Recent Posts - page 2
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Effective questioning
Jane Maria Harding da Rosa at EELT asked if I had any tips regarding effective questioning. She felt that effective questioning is not covered much on initial teacher training courses, so is planning some input on it for her blog/channel… Read More ›
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Adaptations: Follower (Year 7 poetry)
The assessment for our Year 7 poetry unit was on how Seamus Heaney portrays his relationship with his father in the poem Follower. It didn’t require a super-detailed analysis, mainly recognizing the main themes and the time shift, but some… Read More ›
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Information gap activity: Endangered animals
I did an info gap activity with my Year 9 class the other day that worked well. It’s pretty similar to others I’ve done, e.g. this one about Kenya, but if it ain’t broke… Topic: Endangered animals in Thailand. The… Read More ›
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Teaching EAL learners: talk for iQTS candidates (Uni of Sunderland)
I was invited by Uni of Sunderland to talk to their iQTS candidates about EAL teaching strategies. I had an open brief, so I opted to share some more general tips for early careers teachers. I talked about: There was… Read More ›
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EAL adaptations: Poetry, Year 6
Our current poetry unit with Year 6 is probably the strongest planning I’ve picked up this year. Minimal adaptation needed, mostly accessible, fun, and the level of challenge is spot on really. It just needs tiny tweaks. Here are some… Read More ›
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Coursebook evaluation in… EAL?!
I’m using more coursebooks in my current practice than I have done in a long time. This has put the importance of coursebook evaluation on my radar again. Coursebooks and EAL Adopting coursebook-driven ELT curricula in EAL contexts wouldn’t be… Read More ›
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Community building activities for tutor time
Last year, Joel Lawrence and I worked on some community building resources for tutor time at St. Joes. They were meant to be used as part of an induction phase, maybe weeks 1-2 of term. Nothing ground-breaking here! Just sharing… Read More ›
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AI experiments: IGCSE ESL speaking assessment bank
Yep, I’m still AI-novicing over here. Today I was looking for a quick fix for the upcoming IGCSE ESL speaking exams (window opens end of March). I wanted a curated bank of tests, or at least test-like questions for all… Read More ›
Featured Categories
materials writing ›
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Beyond the coursebook for tiered EAL provision (Sequence Draft 1)
September 14, 2026
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Beyond the coursebook for tiered EAL provision (Part 5: genres, tasks, language functions)
September 2, 2026
DipTESOL tips ›
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DipTESOL Independent Research Project
August 10, 2021
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Reflections on the DipTESOL
June 29, 2021
teacher development ›
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Interlude: Beyond the coursebook for tiered EAL provision
September 1, 2026
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Beyond the coursebook for tiered EAL provision (Part 4: unit overviews)
August 28, 2026

