Role-play game in which students compete to buy and sell genuine products from the show. Great for developing fluency. This lesson has 4 main stages: Students watch the start of a pitch from the tv show and come up with questions to decide if it's a good investment. Students choose from a list of Dragon's Den products to sell. Following a mingle activity, each student chooses which of their classmates products they would like to invest in. Reveal which products made a profit - money awarded for successful buyers and sellers. Introducing the topic: Listening 1. Show students the image form Dragon's Den. Does anyone know what this programme is? What do contestants have to do? (give a brief explanation of the show). possible vocabulary: make a pitch / entrepreneur / persuade / invest 2. Explain that students are going to see someone make their pitch. They need to listen for: What does the contestant want from the dragons? What will he give them in return? Show Dragon's Den Video 0:00 - 0:40 3. Feedback on previous questions, then put students into small groups and ask them to write down 5 questions which the dragons should ask him before investing in the product. Then as a class, run through their ideas and board some of the ones which are relevent/ likely to come up. Try to guide students towards objective information such as cost, retail price, sales, experience, etc. rather than more subjective "how good is the source?" type questions. Show Dragon's Den Video 3:00 - 4.12 Feedback on which questions were answered, then in their groups students discuss whether or not the dragons should invest. Show Levi Roots advert The dragons did invest and Reggae Reggae sauce was a massive hit - now sold in most UK supermarkets. Communicative Activity: Making a Pitch 1. Print and cut out the dragon's den products and give them to students, explain that these were all real products pitched on Dragon’s Den. If you have a larger class, it doesn't matter if more than one student has the same product. Give students a minute to think about how they will sell their product. What is it, why is it useful? Who will buy it? What will you do with the money? 2. Students mingle, everyone stands with someone who has a different product. Student A has 45 seconds to pitch their idea to student B. After 45 seconds shout "change" and student B has 45 seconds to pitch their idea. When everyone has pitched, shout "change partner" and repeat the process. This continues until students have heard about all/most of the products on offer (the focus here is on fluency so avoid interupting the flow to make corrections). As students get comfortable with their pitch, shorten the time so that they have to speak progressively faster and faster: Whilst older learners sometimes get frustrated when not given time to fully express themselves, I find teen students often enjoy the dynamism that comes with quick changes. 3. At the end of the mingle activity, make a table showing which product each student sold and complete it by eliciting which product they would like to invest in (This cannot be their own!) Award 50,000 euros to students for each person who invests in their product. 4.Use the attached powerpoint to show each product. Students vote on whether they think each product was a success before you reveal the answer. Finally award $100,000 to everyone who invested in a successful product and calculate who made the most money overall ($50,000 for each sale plus $100,000 for buying a hit). Here's my beautiful boardwork! HighImpactEnglish Dragon's Den.pptx (Powerpoint) www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZZHgwyqsnE (advert) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Odx8NV6dX0Q (Dragon's Den Appearance)

This is based on the Article on page 28 of the Compact B1 Textbook from CUP but the activity can be adapted to work with any Article. The aim of the Power Point is to help the students become more comfortable with how to write and article. I am not writing much here as there are notes in the Power Point. It has a mix of different activities to try and make looking at article writing for an entire lesson less daunting for students and teachers alike!

Students read about different personality traits measured in this test and decide where they fit on the scale. The main steps are: Reading comprehension. Reflect and Speak about your personality. Optional: further reading and careers advice role-play. Intro Explain that the Myers-Briggs test is a personality test used by many professional organisations to determine someone's strengths and ideal career path. It's based on four principal measures These are sensation, intuition, feeling, and thinking. Reading Give each student information about 1 of the 4 measures from this document. Post-reading Once students have read their page, put them in groups with classmates who have read the other catagories. Each student must summarise their criteria, and explain where they are on the scale before helping their classmates determine where they lie. At the end of the activity each student should have four charts like this: They then use their charts to find their personality type. The student above is ENFJ, which means they are "extrovert" "intuitive" "Feeling" "Judging". Show them their personality type here: https://www.16personalities.com/personality-types Follow up 1 Follow up, get your students to complete the short free test on the 16personalities site to see if the results match their earlier prediction. https://www.16personalities.com/free-personality-test Follow up 2 Warmer Ask questions like these: What guidance do/did you get at school for choosing a career path? How helpful might these things prove in helping students decide their future? In my context, questions on this topic have usually led to complaints about a lack of careers guidance at school, which means I can say "don't worry - were going to fix that now!" Main Activity Each student reads what it says about their partner on the personality types page. (there is a huge amount of information so you may want to direct them towards specific aspects such as Strengths & Weaknesses or Career Paths). After researching their partners profile, they then offer them careers advice based on their findings.

