EFL ACTIVITIES using SILENT VIDEOS

My inspiration for these video activities was this post by David Deubelbeiss.

• the activities are short.
• the videos are all found in Youtube.
• there's no need to prepare any extra material.

1. Predicting what's going to happen.

• turn volume off.
• play parts of the video, stop and brainstorm with the whole class what  they think is going to happen. Ex: I think he will .......
• Play and check their prediction.

Suggested video:  http://youtu.be/L6Cuq-BueEs

2. Taking notes / reconstructing scene

• Students watch the video and take notes of what happens in the scene.
• Pairs compare their notes and write a description of the whole scene.
• Students then read each other descriptions.
• Teacher can build a description of the scene with the whole class using http://livetyping.com

Suggested video: http://youtu.be/bS1ePEZZCDY

3. Describe what you see

• turn volume off
• get students into pairs.
• they stand up, one facing the screen and the other with the back to the screen.
• the one facing the screen describes what's happening in the scene.
• teacher pauses the video and students swap places.
• do the same for the rest of the video (or for as long as the teacher decides)
• Students write down a summary of the whole scene.
• If students want to, show the whole video with sound to the class.

Suggested video: http://youtu.be/1Efrg23Sqe8

4. Imagining thoughts

• Divide students in pairs.
• You can turn off the sound or not.
• While students watch the video, they try to write down what the girl and the man might be thinking. 
• Teacher pauses video when necessary.

Suggested video: http://youtu.be/8yIuiXxwUtw

5. Predicting + Retelling

• Show the wordcloud below and ask students to predict  the story of the video. (PAIRS)
• Students watch the video .
• Pairs try to reconstruct or retell the story using the wordcloud (Speaking or Writing activity).

Suggested video: http://youtu.be/rHKV92sNFVM

6. Imagine an ending

• Students watch the video up to 1.59 mins.
• Pairs tell each other what they remember.
• Pairs imagine an ending to the story and write it down.
• Students read their ending to the class.
• Show the rest of the video to the class.

Suggested video: http://youtu.be/GJbiw_bOFmY

7. Vocabulary List

• ask students to write the heading for  two lists in their notebooks (CITY LIFE / NATURE)
• Students watch the video and have to complete the lists by writing down vocabulary related to each topic as it appears in the video.
• Debriefing: ask students what words they've written down.
• In pairs students discuss what they understood about the video.

Suggested video: http://youtu.be/qdxbIRkITBk

For more suggested animations, check out this playlist I've put together:
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL47140F33A452888D

My Picks from YOUTUBE this week

Have a look at these great videos.

1.  All you need is love - a beautiful video of kids from India and Africa singing  the Beatles song.
2. Glogster in the classroom - high school students talk about their projects with Glogster.
3. For the birds - cute animation that could be used as a discussion starter about "Bullying".
4. Education is broken - great talk by Chris Lehmann
5. Reel Wisdom - a collection of quotes from famous films
6. Porcelain Revised Score - beautiful short movie about 2nd world war
7. What teachers make - great video about education
8. What's the role of teachers today? - Interview with Marc Prensky
9. Acceptance speech by Alfred Hitchcock - fantastic, a must-see
10. Language as a Window into Human Nature - RSA animation 

Oh, I used TUBESNACK to make the video playlist above. There are other video templates to choose from.

10 EDTECH VIDEOS

This is a playlist of 10 great videos for anyone interested in edutech.

Hope you like it.

Build your own custom video playlist at embedr.com

Video created by students (WORLD CUP 2010)

This afternoon , a colleague of mine, Felipe Attux, showed me a video he and his students had produced in class. Students learned the World Cup theme song "Wavin'  flag" and did all sorts of funny faces in front of the camera. I image they had a lot of fun, and so did I watching it.

Creating PROJECTS with windows movie maker

Last week, some colleagues of mine asked for  help. They wanted to learn how to use windows movie maker to create projects I´ve been sharing in our edmodo group.

After a quick workshop last Friday, one of them suggested I make a tutorial so that more teachers would learn how to use it. Well, windows movie maker can be found at most windows based computers, if you don´t have one it can be downloaded from the internet.

This is a simple tutorial I`ve made showing how to add images, audio, titles, etc. http://www.utipu.com/app/tip/id/25122
Just below you´ll find some example videos I´ve created to use with my students.

Example videos:

- Types of films : for presentation and practice



- Video Quiz: films based on novels



- Dialogue: Eating out - students created dialogues, recorded their roleplay and teacher added the images.



- Daily routine: students mime actions. We used the video for practice.



- Past Grammar Tenses: students created sentences and drawing.



- Phrasal Verbs: students created pictures for sentences from an exercise and were recorded reading the sentences.

