Santa digital storytelling

Ask your students to go on http://www.faceinhole.com/ and create a Santa scenario with their faces uploaded like this: 

Then they are to write a story about how they suddenly became Santas under the post in a comment.

The mini-project requires them to register on the site (Facebook registration is also available although it wasn't able to find my Facebook albums when I wanted to use  an image from there.) 

Finding their ways on the site will force them to read in English and the outcome is a short piece of writing in Past Simple, Past continuous, etc.) 

It is a little bit of creative writing, they will definitely inspire each other.

The site itself offers somewhat inappropriate content here and there so look out for that.

Your precious comments are more than welcome :D

http://www.faceinhole.com/us/my-faceinhole-detail/id=28497dbcc1111361b9

Video grammar

In this activity I used a video which is a meme in my country. It is a re-dubbed version of a cartoonized folk tale. Although it contains strong language at places I would use it for its popularity. 
Learners are to watch the video and write sentences with two PAST CONTINUOUS structures, also provide tha point of the video when the scene appears. 
E.g. 3:05-3:08 While József was cooking the bauxite soup, Babi néni was licking her lips.
It also occurred to me that students might try and explain in English why the video is so popular in Hungary, I find it a very authentic task (mediation). They can do it collaboratively in comments. These comment threads provide basis for editing a piece of writing, comments can  be linked with a focus on cohesion and coherence.
Group members may find similar videos for the same purpose according to their own preferences.

http://youtu.be/RXg-2Us3NRY

Grammar in the world

Sometimes you meet things  in the world around you that can be described by a certain grammar structure :D. You have your mobile in your pocket or bag, don't you? Why don't you personalize/localize grammar?

One morning I found this and had this task idea:

The comments:

These nasty group members failed to use the structures given in the task but were collaborative, creative, interactive and communicated with each other. (And they won't escape punishment, hahhhaaaaa!!)

Retell a video

This activity improves listening and speaking, involves taking notes.
Post a video on the group wall. Ask your students to take notes to retell the contents of the video in the lesson.
The example is a recipe. Encourage students to find similar videos and list them in the comments section.
Turn it into a writing task, they may create docs in the Facebook group with recipes.
Optionally they can shoot their own cooking video, bring the dish they made to school  and have a classroom dinner party :D

http://www.howcast.com/videos/87636-How-To-Make-Fruit-Salad

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0IoXWZlQVzI

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Video remake

The end products of this speaking project are videos, which might easily be displayed on a Facebook group wall.

This activity is the simplest ever video project. Ask your students to watch the video, form pairs, choose one scene from the video and simply learn the chosen scene and record themselves performing the same dialogue with the help of a mobile phone and upload on the group wall.

You might want to do the same procedure with other videos, learners may take their own choice of videos to remake.

A variation is to remake the video with some changes, different ending, etc.

Probably you can clarify the concept of film remake, enumerate some remakes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uyZw0Zy-HS8&feature=share

Reading--with a bit of skimming

A Facebook group is an ideal platform to share links. This example is sharing a reading test. My students often use the strategy of reading and translationg texts sentence by sentence, which makes the process of reading extremely slow and I have the feeling they will never ben able to read really...
So I find online speed readers quite helpful (http://www.zapreader.com/reader/, http://spreeder.com , eyercize.com) which allow you to copy any text and set the reading speed then read it at a given speed. If this speed is fast  enough, students will have no tome to "translate" everything word by word or sentence by sentence.
In this task ask your students to copy the text of the reading test itself in the speed reader (http://www.zapreader.com/reader/) and read it at a given speed (300wpm, they can set on the page) before they actually do the reading task.

http://www.examenglish.com/PET/pet_reading4.html
http://www.zapreader.com/reader/

Picture event

Suppose you are to 'cover a topic'. You know that in about two weeks you and your group will read about shopping. Make your students go outside and take photos they can associate with 'shopping'. Create an event, invite all the members of the group. The date of the event is the deadline of uploading their photos on the event page.
The pictures can be used in class as visual stimuli for speaking. On facebook they will surely trigger comments.
You can as well tag pictures with names of things in them. (Any vocabulary can be presented this way.)

Facebookicize your coursebook: collaborative writing

This activity is built upon the writing section of a coursebook unit. The aim is to make your students learn to write a proper 'for and against essay'. The part in the photo is the description of the paragraphs of the essay from the coursebook (Success Intermediate Students' Book by Stuart McKinlay and Bob Hastings, Pearson Longman, page 39).

Tag the photo with names of the members of your group. Each member should just write the paragraph with their name over it (in the comment section). Finally you will have several versions of each paragraph.

You can print these and in your regular lesson you stick the paragraphs all over teh classroom, students walk around and copy the paragraphs (alter them if they like) to comply the full essay.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=284546978240000&set=o.251193808240149&type=1&theater

An Obscure Image

A strange tagged image to practise expressing uncertainty.

Upload an obscure picture. Tag certain parts of the picture with expressions of uncertainty. Students are asked to write comments  which describe a given part of the image, using the expression in the tag. 

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=259724064055625&set=a.131324166895616.18685.100000541016537&type=3&theater