ELLLO - English Listening Lesson Library Online Bottom Line Ask anyone about engaging and effective Reading Comprehension activities and you will get a myriad of replies and suggestions. I know, because I asked! I asked educators and non-educators to send me either activities they used or remember being used when they were students. The good news, there are countless recommendations! The bad news, there are countless recommendations. Teaching has dramatically changed during my tenure. Academic Research For those of us who want evidence from academic research of proven Reading Comprehension activities, there is no end to exploring this path. Activating Prior KnowledgeAsking Questions While ReadingVisualizingMonitor/Check For UnderstandingDrawing InferencesSummarize/Retell (Improving Reading Comprehension in Kindergarten Through Third Grade ) If the Reading Comprehension activity has one or more of these strategies, then the likelihood of success is high. Transactional Strategy Instruction Listening to the selection Use visual supports
Cohesion Cohesion is one of the two qualities that give a written or spoken text unity and purpose, the other being coherence. It refers to the use of linguistic devices to join sentences together, including conjunctions, reference words, substitution and lexical devices such as repetition of words, collocations and lexical groups. ExampleThe second sentence above has cohesive devices such as conjunctions (and, such as, including), articles (the), references (it), and collocations (join _____ together, lexical groups). In the classroomCohesion is an extensive area and can be approached at a discrete item level, e.g. practising article use or differing synonyms. Further links: How to Use Easy Short Stories to Improve Your English You can use your English to learn about other people’s lives, study history, experience new cultures and explore new places. And you can do this without traveling anywhere! All you need is a great story. You probably already know that, in order to improve your English, you need to get some real-life practice. Even better are easy English short stories. Short stories will expose you to the English vocabulary you’re learning in a more natural format, giving you a chance to see the words in context and remember them forever. Read on to learn what short stories are and how they can help you with your English learning. So, What’s a Short Story? A short story is a short piece of fiction (made-up story). Short stories began to be published in magazines in the 19th century. Many American writers such as Edgar Allan Poe and Washington Irving wrote short pieces that are now considered to be classics. The Types of English Short Stories There are many different types of short stories. Try this. Review
Teaching English online – opportunities and pitfalls Sylvia Guinan, online English teacher, website editor and winner of the British Council TeachingEnglish blog award, walks us through the opportunities and pitfalls of teaching online in one of our top five articles of all time, illustrated by artist Jamie Johnson. There are many different things to consider when it comes to online teaching. The good news is that online teaching opens up new levels of creativity and opportunity for you as a teacher. In a way, it drives you to surpass yourself and focus more on best practice as well as innovation. As for students, they deserve to be taught with 21st-century technology. Technology basics Many freelance teachers teach through Skype. Resources and content creation As for resources, the following sites have wonderful materials if you don’t feel like re-inventing the wheel. Beyond that, you may wish to supplement your basic course offerings, specialise for specific purposes or simply follow your own instincts and inspiration. Building rapport
Getting started with EndNote | EndNote support | Library | University of Leeds EndNote is a tool that helps you to collect and store all the references you have found from different sources. You can use EndNote to insert and format in-text citations and bibliographies within Microsoft Word documents. This guide will help you to create and manage an EndNote library, export and enter references, and use EndNote to insert citations and a bibliography. Download a print version of a guide to using EndNote (PDF) EndNote is available on all University cluster PCs and accessible off-campus via Desktop Anywhere. You can also install EndNote on your personal computer or laptop by clicking on EndNote in the IT Shop. Watch our training videos Take a look at our training videos for EndNote. Top tips for using EndNote Here are our top tips for using EndNote: Create one library to keep all your references in the same place. Further help If you would like a more comprehensive guide, download the full EndNote X9 user manual (PDF).
