Week 20 West London B1+ Mr Imran Customs in KSA and around the world

photo from the program  archive

Students in west London class discussed what customs are and what customs people from abroad have to follow when they travel and live in Saudi Arabia. We used Mr John as our example.

Students were then given 8 country flags and 8 customs that they had to discuss and match. The first group to get all matched correctly would be the winners for the day. Well done moataz, Muhannad and majed Al Najjar for matching the customs and their countries first!! 

Week 19 East London B1 Gestures

photo from the program  archive

Students were given a sheet of gestures and without speaking had to act out the gestures as the rest of the class had to guess the exact meaning of each gesture.

Students discussed if they used these gestures and which gestures they didn't use much in Saudi Arabia.

Fingers crossed for good luck and hooray for celebrations were two that students did not know of. 

Week 19 East London B1 CS What do these emojis mean??

photo from the program  archive

Students were shown a page of emojis and discussed when and why we use them. Students then chose 10 of their favourite emoji and wrote what it means or when they use them. 

Week 19 West London B1+ CS Common complaints at certain places

Week 19 West London B1+ CS Common complaints at certain places

photo from the program archive

The class discussed what common complaints are and then discussed complaints can be different at different places we go to. The class listed 8 common places they visit. Then discussed in groups and then as a class all the common complaints they have had in all these places. System down at the bank was one of the classes favourite complaint.

week 18 lesson idea example

This week we practiced how to present a presentation based on a students major. Here is an example of a student presenting the components of an engine.

presentations - Week 18

 photo from blog archive

This week we just worked on student presentations on both levels. The students seemed to have a first experience standing in front of the class and reciting their work from previous weeks.  Some were informative and had good visuals. Perhaps later to follow will be a video link for some of the best to present. We also learned briefly how to present and what not to do in regards to speech and body language.

Week 18 West London B1+ Making headlines

Students were given four pictures they had to make a headline of what is happening in each picture. Then write a short paragraph on what happened when It happened and where it happened. They had to make sure the story was interesting or funny. 

Describing cities

photo from the program  archive 

 

Students created posters of their favorite cities.  They used descriptive words and had to provide a minimum of things about their city.  Ss really enjoyed the activity.

week 17 idea - CS - Shamsur Rahman

This week we studied how to talk about a current life situation, then describe a negative feature about it, and then how to a wish to change that situation in the past.

Week 17 West and East London b1/b1+ PowerPoint Presentation

photo from the program archive

Students this week were busy getting their PowerPoint presentations ready to go with their speaking presentation. Some students had not used power point before so was very good for them to get some experience with the help of the teacher on how to make a presentation with power point. 

Good job guys!!!

posted by the classroom teacher.

Week 17 West London B1+ individual mind maps on requests

photo from the program archive

Students in west London made their individual mind maps and chose one that they thought was the best all round effort. Well done everyone for your creative work.

Students chose 8 things their friends ask them to do for them and had to make a mind map of how they would ask the request and how they would answer it. 

Spelling exercise with sentences

Students were given a dictation of words to spell.  They were allowed to use a dictionary and after showing the teacher their correctly spelled words, they had to use the words in sentences.  This activity is helpful for remembering words and learning how to use them correctly.

Mind Map Practice

This week I had the students practice mind maps about the topic they will do for their presentation. I am hoping that this will allow them to gather more information to include in their presentations. I have given them a variety of topics to research and include in their mind maps. They then had to come up with supporting facts or info.

Week 16 review - CS - Birmingham, Lancaster - Shamsur Rahman

This week we concentrated on cities, going to visit places and the necessary English required for this context.

We studied 2 grammar rules, namely;

1: How to make a direct question indirect to show politeness

2: Some nouns for count and non-count.

We then sort to apply these two rules in to specific contexts, like for example,

1: Talking about transportation

2: Asking for and giving information

3: How to talk about a city.

Although I don’t have pictures of our conversations, I will try to describe scenarios students created to apply the studied grammar by merging them together within a context.

In the context of ‘asking for and giving information’, students learnt to combine and merge the two rules together like so;

Student 1: “excuse me; do you know where I can find a cheap restaurant in this area?”

