In this section, you’ll each share an online source for
teaching reading and/or writing. These could be sites with ideas for teachers
or online materials for students.
Example: Here’s a link to a site with simple but
useful ideas for teaching and learning a range of skills. The link will take
you to a section on teaching vocabulary (in interactive, contextualized ways),
mainly prior to reading:
I really like the “Find Your Partner” activity, which
requires little prep-time. This could be effective with terms from a text
students will read or have read in a prior session.
When you post your
links, also post the following:
Site Summary: This
site is mainly a resource for teachers. There are some self-study materials for
students as well (quizzes about grammar, genres, etc.).
Pros: This site
has many useful activities that require little preparation. It could serve as a
good resource when looking for something fun and interactive.
Cons: Some of the
topics for writing activities, discussions, games, etc. are geared towards ESL
rather than both EFL and ESL. Also, some of the topics are potentially
unsuitable for this context –though it always depends on your particular group
(dating, run-ins with the police, etc.).
Finally, view at least one of your peer’s sites and post a
comment on what you think about it.
The following is a link to a site for teaching writing to elementary and high school students. It has a variety of activities and sources for teachers. The website is very fun to explore and provides teachers as well as learners with a teaching presentation, a follow-up exercise and a writing game such as sentence scramble or line match.
ReplyDeleteLink:
http://www.time4writing.com/teaching-writing/
I like how each resource takes you to a new page that explains a writing process or technique with a PPT presentation, an exercise and a game. Also, the graphic organizers are very helpful and can be used for brainstorming. The game on critiquing and grading is very interesting. It trains teachers to identify students' errors and their types.
Site summary: This site is a great resource for writing teachers. It has nice activities, materials and creative ideas that teachers can use in their classes and students can use to study, practice and play language games. It focuses on language including grammar, sentence structure and vocabulary and also on essay organization.
Pros: The site is easy to explore and very fun. The PPT presentations are very useful. It has links that take you to free resources on creative writing, the writing process, graphic organizers and also grading and critiquing(for teachers).
Cons: The site can only be used with school students (elementary, middle and high school). It lacks prompts or topics for learners to write on or for teachers to give to students so that they can apply what the presentation and the the exercises taught them. It also involves reading and not actual writing.
Nice site, Mona - thanks for sharing. I too like how, for example, for ideas for teaching creative writing, you can look at a presentation to help organize your thoughts on how to teach it, choose an exercise for either elementary, middle or high school, and play a sentence unscramble game. Nice that it's geared strictly towards writing, too. It seems, though, that the objective of this site is actually to make money by selling courses and that the amount of free ideas and activities is a bit limited.
DeleteI agree with Sarah, though I do think even a small collection of well-developed writing examples and exercises can be effective. That said, a comprehensive site that as much product would also be nice to find for free. For $99 a year, it might be a bargain for a school. The site does seem to be geared toward sales, but take what you can for free.
DeleteI like the website, too, but would really like to see the full version so there could be access to more worksheets--more worksheets is important because reading books have all of these activities but in limited numbers. What's nice about this site (if we had the full version) is you can find an activity related to the exact skill you want your students to practice. Say, for example, in the students' reading textbook every third chapter has a graphic organizer activity, but you as a teacher come to realize that they are quite weak in this area... with only a textbook, you are limited in the amount of times your students can practice this skill. With this website, however, I imagine there is plenty to print off and give them. Another thing is the game. My internet has been too slow lately so it won't open, but I clicked on the "play a game" link on the Graphic Organizers' page. If the games are good, it would be nice to share it with students so that can do some practice at home. You could get them to take a screen shot of their game score and send it to you as proof they played the game, or leave it up to them if they want the extra practice or not.
DeleteThe following site not geared only towards reading and writing but rather to a variety of different skills at different levels of instruction; the following link, however, will take you to a particular reading comprehension activity: http://iteslj.org/Lessons/Akgun-ReadingComp.html
ReplyDeleteThis activity could be a fun and creative way to have your students negotiate for meaning and check for their understanding of the passage. The teacher who submitted this lesson offers suggestions on how to prepare for the lesson, what to do in class, states the learning objectives,the level for which this activity is appropriate and other options for this activity.
Another example of a reading activity under "Lessons" on http://iteslj.org contains merely a passage about the origins of chocolate followed by ordinary comprehension questions, and so we see that some lessons are a bit more inspired than others!
Site Summary: The Internet TESL Journal website offers a variety of information from articles to activities and is geared towards ESL/EFL teachers yet contains a student-centered link (http://a4esl.org) complete with quizzes and puzzles. The lessons are submitted by ESL/EFL teachers and cover a range of topics and skills.
