YES magazine - An entertaining way to prepare Cambridge exams (B2, C1, C2)

This year I have started CAE preparation (Certificate of Advanced English, level C1) for my 14 year-old genius of a student.

At the beginning of September I was snooping around the bookshop to see if I could find some material which would be appropriate or him, because, even though he's brilliant, he is still only 14, and let's face it, the books on offer for CAE preparation are not exactly what I would call entertaining. 

Of course, I was quickly starting to realise there weren't any decent options to choose from, at least not among course books, when, all of a sudden, it appeared!
Right next to the cash register, with a headline screaming SPORTS… I knew it was the one! So I bought it, right after taking a quick peek inside.

"YES" is halfway between a magazine and an English supplement for people with a good level of English.

According to the people at Cambridge the most effective way to prepare for the reading test is, (what a surprise!) to read a wide range of texts. This should include magazines, articles from newspapers, and online materials on a wide range of topics. So what could be better than reading and answering questions about an article or two, especially since people generally don't like reading so much?

Inside each issue of "YES" you'll find section about current affairs, sports news, language news, science, technology and politics, as well as a dossier about the main topic and an entire section specifically designed to introduce grammar and new vocabulary.

Once you buy "YES", you have the option of downloading a folder full of audio files whose transcriptions are included in the magazine. In my opinion, they really help with preparation for the listening part of the CAE exam thanks to the variety of English accents you'll hear. As we all know, even though English is just one language, there are quite a few differences in the way people pronounce it. But not only that; there are also differences in the spelling and in the vocabulary, depending on which country the speakers come from: a variety that a candidate will definitely have to deal with during the exam.

In addition, throughout  the whole magazine, there are footnotes which explain difficult vocabulary, giving definitions in English or using pictures and, in the section at the back,  you'll find 20 pages of exercises and games to test and consolidate what you've been studying.

So, if you are looking for something a bit different to your typical course book, don't miss "YES"! Here you can find all the information you could possibly need.

---> Quiero leer este post en español

Lucy dedicates a lot of time and love to thinking about and writing the posts she shares with all of you. Because she believes that a better teaching is the key for a better future. If you find any help, value or joy in this blog, please consider becoming a supporting reader. A donation, in any amount, will be gratefully accepted. 

                                                   

 

THE WORD-EATING SNAKE

I know a fun way to introduce your young learners to the magic world of spelling: 

it's the word-eating snake!

Simple and fast to display, you only have to draw a long snake on the board and fill it with the words you want your pupils to learn.

Insert random letters between them to make it more challenging , or not, if your class is at the very initial stage.

Some examples:

More Spelling Games:

GUESS WHAT?!?

I design series of activities based on a communicative method that will help children to practice the grammar they're learning at school.

Many ESL activities, I see, are nothing more than 'fill in the blank' exercises that only teach kids how to fill in blanks and miss the whole point of learning to speak and understand a new language.

It's much easier and more fun to learn by doing, and you'll be surprised at how quickly you'll see valuable results. 

You can get my activities on my online store:

http://childreneslworksheets.bigcartel.com

GUESS WHAT?!? The Spelling Game

This is  the 3rd and last activity for Cambridge Movers and Flyers exams.

It's conceived to improve students' writing skills.

Print the page, fold it on the line, so none will see the answer and then cut the single word sections. Afterwards invent your game.

It could be a team game where each group has the same words to guess; you might assign points to the fastest on giving the answer. 

To check that nobody is cheating send a member of the first group to the second group and so on. They will be incorruptible referees!!!

Another possibility is doing exactly the opposite: opposite: tell them the word in order to guess which definition suits it.

In any case, I would  start with one topic and keep adding topics one by one to refresh the previous ones and learn the new ones.

DON'T MISS IT!!!

Resuming: 

1st Warm up  ---> GUESS WHAT?!? The Vocabulary Matching Game

2nd Speaking ---> GUESS WHAT?!? The Card Game 

3rd Writing ---> GUESS WHAT?!? The Spelling Game

I'll soon publish a second set of cards and games about different topics. 
Stay tuned! 

