Elisa´s office

2011-02-15T14:21:00.001-02:00

Dica de site com diversos exercícios de listening e reading.
Vale o click!

2010-08-27T11:40:00.000-03:00

Recently one of my students introduced me to an artist called Anjelah Johnson who makes standup comedy.

It’s hilarious, really. LOL

I liked so much that I thought about a class based on this video:

You know that most of the nail salons in the States are full of Asians and they have a very peculiar way of speaking.

I believe this would be a nice way of starting a discussion about accents.

I’ve also found this video from Senfield in which Elaine goes to a salon to have her nails done (it’s also a good introduction to the grammar point – to have something done)

HAVE FUN!

2010-08-12T12:11:00.000-03:00

I´d like to buy a hamburger :)

LOL

2010-08-12T11:49:00.000-03:00

Smoking (level: intermediante)

Hi guys,
Today I´m sharing a class plan that I´ve decided to prepare after reading about that Indonesian baby who smokes 40 cigarettes a day.
That´s so bizarre! Here in Brazil it´s been a year since the smoking ban law became a reality, and to read something so shocking like that makes us wonder: Maybe the governments should interfere when parenting fails.
So, I started my class by asking my students if they are for or against these laws (in which the governments say what people can or can´t do).
These are some ideas of questions:

• Do you smoke?
• Does anyone in your family smoke?
• How do you feel when you are around smokers?
• Are you for or against the law that forbids people from smoking in closed areas? Why?
• There is a bill of law in California that wants to forbid parents from smoking in the car when children are with them. What do you think about it?

After discussing those questions, work on the following vocabulary

Explain the meaning of words such as second-hand smoke, because this is what happens to the children in the car.

Then move on to the following site,I always use it as a listening activity.

This is the end of part 1 (it usually takes me one hour and a half, but this depends on how long your students will take in the speaking part)

The second part also starts with a conversation about smoking and parenthood.

• Should parents smoke around their kids?
• Should they allow their kids to smoke at home?
• What´s the legal age to buy cigarettes in your country?

Then it´s time to the reading part, I always use the breaking news English because the material is great

If you still have some time left, you can wrap up the class by showing them this video: (the conversation in the video is quite fast, so listening before playing to your students to make sure it fits their level)

There are also some questions ideas here

Enjoy!

HIJACK

2010-08-09T20:40:00.000-03:00

Hi guys,

How is it going?

I know that I was supposed to updated the blog more often, but I´ve been in a rush!

Anyway, today I´m sharing a video that you can use as an icebreaker. When I was a teacher at Wizard, I remember they used to have jokes in the end of each unit, and one of the jokes was about the confusion some people make with the word HIJACK.

This is a hilarious video that you can use to explain to your students what it really means.

Enjoy!

And we're back!

2010-08-01T09:34:00.000-03:00

Hi guys,

I was on vacation, that’s why the blog hasn’t been updated so frequently.

Tomorrow my routine goes back to normal, so I’ll try to post interesting things more often.

Please stay tuned.

Love,

daily routine - youtube videos

2010-06-25T18:33:00.000-03:00

Hi guys,
These are some videos that can help you during a daily routine class.
Enjoy!

a listening: http://www.esl-lab.com/schedule/schedrd1.htm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6AzFj6TF-U&feature=related

EF podcast

2010-06-15T18:41:00.000-03:00

Hi guys,

The world cup has already started and Brazil has just won against North Korea…but my promised class about the world cup is not even near to be finished. I think I´ll just drop it. There are thousands of readymade lessons about soccer online, so if you google I´m sure you´ll find one.

However, I have something to share with you guys, I´ve found another interesting youtube channel: EFpodcast. Although the movies can be a little bizarre and quite not realistic, you can use some to illustrate grammar points.

It´s sure worth a visit.

Hot English magazine

2010-06-11T11:03:00.000-03:00

Hi there guys,

Brazilians are familiar to a magazine called SPEAK UP (that I really like) but unfortunately they don´t publish a lot of material online for us teacher to use in our classes.

So, while I was looking for some interesting material I found this magazine: http://www.hotenglishmagazine.com which gives the opportunity to subscribe for online lessons for free with audio. I loved it!

I hope you enjoy it too.

