# data[].attributes.body
10-15 Minute Activities at the start or end of class

# data[].attributes.headline
Invite a guest speaker to visit your class.

# data[].attributes.subject
Invite a guest speaker to visit your class.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
It was an afternoon jam-packed full of fascinating information on how to be more environmentally friendly with regards to plastic use.

Both Ted Talks option classes had the pleasure of listening to Chad Buxton from Plastic Free Noosa, detailing all of the shocking facts and pleasant remedies about Plastic use.

Not only were current students fascinated by the lecture, but past students as well.

Oscar Bierge, who studied at Lexis from the start of 2016 until the middle of 2018, doing General English all the way through to the Business Course was coincidentally in school promoting his new business at the same time.

Sloppy Tunas, is a recyclable clothes business that was created by Oscar with the goal of reducing plastic use in the world. After surfing in Granite Bay with his fellow students, he was amazed and furious at the waste that was washed up in the rocks.

Upon going back to Barcelona, he founded the business and is now working closely with the Council in Barcelona to not only clean up the Beaches, but the Mountains as well.

If you want to get more involved with reducing the plastic use in Australia or Globally, you can visit www.plasticfreenoosa.org.

If you want to check out some amazing environmentally friendly swimwear, check out Oscar's website at https://sloppytunas.com/.

Great work Chad and Oscar, and remember to Reduce, Refuse, Reuse.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
It was an afternoon jam-packed full of fascinating information on how to be more environmentally friendly with regards to plastic use. Both Ted Talks option classes had the pleasure of listening to Chad Buxton from Plastic Free Noosa, detailing all of the shocking facts and pleasant remedies about Plastic use.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
by Graham Dixon 6,062 views

I've been trying, in recent years, to maximize those opportunities, and to extend and exploit exercises in a variety of ways which do more to practice target language, introduce new and interesting facts, and broaden the scope of the work to include other skills and knowledge.

The aims of doing this is to facilitate the best possible practice of the target material. Students use the material more freely, in different ways, or encounter it through other skills.

If we're working on a reading exercise about the Olympic games, then we already have some vocabulary and structures to work on from the reading. But all of these are possible extensions:

Discussing the history and importance of the Olympics, as a speaking exercise

Asking the students to close their books for just one paragraph of the reading, and delivering that content as a listening exercise, or a dictation

We could extend the topic into a writing task by setting short research questions, or an article describing the students' opinion on the games - are they too expensive, or are there too many corporate sponsors? Would they like their city to host the games?

From a simple starting point, often one provided by a textbook, the teacher has latitude to create integrated (four-skill) tasks with the topic at their core, but which extend far beyond its original boundaries. Students tend to respond well to this; it feels thematic and familiar; if they found the topic interesting to begin with, the students usually follow along enthusiastically. The vocabulary gets extra practice, and often, more new words are added. There is new depth to the work, and students appreciate this thoroughness and rigor.

Explore These 5 Methods of Exploiting ESL Material

1. Add Review and Consolidation

This is done either at the end of the exercise, or during the following class. Review is essential but sometimes has not been included with the textbook material. Simple, quick check questions to the class, or to individuals, ensure that the material had been retained. Mix closed (yes/no) and open questions, so that the students not only confirm what is correct, they produce the language themselves.

2. Connect the Material to Existing Language Knowledge

If your students already know how to use modal verbs with fluency, have them use some of these in describing their thoughts about the Olympics: 'It should be open to everyone,'; 'Opening ceremonies must reflect the culture of the host nation'. Bring in existing knowledge as a form of review, and as a way to connect this new content with that which the students already know.

3. Add or Check Facts and Context

I've always believed there's much to be gained from spontaneously checking general knowledge. Any of these things are fair game:

The locations of famous places mentioned in a text

The approximate population of major cities which come up

The basic life stories of famous people

The meaning of symbols, be they mathematical, chemical, biological etc

The basic definition of scientific concepts (evaporation, thrust, orbit)

The significance of historical events, organized movements or trends

For example, this would be a routine interaction in my class:

Student:

(Reading) The modern Olympic games began in 1896 in Athens.

Teacher:

And where's Athens, guys?

Teacher:

Awesome. What language do they speak there?

Students:

Greekish? / Greek? / Grecian?

Teacher:

Good guesses, it's Greek (writes IPA on the board). What's next?

This takes a matter of seconds. I feel it's important to check the pronunciation of nations, cities and languages in particular, as although the student's own L1 (first language) version may be similar, it is often different. This is especially important with Chinese learners, in whose first language foreign names are often rendered phonetically, and transliterated into Chinese; most of the time, this creates a significant difference between the English and Chinese words. E.g. 'Yin Du' may not clearly connote 'India', neither might 'Ying Guo' indicate England.

4. Expand to Use All Four Skills

As mentioned above, stretching an exercise to practice all four skills isn't as difficult as you might think. Students who are reading their own writing aloud can serve as the source of an informal listening exercise; simply ask some comprehension questions when they've finished. Any speaking exercise can be turned into a brief pronunciation check; just tease out the issues and spend thirty seconds drilling the problem words and sounds. I encourage students to take notes continuously through class, so this is a 'permanent extension' to whatever we're doing. Ensure that they're making good notes, and especially noting down the details of new vocabulary: the part of speech, synonyms and antonyms, and an example sentence.

5. Be Creative

Extending and exploiting material is a great chance to practice an important skill of your own: creativity. I encourage every teacher to search their skills set for ways in which they can generate their own material. The virtues of doing so are many, particularly because the teacher knows the class better than any textbook author. This enables you to create material which is especially relevant to your students, which addresses their learning needs, and which taps into their interests. Consider these creative outlets:

Make puzzles and crosswords for review, if none exists (and even if it does!)

