as homework as students will have to think carefully to write what they want in only 140 characters. It is also a good vocabulary exercise (students will always search for the shortest words) and one which enables them to practise coherence and cohesion.

The teacher can always show the Twitter page with the fresh posts in class and comment about the plot with the students, to raise their interest and to show them you are aware of what they are posting. When the story ends, the posts can even be compiled and an extract of the story used in class for a reading skills exercise.