Showing posts with label collaborative project. Show all posts
Showing posts with label collaborative project. Show all posts

16 May 2014

Design Your Own Music Magazine

INTRODUCTION

In groups of three you are going to work on the project. Remember you must include vocabulary related to music. To create our magazine you will use the tool Glossi. Log in through Facebook with the email account and password I gave you.

Picture by Stux.

Your magazine is going to be divided into five different sections:

1. COVER PAGE
2. MUSIC QUESTIONNAIRE
3. TOP FIVE
4. INTERVIEW
5. REVIEW (include the ones you have already written).

COVER PAGE
Your cover page should have a title (try to be original), a picture and subtitles related to the articles you are going to include in your magazine.

MUSIC QUESTIONAIRE
Write ten different questions and ask them to your classmates, friends or family. This is an example:


VERY OFTEN
OFTEN
SOMETIMES
NEVER
How often do you listen to these kinds of music?
· Classical music
· Pop
· Pop-rock
· Funky
· Rap
· Heavy metal




How often do you go to concerts?




Why do you listen to music?
· Because it is relaxing.
· Because it helps me to concentrate when I'm doing homework/ working.
· Because it makes you feel happy.





Write the results and record the conversations using Soundcloud. Ask some follow-up questions. For example, if the question is Have you ever been to a concert? You should ask other questions to get more information, like What group played? When was it? Did you enjoy it?

TOP FIVE

A cool music magazine always includes a Top 5 section which is, basically, the five favourite tracks people have chosen, in this way your Music Magazine should also have one.

In your Top 5, you will have to select 5 songs you like and explain to the rest of the class:
1. Who is the band playing them?
2. What is the song about?
3. Why have you chosen this song?

You can play the songs in class (up to a minute) so that we can discuss what the song is about.

INTERVIEW

For the interview, you will have to choose an artist from the ones that you will talk about in your magazine. Write the questions and record the interview using  Soundcloud.

Sample questions:
·         - Who do you usually dedicate your songs to?

·         - Why have you decided to call your album “…”?

r      ALBUM REVIEW

      You have already done this part, so you just need to copy it into your  magazine.

3 Feb 2014

Creating our own restaurant

Internation Restaurant

I have got a small pre-teens group this year and I'm finding very difficult to engage them in class. They want to play games all the time and don't like writing, so when I saw them working and enjoying this project, I couldn't believe my eyes!



Step 1 – Restaurant selection
What KIND OF RESTAURANT is it going to be? A Chinese restaurant? A Mexican restaurant? An English restaurant?
     Now you need a NAME and a LOGO for it so that people remember it.

Step 2 – Create your own menu.
Your menu must include:

  • o   Starters
  • o   Main courses
  • o   Side dishes
  • o   Drinks
  • o   Desserts
-     Brainstorm different dishes that you are going to include in your menu.
-    Include a short description of what each meal is (e.g. FISH AND CHIPS – an English meal made from fried potatoes and fish).
-        Include the price in pounds or dollars.


Step 3 – Create a radio ad.
Now that you have created your own menu, it’s time to advertise your restaurant to encourage customers to come in and enjoy a delicious meal there.

       
Step 4 – Dining Out. 
Create a short dialogue and act out a conversation in the restaurant. Two of you will be the customers and one will be the waiter or waitress.

14 Apr 2012

Collaborative project: A Wall of Books to celebrate World Book Day

23rd April is World Book and Copyright Day, an initiative from UNESCO to celebrate world literature and promote reading. This year, Mª Jesús García San Martín, a creative English teacher who I really look up to, has had the brilliant idea of celebrating this day by creating a collaborative wall of books using Pinterest. 

Everybody is invited to join and take part in this project. The aim is to create a literary wall full of book recommendations to promote reading.

If you would like to become a contributor, just register on Pinterest or sign in with your Facebook or Twitter account to pin your favourite book and explain the reason why you like it and other people should read it. All the pins can be embedded in the school or classroom blog, website and wikis.




Información en español sobre el proyecto  en el Blog de TIC en lenguas extranjeras.

8 Mar 2012

English with Music

Can you imagine a world without music? No tunes, no songs, no melodies, no singers or concerts. Music surrounds us and it is an important part of our lives, as well as of our students' lives. They are enjoyable, motivating, full of examples of real English and, therefore, very effective tools for reviewing vocabulary, grammar structures, pronunciation, culture and dealing with social issues in upper-intermediate and advanced classes.

What is very important to bear in mind before choosing a song are the objectives, the resources we will use and the activities we will use so that students can achieve their goals and develop the different language skills.


Try not to choose songs that are popular among teenagers because, although they may love and enjoy them, they will already know the lyrics and the activities you have carefully prepared may become an absolutely flop. 

Digital resources for our classes
Tune into English is one of my favourite sites because it offers a section for teachers and another one for students. In the teachers section you will find lesson plans created by teachers to use different kinds of songs in your classes. Those lessons plans are in word format, what means that you can adapt the activities to suit your students' needs. Within the students area, students will find a lot of games, resources and links to learn more about music and learn English through songs.


TEFLTunes is a great place to find song ideas for teaching grammar and topics. However, not all the resources provided are free. There are free lesson plans but if you want get full access, you will need to subscribe and pay £10GBP.



Lyrics training is another great tool for students to improve their understanding of lyrics. The site includes YouTube videoclips which are organised in different levels of difficulty and cloze-type activities to complete the whole song.

What I do not like so much about it is that it includes a wide range of songs and some of them may be not suitable for pre-teens or teenagers.



Contribute with your ideas!



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