Bridget Jones Diary I - perfect for end of year class

New year ´s resolutions

A great end of year activity.

I do this with them in class and then in a year time I give their resolutions back to them.

  LISTENING ACTIVITY

•1. What is her main concern?

•2. What is Xmas?

•3. What does Harry do?

•4. What is the final video going to include?

NEW YEAR´S RESOLUTIONS


Top 13:


1.Lose Weight
2.Pay Off Debt/s
3.Save Money
4.Get a Better Job
6.Eat Right
7.Get a Better Education
8.Drink less Alcohol
9. Quit Smoking
10.Reduce Stress Overall
11.Reduce Stress at Work
12.Take a Trip
13. Volunteer to Help Others

Teach or revise some vocabulary:

Quit  ~ing  . . .

•(1) I’ve decided to quit smoking.

   Cut down on  ~ing . . .

•(1) I’m going to cut down on surfing the internet.

    Keep  ~ing . . .

•(1) I’m planning to keep working hard

Try harder at/in

•(1) I’m planning to try harder in English.

   Starting

•(1) I’m thinking of starting a Japanese course.

MY 10 RESOLUTIONS FOR 2011


Students write down their list and give it to the teacher.

LISTENING ACTIVITY

   1. How many people make new years resolutions?

    2. Which are the most popular resolutions?

    3. ________ % give up after 2 weeks.

    4. What happens after 6 weeks?

    5. Is Gary one of them?

•

Happy Christmas and New Year

http://www.2000greetings.com/mycard.htm?c=687#STS=g3bw6y7w.19er

xmas and new year taboo

Enjoy it.

My students love this activity.

Just in case these are the rules:

They have to define a word that is in bold and in capital letters without using the words that you can see below.
Split the class in two groups, make sure that very member participates and give them one to to minutes to guess the word.Of course one of the students is not facing the slides and do not let them use their hands.

Joey speaks French - listening activity about CV writing and job interviews

Joey speaks French

Friends Joey speaks French

1. What exactly does Joey need to  learn in French ?

2. When is the audition?

3. Does Phoebe give up teaching Joey? Why?

4. Why does Joey think  he is going to get the part?

5. Where does Phoebe come from in order to help Joey?

8. What is the final solution?

9. Does Joey speak French?

10. What do the words " French it up " and " humour him " mean?

Presentation skills

Paul Seligson Classroom Management

What do you think about his strategies?

Would you like to see more videos?

Here you have a link of English file; in this case a pre-intermediate level with many activities:

http://www.oup.com/elt/global/products/englishfile/preint/

A role play salary increase

A fun activity after you have done cv writing, job interview and body language.

Start with this listening activity:

Negotiations
Listen to and answer the following questions:
1.Which question is the most difficult to answer in a job interview?
2.If they ask you this question what does it mean?
3. What can you do about it?
4. When you are asked the question what 2 things can you do?
Student a: employee
Student b: employer

You are going to negotiate salary increase for next year.
Discuss in terms of:
- salary increase
- benefits
- training courses.

Some new vocabulary:

Benefits:
non-salary compensations
free refreshments,
leisure activities on work time
(golf, etc.),
stationery,
allowances for lunch
flexible hours
childcare
Training courses

Seminars
Education
Language, computer courses….

5 minutes to prepare the role play
Student a: employee
Student b: employer

You are going to negotiate salary increase for next year.
Discuss in terms of:
- salary increase
- benefits
- training courses
10 minutes perform it

Students have 10 minutes to come to an agreement.

Enjoy it.

CV writing

Start with a brainstorming activity:

1.What’s a CV?
2. What kind of information should you include in a CV?
A CV is a brief summary:
of your abilities
education
experience and skills
Activities, awards.


It should include your name,
contact information, education, skills and experience.
Start by making a list
of all your background information, then organize it into categories.
Make sure you include
dates.
Write down headings such as
Education, Experience, Skills.

