Using TED talks in ELL lessons.

Judy Wong gave us some ideas for using TED talks in the classroom. First of all she gave us a little background and pointed out that using a TEDtalk is actually very similar to using reading books to students in the classroom, which later developed into showing videos on topics in the classroom. We need to consider the same things. Who our students are, what the subject/theme is and what the object of the lesson is.

She told us that we can use TED talks with any age of students (kids and up) and any level and for any skill.

After that she showed us an excerpt from a  TEDtalk which was given by a young lady in America on kids thinking.

and then she gave us the above list of tasks which could be given to students from a listening perspective. Unfortunately the sound got extremely distorted at that point so I was unable to hear everything she said.

She then went on to speaking and talked us through the 4 points above which could be used to help students with their speaking using a non-native speaker. this shows them that it doesn't have to be perfect to be understood.

http://www.ted.com/talks/frans_lanting_photos_that_give_voice_to_the_animal_kingdom

Better students can comment and correct the speaker. And as Guadalupe pointed out in the chat it exposes students to different accents which is also useful for them in real life.

Using the same video she showed us the value of reading using the transcript. Again  in the chat, Rosmery pointed out that this is good for presenting vocabulary in context which the students will then hear the words.

The slide above also shows us some of the other  things that can be done using the transcripts.

After this she showed us a slide of writing activities that can be done using a TEDtalk as a starting point.

She pointed out that some classrooms do not have access to technology so she gave a number of ideas just using the transcripts in addition so some of the ideas given above for using the transcripts to practice reading, listening and speaking skills.

At the end there was a Q&A session and in response to a question from Roshii, Judy told us that she chooses the talk according to the age and interests of the students, she thinks that TEDx talks are better for children and the main talks for adults. Depending on the focus of the lessons she may give the transcript before or after the talk.

I have clipped the original slides from the talk as I think it is better to have them available for quick reference for me (and for others)

I was really interested in this talk as I used a couple of TED talks in my lessons this summer and know I have even more ideas for using them with my online students as well. Thank you for this informative talk Judy