Entries from March 2006 ↓

There is a video of a ’student’ (me!) delivering a demo mini presentation. It may be useful when you are setting-up speaking task 2.

It can be viewed by students at any time on the elpweb resources web site:
http://elpweb.com/resources/slevel1listspeaking.php?id=task2

(There is the option to switch on subtitles when viewing the video online.)

The video will also be available on DVD (without subtitles) for viewing in the classroom.

A text file of the transcript can be downloaded here: transcript

You are most welcome to devise listening, and other activities, to supplement this video - and if you do so, please upload them here!

This is a sample handout that can be used to explain and introduce ER to your students. Please feel free to modify and use it in class before the students make their selections.

Reference:
Kane, E. (2006). Helping students choose a graded reader. The Language Teacher, 30, 21-22.

Introduction to Extensive Reading

Note: The first page of “The Giver” (ungraded reader), “The Runaway Jury” (Penguin Level 6), and “The Talented Mr. Ripley” (Penguin Level 5) are copied onto a single B4 sheet which can be used to check students’ levels. You can find this sample sheet in the red Level 3 resource binder on the bookshelf.

The better your search, the better the results you will get. If you try searching for something like Level 2, you will get way too much stuff. How can you find only what you really want? Use logic, specifically, boolean logic.

This logic isn’t hard, and once you learn it, it will help you to use sites like Yahoo and Google much better.

For the basics, you just need to know 3 things: +, -, and ” “. Those will do the job.

• + makes a word in the search mandatory
• - means the result cannot have that word
• “some words” means the result must have the exact phrase some words in it.

If you type reading writing in the search box, you will get anything with reading or writing in it. That’s not very helpful.

If you type +reading +writing in the search box, you will get anything with both reading and writing in it. That’s more useful.

If you type +reading -writing in the search box, you will get everything with reading and not writing in it. That’s more specific.

Try +”Level 3″ +reading to get all the Level 3 reading activities, but nothing from Levels 1 or 2.

Please feel free to modify for your classes!

These materials are availabe in both the file on the Level 3 shelf and the ELP Shared Files/English I and II/Level 3/Extra Reading Materials.

Teachers debate English classes in primary school

Letters to the Editor on English education in primary schools

Level 3 Vocabulary and Reading Quizzes
There are THREE quizzes to be completed by week 10 (before the discussion test in Eigo IA/Listening&Speaking).

Please inform your students in advance when the quizzes will be given to them and that the vocabulary list as well as some self-study materials are available on elpweb.

The answer keys are available for teachers.

Quiz1

Quiz2

Another EAP work in progress…

This is a corpus-based consciousness-raising activity that focuses on the words “percent” and “percentage”. The activity contains a concordance listing for these two words followed by questions which encourage students to identify different patterns in their usage. At the end of the activity there is an opportunity for students to produce sentences using these patterns.

CR Activity - percent

Most of the instances in the concordance listing (20 out of 29) come from two readings in the “Reasons for attending college” topic of the spring term:
- “Why women delay college”
- “Poll: Students growing more self-centered”

I hope to knock out a few more activities like this on other AWL vocabulary items that come up in the spring term readings…

This is something I started working on last year, and is still very much a work in progress… might get it finished in the next year or two!

Academic vocabulary in the article “Reconsider purpose of study” is listed in the following document, together with the number of occurrences and the immediate co-text.

AWL - Reconsider purpose of study

I’m planning to make this the focus of my vocabulary teaching in the spring term. It would also be easy to knock up gap fill activities from this listing.

Hopefully I’ll be able to compile similar lists for the other readings in the “Reasons for attending college” topic before too long, and then I’ll move on to other topics.

This level 1 activity goes with the third writing cycle in the spring term, “Describing a shop or restaurant”. It includes a student sheet and a teacher sheet with answers.

Milk Hall internet activity

Students click on the url to see the homepage of the “Milk Hall” cafe in Kamakura, and then answer the questions. The same cafe is featured in the materials for the third writing cycle.

Students can design their own living room by selecting different kinds of furniture and wallpaper and so on at the following website:

See My Design

For level 1 classes, it might be a useful resource for:
- unit 4 of English Firsthand 1 (Listening & Speaking course)
- the second spring writing cycle, “Describing a room” (Writing course)

Featured vocabulary includes: texture, floor, wallpaper, blinds, rug, wall art, sofa, chair and table.

NB: This website can also be accessed through the following site, which has links to online activities and tests for English Firsthand 1:

English Firsthand Activities

Downloadable tests (and answers) for every unit of the Totally True textbooks are available at the following website. You can also download answer keys for exercises in the Student Books.

Totally True

NB: The material downloads as PDF files - these can be viewed and printed, but they are password protected to prevent the text being copied.

Finding Let’s Talk a bit lean?
Need something to beef up your lessons?
Well go to this website and click on “Teacher Support”…

Let’s Talk Resources

“Optional Activities” has downloadable games and activities for each unit of the Let’s Talk textbooks. There’s also a handy feature at the bottom of the page which allows you to download all the activities for one book in one go.

“Review Board Games” has downloadable games to review 4 units at a time.

If you try any of these materials, please let us know how they go.

Looking for extra ideas or material for English Firsthand? Well look no further…

Go to the following website and click on “Teacher Resources”:

English Firsthand Cafe

Click on “Supplementary Activities for English Firsthand” and you can find lesson plans, extra listening activities and supplementary materials for each unit of English Firsthand 1 (as well as the other books in the series).