Students watch a clip from a classic US Sitcom: The West Wing and use contrast phrases to learn about the world and the limitations of maps. This lesson has 4 main parts, but you may choose to do just one or two of them. A speaking activity about where in the world students would like to live, travel, etc. Watching a scene from the TV show with comprehension questions and follow-up discussion. Practising contrast phrases to compare reality to common geographical misconceptions. Looking at surreal cartograms and speculating about what they might represent. Instructions All the activities below are based on these PowerPoints: High Impact Maps Intermediate.pptx High Impact Maps Advanced.pptx They have the same structure, just with different language levels. Optional warmer Step 1 Display the world map on slide 1. Give each student 3 post-it notes and ask them to draw the following (one on each post-it) Their dream house. A mode of transport. A celebrity they love to hate. Then in pairs get them to discuss: Where in the world they would like to put their house? What epic journey would they make? Where would they like to send their celebrity? Obviously, encouraging students to describe, explain and incorporate whatever language you wish to focus on e.g. If I could live anywhere, I would have to go for Italy because... what's more... Step 2 At the end of the discussion, each student passes their post-its to their partner before changing pairs. Next each learner explains their previous partners choices with their new partner, passing them the post-its. Step 3 Finally, everyone goes up to the board and places the post-its they have been given in the correct place on the map. At this stage I often take a photo of the map so we can turn it into a quiz in a future lesson. "I reckon the house in Australia was Jorge's because he loves kangeroos" Main Activity Pre listening Slide 1 Does this map look familiar? Is it correct? Slide 2: And this…? How is it different from the first map? (squashed/stretched, larger, etc.) Slide 3: Show both maps together, students discuss which is more accurate. Listening task Explain that you're going to watch a scene from the TV show The West Wing in which a group of cartographers will make a petition to the US president's advisors (first video below). Ask the questions before each excerpt, then give students the opportunity to discuss in pairs before repeating or moving on to the next section as appropriate. - If students struggle to follow the dialogue (which is pretty fast), try slowing it down for them using You Tube's video settings. What do the cartographers want? 0,00 - 1,00 What is the Mercator map? Why is it wrong? 1,00-1,36 At this stage it may be helpful to show a short section (0,00-0,43) of the video "Why maps are Wrong" (below). What things are inaccurate? 1,36-2,18 Why should schools use the Peter’s projection map? 2,18-end Post listening Slide 4 Students discuss in pairs whether they think schools should teach using this map. Follow up 1 Map myths and language of contrast. Go through slides 5-11 eliciting the map myth using the target phrase displayed (this will vary depending on level). Using contrast phrases with Although, however, while, etc. can have a huge impact on the complexity of spoken and written communication. Practice in this area is one of the most effective ways to develop language beyond the "intermediate plateau". Follow up 2 Cartograms Show these Cartograms taken from worldmapper.com: High Impact Cartograms.pptx Students have to predict what each map represents.

