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Competition Results

Here are the results of the competition in which we asked you to create a one-page classroom activity for iT's for Teachers magazine.

A big thank-you to everyone who took part in our competition to create a classroom activity for the summer issue of iT's for Teachers. We have chosen one winner and three runners-up, all of whose activities appear in the summer issue of the print magazine and at the site. The winner will receive a Papyre 6.1 e-book reader.

The competition judges were Stephanie Collins, commissioning editor for Cambridge University Press in Spain; Jamie Clement, who heads up the ELT department at Vicens Vives publishing house in Spain; Jane Cadwallader, author of infant and primary materials; Lindsay Clandfield, teacher, teacher trainer and author; and Robert Campbell, editor of iT's for Teachers.

Apart from the fact that all the judges’ surnames begin with the letter C, we also shared very similar opinions when it came to choosing the competition finalists. Apart from the four teachers whose work appears in the magazine, we also want to give a special mention to “The Birthday Mind Map”, an entry sent in by Pilar Picó. Pilar explains how the activity works:

You can do it at the beginning of the course or at the end as a souvenir for all your students. You can use it with students from different groups or just one class. First, students choose a nickname with an adjective starting with the same letter as their name. For example: Pretty Pilar, Happy Hector, etc. Make sure the adjectives are positive and give some information about them.

If you use the activity at the beginning of a course, the students give an oral presentation with basic information about themselves, including their birthday. The teacher keeps a record of the students’ names and the dates.

Organise the information using a mind map (see photograph). Draw a picture representing the topic in the middle of the paper. Then, organise the branches of the 12 months around the topic. From the month branch, draw smaller branches for each student who has a birthday in the month. If you use the same tree with all your classes, use a colour code to distinguish which group they belong to (I use the colour of the textbook cover).

Make a poster for the classroom wall and then celebrate! On each student’s birthday, sing “Happy Birthday”, give them a present (a paper with some inspiring word or sentence), have a little party.

Some of the judges’ comments:
“This looks like a wonderful poster and something that would have made that classroom a motivating and fun place to be.”

“The children love making up nicknames for themselves with adjectives. It encourages them to expand their vocabulary in a natural and motivating way. Having the mind map on the wall, the teacher can recycle and remind them of the adjectives and encourage them to use them through the year. It is also a motivating way to learn the months and ordinals, which otherwise can be somewhat dry.”

Although we liked the activity very much and felt it was very appropriate for a competition celebrating the magazine’s birthday, we agreed it didn’t quite fit the format in the competition entry rules: 1 page of photocopiable material + 1 page of teaching notes.

The winner

Miniature Earth
by Javier Martínez (IES La Marina, Cantabria, Spain)
Students complete facts to raise their awareness on the important things in life.

Some of the judges’ comments:
“I really like the idea behind this text and project and think it makes for a very interesting and original class idea. Many teachers would really like to address a topic like this, and the video is a bonus.”

“The angle of this activity is original and interesting. It’s educational and critical.”

“The content is fascinating and thought-provoking. I think students would really want to know the right answers to the cloze test (how often does that happen in an ELT activity?!), and it’s a great springboard for discussion.”

“A very well-structured activity which presents the topic in a way that is likely to generate lots of opportunity for discussion and comments. It provides a good model of how YouTube can be tapped as a great resource for lessons.”

For all these reasons, “Miniature Earth” is the overall winner of the competition, and a Papyre 6.1 e-book reader is on its way to Javier Martínez (pictured here).

The runners-up

Europe Day
by Trinidad Jerez Montoya (Córdoba, Spain)
In this activity students match descriptions with posters. All the posters are entries in a competition to find a poster for Europe Day 2010.

Some of the judges’ comments:
“The topic and angle here instantly attracted my attention. This is exactly the kind of thing that would appear in a magazine like iT’s. And it’s the kind of thing that teachers gravitate towards (special days and occasions) with an original twist. Great find.”

“I like this activity as a way of using the Internet in class. It is linguistically doable and a good way of getting students to know the (other) countries in Europe and to relate to art through English. Particularly for kids who are less verbal and more artistic, this would be a welcome activity.”

Vuvuzela! World Cup Fever
by Patric Fawcett (British Council Tunis, Tunisia)
Students test their knowledge of South Africa and the 2010 World Cup. They also plan a trip to South Africa.

Some of the judges’ comments:
“The choice of topic is good, and the angle of finding out more about South Africa is interesting and would appeal to many teachers. I like the last task of planning a South African trip.”

“Nice because it’s topical (though this means it will also date very quickly). It’s informative and involves use of the Web (and it’s a very attractive website).”

“The perfect topic and angle for this year’s summer issue of the magazine.”

Summer Diary
by Paul Ashe (Cordoba, Spain)
Students make and keep a diary over the summer holidays..

Some of the judges’ comments:
“A nice idea, and I like the craft element.”

“I like the idea of the children becoming more autonomous and writing what they want and what is real about their lives rather than the typical text book activities. The less verbal and more artistic ones could add a picture or two.”

We’d also like to mention the following entries that made it to the final shortlist:
“(M)ad Lib” by Cheryl Caesar (France): “A very useful and creative way to review certain structures in context.”
“Alphabet Card Game” by José Javier Salán Rodríguez (Spain): “A simple, fun and very dynamic game, providing lots of opportunity for vocabulary pronunciation practice.”
“Flowers” by Svetlana Yutsevichutene (Kazakhstan): “An interesting topic that has not been done much before.”
“Getting to Know You” by Madia Burgos (Argentina): “A simple but effective activity which could be adapted to most levels.”
“Mother Teresa” by Svetlana Danilova (Ukraine): “A great choice of poem, very powerful. Lots of teachers would like this.”

The judges

	Stephanie Collins has taught in the United Kingdom, France, Germany and Spain. She has worked for Cambridge University Press since 1992, first as a teacher trainer and then as an editor and commissioning editor. She is currently responsible for the secondary and upper secondary lists for Spain, as well a series of graded readers for the international market.
	Lindsay Clandfield is a teacher, teacher trainer and author. He’s the lead author on Global, the forthcoming adult course from Macmillan. His other books include The Language Teacher’s Survival Handbook (with Duncan Foord) (iT’s Magazines 2008) and Dealing with Difficulties (with Luke Prodromou) (Delta Publishing 2007). He’s also the series editor of the Delta Professional Development Series.
	Jane Cadwallader is experienced in teaching English to children and has run courses for primary teachers. She was the editor of The Calendar newsletter that went on to become iT's for Teachers. She’s the co-author of the infant course English with Ellie (Richmond Publishing) and has just published 8 original primary readers for the Young Eli Readers series.
	Jamie Clement taught English in the United Kingdom, Latin America and Spain before joining the editorial team at Vicens Vives as an editor and product manager. He currently heads up the ELT department, which produces CLIL materials for primary and secondary as well as promoting a wide range of other ELT materials.
	Robert Campbell is the founder and editor of iT’s for Teachers magazine.

The prize

The Papyre 6.1 e-book reader allows you to store and read e-books and other documents of your own. The reader uses E-ink which allows you to read as if you're reading from a printed page and there's no screen light to tire your eyes. The battery doesn't tire easily either, giving you 10,000 page turns. And if your eyes are tired, you can always increase the print size. It comes with hedphones, a cover and several extras.

 

The e-book reader represents the future of publishing and is the perfect prize to celebrate our 20th anniversary as a publisher. Many thanks to Grammata for providing us with the prize. To find out more about the Papyre 6.1 e-book reader, visit the Grammata web site at www.grammata.es