HOW TO DESIGN ACTIVITIES | Help Line for ELT Teachers

Summary

In this video, the speaker demonstrates how to design activities aligned with a syllabus for ninth-grade English students. The activities span various themes, including reading, listening, writing, and speaking, with the aim of achieving specific learning outcomes. Examples of activities include scanning texts for specific information, listening for descriptions, writing about historical places, and planning future events. The speaker emphasizes the importance of ensuring activities are connected to the syllabus, coherent in vocabulary, and engaging for students. The video offers practical insights for creating adaptable and effective classroom exercises.

Takeaways

• 😀 The video focuses on designing classroom activities that align with the syllabus and enhance student engagement.
• 😀 The speaker highlights the importance of adapting and modifying the syllabus to suit student needs and learning outcomes.
• 😀 Each activity is linked to specific syllabus themes and designed to develop different language skills, such as reading, writing, listening, and speaking.
• 😀 Examples of activities include scanning newspaper articles, listening for specific details, and practicing vocabulary through contextual guessing.
• 😀 A major emphasis is placed on real-world application, such as using actual articles or creating listening texts when ready-made resources are unavailable.
• 😀 Activities aim to foster critical thinking and learning by encouraging students to research, reflect, and share knowledge.
• 😀 The speaker encourages the use of contextual clues in texts to help students deduce meaning and understand vocabulary.
• 😀 In the speaking activities, students are prompted to express themselves in various social contexts, such as expressing obligations and responsibilities or discussing future plans.
• 😀 The video emphasizes the importance of unity and coherence in lesson planning, where activities should connect to form a natural flow rather than stand-alone tasks.
• 😀 The speaker also emphasizes the need for adapting the level of complexity in activities to suit the learner's abilities and keep them motivated throughout the lesson.

Q & A

What is the main focus of the video?

The video focuses on how to design activities aligned with the syllabus, with examples drawn from a ninth-grade syllabus.

Which grade and theme are used as examples in the video?

The video uses the ninth-grade syllabus and demonstrates activities for themes four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, and ten.

What is the objective of the activity in theme four?

The activity in theme four aims to help students identify specific information in a simple written material, such as a short newspaper article, on the effects of natural disasters.

How does the vocabulary activity in theme four work?

In theme four, the vocabulary activity involves contextual guessing, where students must find words in the text that match specific descriptions, like 'huge' or 'a kind of reddish-brown metal.'

What is the outcome for the activity designed for theme five?

The outcome for theme five is that students will be able to identify descriptions of people's appearances from a recorded text.

What does the activity for theme six require students to do?

In theme six, students are asked to scan a text describing famous cities in the world for specific information, such as population, weather, and the presence of museums.

What is the goal of the writing activity in theme seven?

The goal of the writing activity in theme seven is for students to write sentences about historical places they have visited, using a model for guidance.

How do students practice speaking obligations and responsibilities in theme eight?

In theme eight, students work in pairs to look at signs and notices, discussing where they might see them and what they mean. They also practice rephrasing these signs and discussing related proverbs.

What is the group activity in theme nine focused on?

In theme nine, students work in groups to plan a party by discussing various details, such as the type of party, location, invitations, and responsibilities, and then present their plans to the class.

What is the activity for theme ten about?

The activity for theme ten focuses on skimming short texts to draw conclusions about social media. Students are asked to identify whether certain statements about social media are true or false.