Here is my first attempt at using glogster.
I learned about this application after watching the learning video by Russell Stannard.
I decided to use it as a kind of treasure hunt.
Students watch the videos or follow the links to answer the set of questions.
Click here for the direct link to this glog.
I really loved playing around with this application. The potential for unleashing your creativity is amazing.
You need to give it go.
Some World cup warmer questions:
1. Where and when was the last World Cup? Germany 2006
2. Where and when is the next World Cup? Brazil 2014
3. How many years is there between each World Cup? 4 years
Questions to ask every day during the World Cup:
What countries played yesterday?
What were the scores?
What players scored?
What country is at the top/bottom of group x?
Word relay game:
Ask the students to make groups.
Ask the groups to stand in separate lines in front of the board.
The student at the front of the each group is given a pen/piece of chalk.
Students have to write down all the countries in the world cup. The first student from each group writes a country and then passes the pen to the next in line.
Give the students a time limit(3 mins) and see how many countries they can write within the time limit.
Each group checks the ‘wordle’ to see how many words they managed to get and deduct points for wrong spellings.
World cup countries ‘Wordle’
Match the flag with the country
In groups the Students look at the flags and match the countries with their flags. (Give the students a time limit)
Mascots
Ask the students what the mascot is for the South Africa World Cup. Why do they think that a leopard was chosen to represent the world cup.
Ask the students if they can remember any previous world cup mascots and if they can, have them try to describe what they looked like.
Show students the picture of the previous mascots and ask them what country the mascot represents.
Click here for an article on the 10 dumbest World Cup mascots.
Answers: Goleo VI – Germany, Ato, Kaz & Nik – Korea & Japan, Footix – France, Stryker – USA, Ciao – Italy, Pique – Mexico, Naranjito – Spain, Gauchito – Argentina, Tip & Tap – West Germany, Juanito- Mexico, Willy – England
Ask the students what their favourite ‘mascot’ is and why. Find out which is the most popular mascot within your class.
Students have to design a mascot to represent their own country.
Groups
Divide the class into teams. Ask the students if they know what countries are in each group. Have a contest to see which team can write the countries in each group correctly.
The alternative England anthem.
Watch the following video by the legendary; Mark E Smith. His vocals are usually difficult to comprehend so it is very helpful that there are subtitles for the lyrics. Ask the students to write down the words that they see.
Music video – ‘England’s Heartbeat ‘- Shuttleworth feat. Mark E. Smith
If I haven’t already told you, the team I will be following this World Cup is shown in the clip below.
If only they were as strong as this:
What’s your prediction?
Ask your students who they predict to win the world cup and what team they think will actually win the world cup. Put their predictions on the wall and check if they were correct at the end of the cup.
A British music magazine, ‘the NME’ recently did a feature on who the musicians predict will win the world cup. Click here from some predictions by musicians. Ask students to listen to the celebrities and have them write down the countries each artist thinks will win.
Sticker album
I have nostalgic memories of collecting stickers during the world cup when I was a wee boy.
I was always really excited to try and get as many stickers as possible. It was always fun swapping stickers with friends.
You could hand out world cup country stickers every time a student answers a question correctly. Give students stickers outside the classroom as well, if they ask you questions in English about the world cup.
I usually use images I find from ‘clipart’, laminate them and put double-sided tape on the back. You could make a sticker sheet for the students to collect their stickers on. MES English has a great selection of ideas for stickers and sticker sheets and has recently put up some great football stickers.
I hope you and your students enjoy the world cup and my lesson 😉
Music clip: Quadron – Buster Keaton
Ask the students to watch the music video and write down the words they see.( The words start after 50 secs)
Play this music video a few times:
Tell the students that we are now going to use some of these phrases and words to discuss and debate issues. Students have to check to see if they managed to find the words we focus on.
Look at the following slogans from the music clip:
stay fresh!!! Ready to shine A new star driven by desire be cool dream catcher
These positive slogans could all be used to advertise a product.
What type of product do you think you could sell with each slogan?
Ask students to look at the following slogans and match them with the products.
Click here for a link to many ideas of popular advertising slogans
Slogans:
I’m Luvin’ it Impossible is nothing It’s the real thing The best a man can get Just do it
Product:
Gillette McDonald’s X-Box Adidas Coca-cola
Show the students the following slide show to check if they are correct:
In groups students think of a product and a catchy slogan to sell it. Students make a poster of their advertisement.
The following lists are shown in the music video(1.40)
Warning maybe NSFC (Not safe for the classroom)
This is only appropriate for adult students as the phrase “have sex with honey” may be considered inappropriate with less mature students. I suppose it all depends on what your students are like and how you think they may react to this sentence.
Ask the students if they know what the word ‘breadwinner’ means.
‘One whose earnings are the primary source of support for one’s dependents.’
Ask the students who the breadwinner is in their family.