Pros: There is a wide variety of information on this site, from articles to techniques to lessons to games and jokes and activities for students. Some of the ideas are quite creative.
Cons: It is not the most organized or attractive of websites and can be difficult to navigate; for example, "Games" is listed under "Lessons" and yet there is a tab at the top specifically intended for games. Not all of the lessons and activities are winners - you have to pick and choose. Since anyone can submit to the site, there's no guarantee that the ideas are good ones. Also, not all of the topics and skills under "Lessons" are equitably represented; e.g., under "Listening," only one activity is listed, whereas under "Culture" you will find 16!
Thank you Sarah for sharing this website with us. I actually used it last summer while we were developing materials for the new Bridge program in the curriculum design course. I found it very useful yet as you said difficult to navigate. It lacks organization and also pictures and colors :) However, the activities are very interesting and it is full of resources for teachers of various skills. I also like the articles that we (MA students) can use for our courses to open discussions on teaching techniques and theories such as content based ESL curriculum and other teaching related articles with useful references.
DeleteI liked a3ESL a lot. Quick, comprehensive quizzes and fun to experiment.I agree that it's a little clunky. I also liked the paper-cutting activity. I need more kinesthetic activity in my class and this is the kind of thing I think would work.
DeleteWow, this site is very basic but that's what it says in its tagline so it's not like it's trying to hide it!
DeleteI actually found the homepage the easiest: http://iteslj.org/
It's organized in a really simple table and you can scroll down and skim the topics. I came across this one: http://iteslj.org/Techniques/Meloni-Email.html it's "Using E-mail in Foreign Language Teaching: Rationale and Suggestions". There are quite a few ideas on the page, including this one called a Tandem Exchange: "A "tandem exchange" offers an interesting alternative. In this type of exchange individuals are studying each other's native language and, therefore, they play both the role of native speaker and of language learner." Essentially, two language learners communicate with each other via email and help the other learn their native language. I mean, for example, the native German speaker helps the French student with his/her German, and the native French speaker helps the German with his/her French. I guess, as a teacher, you could get into contact with a teacher who teaches a another language and organize it that way... I think it would be better if the teachers organize it to ensure that each student has a language partner.
not sure how to create links here, obviously… sorry!
ReplyDeleteme too!
DeleteOk, so I’m going a little old school for this assignment. Though I love technology, Purdue Owl Online Writing Lab is one of my favorite sites specifically because it is low tech. I think that I assume way too much about my students ability to interact with educational technology, and their desire to do so. They like to talk, and they believe what they can see that is simple. Purdue Owl to the rescue. They have page specifically for ESL writers! https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/section/5/25/
ReplyDeleteSite Summary: Part of Purdue University, the site features these key writing elements:
General Writing • Research and Citation • Teaching and Tutoring • Subject-Specific Writing • Job Search Writing • ESL
Pros: The site is comprehensive, easy to use, well organized, and detailed. It breaks writing down from “general” to categories that allow a new writer to see how easily their writing can be focused. “Writing in… Literature, Social Sciences, Engineering, Creative Writing, Medical, etc.” all make it clear that there are different foci of writing at the university level. Further, “Job Search Writing” and “ESL” sections show that English is not just for essay writing, it has real-world application. The sections under ESL include specific articles on writing for North American Colleges, Global Business Audiences, Indian, Chinese, and more.
Cons: Outside of the ESL pages, it can be a little overwhelming. For example, the section on plagiarism includes four different examples, each with varying levels of what is considered plagiarism. For someone trying to understand the basic concept, this might be too much information.
Purdue OWL writing lab is a good resource for both teachers and students. I used it for my Study Skills course to teach outlining. It is very detailed and easy to navigate. My students found it very informative and clear. This semester, I use it sometimes for my grammar course. I like how it explains grammar in a brief and clear way with examples and exercises.
DeleteGood choice, Graeme! Thanks for sharing :)
I had no idea that Purdue Owl offered that much! I knew about the outlining and I use it extensively for my own assignments (citations and reference list) but I didn't know it offered writing resources for ESL students. It think it is a good idea to introduce our students to this site from the beginning because when they enter their *real* AUC classes they will need to learn how to write citations and a reference list. Unfortunately, in the IEP the students are taught a a version of citations that is a very far-cry from reality. I often wonder why we even teach it that way. I guess what I'm saying is it's a good site for us teachers because it offers great resources, but it might also be worth it to show it to our students so they can navigate it and use it as their own resource. Maybe a "Scavenger Hunt" type activity could be made to "force" the students to explore the site.
