Here’s a short poetry task that worked well with YLs and teens. It’s based on a poem from A Nest Full of Stars by James Berry. Before you ask, no. I haven’t suddenly gone all NLP. Aims Create a… Read More ›
young learners
Seesaw for EAL and young learners
Someone contacted me last week in a panic. ‘Aaargh, we’re going to start using Seesaw – any tips? Is it easy? Can you do a lot on it?’ etc. I find Seesaw really easy to use as a classroom learning… Read More ›
Materials Development Task 4: Making connections
This is a new series of blog posts for teachers looking to become materials writers. It aims to help future writers explore topics and issues in writing, encourage deeper insight into the content of published materials, and promote a principled… Read More ›
Fluency and fun: Hidden words
Here’s a quick speaking activity for Primary EAL. A good one for Friday afternoon fun. Check out this ‘Hidden Words‘ post on Bored Panda. Is just a load of illustrations with six hidden words in each. Get the students to… Read More ›
Review: The Routledge Handbook of Teaching English to Young Learners
This review of The Routledge Handbook of Teaching English to Young Learners by S Garton & F Copland (Eds) first appeared in IATEFL Voices Issue 276. This handbook provides an overview of teaching English to young learners across a wide… Read More ›
App review: Studycat
Studycat is a language learning app for young learners. It aims to ‘revolutionise the way kids learn a foreign language, by making it fun and engaging’. According to the Studycat website, the app has been downloaded by 11 million families,… Read More ›
Hirameki with young learners (via Emily Bryson)
A very quick post to say thanks to Emily Bryson! She recently shared this interesting post on using the Japanese art of Hirameki as way to teach life skills and encourage creativity. This worked a treat with my 6-year-olds! We… Read More ›
Wordwall with young learners
I wrote an overview of Wordwall last year. Here’s a more practical example of how I actually use Wordwall, rather than just as a load of games… Well, still as a load of games actually, just in a more purposeful… Read More ›
Tweaking my young learner teaching
I start my PGCEi next month. I’m really looking forward to having an extra reason to reflect on my classroom practice, overall approach, etc, and delving into research about how children learn and develop. I’m focusing on primary level learners… Read More ›
Book review: ELI Vocabulary in Pictures
This week I received a huge box of resources from ELI Publishing. The first book that caught my eye was ELI Vocabulary in Pictures, which looks like a useful and good value resource. Vocabulary in Pictures (VIP) is a picture… Read More ›
ELT Planning 