Go first - It's always recommended for the teacher to demonstrate what they are asking their students to do. This shows them what you want and nobody likes to go first... unless they do.

Record the Numbers - Record the times, words they say, etc to make the competition seem more real.

Giving Effort - Once you find the right topic or objective, your students will be giving effort without even knowing it.

Multi-tasking -  They will be focusing on the exhale, speaking, and thinking about what they are actually saying.

This project is an in-depth project that will last several lessons. It is recommended to last from four to eight classes depending on your students' level, how much material you need to cover in your classes, and how much homework you want to assign.

*I don't like to assign much homework for these types of projects.

LESSON: Re-tell a Story
OBJECTIVE: a. To effectively use connectors, descriptors, and other story-telling language. b. To learn new vocabulary (when necessary) c. To exercise creativity.
LEVEL: Lower Intermediate+ (Blue belt and higher)
ACTIVITY: Class layout

• Part I - Basic Character and Story Vocabulary study
• Part 2 - Basic Plot Structure of a Story
• Part 3 - Brainstorm and Begin Your Story
• Part 4 - Finish Your Story

​Write the definitions or explanation of each of the parts of a story. Plus write an example for each if you can think of one.
1. Describe the following terms:

• Character:

​

• Protagonist:

 

• Antagonist:

 

• Supporting Characters:

 

• Point of View:

• Setting:

• Plot: 

• Turning Point:

 

• (Plot) Twist:

 
2. Describe the following words and terms that are commonly in stories.
 Define the following words that you may use in some of your stories. If you already know the word, write something you know about it. NOTE: Try to NOT write the translation from your language. -get creative- 
Wolf – 
Witch – 
Wizard – 
Magic – 
Potion – 
Magic lamp – 
Genie – 
Magic carpet –
Good and Evil – 
Kingdom – 
The woods –
The forest – 
Path –
Moral of the story – 
Once upon a time… - 
They lived happily ever after. – 
Long ago/ a long time ago

Label the Plot of the Story
Think of these common stories and label the different parts of the story according to the chart above. If you don’t know the story, you may need to look it up online or on YouTube.

Rocky

1. Introduction – Rocky is a struggling underground fighter. Apollo is the Muhammad Ali-type champion.
2. Catalyst – Through some circumstances, Apollo is looking for an opponent in Philadelphia for a big fight. Rocky gets the opportunity to fight the champ.
3. Rising Action – Rocky battles through mental and physical anguish as he trains to fight the champ on short notice. Nobody believes he can do it… including himself. He just wants to go the distance with Creed.
4. Climax – The fight starts, and he does better than everybody had expected. He’s building confidence. The fight is back-and-forth, and Rocky even knocks Apollo down. 
5. Falling Action – The fight reaches the 12th and final round. It appears Rocky is going to go the distance with the champ. 
6. Resolution – The final bell sounds and although Rocky loses, he goes the distance with the champion of the world. He accomplished his goal and makes the most of his opportunity.

Cinderella

1. Introduction - ________________________________________________________________
2. Catalyst - ___________________________________________________________________
3. Rising Action - _______________________________________________________________
4. Climax - ____________________________________________________________________
5. Falling Action - ______________________________________________________________
6. Resolution - _________________________________________________________________

 
Choose a story or movie: ___________________________
​

1. Introduction - ________________________________________________________________
2. Catalyst - ___________________________________________________________________
3. Rising Action - _______________________________________________________________
4. Climax - ____________________________________________________________________
5. Falling Action - ______________________________________________________________
6. Resolution - _________________________________________________________________

Brainstorm your story
You are going to retell a story or movie but you will adapt or change something. Answer the following questions about your story.

1. What story will you re-tell?
   ___________________________________________________________________________
2. How are you going to modify the story?


3. Who is/are the main character(s) in your story?


4.  Who is/are the antagonist(s) in your story?


5. Where and when does your story take place?


6. Write any special vocabulary or expressions you think you will need to tell your story.

- Once upon a time…
- In a far away land
- They all lived happily ever after

My example:

1. What fairy will you re-tell?
   Tortoise and the Hare (Turtle and the Rabbit)
2. How are you going to modify the story?

(no spoilers).

1. Who is/are the main character(s) in your story?

Protagonist: Turtle
Antagonist: Rabbit
Supporting Characters: Animals in the forest

1. Where and when does your story take place?

In the forest in any given time.

