- Trim the grocery bill, not nutrition - Upper Intermediate Instant Lesson
Food prices, fuel costs and economic fears are growing, but that doesn't mean you can't eat healthfully while on a recession diet. Nutrition, health, shopping and cooking, must/ must not/ should/ should not/ have to.

- Family Holidays - Intermediate Instant Lesson
These days the family vacation often has three generations, and when it comes to [saying what to do], it's the kids in the driver's seat and the grandparents who pay. Families, vacations, travel, brainstorming.

Teacher Tip: My students believe games are a waste of time!

Explain goals first, review afterwards.
You can help students feel confident that they are 'learning' by talking beforehand about what the purpose of the game is. Afterwards, review what was being learned or practiced. With a class of mature-age students who were highly suspicious of games, I wrote up a short summary each day of what we were covering and ticked each item off as we went. They began to feel more confident that I knew what I was doing and they were able to refer to the goals of the whole lesson and of each activity as we went along. After a few weeks, they began to look forward to the games, knowing there was a purpose to them.
Students teach each other a language point in lecture fashion, then again via a game.
Early on in the course, discuss with students how they perceive that they learn. Accept their ideas and suggestions.
Then introduce a language point and then practice or review it by having students teach each other in lecture fashion. Repeat the point using a game. Ask them which method was more memorable and why. Accept that students may still disagree with you that games can be meaningful, but challenge them to try something a little different, every so often.
Choose games carefully, not just using them to 'kill time'.
Make sure that the games chosen are meaningful and not just being used as fillers. A game can be an effective filler but can still provide meaningful practice of material taught that lesson if chosen with care.
Choose games appropriate to your class.
I remember watching a very small class which included one much older student in her late fifties trying to complete a shouting dictation with a much younger partner. The mature age student had a hearing problem and was getting very stressed. The teacher of that class had chosen an inappropriate activity and the student, who was a leader in the class, ended up resentful and reluctant to participate. Select games carefully, remembering the ages and abilities of your students.
Have one time of the week or part of the class that is allocated to games.
My class always found the hour after lunch on Fridays a hard time for study so I allocated that hour every week for different games reviewing what we had learned that week. I introduced prizes for team games and competition became intense. It became one of the times of the week that we looked forward to, and proved a useful way to revise some of the vocabulary etc that we had covered in class.