Grammar review using Mind Maps

This is a great activity for grammar review, using Mind Maps and letting students explain the rest of the class some grammar aspect. They can be as creative as they want, although I provided them a template just in case they needed some guidance. This is a cooperative activity.

You need:
– Mind map templates (if they are used to work with Mind Maps you won’t need them). As this was the first time my students were doing one, I prefered to give them a template.
– Digital board or projector

1- Tell students to make a list of all tenses that have been worked during the year o term.
2- Give each student a template of one of the tenses. Then tell them they have to make the Mind Map individually
3- When they have finished, students working on the same tense are grouped together. They compare their Mind Maps
4- Give each group an empty paper where they have to make a new Mind Map all together as detailed as possible. They hand it to the teacher when they have finished.
5- The teacher takes a photograph of each paper and makes copies of all Mind Maps for each student, so they will end up with a summary of the grammar worked during the year or term.
6- You give the copies to students. In groups, they will explain to the rest of the class the grammar tense they have been working in. You will project the photo of the Mind Map so they can follow the explanation and they will correct all together any possible mistake or will add any missing information.

I did this activity at the end of the year and it was great as students really felt the team-work.

Metacognition Stages

Metacognition may sound as a weird word to you but it is just making students think on how they learn and make them aware of their own learning process. This can be a good way to finish an activity, filling in the gaps just to realise why some activities are done.

Metacognition Stages

Hugo and Georges Mélies lesson plan

This is a good lesson plan for Secondary students and even adults. You will need some sessions, depending on how many students you have. It’s a good wayto practice oral presentations, fluency and accuracy.

Hugo

First of all, students watch the movie Hugo, by Martin Scorsese. Set in 1930s Paris, an orphan who lives in the walls of a train station is wrapped up in a mystery involving his late father and an automaton. Eventually he will discover the life and work of Georges Mélies, one of the first film makers. Here you have the official trailer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGTfCw1x98A 

After having watched the movie, I show students the following presentation about Georges Mélies. Mélies. Students, in groups,  have to choose one important character of the 2oth Century and create a presentation they will introduce to the rest of the class in order to know this character better.

Believe me, it works! As they choose the character, they can show a part of their own so they are working their intrapersonal intelligence, a part from the linguistic intelligence. They are also using ICT and everybody is learning from everybody as they are sharing their knowledge. And, of course, I always learn something new with this activity! Enjoy!

 

Hello!

Welcome to educaenglish! This is a teaching blog where you will find activities, lesson plans, links, ideas and thoughts about teaching. I love my job and I feel passionate about having the opportunity of sharing my point of view with the world.

Let’s be the educational change our society needs.

Let’s start! Let’s do it!