•I did this with my PET class after going through story writing and then getting in for homework some stories that weren’t stories. They had fun doing this and I think it has helped them, or at least raised awareness of how a story flows. •Instructions: •Put them into groups. Groups of 2 or 3 work best. •The squares appear one by one on the screen. The students fill in the blanks to create a story in stages. The idea is to get them to think about how a story flows, that’s why I make them do it in stages. Before the lesson  have a look at each square so you can guide them on what they can/should add to develop the story and what they should wait to add as it comes up in a later square. For example, in the second square they shouldn’t add a when… as this comes later. •You can have them do it in notebooks or mini whiteboards. I got mine to do it on mini whiteboards as it motivates them and it allows me the option of following up by asking them to do another story using this language in their notebooks either in class or for homework. If you use mini whiteboards each group will need 3 or 4. •When they have finished their stories, I ask each group to tell me who the characters is in their story are and I board the names of the people in each story. Then we act out the stories. •Decide who is going to go first, ask them if they would like to act or narrate their story. Most students choose narration. Then they need to cast their story, if they are narrating which person in the class is going to play which role. They can cast it however they want. Usually at least one group casts the teacher in a role, which is fine! •Read and act out. Reminding the students doing the narration that they need to pause after each big moment to allow the people acting to act it out. Repeat for each group. •Mine really enjoyed acting it out and it’s something that I think we do less of as they get older, theatre. Obviously, there is scope for putting classmates in embarrassing situations here, so I only do it where the class gets on with each other and in addition I monitor what is being put in the stories. •Enjoy, I hope it works for you. Let me know how it goes!

Vocabulary Review •Put them in 2 teams, give each team a mini whiteboard. Have a traditional Noughts & Crosses board on the whiteboard. •This is how this version of noughts and crosses works: •One team picks the word to be used. Both teams have one minute to write the longest sentence they can. Pens down after one minute. •Then they take it in turns to read their sentences out loud, slowly (for the teacher’s sanity). As they are reading the teacher listens and puts a dot on the board for each word used correctly. If you have time board the mistakes/corrections. When the student has finished reading the sentence count the number of dots and talk through any mistakes. Repeat for the other team. Team with the highest numbers of dots wins the square. •Repeat with the other team choosing the square and reading first. •Squares can be shared, three in a row wins. •The idea behind them is to push them to write longer sentences but not rewarding them if they write nonsense. Key rule is no listing (I like eating raw fish, pizza, tomatoes, apples,…) •After the first round I stop and share with them how to extend the sentence. Ideas include: •Replacing words with phrases, with mine I hate became I really hate which became I really can’t stand •Adding adjectives and adverbs •Because •Extra clauses; which is, and, but, Although •Comparisons and Conditionals Power Point here as an example but it's not necessary. Easy to write the words on the board!

