Totally True 1, Unit 16: “Man Leaves Wife in the Atlantic” 

Here are two exercises that worked well with this unit.  The first is a worksheet to 

pre-teach some of the vocabulary and the second is a pantomime activity to 

reinforce the vocabulary and the details of the story. 

1.  Before starting the unit, give each student a copy of the worksheet.  They can 

do it individually, or in pairs.  They may need dictionaries to check the spelling of 

the words.  Check the answers together. 

2.  Teach the unit in the way you prefer. 

3.  After the story has been read and understood, make groups of four and give 

each a set of cut-up pantomime cards.  They should be shuffled and put face 

down in a stack on the table.  They should have their textbooks open to the unit 

16 story (p. 70) at this point.  The teacher demonstrates by picking up a card and 

pantomiming the sentence.  I usually do “They were in a race with 35 other 

rowboats.”  The students look at the story and guess which sentence I’m 

pantomiming. 

4.  In their groups, the students take turns picking up a paper and pantomiming 

the action.  Others look at their story and say the sentence they think is being 

pantomimed.  The correct guesser receives the card.  At the end, the one with 

the most cards, the “best guesser”, is the winner. 

5.  Do a second round, but this time have the students all close their books. 

Have fun!

TT1-u16-instructions

TT1-u16-pantomime-cards

TT1-l16-vocab-pre-teach

An activity for Unit 8

Activity Time
35 ~ 50 minutes depending on how much reinforcement / explicit teaching / grammatical accuracy
you fancy.

Activity Goals
Encourage understanding of descriptions and comparisons.
Allow practice with comparatives and superlatives.
Motivate basic inferencing skills.
Passive review of the past tense.
Active review of adjectives.

comparatives.superlatives.practice

This is a commercial that I found on the net. I have used and still use it in my reading classes. I have prepared a number of comprehension questions that I give the students or ask the students to find the answers for. There are some other extension questions too.The commercial is about “Grandpa Chew”watch?v=9ll-bDmK3EAThe questions are at this link reading-comprehension-questions-for-grandpa-chew-life-insurance-commercial

Here are a couple of late-breakers that didn’t make it into the binder at the start of the semester. You might want to use them to help your students prepare for Speaking Task 1 (summer vacation interview).

Activity to promote accuracy in questions (PDF): Past tense question writing worksheet

If you decide to follow the same interview pattern as on the DVD, this document may help you guide your students through the various stages of the interview. Either hand it out, or write on the board doing the final practice session.

Interview pattern (PDF): Interview Pattern

These documents can also be found in Shared Files, and in the level binder.

Many teachers are planning encourage their students to read graded readers this semester. This worksheet may come in handy to help students prepare for a short oral book report.

Download the PDF: l1-book-report

A Quicktime movie with worksheet and activity explanation.

The movie talks about my Summer Vacation and has about 10 photos with a narrative. There is a worksheet for listening comprehension and a script for the teacher to expand upon. Please feel free to use the movie and alter or adapt the activity. There may be hitches with the Quicktime movie file depending on the platform you use. Please check it before you use it in class. If the sound file and slides do not synch. turn the volume off and read the narrative provided instead (you can use the arrow keys to click through the pictures on the Quicktime file).

The whole activity should take between 30~70 minutes depending on how you decide to expand it.

Summer vacation / Past tense activity

This is a sheet with Classroom English that I often use in class. Attached with this is a set of audio files that students can download and listen to if they want to practice them.
Classroom English audio files:classroom-english
Classroom English handout: Classroom English Handout

Some of you may recall that there were two options for Moodle presented at the Retreat: An individual course for a single instructor and one group of students, and a Bulk Moodle course for everyone else who did not request a course of their own. That Bulk Moodle course has now arrived for Eigo IA and B Level 1. Look for laminated handouts around the part-time area, or download the handout here: Level 1 Moodle How To [PDF]

These worksheets are intended as a trial. If you use them in your class, please remember that they are not in addition to the vocabulary requirement as stated in the Student Notes (30 words and sentences). They are to be used instead of this requirement or to replace part of it (Eg. 15 words and five worksheets). The workload on the students should remain the same, so as not to skew the grading process.

They are in ‘Beta’ form. Please give me any comments for improvement that you have if you use them on the class.

This batch consists of 6 worksheets and a brief overview. They cover vocabulary from Unites 1, 4 and 5 in Firsthand Success.

Different Approaches to Vocabulary

These are some short listening activities that can be used to introduce each unit or to provide extra practice. There are three types: gap-fill, correction, and re-ordering. There are also a variety of shorter, follow-up tasks, such as scrambled words, choose a summary, and complete the sentence.

