Penny Ur's 100 Teaching Tips Pocket Editions

Why I wrote this book Beginning and ending the lesson 1. Start with a smile 2. Begin and end clearly 3. Give an advance overview 4. Teach new material first 5. Don't give homework at the end 6. End with something nice The Coursebook 7. Use the coursebook- selectively 8. Vary the way you use exercises 9. Allow lots of right answers 10. Recycle tasks Discipline 11. Learn students' names 12. Keep it moving 13. Make the lesson interesting 14. Catch problems as they start 15. Avoid confrontations 16. Compliment good behaviour Error correction 17. Do correct mistakes 18. Correct (sometimes) during speech 19. Get students to self-correct 20. Draw attention to correct answers Games 21. Make sure games are fun 22. Check games are learning-rich 23. Keep games simple 24. Involve all, or most, students 25. Have more than one winner Grammar 26. Keep explanations short 27. Use mother tongue to explain 28. Avoid grammatical terms 29. Get students to learn by heart 30. Get students to make meanings Group work 31. Have a good reason to use group work 32. Make collaborating worthwhile 33. Do group work in the middle of the lesson 34. Use pair work a lot 35. Instruct before making groups 36. Organize groups quickly 37. Arrange endings in advance Heterogeneous (mixed-level) classes 38. Let students choose 39. Attend to the weaker students 40. Invite different answers 41. Limit tasks by time, not amount 42. Give basic tasks plus options Homework 43. Clarify requirements in advance 44. Make homework success-oriented 45. Include homework in the final grade 46. Plan homework-giving in advance 47. Check homework has been done 48. Keep class checking to a minimum 49. Check written homework Interest 50. Don't worry about the topic 51. Keep activities short and varied 52. Tell students what the goals are 53. Use higher-order thinking skills 54. Personalize 55. Use visual materials Listening 56. Give topic and task in advance 57. Don't always pre-teach vocabulary 58. Don't use written texts 59. Let students see the speaker 60. Divide the text into short bits 61. Use dictations Pronunciation 62. Teach pronunciation (a little) 63. Drill isolated sounds 64. Contrast with mother-tongue sounds 65. Teach 'international' pronunciation Reading comprehension 66. Read aloud while students follow 67. Minimize guessing from context 68. Don't make students read aloud 69. Read and re-read 70. Use readers' theatre 71. Vary comprehension tasks Speaking activities 72. Use language practice for fluency 73. Use group work 74. Let students use memorized text 75. Give tasks rather than topics 76. Make sure the language is easy Teacher talk 77. Talk a lot 78. Keep eye contact 79. Tell stories 80. Teach common classroom phrases 81. Use mother tongue occasionally 82. Invite short responses Testing and assessment 83. Assess not only through tests 84. Use (also) student self-assessment 85. Use tests as a teaching tool 86. Add optional sections to tests 87. Prepare students for the test 88. Assess yourself Vocabulary teaching 89. Teach a lot of vocabulary