On Wednesday, December 13th, I did an in-house presentation on the principles underlying an effective vocabulary learning programme. This session focused on such practical considerations as: how many words learners need; which words are important; and how new vocabulary can be remembered. The slides for the presentation are contained in this post. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to contact me.
Paul’s Vocab Workshop

Level 2 Reading teachers are due to give a minimum of five quizzes this semester. As well as the in-house quizzes that you can use with your classes, there are also a set of publisher tests. They are a little easier than the in-house ones, as vocabulary is not recycled from previous units.
unit-quizzes-for-totally-true-3.pdf
unit-quiz-answers-for-totally-true-3.pdf

This is the vocabulary list for Level 3 Reading classes. This is also available in the shared folders and on elpweb.com for students.

Passages Vocabulary List

Here are the quizzes for the 2007 Autumn semester for Level 3 Reading classes.
Please choose at least three.

Quizzes
Unit 7 Quiz
Unit 8 Quiz
Unit 10 Quiz
Unit 11 Quiz

Answer Key
Level 3 Vocabulary and Reading Quizzes Answer Key

This activity encourages students to learn/use the words they have written down in their vocabulary notebooks.

This is a modified version of something that a colleague, Dexter Da Silva, previously passed onto me and it can be adapted to suit any level and can be carried out as often as you wish.

The materials include the interview sheet and some instructions for the teacher.

Vocabulary: self-assessment sheet

Vocabulary: self-assessment sheet (teachers’ notes)

Looking ahead to next term (Yes, even though Final Exams are going on right now.) I put together a basic wordsearch worksheet for place names and adjectives to help students practice these words. Most of the words are taken from the textbook and students should have at least a passing familiarity with them from junior high school.

Please comment with any typos, edits, suggestions or other ideas.

Please note that two entries are not countries, but locations: Bali and Hawaii. Therefore, I used the term place names, not countries in the directions.

Bali – Balinese
Brazil – Brazilian
China – Chinese
France – French
Germany – German
Greece – Greek
Hawaii – Hawaiian
India – Indian
Indonesia – Indonesian
Italy – Italian
Japan – Japanese
Korea – Korean
Mexico – Mexican
Morocco – Moroccan
Singapore – Singaporean
Spain – Spanish
Thailand – Thai
the US – American
Turkey – Turkish
Vietnam – Vietnamese

There is a short model dialogue to prompt students to ask each other for help and confirmation of answers as they work on the puzzle. Copying only one worksheet per pair or small group will prompt more interaction and save on time and copies.

Download the worksheet and answers.

This is a supplementary activity for the reading in Unit 8: “It’s not so bad to be middle-aged.” It is intended to help students process some target words in the unit deeply by finding substitutes for selected words in the article.

Passage Unit 8 Vocab&Reading activity.doc

Level 3 Vocabulary and Reading Quizzes
There are three quizzes to be completed.

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.

Level 3 � ReadingQuiz_Unit7.doc

Level 3 ReadingQuiz_Unit8.doc

Level 3 ReadingQuiz_Unit11.doc

ANSWER KEY
Level 3 VR quizzes Answer Key (Autumn).doc

Here’s the Passages vocab list useful for the vocabulary and reading quizzes as well as small group discussions (and group presentation!)

Passages Vocabulary List (Autumn).doc

The eagle-eyed amongst you will have noted that Level 2 Reading teachers are due to give a minimum of five quizzes this semester. Of course, there’s the usual publisher quizzes available, but I’ve made a few alternative quizzes. They are some modifications from last semester’s alternative quizzes, but essentially try to build on the success we had getting students to study vocab. Here are some things about them:

1) In response to feedback last semester, about half of the questions involve a cloze passage. So, there is a little more reading for the students. The passages are pretty similar to the textbook texts, so hopefully as well as students learning the vocab, they will also bother to reread the passages from the previous week. This all should reward and encourage the development of vocab depth.
2) To aid the acquisition of vocab, spaced recyling is very important. So, half of the questions on each quiz are from previous second semester units. To do well on the quizzes, students will have to continue reviewing the vocab from previous weeks. It’s important to tell students this (regardless of whether you use these quizzes or not)
3) The tests will fit very well with the mid and fnal test (see another posting). That is, the questions mostly tap the same receptive understanding of vocabulary, so the two go well together.
4) The first 4 questions are spelling questions, see the teachers’ sheet for the words to read out.
5) I’ve only made quizzes for the first few weeks, your feedback will influence how the later versions look.