Click on “English Firsthand 1 Supplementary activities” for online activities and tests for units 1-9 of the textbook.

Do let us know how these activities go, and which work best. Cheers.

OEKS may be offline from time to time today and tomorrow as I put the site behind password protection and work on a few other items.

This material is a set of activities which could be used to supplement units 1, units 2, units 3 and for an Intro to Speaking Task 1 and/or a class get to know each other type activity in the first few weeks of the Spring semester.

You need a DVD labelled Level 2 Listening and Speaking, Interview from the Level 2 shelf
Download and print the 3 attached documents, sheets 1,2 and 3.

The material is self explanatory follow instructions a)-i) on the handouts. Saying that, adapt as you feel suits your students. There is no rigid, First, Second and Third listening implied. Repeat in full or after each segment as needed. You could use the pics to develop WH questions and/or add vocab/structures at a push.

You may feel a better way to go is to ignore the listening, get the stds to interview you and then themselves using sheet 3 or your own q’s on the white board.

This activity is not graded

SHEET 1 Listening Questions

SHEET 2 Gap Fill

SHEET 3 Interview Std Worksheet

I wrote some basic guides on how to use Crossword Forge.

How to make crossword puzzles with Crossword Forge

How to export puzzles for use on the web

How to ‘export’ puzzles as a PDF

Enjoy … :-)

This online tool converts vCards (files that contain contact info - like the ELP contacts) into CSV files. GMail can then import the CSV files into your address book.

Works perfectly, and is very fast!

http://labs.brotherli.ch/vcfconvert/

- browse to the vCard on your computer
- select GMail CSV from the Format drop down menu
- converted file is dowloaded to your computer

Then in GMail, import the CSV file into your contact list. Sounds complicated, but it all takes less (much less) than a minute.

Here are some activities based entirely on the listening tasks found in the textbook.
There are three parts to each activity:
1. a Pre-Listening Activity which is based on vocabulary that appear in the listening;
2. a Listening Task(s): these are exactly the same as in the textbook–there’s just more space for the students to write in their answers; and
3. a Post-Listening Discussion (not always the same as the one that appears in the textbook, so please take this into consideration).

Once, again, I would appreciate any comments regarding these materials. Feel free to modify them as needed.

UNIT 1 A PG 1 UNIT 1 A PG 2

UNIT 1 B PG 1 UNIT 1 B PG 2

UNIT 2 A PG 1 UNIT 2 A PG 2

UNIT 2 B PG 1 UNIT 2 B PG 2

UNIT 3 A PG 1 UNIT 3 A PG 2

UNIT 3 B PG 1 UNIT 3 B PG 2

UNIT 4 A PG 1 UNIT 4 A PG 2

UNIT 4 B PG 1 UNIT 4 B PG 2

UNIT 5 A PG 1 UNIT 5 A PG 2

UNIT 5 B PG 1 UNIT 5 B PG 2

UNIT 6 A PG 1 UNIT 6 A PG 2

UNIT 6 B PG 1 UNIT 6 B PG 2 UNIT 6 B PG 3 UNIT 6 B PG 4

Here are the answer keys for the listening activities.
UNIT 1

UNIT 2

UNIT 3

UNIT 4

UNIT 5

UNIT 6

This is a set of materials for the first writing cycle in the spring term, “Describing a friend or family member”. This writing cycle is intended to last for approximately 3 lessons, and teachers are encouraged to supplement with other materials as they see fit.

There are 3 activities and 1 task sheet:
- activity 1 covers brainstorming and writing sentences;
- activity 2 introduces two simple correction symbols (for spelling and capitalisation errors);
- activity 3 has the students revise the first draft of a paragraph, and introduces a wider range of correction symbols;
- the task has students write a paragraph about one of their own friends or family members, and takes them from brainstorming through to writing the second draft of their paragraph.

Each of the activities contains a worksheet for students and a worksheet for teachers (with suggested answers). The task has 3 pages for students, which can be printed on double-sided A3 paper, plus one page of suggestions for teachers.

Please let us know how these materials work in class, and any suggestions you have for improving them. ‘Word’ versions of these materials are available in Shared Files, and hard copies are in the level 1 binder. Thanks.

Describing a friend or family member - Activity 1
Describing a friend or family member - Activity 2
Describing a friend or family member - Activity 3
Describing a friend or family member - Task

This is a set of materials for the second writing cycle in the spring term, “Describing a room”. This writing cycle is intended to last for approximately 3 lessons, and teachers are encouraged to supplement with other materials as they see fit.

There are 3 activities and 1 task sheet:
- activity 1 covers brainstorming and writing sentences;
- activity 2 looks at simple correction symbols (for spelling, capitalisation and singular/plural errors);
- activity 3 has the students revise the first draft of a paragraph, and includes a wider range of correction symbols;
- the task has students write a paragraph about their own room, and takes them from brainstorming through to writing the second draft of their paragraph.

Each of the activities contains a worksheet for students and a worksheet for teachers (with suggested answers). The task has 3 pages for students, which can be printed on double-sided A3 paper, plus one page of suggestions for teachers.

Please let us know how these materials work in class, and any suggestions you have for improving them. ‘Word’ versions of these materials are available in Shared Files, and hard copies are in the level 1 binder. Thanks.

Describing a room - Activity 1
Describing a room - Activity 2
Describing a room - Activity 3
Describing a room - Task