Student 2: “yes of course, but there are many cheap restaurants in this area, you can find some behind that street”

And then they rotated it with a different question/answer to cover both grammars.

In the above example, the two students used BOTH grammar rules in ONE context logically. They were then required to memorise their conversation to present it to the class on Thursday as part of their quiz.

END.

Week 16 b1 East London: Job Interview

Students this week discussed job descriptions and employment questionnaires and to follow on had to write a job interview between a company owner and a job candidate. 

Students had to include questions and answers on salary education history employment history working hours and all questions they know companies would ask.

Week 16 - Biography

Students had to research and write a biography of a famous person living or dead. Students were given famous names such as Abraham Lincoln, Bill Gates, Ghandi, Mike Tyson and Mr T to research. I wanted students to use grammar forms that they have learnt over the semester including but not limited to 'gerunds', 'infinitives', 'passive sentences', use of the past simple and past continuous. This exercise was the purpose of revision and for students to practically apply what they have learned.

Week 16 Geography

This week we focused on using prepositions - in, at, to, into in all of our writing assignments related to country and geography.  We explored new vocabulary and wrote about things that affect the environment like erosion.  Pictured below is an example of simple sentence writing at the A1 level in getting used to proper grammar with preposition and descriptive words (adjective and adverb) coupled with the new geography words.

Week 16 West London b1+ Careers mind map

Week 16 West London b1+ Careers mind map

Students in west London class were busy making their mind maps on careers.  Students chose in their opinions the most in demand jobs. Then they had to add descriptions and pros and cons for each career. 

Week 15 East London b1 Consequences

Students discussed and wrote positive and negative consequences to certain actions. 

For example if Stuart spent all his savings on a computer what would the consequences be?? Good and bad??

Students enjoyed the discussions of different actions. 

Quiz Week 15- Los Angeles

This is one of my students quizzes from this week. We went over the present perfect and unusual activities throughout the week. As you can see, not all of the answers are correct, but this student clearly showed that he was able to retain some of the information we studied in the previous days.

Preparing a curriculum vitae

Students worked in groups to structure a curriculum vitae. They viewed templates on line and then decided upon suitable categories, personal information, education, experience skills etc
They then started to draft their own cv

Adverbial clauses to express personal feelings

students spent this week studying adjectives related to personality. Once they had a firm grasp of the meanings I decided to incorporate these adjectives to the grammar that they studied which was adverbial clauses with 'when' to express personal feelings. Using the same adjectives, students had to write a sentence with an adverbial clause that provided a definition without using the adjective.

week 15 - cs - shamsur rahman

This is the summary of this weeks lessons in one conversation, students are memorizing this conversation today as part of a quiz.

West London b1+ week 15 information gap crossword

Students in west London class were given information gap crosswords. One student had the answers for words going across and one student had the answers for words going down. 

Students had clues for each other to help them get the missing personalities in their crosswords and they had to help each other figure them out by describing it or doing actions or naming people who are like that personality in the classroom. 

Students enjoyed it as some had not done crosswords before.

Week 15 RW Past tense

This week we concentrated mainly on past tense. Recalling our weekend events, looking at grammar skill building and looking at a short clip of media to describe what happened.  During the course of working out and remembering to correct our mistakes students wrote on past events. Then after seeing the teacher as they progressed through the assignment, they hopefully saw their errors and learned from them as they continued to write.  As you can see, the first day of this assignment the student completed it only part way (corrected in red), when he had extra time the next day in class he finished it making fewer mistakes (corrected in green), therefor showing progress in his learning of the past tense.

Reflecting on Term 2

Dear Team,

We had an excellent term full of learning opportunities for students . What was the classroom task or activity that your students liked most in Term 2? Why do you think they liked it?

My neighborhood Week 13

The topic for the week was Neighborhood.  Students prepared a mini presentation about their neighborhoods.  They had to use the vocabulary taught during the week to describe their neighborhood.  Since I couldn't upload the videos of the presentations, I decided to post a picture of one student's presentation notes.  After the presentation, students were allowed to ask one question about the presenter's neighborhood.

Class activity week 13

Students found pictures of people in the newspaper and cut them out. They then put 9 pictures on a grid and brainstormed adjectives which could be used to best describe the people. The students used their grids to play picture "bingo" by calling an adjective and crossing a picture if it could be used to describe someone on their grid.Students then discussed the appropriateness of their decisions.