Ask the students to make pairs. One students is given the ‘work list’ and the other student is given the ‘home list’. Each student will read their list as a dictation and the other will write what they here. They will each check to see if they managed to write down the list correctly.
Ask the students what their thoughts are about the female who made the list.
Ask what lists they tend to write during the week.(shopping/house work etc.)
Ask the students what is expected of them at home and at work.
‘They always want more’ (1.01)
Who in your life wants more? Boss/ partner/friends/siblings
Students have to think about their expectations and write their own home/work list.
Students discuss their lists with the other students.
Homework idea: Students bring a list they have made into the class. Put all the lists into a box. Give the lists back to the students making sure that they do not get back their own list. Each student has to decide who the list belongs to and why. Students present their findings to the class and discover if they are correct.
Students use this ‘wordle’ to think what life means to them now and what it meant to them throughout the different stages of their life. Use this as a basis for an essay topic.
Childhood (1.12) ‘Teenagehood‘(3.14) adulthood (2.40)
Some other suggestion for the students to think about:
Time – Person of the year (2.20) – What award would you like to be given?
Think about the many contrasts throughout life (2.26) :
rise/fall slower/faster yes/ no
Can you think of other contrasts?
Using the title ‘What is life to you‘, students write a speech and then present it to the class.
Let the students listen to the following two tracks without showing them the videos.
Students have to write down what words/sentences they here.
Let the students listen a second time. Students have to close their eyes and visualise what they think the video would be to accompany the song.
Students write down their ideas and discuss them with the other students.
Students decide which song they prefer and are separated into groups depending on the track they prefer.
Students now watch the music videos and compare the video with what they thought the video would look like.
1. Baby -Justin Bieber
2. Hot Chip- I feel better
Use this video as a “What happens next” activity.
Stop the video at 1.40 and ask students what they think will happen next.
Give some examples of what could happen and get students to guess what will happen.
1. The alien has a breakdancing competition with the boy band.
2. The alien shoots the boy band with lasers.
3. The boy band shoots the alien with lasers.
Do you wish the ‘hot chip’ alien made an appearance in the Bieber video?
After watching both videos the students have to again decide which they prefer and see if their preferences have changed after watching the video.
If they have changed their minds than ask them to give a reason why.
The students form groups depending on which video they prefered.
Each group has to put forward an argument to why they prefer their chosen song.
The groups battle it out with each group having a set time limit to state their cause.
The Bieber phenomena. WHY?
Show students the following clip and ask if they think it is funny.
Do they want to see more videos of Justin Bieber being humiliated?
Students use computers to research the Bieber phenomena.
Here is a recent quote form ‘onlinesocialmedia.net’
“For quite some time now, teen singing sensation Justin Bieber has enjoyed his permanent spot on Twitter’s Trending Topics list. However, as of very recently, Bieber appears to have been knocked off and his fans are wondering what’s happened.”
Why do they think he is so popular?
Do you think he deserves this popularity?
Is there going to be a Bieber backlash?
It’s time to ‘tweet’
Students join the twitter debate and write their own tweet(140 words max.) about their thoughts on the Bieber phenomena.
Too much Bieber – let’s ‘feel better’ with some more “Hot chip”
Here is another version of the hot chip song featuring the very talented “Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy”
Students decide which version they prefer.
Students write down some ideas for a music video for this version.
Make a ‘wordle‘ of all the sentences from the song
Students look at the ‘wordle‘ and put the sentences in the correct order.
Some last words
I ‘feel better’ when I don’t listen to Justin Bieber.
Students write a tweet (140 words max.)and discuss what makes them ‘feel better’.
Show this clip at the students discretion only. Advise the students that the following clip is a little controversial and that if they are of a sensitive disposition then maybe it’s best that they do not watch the clip. This clip contains risky language and some scenes of violence. You could easily edit it so that the words are deleted from the video.
Start a discussion about censorship in videos. Ask the following questions.
1. Why do you think they use the “f-Word” ?
2. What do you think about the use of violence in this clip?
3. What impact did the violence and language have on you?
4. Is it really necessary to include the violence and f-word?
5. Does it relate to the song and video? Why?
6. Is this clip being controversial just to provoke people, which will in turn generate more sales through the media exposure?
Students choose from 3 scenes in the clip. They write a dialogue for the scene and then act it out.
(0.43) Scene outside ‘burger world’. Dialogue between the boss of ‘burger world’ and the protagonist.
(2.05) Scene with the man robbing the store. Dialogue between the store clerk and the protagonist.
(3.25) Scene with the police confrontation. Dialogue between the policeman and the protagonist.
Students listen to the clip a few times and write down as many lyrics as they can.
The students compare the lyrics they have written with the other students.
The students use the lyrics to help them write a story about the clip.
Ask some questions for them to think about.
Why did the man do this?
What were his responsibilities?