Made up Memories

I've always wanted to parachute but never had the guts. Well, now I've just made up my own "PRETENDING VIDEO" . It's true it looks kind of strange but it's good for the laugh.YOu can e-mail the link to someone, embed it in you blog or even download the video to your own computer in order to show to your friends.
http://memeo.madeupmemories.com/?mId=35543745

Found the site via Ozge @ http://ozgekaraoglu.edublogs.org/

Memorizing Phrasal Verbs

I always found it hard to memorize phrasal verbs and the only way that worked for me was contextualising  and associating them to images.

This week, my FCE group had a gap-fill exercise they had to complete with phrasal verbs. I knew many of the phrasal verbs were unfamiliar to them then this is what came up ...

PRESENTATION:  I presented the phrasal verbs with paper flashcards with a phrasal verb on each one and asked a student a question with the phrasal verb. If the student/ s didn´t understand the meaning (of the phrasal verb) then I would explain it.

PRACTICE: I used the same flashcards to drill the pronunciation of the phrasal verbs. Then, we practised a bit more with virtual flashcards created with QUIZLET http://quizlet.com/1878547/familiarize/

PERSONALIZATION:  I asked students to form pairs and stand up, one student facing the board and the other had the back to the board. Using the e-board, I make a page with all the phrasal verbs but used the spotlight tool  to focus on one phrasal verb at a time. As I focussed on a phrasal verb, the student facing the board had to ask his partner a question w/ that specific verb, the other st answered the question and they changed places for the next verb.

CONSOLIDATION/ MEMORIZATION: I showed my students a stick figure drawing I had made to represent a sentence "I look up to my dad."  so that they could see a simple drawing can represent an idea. I gave each student a sentence , taken from the coursebook exercise they would do next, and asked them to draw a simple image for each sentence. After the drawings were made, I recorded each student reading their sentence. Then, the drawings passed from hand to hand so that they could see each other drawings. I collected the drawings against their will (students wanted to keep the drawings so I had to promise to give them back next class) in order to add the images to their voices in a little video.

EXERCISE: students completed the exercise in the course book very easily.

During the whole activity, there were moments of laughter, one when they were drawing and the other when they saw each other pictures. I heard comments like "Cute", "wow, this is a good one."

REVISION: next class, I intend to show them the video and recap the meaning of each phrasal verb.

Listening to kids talk (British Council videos)

I love listening to children talk, don't you? It's so cute!

Well, in LearnEnglish Kids you watch watch videos prepared for classroom use where children answer simple questions. Below the video, there are pdf exercises you can download, and there's also a complete page with suggested activities to do with the videos.

kids talk | LearnEnglish Kids via kwout

This one is adorable:



http://learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/kids-talk/owen-talks-about-food

BOMBAYTV - creating subtitles for Bollywood films

I had already heard of BombayTv via Ozge Karaolglu and Russell Stannard but hadn´t had a chance to try it myself. This morning I selected a scene and wrote some subtitles to it. You can also use the text-to-speech feature or record your own voice to dub the scene.

My TRIAL

Great tool to use w/ students.

How can we use this site with students?

• The teacher can create subtitled videos to contextualize the content of a lesson.
• Show a scene to the whole class so that students in pairs can create a dialogue for it. The teacher monitors the activity helping out and correcting when necessary. Show the scene again so that pairs of students can dub the scene. The class decides which was the best dialogue created in class.
• In the computer lab, ask students to create subtitles for a scene they select. As they finish, students send the link to the teacher via e-mail so that it is published in the class blog.
• In the classroom, show a scene to students. Then, with the wholeclass, brainstorm a dialogue for the scene. Students copy the dialogue. Pairs of students rehearse the dialogue. The teacher selects a pair of students to record teh dialogue and adds it to the scene. Show the recorded dialogue to the class.
• Ask students to record themselves dubbing a scene for homework. The text should have vocabulary learned recently. As they finish it, the video should be sent to the teacher via e-mail to be published in the class blog. These videos can be used in future classes for listening comprehension.
  

Creative tools: CREAZA

While checking my subscriptions at youtube I found this wonderful site presented by gigafide. It´s Creaza and its tools: mindomo (which I posted about recently), a movie editor, an audio editor and a cartoon maker.

Watch the video and check it out.








Trying out CREAZA:

- my cartoon

Fun Time: Beautiful videos

Sharing beautiful videos I came accross last week. Watch and Enjoy.

Creating an ANIMATED music video

Inspired by Nik Peachey´s excellent post (image above) about creating animated music videos, I decided to give it a go myself. Of course my stick figure drawings are poor compared to what you´ll find in youtube but it can give you an idea of what can be done with any kind of drawing.

The task Nik suggested was to select a song you like, draw pictures for the lyrics, take pictures ( I scanned the pictures instead) and assemble everything in Windows Movie Maker.

How to do this kind of task w/ students?

