Learnverbs.com | Learn Verbs | Teachers and Parents | by Rory Rider

Teachers and Parents

Dear teachers, parents and carers,

Although this page is aimed at helping teachers use the books in the classroom, parents and carers will find it a great help. You will be able to use these ideas at home, to check your children's progress. Using the tables is very easy and even if you don't know the language, you can help your child revise and learn.

This page has been created to give you a few ideas on how to use the 101 verbs books. We know how busy you are and how little time you have to prepare the new and exciting material you like to use. All our books offer fantastic pictures and provide students with the main tenses to fit into the curriculum.

The books work as a complement to whichever coursebook you follow. Verb tables are usually quite complicated to use but our books are simple and effective. They help each student to remember infinitives and conjugated forms of the verbs. The coloured tables can also be referred to in your grammar lessons. All our books can of course be used as simple reference books but there is a lot more to them. Here are a few suggestions on how to exploit the material they offer...

PICTURES:

Each picture can lead to unlimited speaking and writing activities. They motivate students to produce language and help teachers to recycle many aspects of the language.

They can be used to revise vocabulary at a basic level
Colours: ask students to open the book at a certain page and ask them what colour is each object.
Clothes: Students should flick through the book and describe the clothes each character is wearing.
Physical description
Personality: e.g. p122
Jobs: ask pupils to look for different occupations shown in the book.
The pictures can also be used to practise language at a higher level
Comparison: how do the characters compare in terms of attitude or simply physically?
Places: a range of places are shown, countryside, mountains, town...
Opinions: what do the students think of the characters’ actions and attitude to things?
Debates: e.g. use p.28 to start a discussion on health related issues.
The environment
Activities: do students like to swim? P.160. What other fun activities can they think of?
You could use a picture every so often, to revise or extend language
Using the pictures in order, for 5 minutes at the beginning of the lesson, you could ask students to explain the story. Tenses can then be revised as you ask them what happened last time and what will happen next.
Students could be asked to develop a story starting from a picture of their choice.

These are only suggestions and this list is by no means exhaustive. The ways to use the pictures are very varied and can be adapted to all levels. Keep helping your students enjoy the experience of learning a new language!

PRONUNCATION

We have included guidelines on pronuncation and useful links to other websites. Visit our pronunciation page by clicking here.

TABLES

Remember to check out the games page for more ideas...
Fun filler at the end of a lesson: students can test each other on different tenses by covering a coloured column.
Homework: students can be asked to learn a colour for certain (irregular) verbs.
Reference: students will find it easier to write their coursework if they have something colourful and pleasant to refer to.
Teachers can refer to tenses in terms of colour thus helping students with visual aids.

have you checked out our 101 free games link?
get help with pronunciation