35 fun classroom practice activities for Present Continuous (Present Progressive) By: Alex Case |Audience: Teachers|Category: Teaching English The simplest use of Present Continuous is to talk about things that are in some way in progress now/ presently/ currently/ at the moment, which is the main focus of this article. This use is often contrasted with Present Simple for present routines/ habits/ repeated actions. In normal communication, Present Continuous is perhaps more useful to talk about future arrangements such as meetings, dates and appointments, but this is so different from the basic meaning that there will be another article on that future use. There are a couple of activities in this article for the much rarer use of Present Continuous to talk about regular habits – often annoying ones – like “She’s always sucking her teeth”. For all these uses, students will need to practise different forms of “be” (“I am”, “he is” etc.), pronunciation of contractions of “be” (“she’s”, “we aren’t” etc.), and spelling rules for “-ing” verbs. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9.
Four Square Writing Method. The Four Square Writing Method is a way for teaching writing to children in school. While primarily used to teach persuasive writing, it has also been used to help teach deconstruction.[1] The method was developed by Judith S. Gould [2] and Evan Jay Gould.[3] It was developed initially for primary school students, but it has also been used in high school classes. Method[edit] A colour-coded example of a Four Square Writing Method layout. The method is primarily a visual framework for assisting students with formulating ideas in an organized manner prior to writing an essay. The concept generally works as follows: Variations of the above rules may require more or less development in each of the rectangles, depending on the grade-level or maturity of the student. Results[edit] Results show a consistent increase in the ability of students to write persuasively.
Kingsley Elementary School in Kingsport, Tennessee also tested the Four Square Writing Method. Four Square Series[edit] References[edit] GOING GRAPHIC: 4 SQUARES FOR BETTER SPEAKING. Silentium est aurum (“silence is golden”).Or is it? If we google “teaching speaking in English”, we’ll get over 66,300,000 search results with numerous tips, fabulous games or tricks how to get learners speaking – all pointing out the same frustrating tendency showing that many learners are either timid speakers reluctant to participate in any conversation, or that despite mastering the language, as attested by a great number of grammar and vocabulary exercises thoroughly done by the learners in class, their speaking still lacks fluency and coherence. The latter is sometimes ignored at lower levels. However, speaking is about both fluency and coherence.
Coherence is about linking ideas together – just like in a paragraph or essay. This means organising what you say so that your answer is “a whole“. All the bits within it fit together. This blog post gives some ideas on how to help learners organize what they say into a coherent speech using the Four Square Method. What do we start with? Foursquareinfo.png (PNG Image, 700 × 3181 pixels) - Scaled (31%)