Now, let's create! Students, can you
identify any nouns, adjectives or verbs
from today's "Garfield" comic strip? If so, what other English words
have similar meanings as those used in this comic? [Tip: Use the online
dictionaries.] Now, let's
rewrite this comic, using different nouns, adjectives or verbs. In fact...
...you can write your new cartoon using
Garfield's Comic Creator! Then, create another Garfield comic, using your own new ideas!
Special thanks to Jim Davis, creator of Garfield
More fun with comics:
Teachers, in addition to your own ideas to using comics to teach English, explore
Grammarman, a site with comics for EFL/ESL students, and
Awesome Comics, a webquest for ESL students. The creator is an ESL instructor and author in Thailand, Brian Boyd. Also, see
The Comic Book Project, from Columbia University's Teacher College in New York.
If you're a student learning English, you may be interested in reading the writing of other students learning English. Click here to learn more.
Below are two essays written by students learning English...
Arrival by Kadi Musas
In 2002, I left my home in Zaire in Central Africa to come and live in the United Kingdom with my husband and my two children.
On our arrival at Heathrow airport, we met another couple who were also in the UK for the first time. None of us could speak or understand a single word of English. I started condemning my husband for the decision to come to England and shared these regrets and recriminations with the other couple. We all felt weak and vulnerable because we didn’t even know how to deal with the simple problem of getting out of the airport.
“Parlez-vous francais?” (Can you speak French?), asked my husband to one of the other passengers in the corridor but the man seemed to be on another planet.
We started to follow the arrows showing the way out, but we were uncertain about what was going to happen next. We were not even sure if we were going to get our luggage or not.
After a while, we noticed that everybody else had left the corridor and only the four of us were in that part of the airport. Luckily, I suddenly remembered I had my French-English dictionary in my handbag. I got it out and began to try to build some phrases in English for us to ask for help. However, my dictionary didn’t solve the problem. I was just met with vacant expressions. It was only when we met a man who could speak French that we got the help we all needed.
Once out of the airport, we met the person who was coming to pick us up. We got in the car and we were on the road for about two hours; as I looked out of the car window, everything was strange to me. I felt sick that night and went to bed without eating anything and feeling uncomfortable and confused about everything. I needed more than twelve months to recover from my sickness and depression.
Money by Robert Szewczyk
Money is everything in our life. It is around us and controls our future. People who say that they don’t care about money are probably lying. Rich people always want more money- Lotto winners still buy lottery tickets. Why? What for? This is the main question and issue of my writing.
One of the good things about money is that money gives people confidence and an established life. People work hard to get a better future. That’s ok if they really think about their family and children’s needs. They should have time for family during the weekend.
Another good thing is that money can help other people who really need help, like those poverty stricken after disasters like flood, storm, terrorist attack, war etc. Even a little help can make a big difference if people come together to support charity.
One of the bad things is that people get sick from money. They become materialistic. They lose family and friends because they always want more and more.
Money is as well the main reason why we have war in our lives. Not only the big ones like World War II, but even small wars with our friends.
I think that a lot of the rich people are more unhappy than people who haven’t got a lot what will you do if you have everything already? Where will you have it all? No hopes? No dreams, no thought to make other people happy.
The best thing is to have money and a brain as well, to appreciate money and not be greedy. If not, we are losers.
Five Minutes of Fun
If you enjoy using ESL games in class, visit
esl flow, which is chock full of ESL game links. Of course,
you may never find time to play
all those ESL games, but even when there's only five minutes left of class, everyone can still have fun -- by using any one of the interactive language activities below. Why stop learning? :)