How to practice the key language and structures for exam success through a series of fun speaking activities. This post is follows a talk given at the Caceres 2024 TESOL Spain conference. PET The PET writing paper tests students’ ability to use functional phrases to respond to information and express opinions.  In class, I practise these phrases in a series of speaking activities before presenting students with the exam task. When a writing task is set for homework I can say “remember these phrases? use them all in your answer.” If students do so, they will have achieved the task.  If they don’t, then I’ll know we need to go back and practice them a bit more.  The point is, learners don’t have to write whole letters and articles again and again, there is a more effective and enjoyable way! Letter Step 1: Responding to news. I give the students a phrase such as Thanks for your letter, I’m so pleased/sorry that ….. What absolutely terrible/fantastic news! Then display a series of situations (I've just bought a dragon, I lost my job, Bizarrap wants to do a session with me, etc.) for students to practise responding to in pairs. You could also do this as a quick mingle with students sharing good/bad news and responding to each other. Step 2: Expressing preferences There is usually a “which would you prefer” question.  Students can practise this by answering funny “would you rather…?” dilemmas. Personally I would much rather be friends with a vampire than with a ghost because…. Step 3: Giving advice Students practice answering “what should I do?” questions When it comes to _________ , I reckon you should…. Step 4: Turning down an invitation They will have to say no to something.  Students politely respond to a series of unappealing invitations. “your idea of ___________ sounds great, but unfortunately I …., Why don’t we …. Instead? When students have practised all the phrases, display an exam task and get them to take turns speaking the answer. There is more information and class materials for this in these posts: Informal Letter Writing 1: Opening Paragraph (highimpactenglish.wixsite.com) Informal Letter Writing 2: Responding to Questions. (highimpactenglish.wixsite.com) Article This can be done in a very similar way to the letter. Introduction This needs to introduce the question to be addressed.  I tend to do this, either by raising a question “have you ever wanted to…/wondered about….?” Or using a contrast structure “Although some people…., for me nothing beats….” Give students a series of topics and get them to practice coming up with sentences orally. It's quite tricky at first, but they tend to get very good at it after a few attempts. Body Students practice using these phrases in different contexts: When it comes to ___, I reckon you should … Personally, I’d much rather than _ because … What I love about ___ is ….. They then practise “speaking articles” in pairs. Using paragraphs For students to make the transition from intermediate to B2 level, they need to be comfortable putting together longer texts with several paragraphs. For me, teaching students how to organise their ideas can be really rewarding because they develop a useful life skill that will help them succeed in other subjects too. Single paragraphs Paragraphs are the building blocks of any long text.  In order to communicate effectively, it is vital for students to be able to organise their thoughts into logical chunks, explaining each idea, before moving on to the next. For me, the most effective way of teaching this is by doing little and often. Speaking Get students to “speak in paragraphs” giving an opinion, then backing it up with 2 further points.  I can ensure this happens by boarding appropriate discourse markers and insisting on their use: __________ is highly/not at all beneficial/rewarding/enjoyable/challenging. First of all, /for example And another thing /what’s more If students are trained to organise their ideas like this when speaking, it’s much easier to get them to do likewise when they write. Here are some of the silly topics I get students to discuss, but it really could be anything, from their opinion of my Hawaiian shirt to an evaluation of the last activity we did. Writing After speaking activities, get students to write a quick paragraph.  This is much less painful than trying to get an entire redaction out of them and, once they’ve got into the habit, should take very little time out of your lesson. There are several gimmicks you can employ, to prevent them from getting bored like: ·       Write it in 60 seconds. ·       Write it on a board. ·       Write it without lifting the pen from the page. ·       Write it on your partner’s forearm. ·       Write it on a banana. ·       Write it blind-folded. ·       Write it left-handed. Multiple Paragraphs Speaking Get students to give more than one opinion about a single topic. In this way they are "speaking an essay" and learning how to connect their ideas. Collaborative Writing I find collaborative writing can be effective when putting multiple paragraphs together.  Students write one paragraph, then pass their text to a partner who adds a second paragraph, then pass again and so on.  In order to make a coherent composition, students have to read what came before and think: Should I make a negative, or a positive comment now? What discourse markers should I use (am I adding a similar, or a contrasting view?) When they come to the conclusion, they need to ensure that they summarise the points made by their peers (whether or not they agree with them!). FCE Once students are comfortable writing coherent paragraphs and using appropriate connectors, they are ready to look at the exam task. Planning an Essay I had wasted a lot of time lecturing students on the importance of planning essays, then admonishing them for not having done so, before I realised they didn't really know what a plan was or how to use it effectively. Consequently, until I'm confident that they know what they are doing, I now help students to plan in class, before they go home and write. The simplest FCE essay plan is basically 3 ideas (2 given to the student and 1 they have to come up with) and a note of whether they support the argument raised in the question or not. The ideas are then ordered depending on the student's intended conclusion: If the essay will argue "for", put negative points, then positive points. If the essay will argue "against", put positive points, then negative points. This is important to clarify, as students' first language may be more discursive than English. In a discursive language, like French, it may be acceptable to wander between pro's and con's without any particular order. English writing is linear, which means the reader (or Cambridge Examiner!) expects to be taken systematically towards a conclusion. Once students have organised their 3 points, they add appropriate linking phrases to join the ideas (either additive or contrasting). I give students a template to ensure they have appropriate phrases for their introduction, topic sentences and conclusion, then they just have to fill in the gaps! Correcting work Things don't always go to plan and I still receive writing that doesn't make much sense from time to time. In these situations it's important to establish priorities when correcting. These could include: highlighting good language to encourage students to use it again (this is nearly always the first thing I do) Checking ideas are grouped into logical paragraphs - highlighting sections which are in the wrong place. Giving students a plan and/or topic sentences to introduce their ideas more effectively. Marking erroneous words so students can go back and correct basic mistakes for themselves. By choosing my focus, I can avoid covering weaker students' work in red ink and try to make the process constructive (with an opportunity for them to rewrite and improve) rather than merely disheartening. Click here for the PowerPoint presentation.

