Activating Language! Ideas for Teachers of Literacy

Description

Activating Language! is a meta-resource (i.e., ‘a resource about resources’) intended for busy teachers that can be used across a variety of setttings:

• from primary to middle secondary school to TAFE, Language Centres/Colleges and community adult education venues;
• from elementary/beginner, to pre-intermediate and intermediate language levels;
• from EAL/D and EFL to general or remedial literacy classes.

It contains more than 200 ideas across the four macro-skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing. These ideas can be practised for a particular mode or integrated across modes or a particular curriculum program being used. The book also contains an additional visual aids resource consisting of 20 picture-story sequences developed by the author for fair-use copying by teachers.

The Contents indicate general levels of difficulty: elementary (lower primary or beginner for older secondary or adult learners), intermediate (middle primary or pre-intermediate for older learners) and advanced (upper primary or intermediate for older learners). However, teachers have the freedom to easily adapt individual activity-ideas up or down these levels. Many activity-ideas include variation suggestions for decreasing or increasing the difficulty.

Its fundamental aim is to facilitate learner’s engagement with genuine ‘languaging’ by which is meant: purposefully using contextualized language that is interactive and enjoyable.

Contents:

• Preface
• Part 1 Listening
• 1 What’s the word?
• 2 Picture quiz
• 3 Phone messages
• 4 TPR
• 5 Picture dictation
• 6 Verbal memory game
• 7 Radio listening task
• 8 True or false?
• 9 Map directions
• 10 Poetry responses
• 11 Video segments
• 12 Picture stories
• 13 Song dictation
• 14 Filling in forms
• 15 Out of sight
• Part 2 Speaking
• 16 Do you like?
• 17 Describe and guess
• 18 20 questions
• 19 Grid surveys
• 20 Brainstorming
• 21 Spot the difference
• 22 Dream sequences
• 23 Verbal directions
• 24 Miming
• 25 Interviews
• 26 Demonstrations
• 27 Explain yourself
• 28 Scenarios
• 29 Vocabulary revision
• 30 Quizzes
• 31 Information gap
• 32 Just a minute
• Part 3 Reading
• 33 Big book story
• 34 Strip story
• 35 Deliberate variation
• 36 Cartoon strips
• 37 Cloze task
• 38 Story-picture matching
• 39 Synthesizing
• 40 Appreciating poetry
• 41 Newspapers
• 42 Crosswords
• 43 RAT (Read, ask & tell)
• Part 4 Writing
• 44 Kim’s game
• 45 Common signs
• 46 Justifying preferences
• 47 News headlines
• 48 Proverbs
• 49 Re-formatting
• 50 Writing directions
• 51 Cohesive fluency
• 52 Speed Writing
• 53 Picture definitions
• 54 Writing specifications
• 55 Expansion & reduction
• 56 Dialogue journal
• 57 Dictogloss
• 58 Running dictation
• 59 Cognitive mapping
• 60 Precis
• 61 Similes
• 62 Writing poetry
• 63 Writing Stories
• 64 Other Short Forms of Writing
• Part 5 Picture Stories
• Using picture stories
• 20 untitled picture stories