Download the zip file below.

NOTE: this is a new zip file. The previous one contained a mistake in the Unit 2 supp file (there were 11 mistakes, not 10!)

ttunit1_8pdfs

This is a description of the first Speaking Task for Level 1 Eigo II A.

Level 1 Eigo IIA Speaking Task 1 Overview + Worksheets

There are many ways to approach Task 1 – both in terms of exactly what you want your students to do, and how you want them to prepare for it. In the Level 1 L&S binder there is a set of worksheets to help your students prepare for the task – which may well fit in exactly with your plans. However, just in case you want to approach the prep in a slightly different way, here is an alternative set of worksheets.

They focus strongly on the concept of one ‘big’ event, and two ‘small’ events. There are no Teacher’s Notes, but the worksheets themselves should prove self-explanatory, especially if you have already seen the example interview on the DVD. You may want to use them very early in the semester – in fact I plan to start work on them in my first class.

Download the worksheets (3 worksheets, in one PDF file): Alternative Task 1 student prep worksheets

Speaking task 1 is a pair interview in which students talk about what they did during the summer vacation. An example conversation (performed by 2 ELP teachers) can be found on the Level 1 DVD, and on the Resources web site. This worksheet can be used with the video, and may be useful in preparing your students for the task.

Worksheet (includes Teacher’s Notes): Task 1 DVD Worksheet

The second speaking task is a presentation.

Task
Students have to prepare a short presentation of around 3 minutes, in which they teach the class the dos and don’ts of a particular topic using the target structures from UNit 11 (modals of advice). Students will often choose a topic that others already know about, but the emphasis should be on how to do it better, or tips that people may not know.

The zip file below contains a folder with an overview of the task, five worksheets, a listening activity for the DVD exemplar, and a vocabulary list.

The worksheets can be used individually or as a set.
Speaking Task 2 – Overview and Worksheets

This is a listening activity using a slide show on the internet. The slide show has a narration by my six year old daughter. Students have a worksheet with some basic comprehension questions to work on while / after listening.

As the Level 1 students have to do their first speaking task on their summer news this activity introduces the topic and also practices the past tense. It is, however, mainly a warmer or a ‘fun’ introduction activity for the first or second class.

Use the link below to go to the slideshow.

http://voicethread.com/view.php?b=7390

And download the Worksheet.
Slide Show Worksheet

This can be used with the supplentary activities 10~18 to give students a record of their scores and an opportunity to practice more outside class with the textbook CD.

Download the zip file below.

Totally True Supplementary Activities: Units 10~18

These are some short listening activities that can be used to introduce each unit or to provide extra practice. There are three types: gap-fill, correction, and re-ordering. There are also a variety of shorter, follow-up tasks, such as scrambled words, choose a summary, and complete the sentence.

There is also a Student Record Sheet. This can be used if you intend to use most or all of the supplementary activities. Students can keep a record of their score and are encouraged to try again at home using the CD in the textbook.

Thank you to Deborah for TT16 and 17

Download the zip file below.

Totally True Supplementary Activities: Units 10~18

Past Tense. From words to a story

This activities make use of the u12 Vocabulary Map (in the back of the text book).

Two different ways of using the vocabulary listed in the unit 12 Vocabulary Map as prompts for writing/telling a story.

File is basically Teacher’s Notes, and also includes a set of vocab cards which would need cutting-up.

Download file: Unit 12. Vocabulary Map. PDF.

Past Tense: Predicting / Listening / Drawing / Writing

This activity could be done at any time (and by any level), not just to supplement unit 12.

Stage 1: Students look at 6 pictures which illustrate a true story, and predict the correct order of the pictures, and the story itself. They then listen to the story and check their predictions.

Stage 2: Students then illustrate their own true ‘interesting’ story, and pass it to another student. The other student predicts the story.

Sounds complicated, but it’s not really! Extensive instructions, and transcript, are included in the PDF.

Download file: Unit 12. Picture Story. PDF.

 Download audio MP3 file: Unit 12. Picture Story. MP3.

Past Tense. Chain writing a story: Replacement ‘Ensemble’ activity.

This is a substitute for the Ensemble activity ~ which has poor picture prompts in the text book. This activity may be quite demanding!

Students write the first half of a short story, based on a picture prompt. They then pass their story to other students, who finish the story.

Brief Teacher’s Notes are included, but the rubrics on the worksheet itself should be clear enough.

Download file: Unit 12. Our own story. PDF