Best wishes,

PS: I´m still working on that class about the world cup! J

The daily english show

2010-06-02T12:48:00.000-03:00

Hi guys,

I was preparing one of my classes, about the world cup (I´ll share with you next week), and as I was looking for a listening activity for it I found a great youtube channel for ESL classes.

I liked it because the hostess looks really cool and this is something we have to consider when teaching teenagers.

They have many topics and it´s great because you can use just a part of it during your class just to illustrate a topic.

I personally liked the video about lady Gaga´s song telephone, one because it´s very hype and the teens will love it and second because there are some pretty nice structures to work with them such as: as … as , everything but…, what does it have to do to with…

I hope you enjoy it!

Love,

video lady gaga

and here is the blog for tapescript

Imagine Learning

2010-05-31T17:04:00.000-03:00

Hi Guys,
How are you all doing?
I have some pretty good new information to share, but not right yet.
Please stay tuned to know about it.
:)

"For me this is my life now and I wouldn´t trade it for anything."

2010-05-08T08:31:00.000-03:00

Hi guys, sorry for taking so long to update my website, but life has been pretty frantic lately.

The class today is a motivational class for advanced students based on Michael J. Fox´s life. It´s a very interesting and touching story, about how he dealt with Parkinson´s and how he´d transformed this difficult experience into a great book.

I would start the class by putting this quote on the blackboard: "For me now this is my life and I wouldn´t trade it for anything." (this is a sentence he uses during the interview)

Then I´d ask the students if they have been through any difficult moments lately (this is a very tricky question, because it can lead to tears and stuff like this, so please mind the students you´re teaching and feel if this is an appropriate topic to approach).

I´d do the reading part after this conversation to help the students to understand the topic better, then I´d move on to the listening activities

These are the sites:

http://www.rd.com/your-america-inspiring-people-and-stories/an-interview-with-michael-j-fox/article177195.html

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/parkinsons/view/fox.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGeMX_h67mI

Enjoy!

Claudio Azevedo has done it again!

2010-04-13T15:25:00.000-03:00

And Thank God he´s done it! He created a new blog full of topics based on movies. Great warm-up site.

Keep up the great work Claudio

HOWDINI

2010-04-09T10:49:00.001-03:00

Wonderful site full of great videos that you can use as listening activities with your advanced students!

Past perfect

2010-04-08T19:08:00.000-03:00

Here´s a class plan for intermediate students who need to review the past perfect.

Start by asking them to list some reason that would make them kill another person.

Compare the answers and ask them to rank the following crimes:

1- A person who was DUI kills a passerby.

2- A thief breaks into a house and kills the person who lives there.

3- A woman who was going to be raped ends up killing the aggressor.

All of these crimes involve killing, but are they the same?

What would be the sentence for each one? (if you have a big class you can try to role play a trial)

After the discussion is over move on to this wonderful class plan developed by Claudio Azevedo:

http://moviesegmentstoassessgrammargoals.blogspot.com/2009/10/unbreakable-present-perfect-with-just.html

As homework ask the students to read the following text on Oprah´s website:

http://www.oprah.com/oprahshow/Accused-of-Killing-Her-Husband

Enjoy it!

PS: If your students enjoy literature you can use a summary of Crime and Punishment to enrich the topic: http://members.tripod.com/~JBond_007_4/index-3.html

Listening - names

2010-03-29T09:28:00.000-03:00

This is a great listening site. I use it a lot. This is a basic listening for real beginners about American names.
Enjoy it!

***

verb to be exercises: http://www.eclecticenglish.com/grammar/PresentSimpleToBe1A.html

They´re, There or their

2010-03-24T14:46:00.000-03:00

Usually students mix up these homophones. This is a great site to help them.
=)

First class

2010-03-23T15:28:00.000-03:00

A new student has just started today and as usual I taught introductions and personal information.
I used these two videos from real english:

http://real-english.com/reo/1/unit1.html
http://real-english.com/reo/2/unit2.html

and next class I´ll give her this listening:

http://www.elllo.org/english/0001/043-Cat-England.htm

Simple present online activity

2010-03-23T15:08:00.001-03:00

Nice activity to try with your students. Fill in the blanks.