Family Activities

This week we took a look at two things. One was related to our own families and the activities that we do with them.  Students wrote paragraphs to reflect what they do with their families whether eating or going out to amusement.  We also practiced reading comprehension with numerous activities in writing and remembering information based on "family activity" in a fictional story about going to the amusement park and a family member got lost. The following pictures shows what we did:

Family Profile

Students were tasked to write a profile of a fictional family using grammar learnt from units – 13,14 and 15. Multiple drafts were done wherein students had to use present participles to describe family members and past participles in passive sentences. They then had to use modal verbs and adverbs to add sentences describing certainty and possibility. After this they had to add an unreal conditional sentence for each family member to describe an impossible wish.

Week 13 East London A2+ Technology Posters

Week 13 East London A2+ Technology Poster

Students in East London class were told to make posters of one type of technology they discussed in class and draw or print a picture of it and label all its parts. Once labelled all parts needed to have a description of how you use it. 

Week 13 West London B1 Acting the gestures

Students in west London class were learning different gestures used all over the world. Students were put into groups of 4 with one student not allowed to speak and doing the gestures. The rest of the group had to say exactly the right meaning as the gesture. Then writing using modals and adverbs what their group member was gesturing. 

Example statements :

I think he may/might be saying hello 

or 

he is probably/could be telling us to be quiet. 

The class then discussed which gestures they did or didn't know and gestures they use in KSA. 

Writing about ones hometown

Students wrote a paragraph about their hometown giving advice to a visitor of things to do.

Week 12 - Work on Final Presentations

In Weeks 10 and 11 students decided on the topic for their final presentation. In Week 12 they researched the topic and, most probably, decided on the main points they would like to cover in their speech.

In Week 13 it is time for them to start practicing talking about their topic. What are the activities students can engage in to be able to start practicing making presentations and get feedback from their teachers and fellow students?

Visual Outlines

This week we worked on writing sentences (sentence structure) in regards to sports.  Each student had to draw a mind-map or other visual for themselves to help as an outline for writing about the sport that they chose. The picture here is of one example of how students can use a visual outline in organizing their thoughts.

Question for week 12

How to help students research their topic for the final presentation ?

this is the group input:

1. Search the topic  on the  internet 
2. Go to places related to your topic
3. Go to the public library for ideas 
4. Interview people for information 
5. Get some opinions by doing a survey or questionnaire

6- Wikipedia
7- Brainstorming 5 points
8- Asking questions
9- having  group discussions

Week 11, Requests and offers

Students practised requests and offers. They designed a menu and engaged in a restaurant role play which was recorded for further critique

Week 11 Mindmap Final Presentation Visual Outline

One of the student assignments this week was to do individual (A1 level) or pair work (0 level) mindmaps based on their final presentation topics.  The students on both levels were challenged by the teacher to not just do a few subcategories with their topic but were encouraged for at least three sub-groups that went down to include several examples within their branches.  This visual outline is the first in prepping students to layout their work and provide enough information that they can study for their presentations or other skills in the future.

Week 11 West London B1 jig saw reading activity

Students were put into groups of four. Each group member was given a part of a story of how 2 people became successful. They were not allowed to show each other what was written. They had to read each part to the rest of the group. By listening the group had to number each other 1 to 4 to put the story in the correct order. They then had a list of statements that they had to decide which story each statement was about. 

Week 11 East London A2+ information gap food recipe conversation

Ss were given parts of a conversation. Each student read out their part of the conversation about a good recipe. Without seeing the group had to decide what order the conversation was in by numbering each student, one to five.

Students then listened to an audio of the three conversations to see if they got the conversations in the correct orders. 

Students had to finally glue the conversation in its correct order. 

Week 10 - Mind Map / Presentation checklist - Bilaal (CS Manchester)

This week the focus was on developing presentation topic research and working on introductions,

Students were to think of topics and subtopics for their presentations. They completed a very basic mind map based on a discussion of what they deemed appropriate ideas that they could work on.

They also worked on introductions making sure they complete the items in the checklist provided. They were given a template introduction in a jumbled format and had to match stages and sub-stages of the presentation with the correct sentences. They then produced their own introductions.

