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A bit of this, a bit of that Ready, steady, go - the power of warm-ups Vocabulary with a twist

Scattergories

This is a perfect game for revising any vocabulary which can be put into categories. So you can use it at the end of the year with all your students reviewing all topics from the school year or with your examination students reviewing exam topics. It can be used as a warm-up, energiser, or even the whole lesson activity.

You give students categories, draw a letter and students write down the words beginning with this letter. Here is the ‘matura’ or E8 exam revision template for you to use in class. And a wheel to pick a letter. Once you generate a lot of lexical items, you have a great range of possibilities to use them on in speaking or writing. Have fun with your students.

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A bit of this, a bit of that Ready, steady, go - the power of warm-ups

Noughts & crosses

An old activity which can be used in class as a warm-up or revision exercise. It has a lot of different possibilities, not only practising vocabulary. Actually, you can revise anything you want with your students. You may ask them to give definitions, to make sentences, dialogues, or stories, to give one or five examples, to speak, or to write. You can practise all sorts of vocabulary or grammar, but also language functions or different skills. There are no limits here. And the best option is to ask your students to prepare their own games. Have fun.

https://bit.ly/3Lxb8TB_DEAL

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A bit of this, a bit of that Ready, steady, go - the power of warm-ups

2 in 1 – Vocab and Grammar Revision

Another activity which can serve as a warm-up or the whole revision lesson. It’s all up to you. You can revise both vocabulary and grammar with your students at the same time.

First, show your students some examples (easier and more difficult ones are included in the presentation below) of definitions of words or phrases you want to revise – let the students guess them.

Secondly, ask your students to make definitions themselves and let their peers guess. You may ask them to make just one or two definitions if you want it to be just a warm-up; or more if it is to be a longer revision.

Then show the students these words in context and ask them to paraphrase the sentences, translate, fill in the gaps, whatever you want.

Finally, students are supposed to prepare their own paraphrases, translations, gap-filling tasks, etc with the words and phrases they prepared in stage one. Quite a challenge even for advanced learners.

Do you find this idea useful? Let me know in the comments.

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A bit of this, a bit of that

How to survive the Exam Marathon?

Are you the High School Final Matura Exam or E8 examiner? Are you thinking about becoming one but you have no idea what it is actually like to be one? Are you wondering whether it is worth it or not? Well, here is my very subjective opinion on the work of the examiner. And I do have a long and rich experience working as an examiner of both matura (basic and extended) and E8 (also Junior High School) exams.

First of all, you have to be aware that in order to become an examiner you have to take part in a workshop that lasts the whole day or two and to pass the exam at the end of it. The exam is very practical and checks if you can grade the students’ writing tasks objectively and according to the rules and requirements. If you pass the exam, you become an outright examiner, with a beautiful certificate and your own CKE number. Isn’t it wonderful?

But if you think it means that the CKE will trust you and assume you are a good examiner (after all they taught you, checked your skills and knowledge and gave you this honourable title, right?), you may be slightly disappointed. Actually, you will have to prove a couple of times every single year that you are worth the privilege by writing additional quizzes. So don’t be surprised or shocked. Enjoy every chance to show your real worth and don’t give up.

If you are persistent enough and willing to take part in the Exam Marathon after all, this is what you should remember about in May:

  • forget about the weekends in the next two or three weeks. No picnics, no bikes, no family life, no time for preparing lessons for the coming weeks, no rest. But come on, you are a tough guy anyway.
  • forget about a decent pay rise (this year it is a couple of groszes per test which, considering the inflation rate, is a joke). Keep in mind your mission, torch for education and so on.
  • remember to buy a set of things which are an absolute must while checking the tests: a pen with some black ink (there are a lot of papers to be signed, numbers and codes to be written down, signatures to be left, etc), a pen with erasable blue ink and pen refills (to check the papers with), a pair of scissors (to cut the safe envelopes), a black marker pen to paint out the little squares and a printed set of requirements and rules. No surprises here – teachers have always been their own suppliers.
  • remember to bring something to eat and drink as well. If you forget about it, you will end up checking the tests for 10 hours without a drop of water or a bite of bread. In my case that would mean a splitting headache, irritation and the lack of concentration. So I usually take a thermal mug with coffee or tea, water and some juice. Some examiners bring their own kettles, too. For eating, I do recommend all kinds of finger food – not to waste your precious time which can be spent on checking the papers.
  • remember to bring some paper tissues and a disinfectant as well. There is usually some toilet paper and soap at the beginning of the first day of checking but I wouldn’t count on them in the afternoons or on Sundays. Basic needs? Come on. Teachers are sacrificers.
  • develop your own checking system which will make your work a little bit more automatic. I usually start with dividing the tests into those written by dyslectic and non-dyslectic students. Then I divide them into topics. The next step is signing all the papers, writing the numbers and codes. Then there is grammar checking, essay checking, painting the little squares out and finally writing down the results. Oh, and don’t forget to count the papers after you take them out of the envelope and before putting them back again. If you decide to give a student 0 points, make sure the PKE checks if you are right.