PDF database

2010-03-23T15:07:00.000-03:00

I don´t know if this is a famous site or not, but I´ve just found out about it and I really liked the site. There are many handouts, but you need to be patient, because it´s not very well organized and some of the pdfs aren´t good. So, take some time and look for the best ones.

Here are some good samples: (simple present and present continuous)

http://www.staff.uni-mainz.de/gmader/englisch/tests/present_simple+present_continuous.pdf (make questions)
http://www.english-area.com/paginas/time%20and%20present%20simple.pdf (time table exercise)
http://www.sea.unisannio.it/didattica/appunti_dispense/paolucci/present_simple.pdf (tests)
http://www.visi.es/documents/expanding%20sentences%20present%20simple.pdf (drilling)

MY DAILY ROUTINE AND FREE TIME

2010-03-22T17:21:00.001-03:00

Workig on simple present? Nice reading about daily routine activities.
I printed the text and asked my students to put the paragraphs into the correct order. After they finished it, I asked them to make questions to each other about the text.

Present Continuous and Present Simple

2010-03-22T17:20:00.000-03:00

Great website with a song (Lemon´s tree by fool´s garden) and some exercise to improve Present Continuous and Present Simple

CDLP

2010-03-22T17:16:00.000-03:00

California Distance Learning Project (CDLP) is a great website, which started as a project in 1995. It´s been a whle since the site was updated because it´s no longer an active project, however it´s still a great tool to use with your students.

This project´s goal included four major tasks

Build and Promote a Distance Learning Knowledge Base
Provide Technical Assistance in Implementing Distance Learning
Test New Instructional Delivery Methods / Materials
Help Create a Statewide Distance Learning Infrastructure

These tasks remained constant from the project's initiation in 1995; however, the activities continued to change over time.

Oprah is the queen!

2010-03-22T09:08:00.000-03:00

As you may know, I do LOVE Oprah. I believe her website is a great tool for advanced classes and I use it quite often.

Some months ago, I decided to have a class about food and diets (and there are lots and lots of things online about this topic) but I found a vey interesting video on Oprah´s website that you can work on:

http://www.oprah.com/health/David-Murdocks-Diet-and-Fitness-Routine-Video

David Murdock's Diet and Fitness Routine Video

This billionaire has the stamina and health of a much younger man. See how he starts his day with cardio and weight training. Plus, what he eats for every meal. Watch as David and Oprah blend up a special, vitamin-packed smoothie. Then, a shopping trip to Costco...

There are some other intersting links on Oprah´s that you can use on this same topic:

http://www.oprah.com/media/20090305b_tows_calorie-restriction-video

http://www.oprah.com/article/oprahradio/moz/moz_20070417

http://www.oprah.com/article/oprahradio/moz/20080527_oaf_moz_lessonslivinglonger

http://www.oprah.com/media/20080601_expert_OZ806074001YOUNGER030107b

I used this idea for a month with my students and they really appreciated it.

Enjoy it!

Teaching directions

2010-03-22T08:59:00.000-03:00

A good listening site for elementary students who are learning directions:

http://www.esl-lab.com/dir1/dir1.htm

http://www.esl-lab.com/dir2.htm

Urban Legend

2010-03-21T10:47:00.000-03:00

Class plan: What are you afraid of?

Level: upper intermediate

Start a class discussion about horror movies. Talk about the 1998 movie Urban Legend. Ask if they’ve seen it, if they remember the story…elicit as much information as you can.

Before showing the trailer ask them to make a list of all the legends they came up with and then compare to the ones on the trailer.

There is a nice handout about this topic here: http://www.stickyball.net/adult/276.html

But I believe that you have to choose the questions before, because not all of them are great.

After finishing the handout, focus on grammar.

Write the sentence: What are you afraid of? on the board. Ask the students to think about other adjectives that are followed by prepositions.

There is an interesting list here: http://www.bedavaingilizce.com/prepositions/adj_pre.htm

Then try this exercise: http://wwwedu.ge.ch/cptic/prospective/projets/anglais/exercises/adjprep2.htm

If you used this class plan, please send me some feedback.

Thanks.

English for traveling

2010-03-20T09:36:00.000-03:00

Many students look for classes when they're about to travel.

Unfortunately this is not always the best time to look for classes, because they usually have so many things going through their minds that they hardly ever learn something.