1. Write any special vocabulary or expressions you think you will need to tell your story.

Once upon a time…

We all have had lessons that fall flat or aren't engaging or they may be good, but a class doesn't get into the activity. This happens. Accept it and move onto the next thing.

When you sense that a lesson isn't working or the students aren't engaged, there are a couple things you can do. First, if it's unsalvageable, as Kenny Rogers says, "You've got to know when to fold 'em." The key is how you handle it, and if you handle this situation with control, your students will feel that control, and you can work with them, and this situation can turn into a positive.

Brainstorm with your students.

One thing you could do to turn a bad lesson into a good lesson is to brainstorm with your class. You could teach ways to give suggestions and elicit suggestions from your students that could have turned your "bad idea" into a "good idea". You might be surprised what students will come into, and on top of that, they are learning and using real natural language.

In your next ESL speaking class, have your students practice more natural conversation with this fun game that will get them speaking, listening to their partner, and responding.

1. Break the students up into pairs or groups of three (or more depending on your way of doing it)
2. Give them a general topic to ask a question about. (ex. What they did last weekend. A movie they've seen recently. Etc)
3. The students are to ask their partner a question and their partner answers.
4. The partner then asks a question based on their answer to continue the conversation moving.
5. The game goes back and forth until one person can't think of anything else to ask or time runs out.

Demonstrate - You should demonstrate the activity first by eliciting responses from the class.

Props - Props always help, even if it's just a tennis themed photo on the screen or bring in tennis balls (the second one could get a little out of hand, so be careful)

Countdowns​ - Countdowns are always your friend to put a bit of pressure on your students to go when it's their turn. Use this to award points.

Community - The students will eventually learn something new about each other you do this often enough.

Conversation Skills - They will build a better feel for how a smooth conversation works which will help them in their own language.

​What else can you find?

Whether you're a beginner teacher or an experienced professional, the main thing that we should be looking to do in our EFL classes is to provide value. Especially if our students are paying us a decent price for our lessons. How can we provide maximum value to our adult students? 

​One way is to provide extra work for them to do on their own. This doesn't have to be extra work for you, and it doesn't have to be annoying work for the student.

If you click on the Superstar Students tab at the top, you'll see a checklist of tasks you can give your students to have small tasks to do in their daily lives, you'll also see a listening and reading worksheet for the students to grasp the content that they are taking in and give them opportunity to review expressions they knew as well as learn new expressions from their listening or reading piece.

When you assign extra work for your students, make it as stress-free as possible. One way is to remind them that anything they enjoy reading, watching, or listening to in their own language probably has an equivalent thing in English. Give them a reminder to do these things in English and give them the worksheets above to give them some guidelines as they're watching.

The important thing is that they are taking in things they genuinely want to hear or learn about. If the desire doesn't come from inside, it really won't be very effective in the end.

Use the Material - Use these materials (including the worksheets) in your private lessons and the students will get to reinforce and check their expressions. Practice them together.

Adults Need A Little Push, Too - Just because your student is a working professional, doesn't mean that they will automatically do your homework. Give them small assignments and tasks to do as homework even if it's just to be regular contact with English. Consistency is Key.

Motivation - Our objective should be to provide intrinsic motivation.

Other Lessons - By looking at interesting articles or watching interesting videos, students will learn new things PLUS they will be learning it in English.

​What else can you find?

Understanding is number one when it comes to classroom management with teens because that's the most important thing to build a healthy relationship with anybody. Being able to see things from their perspective and understanding WHY they may be doing the things they're doing is the first step toward making a difference in his or her life.

If you've been in a teacher training session or meeting, you know that we do pretty much the same things, in that, if something isn't stimulating to us, our minds can wander, we can joke around with our co-workers, jump on our phones 'for a second', or do any of the dozens of things that our students do that drive us absolutely BONKERS.

I think the word is empathy, and that is the biggest key to reaching and connecting with teens.

There are no cookie-cutter teenagers, just like there is no cookie-cutter you. Once we personalize things, and realize that we are all different, we can better understand that this is especially true of teenagers. As much as they want to be accepted by their peers, and all like the same things, and dress the same way, they also want desperately to find their own way and find out who they are, so they can be that person.

​It's not always easy.

​However, if we do have the opportunity to find out exactly what connects with them, it is very rewarding and makes it all worthwhile.