Ideas for adapting group lessons to working on Zoom As has happened in much of Europe, Poland has now closed schools, universities and other places where people might gather in the hope of reducing the spread of coronavirus. Our school had its last normal lessons on Wednesday, with Thursday and Friday dedicated to training our teachers how to use Zoom. We start teaching on Monday 16th, so my total experience with Zoom so far has been in the training process. Useful links International House World arranged a live session run by Shaun Wilden on Tuesday 10th, in which he introduced us to Zoom. I’d also recommend Ceri Jones’s posts on the Cambridge University Press blog: Other useful posts: Zoom’s updates on which countries they’ve lifted the 40-minute free limit for.Graham Stanley on keeping learners’ attention when remote teaching.Advice to those about to teach online (mainly aimed at university lecturers). There’s a very active hashtag on Twitter called #coronavirusteaching, which you can view without having a Twitter account. Playing audio
About SparkNotes Sometimes you don't understand your teacher, your textbooks make no sense, and you have to read sixteen chapters by tomorrow. SparkNotes is a resource you can turn to when you're confuzzled. We help you understand books, write papers, and study for tests. We're clear and concise, but we never leave out important info. As SparkNotes editors, our mission is to help you make sense of confusing schoolwork. We are well qualified to lend a hand: we're graduates of top schools, we have advanced degrees galore, we've taught undergraduate and graduate classes, and we've edited books on Shakespeare, The Scarlet Letter, and the SAT (and that's just the S's!). Our Stuff At SparkNotes, we give you multiple ways to study: online, on your eReader, and with good old books. SparkNotes Guides: Our guides contain thorough summaries and insightful critical analyses. No Fear Shakespeare: No Fear Shakespeare provides side-by-side translations of Shakespeare into plain English. Plagiarism and Cheating
Good Enough Is Good Enough | World Of Better Learning Published 19 March 2020 Philip Kerr has a message to all teachers who have made the transition from teaching in the classroom to online: If this is the end of the (teaching) week for you, well done – you’ve made it. I’ll keep this short! You may be busy… Switching classes to online In a language school that I work with, my colleagues have spent the last ten days frantically figuring out how to switch their classes online. I have to say that my colleagues have been doing an incredible job. Looking for practical help If you’re looking for practical help, keep following the posts here on the Supporting Every Teacher blog series. But, if I have one piece of advice, it is to try to keep things in perspective. It’s worth bearing in mind, too, what many of your students will be going through. But right now… The week is almost over and hoping that you don’t have to teach this weekend. If you would like to read more blog articles from the Supporting Every Teacher series, click here. But right now…
TOEFL Reading Strategies - Better TOEFL Scores Blog Several TOEFL reading strategies will help you to use your existing English to get the highest possible score on the reading section of the TOEFL iBT. TOEFL Reading Strategies: Are you ready to take the TOEFL iBT? Unfortunately, many students take the TOEFL iBT before they are ready. If you can read 300 words per minute with 60%-80% comprehension, you are ready to take the test. If you do not know what you current reading speed is, go to Go to the 300 words per minute practice test. Spend one minute reading the passage. Without looking at the passage, take the five question multiple choice quiz. If you score 3/5 or higher on the quiz, then you are ready to take the TOEFL iBT. TOEFL Reading Strategies: Crap! If you scored below 3/5 on the 300 words per minute practice test, then you need to do what 1000’s of other students have done: Prepare, prepare, and prepare. When choosing a course plan, keep in mind the following:
Teaching Your Adult English Class Online | World Of Better Learning Published 19 March 2020 Our blog series continues to help English teachers move their classes online in view of many institutions being closed due to the Covid-19 virus. Today’s post is by Carol Rainbow, who offers suggestions for teaching your adult English class online. The virtual learning environment When teaching groups of adults online, planning for learning is slightly different to what you may have prepared for face to face class work. The VLE will offer an opportunity for the tutor to add tasks or activities to be completed by the learners. Most VLEs offer forum opportunities where learners and tutors can have asynchronous discussions, share ideas, post responses to tasks or just socialise. Tip – Remember the language that you are preparing the VLE in is not the learner’s native language, so keep it clear, simple and as straightforward as possible! Your chosen VLE may or may not have a video conference facility. Planning for asynchronous interaction and collaboration Task 1 Task 2
Rich Dad, Poor Dad Review: Best and Worst Advice (2021) Rich Dad, Poor Dad is one of the most famous books in all of personal finance. Though it came out in 1997, it’s still a #1 Best Seller on Amazon in 2021. Many of today’s most popular finance gurus cite it as the inspiration for their success. I wanted to see what all the hype was about, so I grabbed a copy of the book, tore through it (it’s a pretty quick read), and compiled my thoughts for you here. This Rich Dad, Poor Dad review will take a look at Robert Kiyosaki’s real lessons in this book (not just the ones he uses as names for his chapters) and help you decide whether it’s worth reading. A Rich Dad, Poor Dad Summary Right from the jump, Rich Dad, Poor Dad surprised me with its style and narrative framework. Kiyosaki’s stories revolve around and contrast the lessons he received from his biological father (the educated but financially unsavvy poor dad) and his friend’s salesman father (the uneducated but clever, rich dad). Robert Kiyosaki’s Best Advice 1. 2. 3. 4. 1. 2. 3. 4.