Activity 27- What Did They Say?

Are you teaching Reported Speech? Learn how to connect students with this grammar topic in a very meaningful way!

Level: beginning/low internediate/intermediate
Language skills: speaking and/or writing
Grammar Topic: Reported Speech
Device needed: a tablet or a smartphone (students' own mobile devices) 
Number of devices needed:  one per student or one per group of students
Internet connection: on
App: Twitter
Price: free
Operating System: iOS or Android

Instructions:

Ask your students to enter Twitter and check what some of the celebrities they follow are saying. Ask them to report what they have said recently using the Report Speech structure. The students can write down their sentences or simply sit in small groups and orally report their findings.

Ex: 
Justin Bieber said that he loved music.
On October 13, Oprah Winfrey said that she had just finished a delightful meeting with her 8th graders.
In July, Michael Phelps said that airports might be the best people watching place ever.
Katy Perry said that she was really excited to share those songs with her fans and that she was proud of them. She asked if they would let her know what they thought and how they made them feel. 

Source: Vinicius Lemos
Picture credits: Twitter

Activity 26- Relative Clauses Practice

Here is a fun and simple way to work with Relative Clauses through digital photography!

Level: Intermediate/Advanced
Language skills: speaking
Grammar Topic: Using Relative Clauses to describe people and things
Device needed: a tablet 
Number of devices needed:  one per student or one per group of students
Internet connection: on/off (on if students need to search for an image/off if students decide to use their device to take a picture)
Apps: PS Express, Be Funky or Mega Photo
Price: free
Operating System: iOS

Instructions:
First model the activity by showing the students some samples of images that have been modified by a special effect. Show them the images and tell them that they have to guess the famous person, place or object. Before eliciting their guesses, give them some hints using Relative Clauses. Here is an example:

Hint 1: This is a man who works as an actor.
Hint 2: He is a famous Hollywood actor who has a twin brother.
Hint 3: This is a man whose ex-wife is also a famous Hollywood star.

After the three hints, ask students to write down their guesses or just elicit them orally. Then, later, show them the original picture to check if their guesses were correct. 

After modeling the activity, divide students into small groups and set up the time that they have to prepare their material. Then, ask groups (one at a time) to show the whole class their images and read their hints. Students can write down their guesses individually and compare them later or simply say them orally right after they hear the hints. 

Source: Vinicius Lemos
Picture Credits: profimedia.cz/edited by Vinicius Lemos (PS Express/effect: obscure)

Activity 25- Tips for Tourists

Have you ever heard of Tellagami? This free app allows anyone to quickly create a short story that can be easily shared with friends and family. Basicaly, you need to choose the background image and a customizable 3D character . Then, add your own voice to your Tellagami story and it`s done. Simple like that! By, the way, students will beg you to work on a Tellagami project again! 
You can use Tellagami for several different purposes, but here a an idea for teachers who would like to practice the use of SHOULD for giving advice! 

Level: beginning
Language skills: writing and speaking
Grammar Topic: Using SHOULD to give advice
Device needed: a tablet 
Number of devices needed:  one per group
Internet connection: off (on if students need to search for an image)
App: Tellagami
Price: free
Operating System: iOS

Instructions:

Divide students into small groups and explain that they should make a "gami" (that is how a short story is called in Tellagami) giving advice to tourists visiting their hometown or any other city in their country (if students come from different countries, this is a great opportunity to learn about different cultures). Show them a sample and go over the main features in the app. Remind them that they can choose the city and what background image they are going to use. Ask them to write down their text before they record it (there is the option of typing in the text and using one of the native-like voices that come in the app- in this case, students would`t record their own voice). As a follow-up, students can watch each other`s stories, discuss the pieces of advice given and even vote for the nicest "gami".

Tip:
There are different ways the stories can be shared: they can be posted on Facebook, embedded on a blog or sent to an e-mail account. It is a great opportunity to show family and friends some of the projects being developed in class!