A series of funny stories to help young learners understand, remember and use the most common English verbs in context. Many of the children I teach remembered only a limited range of English verbs and used fewer still, so I created a project to help expand their vocabulary It's a way of regularly exposing them to an increasing range of verbs in context without them getting bored. Step 1 - initial drill This PowerPoint (click to open) has 20 common verbs (10 regular/10 irregular) represented by images and activities to memorise the past and present forms with drills, matching exercises and games. Print and cut out the pictures and word cards from slides 5-6 (one set per group of 2-4 students). Get the students to match the images to the verbs in past and present. Ask them why some images have a star (the pictures with a star are regular) Use slides 2-3 of the PowerPoint to check/drill the vocabulary. (see image below). Once groups have successfully matched the cards, get students to turn over the word cards and test each other until they have memorised the majority. Additional practice Display Slide 5 and split students into 3 groups. Each group has to make a sentence to "win" a square. For example, they say "I saw a cat" to win the top left square or "I fell down" to win the bottom left square. The winning team is the first to make a line of 3. Once students have played as a class, you can give out boards printed from slides 8-9 and get them to play in groups of 2 or 3, to maximise speaking practice. (When students play in pairs, making a line of 4 rather than 3 often works best) Step 2 seeing verbs in context. This PowerPoint (click to open) has a series of stories about my students. Just make a copy and change the names in green to your own students' names and tell your class a new one every week. As you read the story, elicit each word represented by an image and click to reveal, My students have enjoyed the stories and become much better and using the different verbs as a result. My next step will be to get my students to write stories using the verbs and I'll turn them into visual books too.

A series of classic activities for young learners to practise action phrases taken from SuperMinds 1 Unit 5. Nothing groundbreaking, but students enjoy playing these games and there's a satisfying sense of achievement that comes from repeating the same vocabulary (on different days in different ways) until it sticks. All the activities in this post can be accessed from this PowerPoint. Learn the Phrases Basic Use slides 3-6 to help drill the collocations (see image to the right). Movement Write "Play", "See" and "Go" on different walls. Display images on slides 8-18. Students run to the correct wall. Elicit phrase, then click to reveal. (At this stage you can add to it by demanding "I always...." or "we love....", etc.) Practice and Play! Back to the board (A.K.A. hotseat). Project slide 22 on the board. Split the class into 2 or 3 teams. One member of each team sits with their backs to the board, looking at a printout from slide 20 or 21 (depending on the level of challenge). The teacher (or a student) points to one of the pictures. Students mime the action for their teammate. First person to shout out the correct phrase wins a point for their team. Noughts & Crosses (A.K.A. tic-tack-toe/line of 3/4). Give each pair of students a board printed from slides 23-24. They take turns to say a phrase for each square before claiming it by placing a counter on it. (using counters means you can reuse the boards). If they get the phrase wrong, they miss their turn. The game ends when a player manages to claim 3 (or 4) squares in a row. When pairs finish a game, switch boards and play again. Possible phrases (depending on ability): I go shopping. I always/never go shopping. I like/don't like going shopping. Charades Similar to back to the board, print slide 20 and cut up to make prompt cards. Split class into groups of 3-5ish and give each team a set of cards face down. One person from each group takes a card and mimes the activity. The person who shouts out the correct action first gets to do the next mime. The team that works through the pile of prompts first wins.

