Interactive starters

I've recently been experimenting with starter activities, especially those that focus on improving listening skills.


Acapela.TV  

This is a great website for creating short cartoon video clips.

First you need to choose a character and then you need to choose the language.

Insert the text and then click play.

Some characters speak quicker than others so you will need to consider that when choosing classes to use it with.

I have used these clips in a variety of ways;

1) Give students a list of words, they tick off what they hear.

2) Multiple choice questions.

3) True/false questions.

4) Listen and summarise in English.

With year 7, we looked at basic introductions. First they listened to the one I had created and answered questions about it and then they got to make their own. We shared them as a class and gave feedback to each other.

Voki

You can spend ages on this website creating animated clips. 

It is perfect for designing unique listening activities. 

Here is an example from a year 8 German lesson on "Town"

Students were asked to listen and note what was in the town.
Less able students were given a tick list.