Now that I have passed my CELTA and am teaching, I am already finding myself creating my own little bits of lessons in response to what my students’ interests are, and what is current at the moment, and decided I should share them to give something back to all the wonderful, experienced teachers from whom I have used materials!
For anyone new to my blog, I am teaching English in Berlin and begun my post-CELTA career teaching a group of A1s mixed with A2s and B1s (!) in a little business school in the southwest of the city for three weeks. I am now working for one of the biggest language schools in the city as a freelancer, and having a great time.
Here are some of the activities I have used successfully, with the document attached to the heading. I wouldn’t say that each item is a whole ‘lesson plan,’ but all the resources I used are attached and I have suggested a rough level – but I am still working out the nuances between each level, so apologies if you find them to be a bit off. All feedback, as ever, would be much appreciated!
This is a great way to get students to interact with news in English, as well as giving them practice in the difficult skill that is summarising. It forms part of the two-week course plan at the school I teach, and is regularly reported as being one of the highlights of the course for our students.
Level: B1+ (good intermediate students and beyond)
Time: approx. an hour
Materials: newspapers and/or the internet (in the form of laptops, a computer room, or even just phones.) If neither of these are available, then printouts of a selection of medium-length articles on different topics.
BerLingo 