Game– In groups students try to write down as many jobs as they can in a set time limit (5mins).
Each group reads out the jobs they have written and if the other groups have the same word then they score it out. The groups only get points if they have a different word from the other groups. Subtract points for wrong spelling.
Word magnet-(My first attempt)
Please click here to watch Russell Stannard’s training video about word magnets.
If students have computers in your class room then this application is really good. If they don’t then use sheets of paper.
Students have to write down as many job words as they can and then separate them into what they consider to be worthwhile jobs and not worthwhile.
Let’s debate about jobs–
When they have divided the jobs into categories the students have a debate about their opinions and why they consider some jobs more worthwhile than others.
Call out a job and have the students who think it is worthwhile go to one side of the classroom and the other students go to the other side. Both sides think about what they can say to support their arguments in a debate. Each side is given a time limit to present their ideas.
Some final words
Students have to think about and then discuss what they think is important in life and what responsibilities they have.
Music video: “The Mynabirds-The Number’s don’t lie”
This is a lesson about routines and how to make them more bearable.
1. Elicit from students the activities they do on a daily basis and think about how many times they have done these activities so far in their lifetime.
2. Students watch the following music video and write down the daily routines they see.
3.Student’s look at the following wordle and put in order the routines that happen during a day.
4. Show the students the music video again. This time ask them do think how the man feels about his daily routine.
5. Ask some questions.
Where does the man go everyday and what does he do?
Does he have a happy life and why?
6. Show the students the following picture:
7. Ask students how similar it is to their own lives.
8. Student’s create their own daily routine cycle.
9. Show the video for a last time and ask them to think about how the man makes his life more bearable.
10. Ask the students how they make their lives more exciting and what do they do to bring colour into their lives.
11. Ask students if they had any experiences with imaginary friends when they were children.
12. Look at the cartoon and think about what they can do differently in their routines to make life more interesting.
13. Student’s suggest how they can change their routine and write what their perfect routine would be.
14. Student’s look at the following daily routine of Tiger Woods:
( If they are adults you can make a joke that this routine fails to mention his most strenuous exercise which is keeping up with his many affairs.)
15. The Students discuss Tiger Woods routine.
16. Using this routine as an example the students choose a celebrity and write what they think their daily routine would be. They could present their routine with the picture of the celebrity to other class members. The Pictures and routines could be made into a class poster
Show this clip at the students discretion only. Advise the students that the following video is a little controversial and that if they are of a sensitive disposition then maybe it’s best that they do not watch the clip.
Explain to the students that there are two rooms in this video. They have to describe the rooms.
Student A tries to guess the order of each word as seen in the music video.
Students watch the video and check if they have the correct order.
Discussion – Students discuss how provocative they thought the video was and how it made them feel.
Explain to the students that they are investigators at the scene of the crime. They have to write about the ‘space in between’ and using the evidence in the video/wordle they have to decide what happened before the scene of the crime.
Students present their stories to the class.
The class vote on the best investigator.
Fotobabble: Take a picture of each students sketch and upload it onto fotobabble. The students have to use their story to talk about what happened over their photo.
Update– Here is a recent interview with the movies director(Rupert Sanders) about the video:
Pitchfork: Did you talk with him about the meaning of the song and why he wanted those visuals specifically?
RS: Yeah, for him it was very much about the neglect that has led a relationship to this– the demise of love and passion. He was very specific in how the room caught fire and that they had killed each other, and how the people around them didn’t really care.
Pitchfork: When I first watched it, I thought the other people were somehow in on the killings.
RS: It’s hard because you want to be elusive about what’s going on but not so confusing that there was no train of thought. If you look closely, there’s a knife next to Trent and Mariqueen’s holding a spike of a champagne glass. You don’t really know why the other girl is laughing on the phone rather than calling 911. There’s something a little more disconcerting and creepy when the audience can play more of a part in figuring things out.
Students watch “Let’s write a book-Field Music” and try to find the words.
Give the students each a copy of the ‘wordle’. Drill the words in the ‘wordle’ and check for understanding. Ask the students to circle the words they see in the video. Watch the video three times as the images are very fast. Students count how many words they found.
Add some words to the wordle which are not in the video to make the task more difficult.
To make this activity more competitive put the students into groups.
Ask students what other things they saw which were not in the wordle. e.x. periscope, rhino etc.
I learned how to use this application by watching this helpful step by step guide by Russell Stannard.
I circled all the objects in the movie to show the students where the words are.
Check it out by clicking here.
If students know how to use ‘voice thread‘ then they could add their own comments to the video.
[This is my very first attempt. If I did this again I would choose a brighter colour to highlight the images.]
Explain to the students that the song title was called “let’s write a book”. Tell them that they are not going to write a book but they are going to write a story using as many words from the ‘wordle’ as they can.
Esl Imaginarium
Esl Imaginarium 