DeleteI too like the explanations of grammar points such as combining sentences and especially the section on prepositions because of the cute visuals! But where are the exercises? I see lots of helpful examples that the students can read but no activities that they can actually do.
ReplyDeleteI use some of the explanations to create my own activities. For example, if you go to the link https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/605/01/, you'll find a table of irregular verbs. I use them in sentences to prepare activities where they have to complete the sentences using the correct form of the verb according to the tenses. I also erased the last column and made handouts for the students and we completed them in class.
ReplyDeleteDon’t let the name turn you away, Bogglesworld can be a fun and useful website for teaching ESL. The easiest place to start is the homepage because you can see all the tabs (sometimes when you start navigating the site, you will come to a page that has less tabs to choose from than the homepage… I don’t know why it does this).
ReplyDeletehttp://bogglesworldesl.com/
For the purpose of this post, though, here is a link to a writing activity:
http://bogglesworldesl.com/lessons/argument1.htm
I chose this writing activity because I found it both interesting and useful for teachers and students. It’s useful because the whole lesson plan is provided for you and worksheets, too. It’s interesting because the students are being introduced to the basics of writing a Pro and Con essay but not in the traditional sense of “Today we are going to learn how to write a Pro and Con essay”. Instead, the teacher starts off the lesson by telling the students that today they are going to decide whether or not students should be allowed to elect their own teachers. I imagine students would have a lot to say about that; also, it’s about their own life so it will be interesting to them. If the topic was “Should students our age be allowed to vote in the elections?” it wouldn’t be so relevant to them.
Site Summary: The site offers lesson plans, worksheets, board games, flashcards, and fun activities. It is geared towards young learners and adult learners, too.
Pros: Using the “Writing Workshops” as an example, you will there are a lot of pros. For example, you can choose what you want to teacher your students, then the website tells you what you need to do to prepare for the lesson, then it gives you the introduction, the activity(ies) including the worksheets, and then the homework. It also includes vocabulary and hands-on activities. Regarding the hands-on activities and using the Weighing an Argument to demonstrate, we can see that at the top of the lesson plan there are two links, the first is a worksheet of election vocabulary and the second is about making a campaign poster. These are really nice activities to warm-up the students. Lastly, I highly recommend the board games for grammar. I used one for prepositions once and the students loved it.
Cons: I haven’t been able to find a search option on the webpage but I’ve always used Google by typing in the topic and skill I wanted a worksheet for and then added “boggles world”. Also, if you use the website a lot, the worksheets start to look familiar in their format and it can get boring. Lastly, there is a section for adult learners but it is very limited.
Now I'm interested in Boggle's World as learning through playing can be quite motivating for young learners. Also hands on activities can be quite entertaining for adults as well.
DeleteI see that this activity is actually the first of a three-part series, followed by "Building an Argument" and "Refuting an Argument." I love that embedded in the description of the lesson are links to the worksheets and vocabulary handouts you can use along with each lesson, and that it takes you step-by-step through everything you need to do at each point in the lesson! Brilliant. "Building an Argument" deals with developing a thesis statement and main supporting points and examples; the argument used in this lesson is that smoking should be banned from public places, but obviously you could use any topic you think would be most interesting to your students if this isn't one that floats their boat - the framework outlined on the website would be the same, but you would have to make your own vocabulary handouts. Like you said, the worksheets all have the same format which might get tedious so you might end up making your own from time to time or doing something altogether different with the vocabulary they'll need for the lesson.
ReplyDeleteTeaching vocabulary by using cards can be quite entertaining for young learners. By applying physical response method ,,learners will be excited in moving around the room searching for the exact vocabulary words that match the definitions ;by adding a third group as well will add more fun to the collaborative writing.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI usually use online sites when I look for lesson plans, work sheets or more activities for my students. A good resource that I would recommend is
ReplyDeletehttp://www.eslgold.com/
This site has a lot of free lessons and materials that I have personally used with my students.This site is not only for reading or writing as it has more tabs for other language skills. The site groups materials based on their level of difficulty, which can help learners explore it on their own and find what they look for.
Pros: The site is very user friendly and has an eye catchy interface. It is also well organized and learners can join a network of English conversation partners to practice their English with.The site has also quizzes and suggested article for extensive reading.
Cons: Although the site has pretty good resources, it is frustrating that those are not in the form of printable worksheets. Under reading, there is a good number of reading comprehensions with pre, while, and post questions but they all need to be complied in one document and be ready for printing.