Set up - before the lesson Print off the sheet and cut it in half. One half with the questions and one half with the word or phrase. Then cut the word or phrase into individual cards. You need one set for every 4 students. If making multiple copies I suggest using different colours for each set (means it's easy to separate them at the end of the lesson if they get mixed up) and laminating to make the cards last longer. Set up - in class With an activity like this I find showing is much better than telling. I work with classes of 8 so I simply pick one group and start playing the game with them. The other students watch to see how the game is played. Deal out the cards. The teacher has the question sheet and asks a question either about one of the ideas at the bottom of the question half of the page or their own idea. Every other player answers the question but they must use one of the cards in their hand and saying why they hold this opinion. No exceptions! They place their card down in front of them. The teacher (the person who asked the question) does not answer the question. The teacher (the person who asked the question) decides who gave the best answer. That players card is then put to one side and the players who didn't win pick their cards back up. The question sheet passes to the player to the right (or left) and the process is repeated. I find it is useful to do two questions to show everyone how it works. Clarify and answer any questions and then get all the groups working! One player asks a question Everyone else answers the question using one of their cards. As they finish their sentence they place the card down in front of them. The player who asked the question does not answer the question The player who asked the question chooses who gave the best answer and that card is discarded. The other players pick their cards back up. The question sheet passes to the next player along. The winner is the first person to get rid of all their cards. Notes As the students are playing the teacher monitors, insisting on full sentences I use this game when I get to Unit 7 of Super Minds 6 If you need to or want to introduce the language before the game you can use this power point. Click on the box to make the word appear.

Rationale I tend to use this game towards the end of my lesson(s) teaching for & since. I find it is one of those things that the students have seen again and again and probably will again and again. It also seems to be one of those things they know but still seem to trip up when they have to use it, These language points throw up a couple of challenges for us as teachers; firstly getting over the, "I've seen this already, I know it so I don't want/need to listen to the teacher nor put any effort in," as well as finding a way to get them to getting them onboard with using it in class beyond a cursory review. So, anyway you've done the your thing with For & Since and now would like to get them to get a bit more production in to use the language to help it stick. Set up - before the lesson Print off the sheet and cut it in half. One half with the questions and one half with the for & since answers stems. Then cut the answer stems into individual cards. You need one set for every 4 students. If making multiple copies I suggest using different colours for each set (means it's easy to separate them at the end of the lesson if they get mixed up) and laminating to make the cards last longer. Set up - in class With an activity like this I find showing is much better than telling. I work with classes of 8 so I simply pick one group and start playing the game with them. Deal out the cards. The teacher has the question sheet and asks either one of the questions on the sheet or creates their own. Note: Some of the questions are complete, some need completing and if a student wants to create their won that's great too. Every other player answers the question but they must use one of the cards in their hand. No exceptions! They place their card down in front of them. The teacher (the person who asked the question) does not answer the question. The teacher (the person who asked the question) decides who gave the best answer. That players card is then put to one side and the players who didn't win pick their cards back up. The question sheet passes to the player to the right (or left) and the process is repeated. I find it is useful to do two questions to show everyone how it works. Clarify and answer any questions and then get all the groups working! One player asks a question Everyone else answers the question using one of their cards. As they finish their sentence they place the card down in front of them. The player who asked the question does not answer the question The player who asked the question chooses who gave the best answer and that card is discarded. The other players pick their cards back up. The question sheet passes to the next player along. The winner is the first person to get rid of all their cards. Notes As the students are playing the teacher monitors, insisting on full sentences With a stronger class you can insist they add the why. You can also take the for & since off the cards so they have to think a little more.

What Does the Fox Say? is an incredibly irritating song for most adults, but a fantastic teaching resource. Kids love it because it's catchy and repetitive and it has loads of language. I've attached a powerpoint at the bottom of the post. Procedure Slide 2: Elicit what each animal says and click to check. The focus here isn't so much on the sounds (woof, croak, etc.) but on the structure "dogs goes...", "bird goes...." which is more practical. Click on the Play button (bottom right) to play the whole verse. Slide 3: For the chorus, drill the key language ("What does the fox say?") then click on the video to play. Each time it gets to the phrase, turn the volume down so students shout the missing line. (This method is outlined more cearly in my post Teaching Functional Language with Music). Slides 4 and 5: Click on the images to play the relevant parts of the song then point and elicit the language (and click to check/reveal). Click on the Play button (bottom right) to play the whole verse. Slides 6&7: Students cut out the images from 6 and place them in the correct boxes in 7. Then listen to the song to check before sticking them in. (This can then be used in future classes to elicit the lyrics). The Power Point