Anyway...I've been preparing some classes for desperate students that are traveling next month and I found some pretty good websites that I'd like to share with you.

Enjoy

http://www.audioenglish.net/english-learning/efl_travel.htm (there are some free samples that you can use)

http://www.learnenglishfeelgood.com/travelenglish/index.html (pretty good to teach vocabulary)

http://bogglesworldesl.com/survivalESL.htm (a survival guide - role plays)

http://www.talkenglish.com/Speaking/Travel/Airport.aspx (dialogues with listening)

http://www.eslteachersboard.com/cgi-bin/english/index.pl?read=1943 (10 sentences for basic students)

http://www.esl-galaxy.com/travel/Mr%20Bean%20in%20Room%20426.pdf (great lesson plan if you have time)

http://www.teacherjoe.us/TravelTaxi.html (taking a taxi)

http://www.teacherjoe.us/TravelAirport.html (at the airport)

http://www.esl-galaxy.com/travel/At%20the%20hotel.pdf (checking in - hotel)

http://www.talkenglish.com/LessonDetails.aspx?ALID=389 (great! - listening - airport)

Class plan: Why is it so good to be a man?

2010-03-19T10:49:00.001-03:00

Level: Basic

Ask your students to make a list about the positive aspects about being a man. Ask them to compare their answers. Do the same about being a woman.

Ask the girls if they would like to be boys and vice versa. Work on improving fluency by asking them to convince each other.

Move on to the listening part: http://www.elllo.org/english/0851/T897-Paul-Men.htm

Ask them to compare their answers to the guy´s answers. Do they agree with his point of view? Work on the listening handout.

Pronunciation: Ask them to pronounce man x men. What´s the difference between them?

Work on this difference. To illustrate your class go to: http://www.uiowa.edu/~acadtech/phonetics/

After showing them the difference, try this exercise: http://www.manythings.org/b/e/4435

BTW: This woman is AMAZING! http://rachelsenglish.com/

To finish it in great style, try this Shania´s song. “Man I feel like a woman”. You can ask them to write the simple present verbs, or you can make a fill in the blanks handout.

Teaching kids? Colors

2010-03-19T09:53:00.000-03:00

Hi guys,

This a very nice video if you´re teaching colors to kids.
You can also work on questions using what color is....?

Class Plan

2010-03-19T09:43:00.000-03:00

Our class plan today is about pregnancy.

Level: upper intermediate

The idea is to discuss pregnancy during difficult times, such as adolescence. Play the following trailer to the students and ask them what they would do if they were her. (Juno)

You can review the second conditional clause, or introduce this grammar topic if they haven´t learned it yet.

It´s important for the teacher to know that in the end of the movie she gives her baby for adoption.

After this discussion you should go to: http://www.breakingnewsenglish.com/0805/080527-baby.html

And use this class plan to work on reading or listening. (this a fantastic website.)

I also finished my class with a song from Juno´s soundtrack called: Tire Swing

Enjoy!

If you use this class plan, please send me some feedback.

Laugh Out Loud

2010-03-18T17:57:00.001-03:00

ESL BLUES

2010-03-18T17:43:00.000-03:00

Today's site is ESL BLUES
A great tool full of nice exercises and games. Divided by grammar topics, pretty easy to use and the students love it.
I always try to choose a topic (there are many dialogues there) and look for something related to it at ESLPOD so they can also have some listening exercises.
Worth a visit !

2010-03-18T13:46:00.000-03:00

Pergunta feita por uma aluna no cursinho (que é uma dúvida constante dos alunos)
Question made by a student (common doubt among them)

Every day X Everyday

In short, “everyday” is an adjective which describes something ordinary or commonplace, while the phrase “every day” means “each day.” Confusing these two is a very common grammatical error, and learning to catch this error can improve the quality of your writing immensely.

http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-the-difference-between-everyday-and-every-day.htm

Every day X Everyday X Daily

por Lígianlf » Sáb Ago 30, 2008 12:07 pm

Hello, muitos estudantes confundem o uso de Every day, Everyday, Daily.

Every day:significa todos os dias, cada dia separadamente.
Ex.: He works every day. (Ele trabalha todos os dias.)

Everyday:significa diário, cotidiano, comum, habitual.
Ex.: Accidents are an everyday occurrence on this road. (Acidentes são uma ocorrência comum nesta estrada.)

