YouTube is an incredibly awesome source for videos! There's so much to see, learn, try and practice. But how can you use their videos in your lessons? Below, I'll explain how I use the platform.
First, not all YouTube videos are appropriate, so as a teacher, you must always make sure you know the source of the video and with what goal you're using a video. It's good to talk about digital literacy (using information found online wisely).
Now, on to the fun part!
YouTube as a lesson starter: I like to introduce the topic of my lesson with a video that fits it. For example, I started a lesson about sports vocabulary with a video of a football match and had students identify some sports words; and at the beginning of my lesson on the Past Simple tense they watched a video about dinosaurs, and they had to tell me what happened to the poor fellas. It's a great way to spark curiosity about the topic and get students thinking.
YouTube as a lesson finisher: I always want my students to show some kind of transfer of what they've just learned at the end of each lesson. A great way to do that is to have them describe what they just saw in a video. At the end of my lesson on classroom supplies vocab, I showed them a video of students using all kinds of classroom supplies to create a poster, and students had to use the vocabulary they had just learned to write a report on the video in their journal.
YouTube to investigate topics that are in the news: I like to have my students watch news broadcasts to keep up with current affairs. I'll have them answer questions I pre-made, or simply summarize what they just learned.
YouTube as a collection of student work: For my lesson series on giving instructions I had my students create a How to.. Video, and they posted all their videos to a secure and private group on the platform. It was fun to have them all in the same place so we could all watch, and good not to have them on my computer.
YouTube for student-made exercises (YouTube Tuesday): I have this awesome assignment going on in most of my groups in which students prepare two exercises about a video of their choice for their classmates. Each week, two students each bring a video of no more than 5 minutes (or two students pair up to bring a 10-minute video if the students are older and more advanced) and 2 exercises about it. They'll introduce their video and lead the exercises as well. It's a super fun activity each week and students look forward to the video their classmates bring!
Try these activities, you'll love them!
If you'd like to know more about how I set up my YouTube Tuesday activity (it takes about 5 lessons to properly prepare students for it), go to the link below to get the lesson plan I made:
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