Speaking activity about clothes Week 10 Level A1

An activity that enabled the Ss to interview each other about their choices of clothes.  Each student initially wrote about himself and then had to prepare three questions to ask another student.  The student then documented the responses.  This activity gave Ss an opportunity to speak and create their own questions and answers.

Week 10 A2+ East London conversation house or apartment?

Ss had to create a conversation between two friends deciding on what type of place they want to live in. A house or an apartment. They had to include discussing size of rooms, number of rooms, cost of rent, neighborhood and the furniture. 

Present perfect phrases

Students watched short clips from movies using phrases in the present perfect.
They worked in groups to write the phrases using the present perfect.

Making wishes

Students were provided with pictures of situations that they had to attach a problem to. Once this was done they had to write three wishes to express past regret or future wants in the thought bubble of the person in the picture.

Question for the team

Hi Team,

In Weeks 10 and 11 students will explore and decide on a topic for their final presentations. For levels other than A0, the topics should be ESP related.


How can we help students with choosing the topic?

Story Writing

This week we continued to look at stories and how they may be used for media in presentations.  But instead of watching a movie we read and used words from our reading that can be made into our own stories.  The previous week we got introduced to what is a story and answered questions from it to understand the story, since unlike the movie where there is action to follow we needed to follow the direction of the words.  This week presented a challenge for the students to focus on their own stories or past experiences they would like to share.  We only used another story to again help with some ideas for our own stories to tell.  In the coming weeks we hope to get more enriched into reading as well as elaborating on our own writing to tell not just a bio but an exciting story about our lives. Here is an example from the book we are using to help us get familiar with story writing.

Week 10 East London A2+ Pair memory dictation

Students in pairs had to read a conversation which was outside the class on the wall. They then had to read a sentence remember it and go to tell their partner what it said. They did this until they finished the conversation. Example :

Ss then had to correct the spelling mistakes underlined by the teacher. This activity uses all the four key skills speaking listening reading and writing. Also helps a lot with their spelling. 

Building students confidence

presentation contest Semester 1 -2015-2016

" if you tell me I will forget, 
if you show me I will remember,
 but if you involve me I will learn."

Preparing students to give presentations  is a goal we focused on since the start of  this intensive English program in 2010 . It is a skill we in the program think of seriously and we continue developing and learning.

We also document the  best students presentations through out the program, and we shared them online for students and teachers  to watch and to be inspired by. We believe that it can be done, and we believe that students can learn to do it.

Presenting  is a skill that needs preparation and practice. It help build students confidence, and after all it is a 6 month intensive English program. We need to help students overcome the fear of standing up and presenting in English. We think five month is enough time to do the job.


Here are some links to students presentations in the program (2010 -2015) :

1- Saleh Abdullah - childhood memories

2-  Hani Laban - Service recovery at hotels

3-  Turki Alsulamani  - Respect and relationships

4-  Ahmad Barnwi - Respecting your parents

5-  Hamza Ali Abdullah - safety 

6-  Ahmed Mohammed Seddeq - My Childhood memories

7- Abdulrahman Fahd Alharbi - American used cars

8- Abdulaziz Alzahrani - introducing himeself
9- Mohammad Abu- bakr Aidaros - Solar energy 
10- Abdul majeed Halawani - Computer networking 
11- Mohannad Alshiri - Learning English
12- Hussian Badaood  - Linux Vs Vesta
13- Sultan Mohammad Bakr - protecting homes from thieves 
14- Ahmad Altalhi - Car tips
15- Abdulrahamn Makki - My training period 
16- Saifudden Alsohaimi - types of networks
17- Ramzi Bafana - Why I choose to study Electrical power
18- Alaa Jameel  Bahhah - Parts of an A.C unit
19- Aied Alnafai - Water power

The secret is how to coach students step by step to go  through the process. It does not happen over night and no one has a magic stick. There must be a plan and time schedule to make sure we are all on the page and that we are working together to achieve a common objective on time.

Not all students are going to perform the same, some do fine, some will struggle, others will resist, because they are shy and never trained for it before, But we need to work  together to help students over come their fear. It is said that nine thirds  of educations is encouragement. Break the skill into simple steps and encourage them along the way. Let them choose a topic they like.

