It’s not often that we can physically bring a visitor into the classroom, but social media and classroom technology means that putting your students in touch with your friends is easier than ever.
Over Christmas I went to visit a friend in Sri Lanka. As my holiday was approaching, I told my group of teenagers about my travel plans and they instantly started asking me lots of questions…
- What language do people speak over there?
- What religion are they?
- Where exactly IS it?
I couldn’t answer most of their questions, so we wrote letters to my friend – here’s one of them…
As you can see, we planned out paragraphs, drafted and edited with some peer error correction and some from me.
Then I took a photo and sent them over to Ruth in Sri Lanka…
A few days we had a video reply from Ruth! The students loved it! It let them listen to some unscripted, natural English from someone other than me for a change.
They were surprised and fascinated by the answers, and we quickly recorded some follow-up questions as short videos.
This was all done via Whatsapp in a week.
I have other classes sending messages to my friend in Japan, congratulating my friend on her wedding in Portugal, and advising my Mum on what she needs to bring to Italy when she comes to visit.
It’s quick, easy and very effective. Give it a try!
teflactivitybox 