Daily:significa diariamente, diário, dia a dia.
Ex.: The daily newspaper is here. (O jornal diário está aqui.)

see you

(retirado de: http://www.englishexperts.com.br/forum/every-day-x-everyday-x-daily-t1251.html)

2010-03-18T00:14:00.001-03:00

reading:

Weird but true
http://www.n6hb.org/s-a/c_weird.htm

(All the stories were taken from the website above and it is the author’s responsibility only)

1. a deadly vision
in January 2000, Kamal Huq of Dhaka, Bangladesh, while still perfectly healthy, told his brother that he was having visions. He said that he could see his own corpse. Two weeks later he had the first of his seizures and died of brain cancer in march. (nov 2000)

2. indigo children
more and more of these weird children are being born. they share the following common features: extraordinary organization of dna, immunity to aids and other emerging diseases, extreme intelligence and self confidence, extra sensory perception, and paranormal abilities. somehow we are communicating to the next generation through our semen and ova that there is trouble ahead and the kids are making the appropriate adjustments. they are the next evolutionary generation of our race. the phenomenon has been documented in china and the united states. (link) (btw: these kids are hard to parent and are often "diagnosed" with a.d.d. or other invented disorders and "treated" with ridalin.) (sept 2000)

3. it's all in the mind
if you are right handed and your left-handed penmanship is gibberish it will also be gibberish if you close your eyes and simply imagine yourself writing with your left hand. Practice in your head until you get it right with your left, then write. Voila! You can. But why? (Misty Hyman, the gold medalist in the 100-meter breaststroke at Sidney, practiced for the event by lying in bed with a stop watch and swimming the race in her mind stroke for stroke until she got her time down to where wanted it. the next day she repeated her performance in water - exactly.) (october 2000).

4. fufu the cat
right after the family dog died, fufu returned to her home in sicily with a new mate and three kittens eight years after she had disappeared when the dog had first arrived.(latimes, oct 2000)

5. sleep on it
when you sleep, the electrical activity of your brain does not decrease, it increases. according to robert stickgold, we don't sleep to rest but to figure out stuff that our conscious awake-mind could not. to work smarter, take more naps. (link, october 2000)

6. neuron regeneration
did your science textbook teach you that after a certain age the brain can no longer regenerate? they've changed their minds about that. the brain not only manufactures new neurons all the time but these neurons are able to migrate to different parts of the brain and assume the needed functional form. (elizabeth gould, princeton university) (1999)

7. doggie science
in rohnert park, california, around 3:30pm on wed 9/22/99 the caller's german shepherd ran full speed from the yard into the glass panel of his sliding door - something he had never done before. when allowed in, he hid under the bed. about 2 minutes later, the earth shook, buildings shuddered and groaned, and their surprised and terrified occupants ran out to safety. scientific earthquake prediction has been a complete failure. doggie science is better than ours in that respect. (ksro radio talk show caller, 1999).

8. patient pam
in july 1991, a female aneurysm patient code-named "pam reynolds" underwent an 8-hour surgery in phoenix arizona during which she was clinically dead for an hour. during the dead hour an electric saw was brought into the operating room in a case and this saw was used to cut open her skull. after the operation she said that she saw the procedure from "above" and she accurately described the saw which she had never seen in life. she also accurately related the conversation that took place in the room at that time although her ear canals were packed with test equipment which showed no response from the brain stem to repeated audible clicks. (michael sabom, 1999)

9. faith heals
reproducible scientific experiments carried out by harold koenig of duke university show that people who have a religion, any religion, are healthier, are more disease resistant, and live longer than those who don't. (see also the book by dale matthews, 1998)

10. the human's perspective
according to human beings only they are capable of intelligence, design, choice, mirth, anger, anguish, love, compassion, and kindness and the other critters just carry out nature's programming. but what was the program that drove a hippopotamus to rescue an impala from the jaws of a crocodile and then try to resuscitate her? and what would you have made of it had it been a human instead of a hippo? (stephanie leland in "peaceful kingdom", 1998)

11. don't worry, be happy
the single strongest predicter of heart disease has nothing to do with diet, exercise, obesity, or smoking and everything to do with your attitude. when it comes to healthy hearts the don't-worry-be-happy crowd has the edge over the angry or the depressed. (hillel cohen, albert einstein college of medicine)

12. the magic of garlic
to avoid illness eat lots of garlic. it contains a chemical called allicin that kills bugs even if they are resistant to antibiotics. garlic is our last hope against the tough new resistant strains of bacteria.