One of the biggest tools we can use in the classroom is something that most teachers fight against.

Their interests!

If your students are really into Fortnite, instead of telling them to put down the controller and go outside or open a book, let's use that insanity for Fortnite to capture their attention in our lessons. If your students are really into John Cena and saying, "You can't see me", use that in your classes to get their attention and get them talking about, writing about, or watching videos in English with John Cena.

The bottom line is we need to be genuinely interested in the students, find out what they are into, and try to create an environment that makes them want to be involved in our classes by working with what they find interesting.

Even if it's doing something small like using their interest in a PowerPoint presentation or adjust a speaking topic to include that.

Going Deeper - Teaching things that interest them will reach a deeper level than just an English lesson.

Trust - They may end up trusting us in ways that we hadn't anticipated.

​What else can you find?

*adapt these according to your style and class*
1. Form your class into teams.
2. Elicit capital cities (or any other themed words)
3. Write a chosen city name vertically from top to bottom on the board for each team.
4. Have the students come up with words beginning with each letter.
5. Award points however you see fit... but make it be known before you start the game
​6. Take the rest of the game wherever you want for your class.

Relate
Only
Measure
Elephant

State Rules Before - Create clear rules and state them clearly before the game starts. If not, chaos will ensue.

Options - After the first round of writing words, build vocabulary with more rounds of work (writing sentences using the words, writing word families for the words they can - ex. Relate -> Relationship)

Award Points - This is magic. Awarding points for each task will get the students enthused and actually trying during the game.

Maintain Control - Have the students remain seated in their groups until they have the marker/chalk to avoid everybody crowded around the board yelling and fighting for the marker the whole time.

Teamwork - Once the students settle in their teams, most of the time, they will work well together to try to win.

Capital Cities - Someone will usually say at least one capital city that other students (or possibly you) won't know. Embrace that!

Learn More About Your Students - In one of my classes, a student insisted on me writing Astana. He eventually said that it was the capital of his birth country.

What else can you find?

Adapt the lesson for your style and your classes. Try different ways of doing it and allow students freedom to try different things.

Pre-approve songs before they start their projects (if you do projects with it).

Demonstrate what you want the students to do first.

Expand Musical Palate - Introduce your students to different kinds of music.

Building creativity - They will get to exercise their creativity with forming their questions and answers.

​What else can you find?

Sometimes it can be difficult to think of different ways to get teens and adults to get creative and speak in class. On a recent episode of the More Than English Podcast, professional English teacher and ELT Consultant, Harry Waters shared a fun game to allow your students to explore their creativity and think on their feet. 

This EFL speaking game is called, "Why is there a monkey in your bag?"

The teacher starts by asking a student why there is a monkey in their bag. 
A flustered student will say whatever answer comes to their mind.
The teacher will give a follow-up reaction based on the student's answer followed by another question.
And the conversation goes back and forth for a few rounds of questions and answers.

After that, the student will choose another partner and start the conversation over again, and they can change the monkey to something else.

Awarding Points Works - Figure out a simple point system to keep interest. (Ex. 1-3 points based on creativity, follow-up responses or questions)

Teach the Language - Take time to explore and correct the language that they use.

Consistency is Key - If you do this on a regular or semi-regular basis, the students will be able to come up with different answers as they get comfortable with the game.

Thinking on their feet - This is always a useful skill to have whether in public speaking or regular conversation.

Building Community - If lead well by the teacher, your students will feel a part of the community in being able to laugh at themselves and get a bit silly during the exercise.

​What else can you find?

One of the best pieces of advice that I would give to a new teacher of young learners is to establish routines and make them fun.

​This will help you:

• manage the class because the kids know what they're supposed to do
  
• help the students learn and use the language more automatically 
  
• have fun with the kids.

Jessica Yip shared some important advice when teaching young learners concerning routines.
​

• Routines start as soon as you see your kids.
• Routines don't mean you have to do the exact same thing.
• Make your routines practical using real life examples.
• Give the students free choice within a set of boundaries.

Watch the video below for even more pro tips!

Use your routines to do typical things that your kids are already doing. Just do it with style.

• The way your kids come in and sit down.
• Greeting the teacher and/or each other.
• Reviewing vocabulary

Confidence - Your kids will eventually feel more confident in your class because they will know your style and what to expect in your lesson.

Teamwork - Your kids will start helping each other and rooting for each other to do the games well.

What else can you find?