A lesson plan with XTRANORMAL

The amount of phrasal verbs in one of the books I've been using with some students is significant and I end up having to think of ways to help my students use them meaningfully.

This week, the coursebook brought a list of sentences which could be substituted by phrasal verbs.

MY LESSON PLAN:

1. I used QUIZLET FLASHCARDS to present the phrasal verbs. (same sentences from the exercise in coursebook). The first time I showed both sides (sentence + phrasal verb)
2. To help sts memorise the phrasal verbs I showed them the sentences only to see if they could remember the phrasal verbs.
3. I then asked sts to do the exercise in the coursebook.
4. I showed an animation I had made with XTRANORMAL and asked my students to watch it and write down all the phrasal verbs which were used.
5. After pairing up students, I asked them to choose a minimum of 3 phrasal verbs and create a mini-dialogue. As each dialogue was created, students used the computer in class to type their dialogues into Xtranormal to make an animation.
6. We watched all animations in the following class as we elicited the phrasal verbs used.

QUIZLET flashcards

Phrasal verbs unit 6 flashcards | Quizlet via kwout

Revisiting Xtranormal

Xtranormal is a wonderful webtool you can use to create animated movies.

Dianne Krause has created a nice xtranormal movie talking about education in 2025. Interesting stuff!



This is another example we can use for language teaching. By selecting a character, a scenario and a script we can introduce any language point. This is an example of another movie created by Dianne Krause, this time in French.



You can also ask sts to create their own movies with language you've focussed. Isn't it a fantastic tool?

These were my TRIALS

• A birthday card for a colleague
• A video my son made while learning how to deal with xtranormal

To use Xtranormal, create a free account and then click on MAKE MOVIES. Select what kind of character you want, select the scene, write the script and then add animations, looks, music and so on. Click on ACTION to have a preview and when it's done, click on IT'S A WRAP. After your video has been published in Xtranormal, you can also publish it in youtube by clicking on a button. Simply and easy. I'll definitely use it in my classes.