 Here are some of the "gamis" produced by my students:

Source: Vinicius Lemos
Picture credits: itunes.apple.com

Activity 22- His and Her Favorites

This activity is aimed at teen basic level students who are learning the use of possessive adjectives. It has been designed  for 1- iPad- only classes!

Level: beginning
Language skills: writing, reading and speaking
Grammar Topic: possessive adjectives
Device needed: a tablet
Number of devices needed:  only one 
Internet connection: off
App: Popplet Lite
Price: free/ $4,99 (Full Version)
Operating System: iOS

Instructions: 

Show students the pictures and popples with pre-established topics. Each picture can only have 4 popples, so use different topics for different photos. Suggestions of topics: actor, color, actress, tv show, movie, writer, book, sport, day of the week, month, animal, song, etc.

 Invite volunteers to add information to the popples. When all popples have been filled, show them the finished product and elicit complete sentences using the appropriate possessive adjective. 

Examples:
HIS favorite tv show is X-Factor.
HIS favorite color is yellow.
HIS favorite actress is Emma Watson.
HIS favorite writer is J.K Rowling. 

Tips: 
1- Project the poppet on the board if the classroom is equipped with a projector and necessary cables.
2- If there is internet connection, let them decide and find which pictures to be used.
3- If there are more iPads in class, students can work on this activity in pairs or small groups.
4- Students can use their own pictures making the activity even more meaningful.

Source: Vinicius Lemos

Activity 16- Celebrity Report

Level: any
Language skills: listening and speaking
Device needed: a tablet
Number of devices needed: one per student
Internet connection: on (only for the search part)
App: Popplet Lite
Price: free/ $4,99 (Full Version)
Operating System: iOS


Instructions:

Explain that in this project students are going to report some interesting information on their favorite celebrity using the app POPPLET (watch the app review video below in case you have never heard of it before). Show them a model beforehand ( Her first album was released in 1990/ She is married to actor and tv show host Nick Cannon/ Her mother was an opera singer/ Capri, in Italy, is her favorite summer destination/ Marilyn Monroe is one of her greatest idols/  She has had 18 number one hits so far/ She is going to be one judges for the 2013 American Idol.) and allow them some time to find a nice picture and search some data. Explain that they should not write the full sentences in the popples, only key words and phrases.  In pairs or small groups, students show their popplets and do their celebrity report.

Tip: In case the internet connection at the school is not reliable, turn this project into a homework assignment. Another alternative is to have students take pictures of their classmates and interview them in order to collect interesting information to be reported. 

Source: Vinicius Lemos

Popplet YouTube video review by Taylor Ness:

Activity 7- Whose eyes are these?

                                          picture credits:deekay130.deviantart.com

Grammar point: Genitive Case/Possessive Adjectives

App: Photo Crop

Operating System: iOS (iphone or ipad) 

Price: free 

Internet Status: online 

Website be used: Google Images 

Number of devices required : 1 per student, if available

Instructions:

Ask students to go to Google Images and search for the photo of any celebrity they want to. Tell them to save that photo into their device's library. Then, explain that they should open that saved picture in the app Photo Crop and crop it so that only a part of the body of that celebrity can be seen (Ex: nose, eyes, hair, mouth, legs, etc). Then, classmates should guess who that celebrity is by making sentences in the Genitive Case (ex: These are Angélica's eyes/This is Justin Bieber's nose/ This is Obama's mouth/etc). Then, students should reveal who the celebrity is by showing the original picture.

Tips:

Always model how to do it before the students actually start the activity.

Tell students to look for good quality photos, specially the one with a close-up on faces.

Make this activity more sophisticated by asking students to practice asking questions and giving complete answers so that they can practice the pertinent grammatical structures ( ex: Whose eyes are these?/ Whose nose is this?/ Whose hair is this?/ No, this isn't Justin's nose/No, these aren't Angélica's eyes/ No, This isn't his mouth/ Yes, this is her hair)

Transform it into a game by dividing class into 2 teams.

Source: Vinicius Lemos