Monthly Archives: January 2015

In defence of vocab lists

Posted on 28/01/2015 by fabenglishteacher

Gosh, what a brave title, I can hear you all hissing from here. Before you actually start spitting at your screen, hear me out. Yes, I would love my students to learn English through communication activities and masses of comprehensible … Continue reading →

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Spelling Practice and Word Recognition

Posted on 19/01/2015 by fabenglishteacher

Not only a good way to recycle vocabulary but a chance to stand up and move about a little!

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Using BIG questions to start a topic

Posted on 16/01/2015 by fabenglishteacher

Students often find brainstorming a new topic difficult, they don’t know where to start. Giving them question words helps them form the questions they need to ask to gather information. A clue on where to find information (textbook & mobile … Continue reading →

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The Student whisperer

Posted on 11/01/2015 by fabenglishteacher

The other day I wrote about the power of the bell that I use in class to get quiet and students’ attention. Today however I’d like to draw your attention to the other end of the spectrum – silence and near silence. … Continue reading →

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The Power of the Bell

Posted on 08/01/2015 by fabenglishteacher

Meet one of the most powerful classroom management tools I possess: The Bell has many talents; the first and most obvious is to get the students’ attention, usually when I want to bring a pair or group oral activity to … Continue reading →

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Quick questionnaire

Posted on 06/01/2015 by fabenglishteacher

This idea is quick and simple and easy to adapt to just about any tense. After discovering the tense and form, The students copy and add questions to the following grid: Here we are practising “ago”, but you can use … Continue reading →

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Quick and easy back to school activity

Posted on 04/01/2015 by fabenglishteacher

I bet that, like me, you’ve taken plenty of photos over the last couple of weeks. It’s nice to be able to illustrate your chats about the holidays by showing your friends just how much your niece has grown, our … Continue reading →

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New Year’s resolutions

Posted on 02/01/2015 by fabenglishteacher

It’s that time of year again, and the advantage of having a blog is that I can look back and realise how badly I failed keeping last year’s. The thing is by now I know exactly what I should be … Continue reading →

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