And now, the most important thing of all is that you MUSTN’T forget it’s a student who is your priority. While checking every single work, keep it in mind. If you have any doubts whether you understand what the student has written, whether it is even in English or whether you should give any points for it or not, follow the following universal piece of advice. Make it your mantra from now on:

‘If you have a titchy suspicion that a student was just considering attempting to convey the embryo of his thought, do not hesitate – give them a point. Such efforts have to be awarded.’

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A bit of this, a bit of that

Matura Christmas Set

Ho Ho Ho, Christmas is coming. And because it’s 6th December tomorrow, I have a little MikoĊ‚ajki present for you. I know oral matura exam is not compulsory this year but isn’t teaching a language about practising communication skills after all (no matter the exam structure and requirements)? I prepared a version for a teacher and student so your students can actually work in pairs. I hope you will have a lot of fun, I mean ‘Christmas is coming’ fun.

https://bit.ly/3Dl3iV7_DEAL

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A bit of this, a bit of that Grab it, teach it - ready lessons Ready, steady, go - the power of warm-ups

Revision Set

This is a huge revision set which you can use with your teenagers before different kinds of exams (E8, basic and extended matura, FCE, etc) as well as with your adult students. It consists of 14 parts, each one corresponding to a different exam topic: Man, House, School, Work, Social Life, Food, Shopping, Travelling, Culture, Sport, Health, Science and Technology, Nature, Crime and Society. In each part you will find 4 tasks: – SNAP: a picture connected with the topic, – VOCAB: eight words or expressions connected with the topic, – CREATE: a photo and a question or writing task – STORY: a topic for story telling

This is a very universal set. And because of it you can adapt it easily to the level of your students and your needs. You may use a certain part as a warm-up only or use it as the basis of your whole lesson. The SNAP and VOCAB tasks are just photos and words or phrases on different levels. So it’s totally up to you and your creativity what you decide to do with them.

I hope this will help you have very effective and enjoyable revision lessons with your students. Let me know whether you have found the ideas useful. So help yourself and bon appetit!

The set is available in the shop: https://sklep.dealwithkinga.pl/produkt/revision-set-genially/

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A bit of this, a bit of that

Speaking challenge

My E8 students are kind of fed up with grammar and vocabulary revision. No wonder, it’s already mid-June. So I’ve decided to devote the last lesson to speaking mainly. All conversation questions go with the exam topics. Some of them are really challenging but I’m sure our students will manage. If you still want your students to revise vocabulary or grammar while practicing oral skills, you may always ask them to prepare a word cloud to a particular question or use a certain grammar structure while giving opinions.

https://www.baamboozle.com/game/99237

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Grammar rocks

Mixed tenses and irregular verbs

Mixing may lead to outstanding results. Have a look at my newest short presentation on mixed tenses for lower levels. Good for the revision of the main English tenses and irregular verbs, especially for students preparing for different exams. The last part includes speaking practice and thus is more creative.

https://bit.ly/3cicwUT_DEAL

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Ready, steady, go - the power of warm-ups

Exam topics

This post is useful for the end-of-year lessons. If you want to revise exam vocabulary with your students, it’s enough to pick a topic using the wheel and/or one of the ideas below to have a nice warm-up or even the whole lesson. Not only will your students have to be really creative but they will also revise exam vocabulary in context and develop their speaking and writing skills.

  • Challenging writing – students work in groups. Each group gets a different topic (for example group A: Health and group B: Crime). They write down 8-10 words connected with their topics. Then we give them a writing task on a totally different topic (for example Nature) and they have to write it using all their 8-10 words. Follow-up: peer correction and identifying 8-10 words.
  • Chain stories – students work in pairs or groups. Each pair gets a different topic and writes a few words connected with their topic. Then one pair starts a story in which they use one of their words, the next pair has to continue using their word, then the other pair does the same. We can repeat it depending on how many students we have in each group or how much time we have left.
  • Small talks – I ask my students to prepare 1-2-sentence conversation starters on all exam topics. Next lesson each student picks a different exam topic. Then students work in pairs (for example student A gets Sport and student B gets House). Then I give them a conversation starter on a totally different topic (for example Culture) and they have to make a dialogue trying to change the topic into theirs in a natural way. If one of them succeeds in doing it quite quickly, they other student has to try to change it into his. I set a time limit of usually 3-5 minutes. So the students have to continue till the time is up.
  • For other ideas see the ‘Secret word’ post.
  • https://wordwall.net/resource/2421349
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Ready, steady, go - the power of warm-ups

A picture is worth a thousand words

I personally hate questions such as: ‘How did you spend your last weekend?’, “What interesting did you do yesterday?’. But we need to practice past tenses with our students. This exercise is ideal for a warm-up. Ask your students to choose one famous character (real or fictional) and a picture that would illustrate the way the character could spend their last weekend. Students work in pairs. One is a famous person, the other a journalist who has to learn as much as possible about the celebrity’s weekend. They talk. Then the journalists share the most interesting facts about their celebrities with the rest of the class.

https://bit.ly/2XCmbBH_DEAL