Let me know if you have any questions, problems, or feedback!

Level 2 Reading Quiz with answers- Unit 18.pdf
Level 2 Reading Quiz with answers- Unit 18.doc
Level 2 Reading Quiz with answers- Unit 17.pdf
Level 2 Reading Quiz with answers- Unit 17.doc
Level 2 Reading Quiz with answers- Unit 16.pdf
Level 2 Reading Quiz with answers- Unit 16.doc
Level 2 Reading Quiz with answers - Unit 15.pdf
Level 2 Reading Quiz with answers - Unit 15.doc
Level 2 Reading Quiz - Unit 14
Level 2 Reading Quiz with answers - Unit 14.doc
level-2-reading-quiz-unit-13.doc
Level 2 Reading Quiz with answers - Unit 12.doc
level-2-reading-quiz-with-answers-unit-10.doc
level-2-reading-quiz-with-answers-unit-10.pdf
reading-quiz-with-answers-unit-11.pdf
reading-quiz-with-answers-unit-11.doc

Here is the first semester final test with answers.
• There is no need to print out the tests, they will be printed for you.
• Apart from the spelling questions which are each worth half a point, each question is worth one point.
• To help prevent any cheating, there are two versions of the test available; Version A and Version B.
• To allow the tests to be re-used, the completed tests should be taken in and not returned to the students.

Extra Details
1) The test requires students to know enough of the words to put them into a cloze. There are also a lot of questions tapping a purely receptive understanding, and a few spelling items.
2) The cloze sections are summaries of the stories in the units. So, the students who regularly come to class will be at an advantage.
3) Some students will finish much quicker than others. To keep the fast finishers occupied, there is a riddle at the end. The answer is on the answer sheets.
4) There are two versions of the tests to provide an obstacle to any nefarious test taking strategies. The tests cover the same material, but the questions are in a different order.
5) The test can be given any time that suits the instructor. However, it’s inadvisable to leave it to the last class.

Let me know if you have any questions or find any problems!

Level 2 Final Test VERSION A with answers.pdf
Level 2 Final Test VERSION B with answers.pdf
answer sheet.pdf
Teacher notes and conversion scale.pdf

As part of most writing courses, there are a number of technical writing terms that students need to be aware of. However, few of the first year students are familiar with these words at the start of the year. To help them review these words, I’ve been using a few vocabulary related warm-up activities. The crossword is self-explanatory, but there are teacher’s notes for the pelmonism activity. I’ve focused on the vocabulary, topic sentence, transitions, details, draft, mind map, paragraph, sentence, and indent, but you can easily adapt the materials to anything you want.
Writing Vocabulary Crossword.doc
Vocabulary Pelmonisms.doc
Teacher Notes - Pelmonisms.doc

A vocabulary challenge is a good schema building activity that can get individuals, pairs or groups going on a topic.
I prefer to put students in pairs or small groups, requiring all of them to have the same answers on their sheet. Be prepared to circulate around the classroom a lot, as students often have questions about what is being asked for.
When the students have finished, you can mix the groups up and have them compare answers, or take it up as a whole class.

Let’s Talk Unit 8 Entertainment Vocab. challenge

A vocabulary challenge is a good schema building activity that can get individuals, pairs or groups going on a topic.
I prefer to put students in pairs or small groups, requiring all of them to have the same answers on their sheet. Be prepared to circulate around the classroom a lot, as students often have questions about what is being asked for.
When the students have finished, you can mix the groups up and have them compare answers, or take it up as a whole class.