I design series of activities based on a communicative method that will help children to practice the grammar they're learning at school.

Many ESL activities, I see, are nothing more than 'fill in the blank' exercises that only teach kids how to fill in blanks and miss the whole point of learning to speak and understand a new language.

It's much easier and more fun to learn by doing, and you'll be surprised at how quickly you'll see valuable results. 

You can get my activities on my online store:

http://childreneslworksheets.bigcartel.com

GUESS WHAT ?!? Matching Game

There's a possibility that your young learners will have no idea about what the definitions on the cards of the previous post are talking about. In that case I've prepared some warm-up activities to start getting their head around the words.

This first Pdf file is conceived as a 'Matching Game'. Once they've cut out the different parts of the sheet, they can shuffle them and start matching the words to their corresponding definitions.

If you start with one topic and add the rest of them one by one, you'll facilitate the process and your children will notice the improvement and feel confident enough to keep putting the effort into learning this new vocabulary.

DON'T MISS IT!!!

And as always…HAVE FUN!

More GUESS WHAT?!? 

GUESS WHAT?!? The Card Game 

GUESS WHAT?!? The Spelling Game

I design series of activities based on a communicative method that will help children to practice the grammar they're learning at school.

Many ESL activities, I see, are nothing more than 'fill in the blank' exercises that only teach kids how to fill in blanks and miss the whole point of learning to speak and understand a new language.

It's much easier and more fun to learn by doing, and you'll be surprised at how quickly you'll see valuable results. 

You can get my activities on my online store:

http://childreneslworksheets.bigcartel.com

GUESS WHAT?!?

Are you preparing your students to take some tests to demonstrate they've reached level A1 knowledge of English? 

I was. And I was using the official book plus CDs the publishing houses provide to get ready for the exam, when I realized that my 12 year-old student was incapable of doing a simple crossword that 'only' required her to guess what the definition referred to.

When I wrote the list of words randomly on a paper she completed the exercise in 3 minutes sharp!

What happend?  

The problem was that she didn't have the answers in a word list, so no clues at all. 

Her brain had a blackout because it couldn't elaborate the definitions and associate them to something it already knew.

I think this is rather common here in Spain because children don't usually speak English unless it's strictly required and they usually re-produce single standard expressions to verify their knowledge of grammar most of the time. 

Sometimes they write short texts, following the model presented in the book without putting any effort into the cause.

Considering that during the exam they only have a little time to complete the exercises and no teachers around for any help I decided to create a series of activities I would call 'Agility Brain' taking the cue from the most famous 'Agility Dog' training.

On this first post I'm publishing 36 cards that will work exactly like Taboo but on the opposite way. 

I chose some of the most difficult words to remember, from the vocabulary list of words our pupils have to know, to take the exam without getting into a panic.

On each card you'll find a word and from 2 to 4 definitions of it.

One of the players will read the clues,  one by one, slowly until the second player guesses which word the other is referring to.  On some cards there's a white space for a definition that the reader will invent at the same moment.

Each topic has a different pattern on the back of the card  that will be a visual clue to recognize the subject at first sight.

This way children will think in English and their brains will create faster connections between English words  and English concepts. They will learn vocabulary in meaningful phrases, not only the single words, facilitating the producing process of speaking and writing.

DON'T MISS IT!!!


More about GUESS WHAT?!?

GUESS WHAT?!? The Vocabulary Matching Game

GUESS WHAT?!? The Spelling Game

I design series of activities based on a communicative method that will help children to practice the grammar they're learning at school.

Many ESL activities, I see, are nothing more than 'fill in the blank' exercises that only teach kids how to fill in blanks and miss the whole point of learning to speak and understand a new language.

It's much easier and more fun to learn by doing, and you'll be surprised at how quickly you'll see valuable results. 

You can get my activities on my online store:

http://childreneslworksheets.bigcartel.com