Explore reflections, teaching ideas, and practical insights from the ELT classroom. 
Categories for teaching ideas include: Pre-Primary, Primary, Teens/Adults, and Exam Preparation.

How much time do your students spend reading or listening to English outside their lessons? For most students, the honest answer is probably: not much. A few hours of English lessons, a little homework and then... very little contact with the language until the following week. As teachers, we spend a huge amount of time planning engaging lessons, explaining grammar and creating opportunities for communication in class. And all of that matters. But our contact time with studen

What if your students didn’t need to look to you for every answer? Discover why learner autonomy matters - and how small changes in your teaching can make a big difference.

Many English language teachers feel unsure about teaching pronunciation. This practical guide explores why pronunciation feels difficult and shares simple ways to integrate pronunciation activities into lessons.

This is the second part of my B1 Preliminary writing series, this time focusing on one of the Part 2 writing options: an article. Click here to find my lesson plan on writing an informal email. The writing paper is probably the most alienating part of the B1 Preliminary exam for teens in particular - most of them have not once written a letter or an email, let alone an article. Many B1 coursebooks ask students to think about where they read articles, referencing reading the

This writing-focused lesson plan and materials were designed to help my Spanish teen students prepare email responses to party invitations - intended to help them with their B1 Preliminary exam preparation. You'll find stages to generate interest and allow students to personalise the task somewhat, as well as focus on categorising and practising useful phrases they may want to include in their emails. After a couple of years without teaching B1 exam prep courses, I've had a f

Before entering the world of teaching, I had never really celebrated Halloween, it simply wasn't such a big thing in the UK when I was growing up. But each year I'm continually surprised by how much this 'holiday' continues to grow in Spain and love seeing the enjoyment my YLs get from dressing up, playing Halloween games and 'spook'-ing the adults in their lives. 👻🎃🦇 But why should our teen and adult groups be left out from all the fun?! Here are three activities I've use

Why should teachers bother? A lot of English language teachers, particularly I think, less experienced teachers, are often wary of teaching younger learners as they find the classes "difficult to control" and "all songs with no content" (for absolute clarity, not my own opinions!). Personally, I love teaching lower-stage young learner groups, but can appreciate that they are not always everyone's cup of tea and that keeping learners engaged can sometimes be challenging in the

... Does such a thing exist? I certainly hope so! I've experimented with several different methods to correct and evaluate my students' writing over the years. And while there isn't a "one size fits all" solution to providing meaningful, actionable feedback on our students' writing that doesn't take an entire afternoon to write, I have settled on a couple of core ideas: Do not include marks on writing evaluations. Most students immediately focus on the mark/percentage/smiley

Here's Part 2 of my first class ideas, this time focused on the primary EFL class. If you're looking for ideas to use with teens or adults, please check out my previous post Hello! Nice to Meet you Part 1 in which you'll find plenty of ideas to start your English course off on the right foot! What's the 'perfect' first primary class activity? No such thing exists! First classes, especially for younger primary learners, should be dynamic and you ought to alternate short activ

This science-focused EFL lesson plan is designed to help young learners review known fruits and vegetables and to consider which parts of the plants they are. This lesson would work very well after previous lessons on either food or the natural world. Learning about these different parts of the plants is then consolidated with a fun activity of planting their own fruit/vegetable seed in class and writing instructions on how to take care of it at home. For the seed-planting ac

I always find it challenging to come up with final class activities for my B2-level students that are enjoyable (ie. not another exercise from the book or exam practice) but also offer some opportunities to help students recognise how much progress they've made during the academic year in order to aid self-reflection on their learning journey. This last year I had three exam preparation B2-level groups and was searching for inspiration for something new to bring to our final

While many teachers have just finished up for the academic year and new classes in September may seem a long way away right now, some have rolling year-round start dates and others are starting summer courses (like me!). Before you know it the new academic year will be here and you'll need some first class activities to plan in. There are always a couple of things I try to achieve in my first classes, regardless of level. Here are a few ideas to get your teen/adult classes o

This entertaining lesson plan and worksheet were designed to catch the attention of my teenage Spanish students but could easily be enjoyed by students of any nationality. The reading material is light-hearted and engaging, so it should catch the interest of most adult and teen groups with many opportunities for relaxed speaking practice and discussion. Topics: Food/cooking, national dishes, TV chefs Student profile: B2/B2+ teens/adults Timing: approx. 1 hr 30 mins, plus a