Look in the Lake Pronunciation Cards

My teenage English learners have always enjoyed, and learned from, Look in the Lake in several ways: it builds social, acute listening, and pronunciation skills; they get plenty of opportunities to decide between singular and plural endings; they have fun competing with each other while remembering simple etiquette that's so needed today. All around, Look in the Lake is a go-to favorite game in my public high school ELD classroom! - Jeff Mattison, ABC Unified School District, Cerritos, CA

As an English Language teacher, I have always found pronunciation to be a particularly difficult aspect of language to teach with my adult learners. The level of self consciousness and embarrassment that accompanies the mouth, lip and tongue contortions, not to mention the repetition of these movements, had always been a major roadblock for my high beginning adult students. I was fortunate enough to attend a session of Marsha Chan's at the San Diego CATESOL conference in 2016 where I learned some valuable pronunciation tips and was first introduced to Ms. Chan's game, Look in the Lake. My large suburban school district purchased two sets for the department, and they quickly became a favorite supplemental and enrichment activity within our department's classrooms.

Look in the Lake is easy to implement and comes with clear Powerpoint slides that help explain objectives and rules of the game. Playing cards is such a naturally communicative activity with an authentic reason to clearly express yourself. My normally quiet, reluctant speakers were louder. Then they became more deliberate and careful when asking for "watches" or "witches". The immediate benefits of incorporating Look in the Lake were confidence and self regulation/recognition of pronunciation points. It was easier for me to teach contrasting sounds because students had just seen and used such words -- instant context! I also love the use of plurals and the attention needed to distinguish between ending sounds -- this is an area that has always needed explicit instruction within my classes.

Across my six years teaching adult and career classes, this has become a much loved resource. My students genuinely look forward to 'playing' and linger in the classroom any time we play. Now my position has changed and I am working with high school English Language Learners. I have recognized many of the same pronunciation and confidence needs for my new students, and I am very excited to introduce them to Look in the Lake. I recommend that you also try out this adaptable, fun, quality resource. - Kathleen McCarney, Central Bucks West High School, Doylestown, PA

I have used Look in the Lake at a previous school and found it FANTASTIC. I am ordering a set as my personal copy. I hope to convince my new district to buy more. Thank you for ALL of the resources and ideas you provide. I am a huge fan of Sunburst Media products. - A middle school ELL (English Language Learners) teacher