Eva Buyuksimkesyan dictation, grammar, speaking, writing

BEAUTY

 

beauty1

 

Beauty

is a fat black woman

walking the fields

pressing a breezed

hibiscus

to her cheek

while the sun lights up

her feet

 

Beauty

is a fat black woman

riding the waves

drifting in happy oblivion

while the sea turns back

to hug her shape

Grace Nicholls

Since Jeremy Harmer read this poem at Istek-elt this year, I have been searching for it. I knew I had it somewhere in my files and at last I found it.

I love this poem for many reasons.

So here is a sample lesson plan but I’ll be glad to hear ideas from you.

  1. Ask students to finish the statement ‘Beauty is —–‘
  2. Write all the words on the board and prepare a word cloud.
  3. As Jeremy Harmer suggested do wall dictation dividing the class into teams.
  4. Ask students to read the poem and discuss the followings.
  • ‘Beauty is in the eye of beholder’
  • fashion, idols, same kind of people everywhere.
  • first impressions
  • physical differences and bullies
  • Is it really important to be beautiful?Why?

5. The poem is great for practising participles and time clauses. Write      the  skeleton of the poem on the board and ask them to write their own poems

Beauty is a/an+adj+noun

Going somewhere

Doing something

While something else is happening

I really want to use this poem next year in one of my lessons. And here is mine

Beauty

is a little angle

running in the school yard

in her strawberry cake coat

playing with her friends cheerfully

while my eyes watch

thinking how beautiful she is

 

Beauty

is a little girl

wearing thick glasses

admiring her friends

running in the yard

while her mum watches her

thinking how beautiful she is.

Eva Buyuksimkesyan fun, twitter

WHAT CAN YOU DO WITH YOUR PLN ON TWITTER?

We all talk about the privileges of having a PLN and we agree that twitter is one of the most powerful tools for the educators to build your PLN. If you have a PLN, it means that you have a constant professional development network. However, if you think that twitter is just for professional development then you are missing the best part of it.

So what can you do with your PLN on twitter?

eltconf
Attend conferences, seminars, workshops, Pecha Kuchas online football 
 

Watch the matches, games together. You can even hear your friends’ voices.

coffee

Drink coffee, tea together and chat at the same time.

eurovision

Watch Eurovision song contest and have fun together while the votes are given

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Listen to music and talk about it.

chocolate

Eat chocolate  and share the guilt as a big group

Fun things happen spontaneously. If you join the conversation, you will understand me much better. Sometimes good things are just a hashtag away.

P.S: You can celebrate birthdays, achievements, births and all the happy moments with your PLN 🙂

Eva Buyuksimkesyan conditionals, fillers, fun, glogster, improvisation, Istanbul Bilgi University Elt Conference, music, songs, web 2.0

LIVEN UP CLASSROOM WITH MUSIC

My Workshop at Bilgi University

In the session, I talked about why we should use songs in EFL classes.

Music is everywhere in our lives. We listen to songs when we are happy, angry, sad or when we need inspiration or when we want to relax. We go out of our homes with our songs, we travel with them, we wait with them, we shop with them.

So we can teach with them. May be I didn’t say anything new. These are the things we all know. However, I think it is always good to remember them.

Music can be used to teach  

grammar : at the presentation stage of a grammar point or while reviewing

listening : gap fill exercises, matching to teach listening for gist or detail

vocabulary: to teach or increase vocab by asking your students to replace the words with a synonym, antonym or a near synonym.

reading: songs are authentic texts and they can be used for comprehension, discussion and teaching culture 

writing: you can use songs for teaching writing. Ask your students to write a letter to the character, write a story which took place before the sond, add one more verse to the original, write their song for the same topic.

While doing all these we can always use web 2.0 to motivate our students so they can add their own content to the material.

 In the final part of my talk I gave examples how I used songs with my students.

I started the session with an activity from Music and Song by Tim Murphey (2009,   OUP)

Musical Reactions

Play an instrumental piece.

Ask students to fill out the questionnaire while listening to the music. 

1. If you turned on the radio and heard this piece of music would you:

  • turn off immediately?
  • listen attentively?
  • buy the record?
  • download it to your mp3 player?
  • Leave it on as background music?
  • —-?
  1. Imagine someone who loves this music. Describe the person in a few words.
  2. Imagine someone who doesn’t love this music. Describe the person in a few words.
  3. What emotions does it evoke in you?
  4. What do you see if you close your eyes as you listen?
  5. If this were the background music for an advertisement, what do you think the advertised product would be?
  6. If this were a soundtrack for a film, what kind of a film would that be?
  7. In what kind of place would you be most likely to hear this music?

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Eva Buyuksimkesyan fillers, fun, lesson ideas, listening, music, songs, warmers, writing

What is the movie?

CB0629317

 

This is an activity I did with one of my classes last week.

Choose a soundtrack of a movie (preferably an instrumental piece)

Tell them that piece of music is from a movie

Ask the students to relax and listen to the music

When the music is finished tell them they are going to listen to it again and write a paragraph answering the following questions.

  • What kind of a movie is it?
  • Describe the scene that this music is being played
  • Who are the actors and the actresses

 

The result was amazing. Although it was early in the morning, they came up with brilliant paragraphs. They even found each other very creative and music helped us to start the lesson with a smile on our faces.

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Eva Buyuksimkesyan fillers, warmers

Snowball fights

 

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When we feel that students are bored, we tend to change the pace and move to a more energising activity. This one is something like that. However, I use it as a gap filler or an fun activity after I introduce the new topic. It sounds a bit childish, though it always works with older students too. My students are grade 10 and grade 11 and every year at least once I use it in my class. Last week before the holiday as a whole class we played our snowball game and we really enjoyed while doing it and after the activity they all sat comfortably and did the post writing activity.

Here is how and when I do it:

  • Hand each student a blank sheet of paper. 
  • Ask them to write a wish for present, an ability that they want to have, a regret, an annoying habit of sb that they are irritated. For example: I want a motorbike. My sister keeps reading my diary, etc
  • Then have them crumple the paper into a ball. 
  • Have all of them stand up and begin throwing the “snowballs” at each other.  If you like you can even play a song which will help them to feel motivated.
  • When you think it is enough, you can stop the fight.
  • Then have each student pick up a snowball close to them, open it, and say what their friends’ wishes and regrets are.

And some variations:

You can ask them to write questions and the one who opens the paper answers the question. —For reported speech you can ask them to gossip about sb and the one who opens the snowball should turn the direct statement to reported speech or you can tell them to write a suggestion, promise, offer, request and then tell them to report using the reporting verbs.

 A friend teaching at primary school suggested doing it for descriptions. Ask students to draw a picture on what you are teaching, for example a classroom, and then the one who opens the ball can describe the picture or even write the description.

The variations are endless. If you trust your kids, it will be a great activity.