2010-03-17T23:35:00.000-03:00

Comparatives

Tá ensinando comparatives? Quer deixar sua aula mais animada?
Desafie seus alunos: quem fizer igualzinho ao daft hands ganha um ponto extra!

Quer mexer com o corpo todo? Daft Bodies:

curisoidades sobre a banda daft punk:

daft = stupid

Daft Punk is an electronic music duo consisting of French musicians Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo (born February 8, 1974) and Thomas Bangalter (born January 3, 1975).^[1] Daft Punk reached significant popularity in the late 1990s house movement in France and were met with continued success in the years following.^[2]

Daft Punk is also credited with producing songs that were considered essential in the French house scene. They were managed from 1996 to 2008 by Pedro Winter (Busy P), the head of Ed Banger Records.^[3]

^{continue lendo: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daft_Punk}

2010-03-17T23:31:00.000-03:00

SONG: That´s not my name

Semana passada trabalhei com a música: That´s not my name, da banda The Tings Tings com meus alunos.
Principalmente os mais novos curtiram bastante.
Então fikdik para os professores.

______ letter word just to get me along
It's a ___________ and I'm biting on my tongue and I
I keep stalling, keeping me ___________
People around gotta find something to say _________
Holding back, __________ the same
Don't wanna be a loner
______________ to me, oh no
I never say anything at all
But with nothing to consider __________ forget my ___________
(ame, ame, ame)
They call me ___________
They call me ____________
They call me __________
They call me ___________
______________ (4x)

They call me 'quiet'
But I'm a riot
Mary-Jo-Lisa
Always the same
That's not my name
That's not my name
That's not my name
That's not my name
_____ miss the catch if _______ through me the ________
I________ the last kid standing up ________ the wall
Keep up, falling, these heels they keep me boring
Getting glammed up and __________ on the fence now
So ____________ all the time at night
Lock myself away
Listen to me, I'm not
Although I'm dressed up, out and all with
Everything considered they _______ ________ _________
(ame, ame, ame)
They call me ___________
They call me ____________
They call me __________
They call me ___________
______________ (4x)
They call me 'quiet'
But I'm a riot
Mary-Jo-Lisa
Always the same
That's not my name
That's not my name
That's not my name
That's not my name
___________ darling?
__________ me bird?
________ me darling?
____________ me bird?

2010-03-17T23:26:00.000-03:00

Para professores:

Blog fantástico de filmes

Esse blog é um salvador de aulas! Claudio Azevedo é meu ídolo!
Digo isso pq ele seleciona partes de filmes e prepara uma aula inteirinha em cima desses trechos. Além de ser muito organizado e dividido por grammar topics.
Super aconselho.

2 thumbs up!

2010-03-17T22:42:00.000-03:00

Parece que tenho 15 anos novamente. Penei para deixar esse blog com uma carinha mais aceitável, e acho que fiz um bom trabalho. Parece que os meus html skills não se foram todos com a idade!
Espero que vcs aproveitem o blog.
Beijos,

I feel like I´m 15 again. It was pretty hard to make this blog look nice but I think I´ve done a good job. It seems that my
html skills weren´t all gone with age!
I hope you all enjoy the blog.
Love,

2010-03-17T21:47:00.000-03:00

E então eu descobri o youtube...
And then I´ve discovered the youtube...

Gentchi! O youtube tem canais maravilhosos sobre ESL. O primeiro que vou compartilhar com vcs é o da Jennifer ELS que é fantástico!

2007-09-10T14:47:00.000-03:00

Welcome!

Bem-vindos!

Por favor enviem sites interessantes para serem adicionados na nossa lista.
Toda semana estarei dando dicas de sites bacanas para preparação de aulas de inglês.

Please send me interesting websites to improve our list.
I'll be talking about new material and nice things to help you preparing your class every week.

Valeu!

Peace!

2002-11-28T01:09:00.000-02:00

teste!