We  should not criticize students while they are giving presentations. We  should not over criticize students after they deliver their presentations. We should  not let anyone make fun of students while  practicing and presenting. We need to make sure the whole class clap and cheers at the end of each presentation. we need to create a fun comfortable positive classroom atmosphere so that no one is afraid to stand up and present and that all students support each other and work as a team. Positive feedback is constructive, but negative feedback can be destructive.

We can not force students to give excellent presentations, but we can show them how by  supporting ,coaching , engaging  and encouraging them everyday. It is a continuous process. The process is more important than the final product. Not all the students will give an excellent presentation, but all have to try their best and go through the process.


Check out the link -  students program blog on presentations:
http://jedeng.blogspot.com/search/label/presentations?updated-max=2012-06-21T14:57:00%2B03:00&max-results=20&start=20&by-date=false

Measurements Activities - Washington / Manchester (Bilaal)

MEASUREMENTS ACTIVITIES

Students were given pictures that represented different aspects of measurement. They brainstormed words using their phones to research what the measurement types were for each of the measurement topics (for example, height = cm / inches / feet etc). They then suggested questions for each topic and how you would answer them using the measurements in real conversations.

They then noted down around 15 different measurements based on a mind map and then later an A3 poster in which they cut and stuck the correct pictures with the correct descriptions and measurements. They also registered these words into their dictionaries for the week.

Vocabulary - mind-maps

 

 

 

Students started to collate vocabulary related to their major by sketching out a brief mind map.
This may help them with vocabulary for their presentation in the communication class.

 

American Corner Field Trip

On Wednesday of this week we took our students to American Corner restaurant so they could practice what they had learned in class the previous three days. They ordered in English and read the menu in English as well. On Thursday I included their field trip into the quiz by asking them questions about what they ordered to eat and drink at the restaurant.

Week 8 West London Historic Events presentations

Week 8 West London Historic Events presentations

Students researched about an historical event that changed people's lives and had to do a 2 minute presentation with pictures.

Some of the events chosen were:

The challenger explosion 

The titanic 

The first plane - the Wright brothers

Nelson Mandela 

And more 

For their first presentations I was very impressed and look forward to seeing them do more presentations in the future.  

Week 9 West London Historic events timeline

Students created a wall size timeline of historic events which had to include a picture and information such as name date and a short description of what made the event historic. 

Week 9 Wet London Historic events timeline

Students created a wall size timeline of historic events which had to include a picture and information such as name date and a short description of what made the event historic. 

My Vacation - A2+

students wrote about their holiday week and what they did. They used past verbs. They also used the past of the verb be to write descriptive sentences and regular and irregular action verbs to describe their actions of the holiday week.

Learning vocabulary, john

Students used the vocabulary they learned during the week to create mind maps. They added additional vocab to the subtopics. The best work was selected by the class.

Week 8 East London I used to conversation

Students had to make and perform a conversation about their childhood. The conversation had to include a minimum of 5 words from the vocab list. And include questions using used to example: did you use to play football? Yes I used to play football, what about you?

Week 8 - CS - Shamsur Rahman

Appearances and description of people

Basic interview questions and answers - Manchester/Washington

During our class week 8 in the RW class we have been working on ESP related work this week.  Students are being engaged in preparing their CV's for an international market as well as practicing correct reading grammar of basic interview questions.  The level zero class has been focusing on sentence structure, while the level 1 class has been focusing on editing their grammar (pictured below), students first draft out their questions, then randomly choose from their list to share on the board.  Then the opportunity for correction is open for any student to fix spelling/grammar mistakes.  The end of the week will result in a reading quiz focused on consistency in reading proper questioning and possible answers for comprehension and understanding ability.

50 TVTC colleges to use English for training programs | Arab News

 The state-owned Technical and Vocational Training Corporation (TVTC) announced here on Tuesday that English will be the medium of instruction for trainees at all its institutions.
TVTC has 50 colleges and training institutes scattered across the Kingdom in partnership with high-caliber global universities, including those of the US, the UK, Canada and Australia.