Let’s Talk Unit 7 Travel and tourism Vocab. challenge

A vocabulary challenge is a good schema building activity that can get individuals, pairs or groups going on a topic.
I prefer to put students in pairs or small groups, requiring all of them to have the same answers on their sheet. Be prepared to circulate around the classroom a lot, as students often have questions about what is being asked for.
When the students have finished, you can mix the groups up and have them compare answers, or take it up as a whole class.

Let’s Talk Unit 5 Vocab. challenge Money

Level 2 Mid-Term Vocab Test version 2 with Answers.docFor the Level 2 Reading program, we give a test at the middle and end of the term. The tests form a large part of the students’ Reading grades.

1) The tests fit very well with the unit quizzes that I posted (see another posting). That is, the questions mostly tap the same receptive understanding of vocabulary, so the two go well together. There are also some spelling and gap-fill questions though.
2) The first 5 questions are spelling questions, see the teachers’ sheet for the words to read out.
3) Some students will finish much quicker than others. To to keep the fast finishers occupied, there is a puzzle at the end. The answer is on the teachers’ sheet.
4) There are two versions of the tests to provide an obstacle to any nefarious test taking strategies. The tests cover the same material, but the questions are in a different order. Feel free to use either version.

Let me know if you have any questions or find any problems!

Level 2 Mid-Term Vocab Test - Teachers Notes.doc
Level 2 Mid-Term Vocab Test version 1 with Answers.pdf
Level 2 Mid-Term Vocab Test version 1 with Answers.doc
Level 2 Mid-Term Vocab Test version 2 with Answers.pdf
Level 2 Mid-Term Vocab Test version 2 with Answers.doc

The eagle-eyed amongst you will have noted that Level 2 Reading teachers are due to give a minimum of five quizzes this semester. Of course, there’s the usual publisher quizzes available, but I’ve made a few alternative quizzes. They are some modifications from last semester’s alternative quizzes, but essentially try to build on the success we had getting students to study vocab. Here are some things about them:

1) About half of the questions involve a cloze passage. So, there is some reading for the students. The passage is pretty similar to the textbook texts, so hopefully as well as students learning the vocab, they will also bother to reread the passages from the previous week. This all should reward and encourage the development of vocab depth.
2) To aid the acquisition of vocab, spaced recyling is very important. So, half of the questions on the quiz are from previous units. To do well on the quizzes, students will have to continue reviewing the vocab from previous weeks. It’s important to tell students this (regardless of whether you use these quizzes or not)
3) The tests will fit very well with the final test (see another posting). That is, the questions mostly tap the same receptive understanding of vocabulary, so the two go well together.
4) The first 4 questions are spelling questions, see the teachers’ sheet for the words to read out.

Let me know if you have any questions, problems, or feedback!

Level 2 Reading Quiz with answers- Unit 2.doc

Level 2 Unit 1 Voca Quiz with answers

Here’s the list of target words in Unit 1 - 6 of Passages. Please distribute this to the students and inform them that

1) words on the vocab quizzes will be selected mostly from the Vocabulary and Reading sections of Unit 1, 2, 3, and 5.

2) the words on the list will help their speechs and group discussions.

Passages Vocabulary List (spring).pdfPassages Vocabulary List (spring).doc

Here’s the answer key for the four vocabulary and reading quizzes.

Level 3 VR quizzes Answer Key.doc

Level 2 Reading teachers are asked to give four or more quizzes each term. That may seem like a lot, but quiz is a highly elastic term. The publisher quizzes are quite good, but you may not wish to devote so much class time to them. So, I am working up some much shorter quizzes that you can do in 5 minutes at the start of class to review from the week before.

These quizzes are easy. Use them to balance out a round of low quiz scores or to give students a small achievable task. The main purposes of the reading quizzes are: to encourage all students to study more than twice a term, to recycle and review, and to prepare students for the questions on the mid-term and final tests.

Download all formats in a .zip file and use however you like. The .zip archive includes MS Word, PDF, and Apple Pages file formats. There are quiz versions A, B, C, and D for each unit.

More to come shortly, I hope!