My suggestion is

1. Ask the class to select a song they like with good lyrics (or select one yourself)
2. Grab the lyrics from http://www.lyrics.com/
3. Cut the lyrics into sentences and give them to each student or pair of students.
4. Ask students to draw something to represent the sentence they have from the song. The teacher will need to help sts understand the meaning so that they can draw.
5. Collect all pictures and ask if any student knows how to work with Windows Movie Maker . (many of them can)
6. Ask a student to assemble the pictures and the song to make a music video for the class (or do it yourself)
7. Show the music video to students the following class and have everyone sing the song.
   
   

For FULL SCREEN and EMBED code you can find the same video here
http://vimeo.com/6972744

Teacher Training Videos

These are wonderful teacher training videos I'd like to share with you.

"An innovative offering from the Office of English Language Programs, Shaping the Way We Teach English, is a 14-module teacher training video series developed and produced in cooperation with the University of Oregon. "

This is module 1 - Contextualizing language



I really like module 4 - Pair and group work




Check out other modules:

• Module 2 - Building Language Awareness
• Module 3 - Integrating Skills
• Module 5 - Learner Feedback
• Module 11 - Individual Learner Differences
• Module 12 - Younger Learners
• Module 13 - Peer Observation
• Module 14 - Reflective Teaching
  

Olympic Games - Rio 2016

Brazil was thrilled yesterday with the honour of hosting the 2016 Olympic Games. We all know of the social problems we still have to face but we also know that we are capable of hosting such an event with our "hearts and soul" as President Lula said.

While searching tweets about the 2016 Olympic Games I came across some articles and videos that could be used in class.

Articles:

• http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/olympic_games/8282518.stm
  
• http://ow.ly/15Sxhx

Two nice videos:

1. For this first video which is partly in Portuguese and then in English (the song), you could have students write down the sports they see while they watch the video.



2. The second video is narrated in English but shows labels with the names of the sport facilities. You could ask students which area will hold what sport with questions such as: Where will athletic competitions take place? And the opening ceremony? What about the marathon?



Of course, as all Brazilians have been discussing the pros and cons of holding the games in Brazil, you could propose a discussion among students.

Departures - beautiful film

Last night, I brought some DVDs to watch over the weekend and our first choice was "Departures" , a Japanese film which won the Oscar for Best Foreign Film. I had to share the trailer here. Watching good films is good for the soul, and this one is undoubtedly a very good one.

Digital Storytelling by Ozge's students

I'd like to share a wonderful blog I found this morning written by Ozge Karaoglu , a teacher in Turkey.


The video I'm sharing below was made with her 6-year-old students and is a wonderful example of what can be done to maximize the storytelling experience. You can read her post explaining how it was done here.

Little Elephant from ozge karaoglu on Vimeo.

Are we killing Creativity?

This is a wonderful talk given by Ken Robinson at TED. Really worth watching.

Revisiting Xtranormal

Xtranormal is a wonderful webtool you can use to create animated movies.

Dianne Krause has created a nice xtranormal movie talking about education in 2025. Interesting stuff!



This is another example we can use for language teaching. By selecting a character, a scenario and a script we can introduce any language point. This is an example of another movie created by Dianne Krause, this time in French.



You can also ask sts to create their own movies with language you've focussed. Isn't it a fantastic tool?

These were my TRIALS

• A birthday card for a colleague
• A video my son made while learning how to deal with xtranormal

To use Xtranormal, create a free account and then click on MAKE MOVIES. Select what kind of character you want, select the scene, write the script and then add animations, looks, music and so on. Click on ACTION to have a preview and when it's done, click on IT'S A WRAP. After your video has been published in Xtranormal, you can also publish it in youtube by clicking on a button. Simply and easy. I'll definitely use it in my classes.

Augmented Reality

I'm totally into the future. I guess I was born in the wrong era. While reading David Kapuler's Blog Companion Volume 3 I learned about AR Sights. After downloading AR sights, you can use google earth to look for landmarks, then after printing their MARKER you will be able to see the monument in 3D. It is truly amazing! You know, like in Star wars.

Check out this video



This is another video about Hitlab and how augmented reality will affect learning.

Videos and stuff

I decided to use this post to share 3 sites I've just come accross in Twitter.

• The first one is KIDEOS. A place where you can find videos for children. You can find videos according to age group or search the categories. I loved watching Caillou's videos, they're so sweet and cute. Teachers can also use the nursery rhymes videos. Check some of them.

• Can you tell a story in 6 words? This is the idea behing 6-WORD MEMOIRS. In Smith Magazine (online) you can tell your own 6-word story.

These are some EXAMPLES from the magazine:

Six-Word Memoirs at SMITH Magazine via kwout

A post from the blog BIONIC TEACHING shows a video produced with Teens Six-word stories.

6 Word Teen Memoirs at Bionic Teaching via kwout

• Finally, the third site would be Youtube Doubler. (via Nik Peachey)
  

A great resource to help sts compare cities, animals, people. Just type in the URL of the first video, then the second and both will appear side by side.