101 Ways to Use a Long Video in the Classroom

My one-to-one student has recently become interested in the topic of unschooling and asked me if we could do this video on the topic in our English class. I said yes before I knew what I was doing. When I was preparing for the class I realized I wasn’t sure what the aim of watching …

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TBLT Czech Lessons – Task 4: At a Restaurant

After a few experimental lessons described in the previous posts, we were finally heading to safer ground. The language of ordering food at a restaurant appears in many coursebooks at quite early levels, and I had previously taught it on many occasions. I knew, however, I would want to make some differences. In the coursebooks, …

TBLT Czech Lessons – Task 3 : Food Labels

Disclaimer: There have been more interactive, communicative and, all in all, more interesting lessons in my career. Unless you are genuinely interested in the topic or a diehard fan of this blog, you might be better off watching the ice hockey semifinals. On the other hand, the lesson did meet its aim and was useful for …

Simple Dictations

I like doing dictations in my classes. It is a simple exercise which everybody knows. This recent post inspired me to do more of them. I do dictations in my English classes as a form of a micro-listening exercise, and I do them in my Czech classes to give students training in listening and correct …

TBLT Czech Lessons – Task 2: Shopping

After studying “The Weather”, our next task was Shopping. In the introductory interview, my student said he wanted to be able to buy foods in a Czech supermarket. It seemed fairly straightforward when I heard it, but less so when I started planning the pedagogical tasks. What are the tasks involved in buying food for …

TBLT Czech Lessons: Task One – The Weather

  After my Czech student and I confirmed where and when we would meet, I started to think about the order of the items in the needs analysis. The weather was one of the subjects he’d mentioned first. It is also a fairly lexical (easier than grammar?) topic, so I decided to start with it. …

TBLT Czech Lessons – The Story

  Recently a foreigner living in Prague hired me to teach him Czech. I had been recommended by a friend, who is also a teacher and could not fit in another client. My potential client and I exchanged emails and met over coffee to talk about his needs. Because Czech is a nightmare quite a …