Plenary delivered by Carlos Gontow during the 7th CTJ TEFL Seminar.

1. CREATIVITY
The key to success in the English class
Carlos Gontow
This is a summary of the activities presented in the workshop. You can adapt these activities to any
lesson. Just use your imagination and creativity. Good luck!
- Information Questions
Students ask each other three questions:
What’s your name?
What’s your address?
What’s your phone number?
They role-play the conversation using different situations:
a receptionist at a gym and a student
a receptionist and a patient at a hospital
a doctor and a patient
a police officer and a driver who had an accident
- True or False Activities
Instead of answering True or False, have students do something different when the answer is True or
False, such as clap hands, snap their fingers, etc.
- Demonstrating the articulation of sounds
Show students the correct articulation of the sounds. You can use pictures, movies, etc. For example, for
the “th” sounds show pictures or videos where you can see people sticking their tongues out. This will
convince students that they should do the same.
- Birthday / Bird Day / Burst Day
Students sing the songs “Happy Birthday to You,” “Happy Bird Day to You,” and “Happy Burst Day to
You.” This is fun and will help them realize what they’re saying.
- Third x turd
Use pictures to show the differences.
- /i:/ x /I/

2. Show the differences:
- sheep x ship
- leave x live
- Feeling / filling
A feeling is an emotion.
A filling is what the dentist puts in your teeth when you have a cavity.
Song: “Feelings” Feelings, nothing more than feelings
Trying to forget my feelings of love
Song: “Fillings”
Fillings, nothing more than fillings
Trying to stop this pain in my teeth
- Using familiar tunes to teach grammar
For example, use “Happy Birthday to You” to teach the difference between “there is / are” and “has /
have.”
MY TOWN HAS MANY DIFFERENT PLACES
or
THERE ARE MANY DIFFERENT PLACES IN MY TOWN
There's a bakery near here
They have different kinds of bread
There's a drugstore downtown
They have drugs for your head
There's a hospital on the corner
They have people who are sick
There's a fire station near here
They have trucks that are quick
There's a supermarket here
They have different kinds of food
There's a library at my school

3. They have books that are good
There's a video store there
They have DVDs
There's an appliance store, too
They have lots of TVs
We use have for possession
And there is to describe
- Songs with ordinal numbers
Get songs that mention ordinal numbers for students to listen and try to understand the ordinal number.
Then sing along.
SONGS WITH ORDINAL NUMBERS
Fill in the blanks with ordinal numbers. The names in parenthesis are the singers or the
bands.
1. (Heartland)
I loved her ________________ and I held her _______________
2. (Valencia)
There’s a place down on _________________ Street
Where I can go to rest my head
3. (Lindsay Lohan)
I wanna come _____________, I wanna come _____________
4. (Statler Brothers)
They were protected by the ________________ man in the fire
They wouldn't bend, they wouldn't bow, they wouldn't burn
5. (Joe Diffie)

4. Welcome to Earth, ______________ rock from the sun
6. (Jonas Brothers)
Kissed her for the ______________ time yesterday
7. (Gloria Gaynor)
_____________ I was afraid, I was petrified
Kept thinking I could never live without you by my side
8. (from the musical “Hair”)
When the moon is in the _________________ house
And Jupiter aligns with Mars
9. (Mariah Carey)
It was twilight on the ______________ of July
10. (Jonas Brothers)
This is an S.O.S
Don’t wanna _________________ guess
This is the bottom line, it’s true
11. (Susanne Vega)
My name is Luka
I live on the _______________ floor
Sugestion: Sing the lines from “My name is Luka” several times, changing the name and the number of
the floor.
My name is Luka
I live on the second floor.
My name is Brian
I live on the third floor

5. - What time is it?
Use the song “What Time is it?” from “High School Musical 2” to practice asking and answering
questions with “What Time is it?”
The Question Song
Melody: La Cucaracha
Idea: To work with question formation.
Use your imagination and write your own lyrics to teach grammar / vocabulary / pronunciation
THE QUESTION SONG
What's your name?
Where do you live?
Where are you from?
Are you Brazilian?
Why did you come here?
Do you want to sing along?
Are you married?
Do you have children?
What are their names?
Do you speak English?
Where did you learn it?
How long have you studied here?
Do you like pizza?
Do you like milkshake?
Would you like a piece of cake?
Have you had dinner?
Are you hungry?
How about some chicken pie?
Are you a lawyer?
Are you a doctor?
What do you do?
Can you play tennis?
Can you play soccer?
Have you seen “Scooby Doo?”

6. Did you like the workshop?
Isn't it wonderful?
Did you have a lot of fun?
Did you enjoy yourself?
What was your favorite part?
Would you like to say good bye?
carlosgontow@uol.com.br
Visit my homepage: http://sites.uol.com.br/ccgontow
Orkut: Carlos Gontow
youtube: carlos gontow
Book: “The Classroom is a Stage – 40 short plays for English Students” – DISAL Editor