SING AND WRITE: Sing a song and then write a story about it

A few weeks ago, I taught the expression of complimenting to my ten graders and I played James Blunts' You're beautiful to start the lesson. I asked them  to sing the song together and then guessed the topic of the lesson. That was so much fun that my students really enjoyed the lesson.
The next meeting, I taught Narrative but I had no song in my lesson plan. The students kept asking me to play a song. I was so confused that I started thinking to let them sing. But I remembered that I had no song related to the topic. So, I ignored their request.

And then, I kept thinking about it at home. I felt so wrong when I realized that it was a very briliant idea. I should have played them a song and asked them to write a story about the song.

This Question Staircase Helps You Plan Questions about Your Story

Illustration: http://goo.gl/594aKh

Planning effective questions to engage students in building their thinking skills is very important. You have to know how to plan your questions, otherwise your students will be less motivated to think. The questions should not be way too hard or too easy.

The Bloom's Revised Taxonomy of Thinking can really help you with this. Using question staircase which is basically based on the taxonomy, you can differentiate, grade, and sequence the questions from easier to more challenging ones.

STORY MAP: CHECKING STUDENTS' COMPREHENSION ON STORY DETAILS

How do you commonly check your students'comprehension after they read or listen to or watch a story? I used to give tests either objective tests (multiple choice, true-false, matching, completion) or subjective tests (essay). My students seemed bored so I've recently started to figure out other types of instrument. Therefore, I browsed on the internet, and I found this.

This idea of using story map is not really new. You might have known way earlier than me. However, in this nice occasion, I want to share with you two story maps I have designed and also used in my classroom.

Introducing the Story Title by Using Picture Puzzle Game

This may sound strange, but I think this is so much fun. Instead of just telling what story your students will be listening/reading/watching, why don't you start a game? You can search for the games on the book or internet, or you can invent your own game.

A few days ago, I thought of an idea to use Picture Puzzle game in my classroom to have the students guess the title of a story. There was so much fun. They were happy and so was I.

How to use the game in the classroom?

Timun Emas: A good video to teach Narrative

Source: click here

If you are in the middle of searching a video to teach Narrative to your students, this post might help you. As we know, there are so many videos available on the internet. They are very useful. But sometimes, the excessive numbers of videos available may get you overwhelmed to choose one of the best. In choosing a video, you have to concern on the language quality and also the cultural context of the video. Therefore, you can present a good learning resource to your students which benefit their development in learning English.

If you are teaching in Indonesia, I recommend a video of a popular Indonesian folktale Timun Emas. This video has natural English with good grammar, easy vocabulary, and good pronunciation. So, it is very authentic.

Teaching Making Suggestions with Posters

I've shared with you one piece of my teaching activities that can be used to teach the expressions of congratulating. Now, I am sharing with you another piece of activities that can be use to teach the expressions of making suggestions. I hope this will help you to design a lesson plan and improve your teaching activities.

• Topic = Making Suggestions
• Level = Intermediate or Advanced
• Aids = Posters

Teaching Congratulation with Twitter

If you are searching an idea of how to teach Congratulation to your students, this idea might help you to enrich your lesson plan.

• Topic = Congratulation
• Level = Intermediate or Advanced
• Aids = LCD projector, Laptop, Twitter Apps (additional: Smartphone)
• Materials = Expression of congratulation
• Expressions =