Predictions 2010 - 2019 (Lesson Plan)

Probably one of the easiest, getting-back-in-the-groove, sans materials, dogmesque lesson I can think of:

Step 1

Write 2009 on the board

• Ask students to quickly jot down a list of the 5 most important things that happened to them (and/or their companies or families) over the course of the year.

• Put them in pairs and ask them compare and share.
  

Add 2000 - 2009

• Join some of the pairs of students to create mini-groups of 3 - 5 students. Without asking them to create lists, encourage them to share the significant events in their own lives and the world around us in the previous decade.
  

Step 2

Draw a table on the board and fill it in with some of the key words below - areas where one might expect to see change within the next decade - and elicit others from your learners:

- politics
- economy
- war
- sports
- weather-environment
- technology
- social media
- entertainment
- education
- can you suggest any other areas of change for your own specific students' interests?

Hand students large sheets of paper and in micro groups ask them to brainstorm, collaborate and make predictions. (Adding dates of when they expect these changes to occur).

Encourage them to agree and disagree, discussing fears and solutions, feelings and hypothesis. You can choose on whether or not to focus in on the use of the various futures which will naturally emerge as you circulate.

Change the members of groups after every 15 minutes or so in order to keep content, ideas and conversations dynamic. Their sheets should be completely filled.

Step 3

Post-task: get your students to take specific areas of responsibility and write these up in notebooks or blogs - they can also create posters, glogsters or simply powerpoint them.

Best,
Karenne

p.s. if you've got a "don't like to talk to each other group" - help kick off these conversations using a prediction based news article, Abba song, slideshare, video or last years' conversation prompts / change lesson from Eric Roth's Compelling Conversations.

Or tell them your own.

What is one thing you predict happening 2010-2019?

(I reckon they'll be a lot more edu- blogs and many more university lecturers online - but you'll have to pay for monthly access (some sort of i-tunes-like platform) and... I think there will be a whole lot less printed textbooks: 2016 on and hmmm... learning a 3rd language will suddenly become a fashionable trend - it somehow gets easier: brain implants probably :-).

Bring on the teenies...

The decade of the uh-oh's is finally done.

Hallelujah!!

For me those ten years were made up of:

A marriage... a divorce, surviving volcanic eruptions and political coups, moving from South America to Germany, completing a full-length screenplay, not selling said screenplay, trying to sell a conversation skills supplementary book then putting pieces of it for sale online instead, working on an animation film, writing materials for Klett, meeting President Obama, joining facebook, completing a pilgrimage across the north of Spain, creating this blog... abandoning the other one... becoming addicted to Twitter and a bunch of other stuff I can't remember...

'xcept co-convincing someone important that there really is a paradigm shift going on in education today :-)


What's next?

No doubt another roller coaster of a ride but also...

• teacher training for teaching associations
• presenting at conferences
• participating/hosting online training sessions
  
• more writing... tons more writing
• more blogging... lots, lots, lots more blogging

and hopefully...

• studying film and its application to learning English
• some kind of techie related job, related to the above
  
• coming back home (Grenada) and working online from here
• lots of pictures with loads of ultra-cool ELT people :-)
• some travel (Tibet, Machu Picchu, Pyramids)
  

How was your decade?

What are you hoping to get out of the teenies?

How are you hoping to develop professionally or personally?

Whatever it is, I truly wish you much happiness, heaps of passion in your journey and many, many smiles along the way!

Best,
Karenne

New Year Lesson (Abba video, worksheet, conversation prompts)

• Be the hit of your New Year party by Shelly Terrell
• Bridget Jones and my New Year Resolutions by Marisa Constantinides
• New Year celebrations by Sue Lyon Jones
• Best sites for learning about New Year celebrations by Larry Ferlazzo
• 2009: the year of living technologically by Janet Bianchini
• How to survive in 2010 by Ozge Karaoglu

Conversations at Christmas

Confession:

Christmas is not my favorite holiday.

It's my least favorite.

To go into all the reasons for that would be dull...

I could say I don't like the materialism, am not a big fan of shopping or crowded markets - suffer from glühwein headaches... I could tell you I hate the cold: Christmas for me, growing up in the Caribbean, was about playing cricket on the beach, picnic'd turkey on Boxing Day.

Everyone wants it to snow here. Sssh.

Also, all those expectations to be happy. All that pressure to "let's make everything perfect."

And how exactly did Coca-Cola manage to influence everyone into thinking that a big fat man in a white beard brings gifts down a chimney and more importantly how did this concept shimmey it's way into every little boy and girl's dreams all over the world?

Bah, humbug I say.

But in the meantime, here's a little gift for you and your classes over the next 10 days:

Merry Christmas
;-)

Best,
Karenne
p.s. for the new year

Related Links:

• Youtube Xmas songs +lyrics
• 12 days of Christmas, Sue Lyon-Jones (YL)
• Lots of Christmas Stuff Isabel Perez Torres
• Six topical teaching ideas for December, Lindsay Clandfield
• More questions at Christmas, Sean Banville

& if you've also done a lesson on this theme... do add your link!

Free Conversation Lesson, New Year 2009

Back to classes so soon?

Back to energizing, inspiring and motivating, getting our students talking in English...

Did you just sigh?

Tsk, tsk. ;-)

Here's a nice freebie for you, a speaking skills lesson, it should provide at least enough material for the first two classes this year!

New Year 2009


Enjoy - some of the answers to the questions in the SimplyQuestTM will be quite surprising!

Best,
Karenne

p.s. You can also pick up a song activity based on Abba's Happy New Year ballad, that's the previous posting, (here.)

Happy New Year, by Abba

Have you realized how poignant that old favorite, sung by Abba way back when, is?

Ideal for taking into class with you at the beginning of term.

Here's a quick little exercise that you can print off and drag in as an ice-breaker or warmer.

Instructions

• distribute sheet
  
• tell class to fill in as much of the blanks as they can, then
  
• play song, first time straight through without stopping
• get them to check with each other and compare answers
• play song, second time stopping after each sentence
• compare answers
• discuss key vocabulary
• discuss meaning of the song and 'the time' it was sung in

SimplyConversations Extension

• the gap fill basically works on a 'lexical chunk' system in order for you (your students) to pay particular attention to the way words group together. If you're working with a group of fairly fluent and motivated students you can also use this activity as a philosophical discussion tool. ABBA sung this pre-internet, pre-a lot of other things and older students who were around when this was a hit will have much to add to the pot.
  

Video of this song


The official ABBA site has a gorgeous video with lyrics on screen. That's here.
More songs related to the new year on youtube here.


Useful links related to this posting:

• Song meanings here, Song facts here.
• Download video on to your laptop, blog about that here.
• Netbooks, blog about that here.

Do you have any suggestions or comments? Don't hesitate to add your thoughts below.

Best,
Karenne