This term I’ve tried out a few different ways to introduce a lesson. These ones have worked well. They might be worth reading if you’ve exhausted my previous list!
Example: 3rd conditional, regrets
Do a short gap fill on part of a song related to your topic. Mine was on some lines from Frank Sinatra’s My Way:
Regrets, I’ve had a few… (0.55 – 1.06)
This is a completely imaginary conversation. No characters in the convo are based on real people – I’m just bored and imagining conversations I might have with editors…
Lead-in
Work with a partner. Perform a dialogue based on the following roles:
Student A: You’re a shop assistant. You are working behind the counter at a high street clothes shop (probably not Topshop as that wouldn’t make this resource future-proof). A customer (Student B) has a request. Deal with the customer’s request appropriately. (more…)
I’ve heard that it’s the end of the road for LTC Eastbourne. I haven’t come across an announcement from the school itself (now a Twin Language Centre). I’m only going on contact with staff, past and present.
I’m gutted.
(more…)
Phrasal verb resource books you’ve used… GO!
Okay, so there was a good one on the bookshelf at LTC called ‘Illustrated Phrasal Verbs’. Me and Sketch used it so often that the student’s book fell apart (only one copy – a conference freebie), then we had to photocopy pages from the teacher’s book and tipex out the answers to make gap-fills. When I think back, the illustrations were sometimes ambiguous, and we were all too often test-teach-testing it. Not always the most effective.
Apart from that, well… There was ‘Test Your Phrasal Verbs’ (so so) and Phrasal Verbs in Use. Although more of a self-study resource, its concise explanations were great for teachers too. All controlled practice though, not a classroom resource really. Well, sparingly.
Here’s a welcome addition to my (admittedly limited) phrasal verb teaching toolkit – Work It Out with Phrasal Verbs, from Prosperity Education. It’s a neat teaching resource (aimed at B2-C1 level students) written by Billie Jago and Monica Ruda-Peachey.
(more…)
Russ Mayne suggested I should have a post or page listing all my reviews. So, here it is.
It turns out there are quite a few. As always, all views are my own and these reviews are highly subjective!
Before the list, some highlights…
Note: the * shows that at the time I didn’t give the resource a 5-star rating, so I’ve added it now.
Apps
2020 Teacher Tapp (Rating 3.8/5)
2020 Studycat (3.5/5)
2020 Learn Thai Duolingo-style (*4/5)
2017 ELSA Speak Pronunciation App (*4/5)
2017 British Council Apps (*Rating probs averages out at 4/5 but this one is a bit vague)
Online resource sites
2020 Read to Run (*Rating 3.5/5)
2020 EAL Hub (2/5)
2020 NILE Membership (*4.5/5)
2019 Wordwall for vocabulary games (*4.5/5)
2018 Fluentize video lessons (4.5/5)
2015 Newsmart (4.5/5) RIP ☹
Training courses/modules/providers
2020 PGCEi Module 2 (*4.5/5)
2020 PGCEi Module 1 (*4.7/5)
2019 Spoken Grammar (5/5)
2019 Evaluating Digital Materials (5/5)
2019 NILE Tech-assisted Language Learning (4/5)
2019 NILE Materials Development (4.5/5)
2018 ELT Training Library from Language Fuel (4/5)
2015 How to Teach IELTS (*4.5/5)
2016 Dyslexia and Foreign Language Teaching (4.5/5)
Books
2020 Routledge Handbook of Teaching English to Young Learners (*4/5)
2020 Rosenshine’s Principles in Action (3.9/5)
2020 How Global Capital is Remaking International Education (3.5/5)
2020 Barry Reinvents Himself (4.325/5)
2020 Silly Shakespeare for Students (4.9/5)
2020 The Learning Power Approach (4/5)
2019 Play for the Planet (4/5)
2019 A-Z of ESOL (*4.2/5)
2019 Teaching English as a Lingua Franca (4.5/5)
2019 Egghead (3.5/5)
2019 Loving London (4.5/5)
2019 Vocabulary in Pictures (*4.2/5)
2018 Stories Without End (*4.5/5)
2018 ELT Lesson Observation and Feedback Handbook (4.5/5)
2018 Great Writing (4.6/5)
2018 Her Own Worst Enemy (4.5/5)
2017 Successful Group Work (*4/5)
2017 Community Classroom Builders (*4/5)
2016 Incredible English (*4.3/5)
2015 Punctuation..? (*3/5)
Other
ELT Publishing Professionals (*4.5/5)
Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay
This is a completely imaginary conversation. No characters in the convo are based on real people – I’m just bored and imagining conversations I might have with editors…
Editor: Thanks so much for this work. You’ve clearly put a lot of effort into it.
Me: But…
Editor: There are just a few amendments. The activity where we asked for a Cambridge PET style speaking task… actually, we meant KET. The client has decided that odd number lessons should be KET, not PET, so sorry for telling you that so late…
Me: …
Editor: And there are the dialogues… Although they previously said that the dialogues could be 300 words, the client has now decided they should be 200 words.
Me: … (more…)
This was a context builder for a sequence of lessons on viral videos, viral ad campaigns, viral marketing, etc. It’s similar to the idea I shared for introducing recipes. Anyway, used this with B1+ teens, worked well.
Task 1
Find loads of links to (good) viral videos. Our focus was on viral marketing, so I chose lots of ads. Create a QR code for each vid and add these onto a handout in a table like this one:
I gave students this instruction: (more…)
My secondary class (age 14+, B1) are exploring education in our latest module. We are building up to a ‘design your ideal school’ task. The first step was to consider what makes a good classroom/learning environment.
Step 1: General discussion questions as a lead-in, about what they think of their education system, their schools and learning environments, etc. Brief critique of our own learning environment.
Step 2: Brainstorm these concepts
| A traditional classroom is / has… | A non-traditional classroom is / has… |
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| An inspiring classroom is / has… | An uninspiring classroom is / has… |
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Another ‘how to become a materials writer’ article has popped up – Kirsten Holt’s article for ETPro offers some more good advice for budding writers. Every time I read one of these posts I’m itching to chip in. I really want to help others get into materials writing. My advice is always the same:
Read on, I’ll tell you what that is. (more…)
I’ve just come across this booklet as part of the reading on the PGCEi at the University of Nottingham. It’s a brilliant open access resource for exploring global citizenship. It offers a series of cross-cultural exercises, which help learners to…