Create your own additional readings on one or more aspects of the topic.

Make your own listening exercises. I've done this before by recording scripted or informal conversations between my wife, housemates and friends. The students love this window into your own life, and always appreciate the extra effort.

Create a role-play exercise based on the topic; for the Olympics, this could be four candidate cities vying to be chosen to host the next games.

Set up a debate about a topic raised during the exercise, e.g. Should we have separate male and female athletics events? Should performance-enhancing drugs be permitted, in some circumstances?

One of my favorites, especially with controversial topics, is to create a court case. Assign a defendant, prosecutor, attorneys, jurors and judge and give the students time to prepare their case.

Once you're comfortable with creating your own material, you'll have the key to fully exploiting even the most limited textbook exercise.

I hope that you'll try this, and that your students will derive as much practice as possible from your classes.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Taking It to the Max: 5 Methods of Exploiting ESL Material

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
by Graham Dixon 6,062 views I've been trying, in recent years, to maximize those opportunities, and to extend and exploit exercises in a variety of ways which do more to practice target language, introduce new and interesting facts, and broaden the scope of the work to include other skills and knowledge.

# data[].attributes.body
- either existing print copies or online editions

# data[].attributes.body
- Eumundi Markets
- Clean Up Noosa

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The Original Eumundi Markets | Official Website Noosa Sunshine Coast Artisan Markets

# data[].attributes.body
Do a class project of an oral presentation that students prepare in the couple of weeks prior and then present on the paper free day.  Here is an example

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Research and Oral Presentation Assignment

# data[].attributes.body
- Kahoot
- taking notes on their phones
- photos of Whiteboard
- WhatsApp
- Videos/YouTube

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Kahoot! | Learning games | Make learning awesome!

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Kahoot! is a game-based learning platform that brings engagement and fun to 1+ billion players every year at school, at work, and at home.

# data[].attributes.body
Face2Face Videos - available on YouTube

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
FACE2FACE PRE-INTERMEDIATE SECOND EDITION : VIDEO 3

# data[].attributes.body
- use laminated paper and whiteboard marks (old classroom signs?)
- games using the Whiteboard

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
by Claudia Pesce 481,700 views

We examined the chalkboard vs. whiteboard dilemma in our article, Whiteboard Markers - Stinking Monsters or Life Savers? and yes, we agree that whiteboard markers have their weak points, but one of the advantages is that you can use them to play some great, fun ESL games with your students.

How You Can Use A Whiteboard: 10 ESL Games

1. Jeopardy
Based on the classic TV game show, this game will require your students to put on their thinking caps. Divide your whiteboard into columns for vocabulary categories and rows with different point values. Like this:

Divide your students into two teams. Each team chooses a category and the points they want to play for: We choose Countries for 25 points. Supply a clue or definition: This country is south of the US, and they eat tacos there. They must guess the right country in the form of a question: What is Mexico? If they answer correctly you erase the points from the chart and add them to the team's tally until they're all wiped off. Adapt this game to any level of difficulty and include as many categories as you wish.

2. Suction Cup Ball
Buy one (or several!) inexpensive suction cup balls, and your whiteboard games will never be the same! These balls are made up of several tiny suction cups that stick to whiteboards. There are many games you can play - as many as your imagination will allow- but here are two:

- Draw a target with concentric circles on the whiteboard, each with a different point value. Quiz students and if they give you the right answer they get to throw the ball for points.

- Fill your whiteboard with letters or syllables and each student has to supply a word that starts with the letter or syllable they hit.

3. Tic Tac Toe
Too simple? Not really. Make it as challenging as you like. Say you want your students to practice the simple past tense. Draw a 3 by 3 grid on the whiteboard. Write a sentence in each square, with a gap where the verb should go. Write a list of 10 verbs on the side (one of them won't be used). They must supply the right form of the verb to complete the sentence till one of the teams gets a Tic Tac Toe. Try it with any gap-filling exercise! And expand the 9-square grid to a bigger 16 or 25-square grid as suggested in this Tic Tac Toe worksheet.

4. Barnyard Dash
The goal is for students to identify a barnyard animal from the sound it makes. Depending on your students' level, you can either draw the pictures of animals on the board or write the words for each. Give each team a different color marker and have them line up. Make the sound yourself, i.e. crow like a rooster, or have a CD ready with animal sounds. As they hear each sound, students race to the board and circle the right word or picture. You can adapt this game to all types of sounds, like a phone ringing, a car honking a horn, or someone sneezing. You may also record expressions or phrases that they have to circle on the board, like " Thanks!" and " You're welcome ".

Have fun playing these games with your students! And if you have any to suggest, then by all means, do so below!

P.S. If you enjoyed this article, please help spread it by clicking one of those sharing buttons below. And if you are interested in more, you should follow our Facebook page where we share more about creative, non-boring ways to teach English.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
What You Can Do With a Whiteboard: 10 Creative ESL Games

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
by Claudia Pesce 481,700 views We examined the chalkboard vs. whiteboard dilemma in our article, Whiteboard Markers - Stinking Monsters or Life Savers? and yes, we agree that whiteboard markers have their weak points, but one of the advantages is that you can use them to play some great, fun ESL games with your students.

# data[].attributes.body
- numerous activities in the filing cabinets
- use cardboard to avoid laminating

# data[].attributes.body
- sign up in the Staff Room

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
BBC Learning English - BBC Learning English - Homepage