“This strategy being offered by TVTC is in response to the needs of the labor market in the Kingdom,” said a source from the organization.
He said English will be taught as the medium of instruction for all subjects in its 33 Colleges of Excellence (CoE) and 21 institutes in partnership with the private sector.

“TVTC is keen to teach English to the trainees (males and females) in colleges and technical institutes to increase their chances for employment after graduation and enable them to compete for jobs in specialized areas,” said TVTC spokesman Fahd Al-Otaibi.


 read more:
50 TVTC colleges to use English for training programs | Arab News

Offer more opportunities for students to learn

I would like to share with everybody a quot from Qybek  Jeddah Site director, during a conversation on teaching using games.

" Being creative to offer more opportunities for students to learn is one of the things that make us better teachers. If I teach something , that's great! The next step is to let students learn that thing. Teaching doesn't guarantee learning.  I am not sure I know everything I was taught, but I know most what I learned."

We would like to welocme the new blog members

On behave of all the members on the Jeddah Intensive  English program , we would like to welcome the new blog members from Madinah and Jeddah female English program sites to this curriculum blog community.

We look forward to your contributions and support to extend the blog conversation on curriculum and students learning. This blog is an experiment we started few years ago to share and reflect on teaching and learning. We develop as we go along.

Week 6 West London A2+ ESP Technology mind map

Week 6 West London A2+ ESP Technology mind map

Students had to choose from a list of technology. They then had do a mind map drawing and label the parts of the device. They also had to write a short description of each part. Answering What does it do?? how do you use it? and what do you do with it??

Week 6 A2+ West London ESP Technology and its uses

Ss listed and discussed different technologies. Ss were asked if they use it and how has that technology changed over the years. 

With the list students in pairs had to write and discuss two uses for each technology. 

Family Tree Poster - Toronto (Week 5)

This is a poster activity of a family tree.  It provided students the opportunity to create a poster that shows the various relationships in a family.  Students enjoyed the activity.

A1, Lancaster/Birmingham

Students prepared questions in the past simple to ask a partner. Next week they will write the answers and add to their portfolio.

ESP Dictionary Week 5- Los Angeles

       Our weekly topic as transportation. This week I wanted the students to do a little more for their dictionaries so I thought I would get them to include a sentence for each word. This week I helped them with the sentences a lot in order to get them to understand what they need to do. However, in the future I want them to be able to produce more of their own work. I am hoping that by including a basic sentence about the word in their dictionaries will help them to get a better understanding of the word and also increase their vocabulary by using other words to form the sentences.

Fiction - Worst Day Ever

students were grouped in 3's and each group was given 4 2-part verbs - 5 action verbs - 5 adjectives - 5 prepositions. these words were in the form of flashcards. They were then tasked with writing a fictional story using every word they have been given.

Family-daily schedule

During the week we wrote about our family and/or our typical day that including family in our lives. The family "focus" could be related to immediate or extended family with the topics centered on what you do with the family, their occupations, school, or things found in the home. For example, My sister goes to the University. New vocab: University, we discussed differences of why the name could be a college or changed to University. We also discussed jobs in the home in relation to things found in the home, such as vacuum, to go in our dictionaries for a V-word for the week.

East and west London A2&A2+ Field Trip to American Corner

East and west London A2&A2+ Field Trip to American Corner

Students from both classes went on a field trip in class 2 to a restaurant (American Corner) to practice their English language learnt in class. They had to use can I have and I would like ... When ordering. They also asked the waiter for suggestions and choices available. 

Students had to order their food and name items on the menu in English only. Staff at the restaurant were very helpful and the food was very nice. 

Students for homework willhave to write a review of the restaurant describing their experience. 

ESP A2+ West London Email writing: vacation

Students had to create emails for plans for a vacation. They had to imagine they lived in the United Kingdom and friend was coming to visit them for the holidays.

They had to include :

1. Advice 

2. Plans 

3. Possible plans

Students who didn't know much about United Kingdom had to research interesting things to do there and go see. 

Week 5 A2 East London Student role play waiter and customers

Week 5 A2 East London Student role play waiter and customer

Students are busy creating a conversation between three friends meeting at a restaurant and making an order with a waiter.

The conversation had to include:

1. Will

2. Would 

3 so, Too, either or neither 

This conversation will be role played in front of the class at the end of the week.