Did your students use the email component of In Touch to get in touch with other students last year?

Perhaps they didn't because they were too young or perhaps you didn't have the facilities at your school to organise this.

Now that your students are older this year you should try to encourage them to start using this special email component because making use of their knowledge of English in a real situation is really motivating and the best practice of all for them.

If you don't have the facilities at school remember they can use their computers at home or at a friend's home.

How do your students go about doing it? Tell them to….

1. Find the web site www.InTouchClub.net.
2. Click on the red STUDENTS button.
3. Click on KEEP IN TOUCH WITH WORLD FRIENDS.
4. Register by completing the In Touch Club form.
5. Read the emails from other students and write back to one of them.

Please note:

Point 5 is most important.
Some students were upset last year because they didn't receive a reply to their emails. This is because most of the students introduced themselves in a letter and then just waited for an answer. Not many students read the emails from other students and wrote answers to them!

Through the In Touch Club lessons children learn about the world through the eyes of children who live in other countries. During these lessons it is a good idea to have a map of the world available so that students can find these countries and see where they are in relation to where they live.

Schools using In Touch 1 are offered a free map. This map can also be used for students using In Touch 2. If you don't have a map, contact the Longman office at the following email address: enquiries@longman.gr.

It is not necessary to have extra skills lessons when you are using In Touch 2. This book systematically builds up the skills in the Skills Special lessons.

For example, look at Skills Special 2 in Book 2. This systematically teaches students how to write a letter. The following two input lessons, Lessons 8 and 9 then revise these points and give further practice on writing a letter.

If you prefer to have extra skills lessons then you should omit the Skills Special Lessons from your textbook lessons. Make sure, however, that the skills taught in these lessons are covered in your choice of skills book. You may also wish to teach some of the Skills Special lessons in your skills lessons.

Please note that there is a writing task at the end of every Skills Special lesson and at the end of every corresponding workbook page.

It would be impossible for your students to complete both these writing tasks for one homework period so you should chose one of the following options.

1. Set the skills special pages in the workbook for homework on a different day.
   
   or
   
   
2. Chose either the writing task in the student's book or the one in the workbook for homework. Please note that the writing task in the workbook is slightly easier than the one in the student's book. Therefore another option would be to give this one to the weaker students in the class while other students do the task from the student's book.
   

Continue building up your bank of games for use at the end of lessons. Some of them should be based on the work you are covering with your students in the lessons but many of them should revise previously learnt material.

Here is a game based on the alphabet for use at the beginning of In Touch 2.

1. Write the alphabet at the top of the blackboard.
2. Divide the class into two teams, Team A and Team B.
3. Bring two students to the blackboard and ask them a question on the alphabet. The first pupil at the blackboard to answer correctly scores a point for his/her team.
4. The team with the highest score is the winner.>

Here are the types of questions you can ask.

1. What's the fourteenth / tenth / third etc letter of the alphabet?
2. Write two words starting with the fifth / tenth / thirteenth etc letter of the alphabet.
3. What letter comes after / before V/S/T L etc?
4. Write two words finishing with the fourth / twentieth / seventh etc letter of the alphabet.
5. Put the following words in alphabet order. Card, comb, carrot, cream, cake.