EDUCATION –
usually means post-secondary and can include special seminars, summer school or night school as well as University.
If you are just starting University, you can include high school as well.
List degrees and month/year obtained or expected; names and locations of schools, marks.
A brief summary of important courses you've taken might also be helpful.

EXPERIENCE –
includes full-time paid jobs, academic research projects, internships, part-time jobs or volunteer work.
List month/years you worked, position, name and location of employer or place and responsibilities you had.

SKILLS –
list computer languages and software
foreign languages indicating fluency.

Ask your students this:
EMPLOYER
for certain positions, what aspects of your education, experience or skills will be most attractive to that employer?
Then show them this website and analyse it with them:


Highlight details that demonstrate your capabilities
Look over what you've written and try to select details of your education, experience, qualifications, skills and activities that match an employer's needs in a few important areas.

Analyse with them the slide that you can find attached to this post.

Body language in job interviews

Key points for an interview:

1. Smile
2. Be prepared to shake hands firmly, but don't break the interviewers wrist. Similarly a "wet fish" (weak) handshake will suggest a weak character.
3. Wait to be invited to sit down .
4.Try to relax - don’t sit on the edge of your chair and don't lean too far back: sit up reasonably straight and still.
5.Don't sit with your arms crossed (see question 1)
6. Keep up good eye contact with the interviewer (according to research this apparently is especially important for men) but don't eyeball them all the time!
7.Speak clearly but not too fast: a deeper calm voice suggests authority, whereas as excitable high-pitched voice suggests a nervous personality.
8.Head nodding to show agreement can help, especially for female candidates.
9. Postural echo (mirroring the interviewer's posture) can show empathy and agreement but needs to be don't very subtly or it might backfire if the interviewer notices that you are doing this!

JOB INTERVIEW

JOB INTERVIEW

Students often find speaking in public very demanding, therefore I always use an activity where they have to pretend that they are having a job interview. So some of them are interviewers, others are interviewees and there are some who observe with me the session and assess their classmates.
I do not let them to pick a group. You as a teacher should decide.

So here you are:

Group A interviewers
Group B interviewees
Group C observers

Group A interviewers
Work as a group and prepare a strategy.
Each one of you is going to have a different position in the company.
Introduce yourselves and tell the candidates what you do.
Choose two best candidates and reason your choice.
Group B interviewees
Prepare the answers for the questions.
Make up a very short CV
Group C observers
Observe the interview, the interaction, body language, answers, questions and choose two best candidates for the job.
Write down as many details as you can.
Before the interview watch this video and write down the questions:

After watching this video write down the steps:

Would you like to work there? Why?/not

Working at Google NYC - Peter: Software Engineer
Write down the job description:

Students have 20 minutes to prepare this activity.

In the previous lesson we have workd on typical interview questions and here you have few:


1. What is your biggest weakness?
2. Why should we hire you?
3. Why do you want the job?
4. Tell me about yourself....
5. What do you think are your weaknesses and strengths?
6. We have a lot of applicants for this job, why should we appoint you?
7. Which is more important money or status?
8. How long do you think you would stay with us if you were appointed?
9.Why do you want to leave your present job?
10.What would you like to be doing ten years from now?
11.Don´t you think you are a little too young for this job?
12.What are your long range goals?
13. How would you rate your present boss?

Students who are going to be interviewed prepare the answers accoring to the job description, the interviewers prepare the list of questions including 1 surprise question for each candidate.
Interviewees also prepare surprise questions for the interviewers ( you should supervise this in order to correct mistakes).

Intervieweed leave the classroom and enter one by one, staying in the classroom and listening to their classmates. Meanwhile the observers write down comments about everybody´s participation and body language.

You can adapt this activity accoring to the degree,just find youtube information appropriate to their studies.


More interview questions and tips at: http://www.yorku.ca/laps/sowk/pdf/Interview_Booklet.pdf

Have fun and let me know how did it go.