ANSWER: Part of our year syllabus for our intermediate-and-above level teenage learners needs to focus on developing Study Skills Outside of Class. As we require parents' support to further this aim, it is important to encourage these learners to discuss their new study strategies with their parents.

Here we'd like to present activities designed to help teens make their homework practices more effective.

HOMEWORK --  KEEPING TRACK AND KEEPING ON TRACK:

Answer: Absolutely. A chant with movement, using a TPR (Total Physical Response) routine, which helps the children learn the chant much more easily, but at the same time, gives them the opportunity to stand up, move and stretch.

The Chant:

“Can you tell me what you are?”

I’m a bird.

I’m a star.

I’m a frog.

I’m a cat.

Can you tell me

what you are?

ΑΠΑΝΤΗΣΗ: Πολλή καλή ιδέα και, τώρα το καλοκαίρι, όταν ξεκουραζόμαστε λίγο, είναι μια καλή περίοδος για λίγο στοχασμό και για ασκήσεις αυτογνωσίας. Η άσκηση που προτείνουμε, μας βοηθάει να κάνουμε μια ενδοσκόπηση και αυτο-αξιολόγηση για προσωπική και επαγγελματική ενδυνάμωση.

ΤΙΤΛΟΣ: «Τα δυνατά μου σημεία»

YΛΙΚΑ:  Ένα λευκό Α4 χαρτί

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We have borrowed this term from business and home construction and we use it metaphorically to illustrate the steps a FL school Owner/Director needs to take before the beginning of the new school year so that in late August-September his/her school will be in ready-to-operate condition.

As we see it, there is a specific procedure and a number of steps/projects that need to be planned and carried out starting right after the end of the current school year in June and going up to the beginning of the following year in September.

Certainly, your relationship with your learners is crucial for the smooth functioning of the language learning experience.  Part of this relationship requires a good balance between familiarity and formality. 

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Q: My teachers and I are doing the best we can with distance learning.Our entire team is new at conducting online lessons with our learners.Until we master the use of a lot of the wonderful technology at our disposal,we would like some tips on how to make distance learning more inviting and engaging for our learners.

QUESTION:  My exam prep students are reluctant to participate in class discussions.  Also, writing B2 – C2 level compositions is extremely challenging for most of them.  I know that they are familiar with appropriate vocabulary items on specific exam topics, but when they are asked to express themselves they find it difficult to recall the right words and expressions.

Answer: That's fine. Most of us decide that we'd like to use an activity, other than the ones in our Christmas repertoire, just about the last week before the holidays.  And we've got just the one.

PROCEDURE

TITLE: A Christmas Wreath

LEVEL: A2-B1

SKILLS: Writing, but mainly learning to be grateful

TIME: 10-15 minutes

ANSWER:  It might be that the children are in need of some 'down time'.  They do often come to afternoon classes very tired or quite wound up.    In either case, it may be that they need to relax, both physically and mentally.

You can lead the children in a self-massage to help them to relax, and to restart.  (EFL pupils in China taught a colleague of ours a quiet time 'massage', which they perform periodically in class.)  The instructions for this massage procedure are numbered below: 

ANSWER: The First Day of Class is the most important day of the school year. We would like to suggest an activity which would help B1+ learners to tell you a bit about themselves and to express their expectations of you, of themselves, their fellow learners, as well as their dreams for the future.

We strongly recommend that you use it as a poetry writing activity, as it is much more motivating.

TITLE:  “I come from. . .”

LEVEL: B1+