Vocabulary challenge: For lower level learners, students can look up unfamiliar words or paraphrase the tweet you have given them.
Change the tone: Students can adapt the register of the tweets, making them more informal or formal.
Practice answering: They can draft replies to the tweets (agreeing, disagreeing, or asking a follow-up question.
Become a researcher: You could ask students to verify or fact check the tweet – encouraging online research, further reading and vocabulary building in class.
TikTok videos
If you want to work with TikTok videos in class, you’ll be your students’ favorite teacher. But as mentioned before, be careful about letting students explore the platform in class. It can be distracting and even disruptive if your students lose sight of the lesson aims.
So instead of sending a link to a video, download it using a tool like Snaptik.
Once again, choose your lesson content ahead of time. Be sure to select videos that relate to your students’ interests or will engage them in some way.
What activities can you try in class?
First of all, you should bear in mind that the videos themselves do not have to be a source of vocabulary. You can show stunts, dances, funny or entertaining content – guilt free. Just make sure that your activities are language centered. Here are some activities:
Describe a dance: Have students watch a dance and describe how a person moved using verbs you have previously studied. For example, “They raised their arms, spun around, fell to the ground, shook their hips…”
What happens next: Play half of a video and have students predict what happens next.
Become a superfan: Have your students write a comment as if they were a super fan of the TikToker in the video.
Here’s a quick example of a conversation-based activity, suitable for teens or younger learners, using this TikTok video:
Step one: Look at the screenshot of the “baby” in the fast food restaurant. What do you think is happening?