As teachers we should always remember the ‘Wise Old Owl’: 

The wise old owl lived in an oak

The more he saw, the less he spoke

The less he spoke, the more he heard

Why can’t we all be like that bird?

WHAT DOESN'T WORK WHILE TEACHING VOCABULARY 

There are a number of traditional teaching practices related to vocabulary that deserve to be left in the "instructional dustbin." The key weakness in all of these practices is the limited or rote interaction students have with the new word/concept. Let us quickly review the most common of these less effective approaches.

1.    Look them up. Certainly dictionaries have their place, especially during writing, but the act of looking up a word and copying a definition is not likely to result in vocabulary learning (especially if there are long lists of unrelated words to look up and for which to copy the definitions).

2.    Use them in a sentence. Writing sentences with new vocabulary AFTER some understanding of the word is helpful; however to assign this task before the study of word meaning is of little value.

3.    Use context. There is little research to suggest that context is a very reliable source of learning word meanings. Nagy found that students reading at grade level had about a one twentieth chance of learning the meaning of a word from context. This, of course, is not to say that context is unimportant but that students need a broader range of instructional guidance than the exhortation "Use context."

4.    Memorize definitions. Rote learning of word meanings is likely to results, at best, in the ability to parrot back what is not clearly understood.

A FUNNY WAY TO TEACH WORD ORDER

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ySnT_5IcWGg

LEARNER - CENTERED CLASSROOM 

http://lfonetwork.uoregon.edu/learner-centered-classrooms/

Examples of Learner-Centered Classroom Activities

§  Think-pair-share

§  Learner logs

§  KWL charts

§  Application cards

§  Admit and exit slips

§  Pair and small group work

§  Journal writing

§  Interviewing native speakers

§  Rubrics and self-assessments

§  Peer assessment

§  A portfolio like LinguaFolio Online that shows what students can do using the target language

Lots of activities can be taken here:

https://www.facinghistory.org/for-educators/educator-resources/teaching-strategies/

TEACHING SPEAKING 

Many thanks to British Council for such a variety of different activities to develop students' speaking abilities!

http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/speaking-activities

TEACHING CRITICAL THINKING

If you are intersted in teaching your students critical thinking, then you will definitely like the following chart. Keep it handy while planning your lessons' activities.

Teaching Listening

Pre-listening activities:

·         looking at pictures, maps, diagrams, or graphs

·         reviewing vocabulary or grammatical structures

·         reading something relevant

·         constructing semantic webs (a graphic arrangement of concepts or words showing how they are related)

·         predicting the content of the listening text

·         going over the directions or instructions for the activity

·         doing guided practice

While-listening activities:

·         listening with visuals

·         filling in graphs and charts

·         following a route on a map

·         checking off items in a list

·         listening for the gist

·         searching for specific clues to meaning

·         completing cloze (fill-in) exercises

·         distinguishing between formal and informal registers

 Post-listening activities:

·         problem solving

·         summarizing

·         role play

·         group discussion and writing as follow-up are necessary. 

Using Timeline in Teaching Grammar

 Timelines are used to:

·         Simplify linguistic explanation

·         Reinforce the understanding of a concept

·         Illustrate the differences between verb forms and other language items

·         Help students with a visual learning style

·         Provide a reference point for students

·         Encourage awareness of how language refers to time in different ways

Advantages:

clear visual demonstration of tense

Disadvantages:

questionable whether students will understand by the end of the lesson;

no context provided;
concept of a timeline (not a circle or spiral) is culturally dependent

TEACHING THINKING

Creative thinking techniques

There is no limit to ways there are of thinking creatively. Some techniques you can begin with are:

• Brainstorm ideas on one topic onto a large piece of paper: don't edit these. Just write them down.
• Allowing yourself to play with an idea whilst you go for a walk.
• Draw or paint a theory on paper.
• Ask the same question at least twenty times and give a different answer each time.
• Combine some of the features of two different objects or ideas to see if you can create several more.
• Change your routine. Do things a different way. Walk a different route to college.
• Let your mind be influenced by new stimuli such as music you do not usually listen to.
• Be open to ideas when they are still new: look for ways of making things work and pushing the idea to its limits.
• Ask questions such as 'what if….?' Or 'supposing….?'.