Our Educational Message

Hi, and welcome to our blog. This space is designed to share ideas and methodologies that we use to teach Turkish teenagers. In particular, there is a strong focus on ICT-ELT, which means if you like visual and technological support for your style of teaching, this blog is for you. My colleague, Brentson Ramsey, has been working alongside me for three years. He is also a big proponent of the ICT-ELT Paradigm, which means he will also be posting from his own teaching perspective on the blog.

2010 was the beginning of this new journey, and although there is no definitive ICT-ELT road map available for everyone to follow, it is exciting to explore the technological means to make teaching more fun and affective for students. Our main message is for teachers to ADOPT & ADAPT the paradigm shift for their own needs, and remember that
ICT-ELT is a TOOL, NOT a SOLUTION.

Friday 17 August 2012

Judge Judy helps You to Learn English

The use of popular tv series and film clips is a great way to engage your students.  By using extracted sections, whether they be emotional, thrilling or humorous, helps to visualize the content, therein, of let's say a grammar point or thematic consideration of a text.  This blog is designed to utilize theoretical considerations & lessons used by my colleague and myself in our preparatory English program to 14-15 year old students.  On the right of the blog you can see  a wealth of video archive materials that you are free and so welcome to use.  All we would ask is for a short (or long ) comment saying whether it worked for you :-)

The lesson described below is one that struck me as useful for legal terminology and phrases in an amusing context.  The fact that the judge, plaintiff and defendant use language that can be understood by your students, and the subject matter is ridiculous and crazy, could go some way to engaging students even from an elementary level.

Lets begin by giving some pre-vocabulary for the students:

 judge           bailiff         court(room)       court case         guilty          verdict    

 innocent      accuse        defend               reject               versus       judgement                       
It is important to inform your students that this is a special system in the USA used to settle small claims by people who are unable to go to the real court for whatever reason(s).


  1. Why are the young women in Judge Judy's court?
  2. How does Judge Judy feel about the case?
  3. What are your first impressions of the judge (Judy), the plaintiff (Francesca) and the defendants (Kristen & Susan)?

  1. What does the Susan say about Kristen's behavior at the time of the incident?
  2. What did Susan tell her daughter to do?
  3. How does Kristen respond to this claim?
  4. What does Francesca say was the reason for Kristen moving out?
  5. Why is Francesca's son not in the court room?
  6. What reason does Kristen give for moving to Francesca's home?
  7. Judge Judy replies to this by saying, "Baloney!" What do you think Baloney means?


  1. What did Francesca say to Kristen when she told her she was in pain?
  2. What did Susan say to her daughter when she told her she was in pain?
  3. Why was Susan unable to help her daughter?
  4. How does Judge Judy react when she hears this?
  5. What does Susan go on to say about Francesca?


  1. How much were the bills?
  2. What does Kristen was the actual situation?
  3. What does judge Judy tell Susan?

How do you think the people in this case will react after the verdict?


EQs: 
  • Who do YOU think was right and wrong in this case?
  • Why is it the responsibility of mothers to look after their children till 18?
  • How do you feel about Susan's mental stability?
  • Which evidence in this case proves that, blood is thicker than water?
There is also now a chance to look at some grammar from these videos.  
Once you have looked at the explanation, go back and watch each video and identify examples of the imperative

GRAMMAR: THE IMPERATIVE--

Imperatives are verbs used to give orders, commands and instructions. The form used is usually the same as the base form. It is one of the three moods of an English verb. Imperatives should be used carefully in English; to give firm orders or commands, but not as much when trying to be polite or show respect to the other person.

Judge Judy uses many imperatives in her court. In the first video her bailiff is the one who uses this grammar tool:

Bailiff: "Order! All Rise."

Now, look back at the other videos and identify as many as you can and share in class.

Video 2: at least 12 examples
Video 3: at least 3 examples
Video 4: at least 5 examples
Video 5: at least 2 examples

5 comments:

  1. Thanks Anonymous for reading this post. I wanted to rejuvenate my blog for teachers to give them some ideas that they can maybe adapt or use as is, instead of looking at theories or '^blog-rants'. The lessons that my colleague and I share are all tried and tested in the classroom; therefore, they are probably worth sharing and hopefully other blog colleagues can get something from them. Thanks again.

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  2. Thanks for this. Looks good and would be entertaining for students. Is this from a youtube clip? If so, do you have the URL?

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  3. The clips are not on you tube, but I can send you dropbox links if you send me your email address

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  4. Great, thanks for your help. My email address is: derrickwong@hotmail.co.uk

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  5. I love to watch Judge Judy and was actually thinking about using one of the shows video from YouTube in my classroom. Thank you, you did a great job. Can't wait to use it. I teach ESL to adults.

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