Incidentally, I wanted to record the whole activity including my students’ reaction when they saw the video. Unfortunately, the batteries of my Flip camera ran out.

Big thank you to Alice (Twitter: http://twitter.com/ALiCe__M) for introducing me to the music video :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HW5eBfZhE4M

This clip comes from GOOD magazine (http://www.goodmagazine.com)

The creators of the clip cites the following information sources: Thirst Relief International; UN Development Programme; UN Environment Programme; United States Geological Survey; World Health Organization; World Water Council; Worldwater.org

A big thank you to Amanda Wilson for passing the clip this way :)

• Language level: Intermediate (B1) +
• Learner type: Young learners; Teens; Adults; CLIL
• Time: 45 minutes
• Main activity: Speaking; Text reconstruction
• Topic: Water; The environment
• Language: Whoever, wherever, whenever; Second conditional; Language of basic statistics (‘the average person‘, etc)
• Materials: Video clip and worksheet

world-water-facts.pdf

I was supposed to be posting Part II of the train tunnel joke. That will be coming some time soon. But for the moment, you will have to go with this lesson plan on the Ferrari 250 GTO

• Language level: Pre-intermediate (A2) +
• Learner type: Young learners; Teens; Adults
• Time: 40 minutes
• Main activity: Writing
• Topic: Cars
• Language: Numbers; Passive structures
• Materials: Video clip

ferrari-250-gto.pdf

The Ferrari clip was made by Fernando Córdova, a miniature car salesman from Chile (website here: http://www.miniaturas.cl/)

• Language level: Pre-intermediate (A2) +
• Learner type: Young learners; Teens; Adults
• Time: 30 minutes
• Main activity: Writing
• Topic: Jokes
• Language: Verbs of thought (e.g. wonder, wish, hope)
• Materials: Video clip; Worksheet

the-train-tunnel-joke.pdf

Part 2 of the lesson plan will look at different versions of the joke and examine it from a cultural and linguistic point of view. It will be uploaded next week.

• Language level: Intermediate (B1) +
• Learner type: Young learners; Teens; Adults
• Time: 45 minutes
• Main activity: Drawing
• Topic: Grammar
• Language: The passive (passive noun phrases with -ing form verbs)
• Materials: Flashcards; Worksheets

passive-drawings.pdf

Big thanks to everyone at IATEFL and also Lindsay Clandfield for hosting the event, the other presenters (Burcu Akyol, Marisa Constantinides, Penny Ur, Gavin Dudeney, Roger House, Karenne Sylvester, Anna Parisi and Ken Wilson) camera girl Özge Karaoğlu and finally, of course, all the students and trainees that I have worked with who are the artists behind the work (you know who you are!)

(The whole Pecha Kucha evening can be watched here.)

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I want to tell you about this funny dream that I’ve been having recently. Now when I say ‘funny’ I don’t mean it makes me want to laugh. I mean funny in the other sense of the word.

Did you know that funny had two meanings? Yes - it also means ’strange’.

What sort of building do you think it is?

Anyway, as I said, I’m looking down at the street below. A crowd of people walk out of the man entrance and then I hear a piano melody. It’s quite beautiful but at the same time, quite sad. Unfortunately, I can’t recall the melody now.

Does that ever happen to you - a catchy tune comes into your head while you are dreaming. Sometimes you wake up and think you should record it somehow so that you will remember it in the morning. But you never do.

So this is where things get a little bit strange. On the pavement below, there is a face looking up at me. But it’s not a realistic face - it looks more like a child’s drawing and it’s animated. It seems to be speaking to me but I have no idea what it is saying. Its hair is blowing in the wind.

Now I can hear a man singing.

The face turns into an animated matchstick man. Do you know what that is? Well this is a matchstick (or a match for short):

And this is a matchstick man:

Now the matchstick man turns into a house, or perhaps I should say, a child’s drawing of a house. You can imagine what it looks like. Anyway, very slowly, I turn to my left. I look along the street and then across the roof of the building that I am standing on.

Can you guess what I see?

I  see the man who is singing. He is also looking down at the street - just like me. He is wearing a peaked cap and a dark blue jacket. He ignores me and keeps singing his slow song. The sky above us is autumn blue. In the distance I can see skyscrapers.

I look back down at the street and there is a new picture. It’s a sailing boat on the sea this time. Then it turns into a car. Its wheels are going round. The car turns into a bird which turns into some sort of animal - its difficult to say what exactly what type of animal it is. It might be a deer.

Now, very slowly, I turn to my right and look across the right-hand side of the building.

Can you guess who I see this time?

This time I see the piano player. He is sitting at his piano on the roof of the building. He is sitting with his back to me.

Do you believe that dreams have meanings? What do you think this one means?

• Language level: Pre-intermediate (A2) +
  
• Learner type: Teenagers; Adults
• Time: 60 minutes
  
• Main activity: Interpretation of a music video
• Topic: Dreams; School
• Language: Prepositions
• Materials: Video clip (music video)

dream-sequence.pdf

mexican-doodles.pdf

• Language level: Beginner +
• Learner type: Young learners; Teens; Adults
• Time: 20 minutes
• Main activity:
• Topic: Stereotypes
• Language: Noun phrases; The -ing form of the verb
• Materials: No materials (or preparation)

One way of doing this is by bringing a very important tool into the equation: The teacher’s voice. In this lesson plan, students aren’t shown a video clip - they are told about it.

cat-and-goldfish-surprise.pdf

• Language level: Elementary +
• Learner type: Young learners; Adults
• Time: 20 minutes
• Main activity: Listening
• Topic: Pets
• Language: Present simple
• Materials: Video clip

On 19th - 26th February, I’ll be giving an online course on using online video in language education on the SEETA website. The course is titled How do YouTube?

The course is free. To get involved, you will have to register on the SEETA website (see link above). You will be able to enrol for the course on Friday 19th February. There will be no strict timetabling - all discussion will take place on the forum.

Look forward to seeing you there.

Jamie =)

noisy-collocations.pdf

• Language level: Beginner / Elementary (A1, A2)
• Learner type: Young learners; Teens; Adults
• Time: 30 minutes
• Main activity: Matching collocations
• Topic: Sound in films
• Language: Verb/object collocations; The -ing form
• Materials: Video clip; Worksheets

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There are actually two adverts in the ‘Every sound tells a story’ theme. The pair could be used in combination but a warning: the second ad contains a rude part.