Effective ways to use sparks in the ESL classroom

1. Finding a spark

2. “Think left and think right and think low
and think high. Oh, the thinks you can
think up if only you try!”

3. Objectives
You will….
• Increase confidence in using ‘sparks’.
• Share your own ‘sparks’.
• Learn some effective teaching techniques.

4. What is a spark?
• A small piece of information, stimulus or
challenge. (Salmon, 2011)
• Something that promotes a dialogue.
• Something to unleash the imagination.
• Something which engages and motivates
students to participate and become
involved.
• Ex. Short video clips, images, art, music,
comics. (The internet is rich with sparks)

5. Comics and graphic novels

6. How do you use comics effectively?
• Comic Jigsaw-find the text to match the
picture.
• Fill in the text – Generate text based on
the picture. Then act it out.
• Fill in the picture- Generate pictures based
on the text.
• Put the panels in order – Cut up the
panels and Ss have to put them together.
• Create an original comic- Give a theme.

7. Comic book lesson

8. Music

9. How do you use music
effectively?
• Speculation- provide the title/pictures. and
guess what the song is about.
• Fill in the blanks.
• Strips of paper- jigsaw challenge.
• Madlibs.
• Listen for pre taught vocab- Shot stop!
• Use to demonstrate a grammatical pattern,
vocabulary or idioms.
• Use for conversation topics-What’s the
message, story or themes.

10. Music Lesson

11. Lyrics Jigsaw
(Kinetic typography)

12. Music Review

13. Music-Emotions

14. The X Factor

15. Video

16. Why use videos in the
classroom?
•Brings some life and energy into the classroom.
•Makes classes more lively and interesting.
•Provides authentic material –
Presenting real language in context.
•Visuals can motivate students.
•They can be chosen to suit the learners environment .

18. A Picture Paints a Thousand
Words

19. Why use images in the
classroom?
• “Images speak to us. They give rise to
outbursts of emotion, thought, and
curiosity. They bring back memories
and remind us of the experiences we
have had. Image refreshes the parts of
the brain that words alone fail to
reach.” (Keddie, 2009)

20. The power of images
• The whole learning experience is more
memorable and productive.
• Language can be extracted from images.
• They can engage, stir up curiosity, provide
inspiration and motivation.

21. Newspaper images
• What do you see?
• Where is it?
• What’s happening?
• Choose a date. Match story with picture.

22. Power of images

23. Graffiti Project

24. Project Runway

25. Find a Spark!
• When planning your lesson always
consider:
• How can this activity be enhanced,
improved, strengthened and become
more memorable to my students
through incorporating a spark?

26. “I've learned that people will forget what you
said, people will forget what you did, but
people will never forget how you made
them feel.” (Maya Angelou)

27. Best of luck! Have fun!
e.mail- andywebster79@gmail.com
Scoop it - http://www.scoop.it/t/esl-sparks

28. References
• Keddie, J. (2009). Images. OUP
• Salmon, G. (2011). E-Moderating: The Key to Online Teaching and Learning.
Routledge.