Discover what's new or coming soon, including upcoming lessons and resources and product feature updates. 

Announcements

<h1>Introducing Individual Student Assignments</h1>

<p>Great news, teachers!</p>

<p>As of today, you can now select which individual students receive specific assignments within any class.&nbsp;</p>

<h3><strong>Here&#39;s how it works:</strong></h3>

<ul>
	<li>Click on a lesson, video, or flashcard set in your Prepping or Teaching lane within any of your classes</li>
	<li>A modal will open with your assignment preferences for that lesson&nbsp;</li>
	<li>Click the &quot;Students&quot; tab in the top navigation of the modal</li>
	<li>Switch the setting from &quot;All students&quot; to &quot;Some students&quot;</li>
	<li>Select the students you want to assign the lesson to&nbsp;and remember to hit &quot;Save&quot; inside the modal before closing it</li>
</ul>

<p>Only the selected students will see the assignment inside their class dashboard.</p>

<div class="videoWrapper"><iframe allow="autoplay; fullscreen" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/C5BgjG7wtaI?si=I4waw7z14JkLaeer" width="640"></iframe></div>

<p>We know that a lot of you have been asking for this feature for a while now. So thanks for your patience, and we hope it&#39;s a big help!</p>

<p>All the best,<br />
Ben :)</p>

<p>Founder, CEO at Ellii</p>


Introducing Individual Student Assignments

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Stay up-to-date with ELT trends and ideas with articles from experts and teachers in the field.

Articles

<p>I&#39;ve been teaching people seeking refuge and asylum in the UK since 2007. I feel absolutely privileged to have them as&nbsp;students.&nbsp;</p>

<p>They are some of the kindest, friendliest, most generous humans I have ever&nbsp;met.</p>

<p>I&#39;ve&nbsp;learned so much about international culture and affairs. I&#39;ve&nbsp;also been particularly lucky in sampling all sorts of delicious traditional treats, and I&#39;ve been introduced to some amazing books, films, and&nbsp;music.&nbsp;</p>

<p>Even the loveliest of students come with&nbsp;challenges.</p>

<p>Many of them have experienced forced displacement and severe trauma. Some of them have lost families and loved ones or been permanently separated from&nbsp;them.&nbsp;</p>

<p>When people ask me where my students are from, it often depends on the political&nbsp;climate.</p>

<p>When I first started teaching ESOL (English to Speakers of Other Languages), my classes were predominantly Eastern European, Congolese, Somalian, and&nbsp;Afghan.</p>

<p>Over the years, this demographic has&nbsp;changed.</p>

<p>Now&nbsp;I teach a lot of students from El Salvador, Kurdistan, Eritrea, Syria, and,&nbsp;I&rsquo;m sure very soon,&nbsp;Ukraine.&nbsp;</p>

<p>In this post, I&rsquo;d like to share with you six ways in which you can support English learners from refugee&nbsp;backgrounds.&nbsp;</p>

<h2>1. Keep it relatable</h2>

<p>When selecting topics to study, <strong>choose something relatable which will benefit the learners in their daily&nbsp;lives.</strong>&nbsp;</p>

<p>For example, students who can&rsquo;t leave the country because they don&rsquo;t have the travel documents or the funds may not be motivated to talk about dream holidays in exotic locations. Instead, you could bring in leaflets for free things to do in the local&nbsp;area.&nbsp;</p>

<p>One Ellii lesson that my students really enjoyed was <a href="https://ellii.com/courses/134/lessons/3656 " target="_blank">Hiro&rsquo;s Apartment</a>. It was a great way to introduce vocabulary related to housing similar to their&nbsp;own.&nbsp;</p>

<h2>2. Offer options</h2>

<p>Just as it&rsquo;s important to keep topics practical for learners, it&rsquo;s also important to ensure they&#39;re not triggering. Some&nbsp;seemingly harmless&nbsp;topics could upset learners. So it&#39;s always good to provide&nbsp;options.</p>

<p>For example, a learner who&#39;s lost family members may not wish to talk about their family&nbsp;in detail.&nbsp;In this case, you can ask them to choose to talk about someone special to them. This person could be a friend or an&nbsp;acquaintance.&nbsp;</p>

<p><meta charset="utf-8" /></p>

<p><strong>Providing options and adaptations ensures learners always feel included</strong> and that they can practice the language&nbsp;points.&nbsp;</p>

<h2>3. Explore intercultural diversity</h2>

<p>ESOL and ESL classes are often very&nbsp;multicultural.</p>

<p>I&#39;ve learned so much about festivals, food, clothes, and traditions around the world.&nbsp;These topics can really enthuse&nbsp;learners from refugee backgrounds&nbsp;and create rich&nbsp;discussions.&nbsp;</p>

<p>They&#39;re also a great way to <strong>encourage cross-cultural understanding and acceptance.</strong>&nbsp;</p>

<p>Have a look at a diversity <a href="https://ellii.com/calendar" target="_blank">calendar</a>&nbsp;or ask your learners when special events are coming up for them. Then teach a lesson on these special events. Ask them to share their own ways to celebrate. It&rsquo;s likely that each individual or family has their own unique way of marking a special&nbsp;occasion.</p>

<p>This is a great way for English learners to <strong>explore the diverse ways people live around the world</strong>. It&rsquo;s also beneficial for considering differences in individual and collective&nbsp;cultures.&nbsp;</p>

<p>Have a look at Ellii&#39;s <a href="https://ellii.com/courses/93/lessons" target="_blank">Holidays &amp; Events</a> section for 100+ English lessons about holidays, events, and cultural and religious observances&nbsp;around the&nbsp;world.</p>

<h2>4. Be trauma-informed</h2>

<p>As I previously mentioned, some learners may have mental health problems such as <a href="https://ellii.com/courses/95/lessons/1851" target="_blank">depression</a> or <a href="https://ellii.com/courses/95/lessons/4162" target="_blank">post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)</a>.&nbsp;You may need to be flexible in your&nbsp;approach.</p>

<p>Some students may have priorities greater than their language classes. For example, they may be trying to relocate loved ones, find a job, or navigate&nbsp;homelessness.&nbsp;</p>

<p>English language classes can be a great distraction from the pressures of life. <strong>Try to keep lessons as fun and engaging as&nbsp;possible.</strong></p>

<p>Also keep in mind that for some learners, holidays may not be the welcome break we&rsquo;d expect. English language classes can be a mental health lifeline. A way to keep&nbsp;busy.</p>

<p>If possible, try to <strong>find&nbsp;alternative ways for learners to pass the time during holiday periods</strong>. For example, look for things to do in the local&nbsp;community.&nbsp;</p>

<p>You can read more on supporting your learners&#39; mental health needs in my previous blog post: <a href="https://ellii.com/blog/how-promote-mental-health-in-the-classroom" target="_blank">5 Ways to Promote Mental Health in the English Language&nbsp;Classroom</a>.</p>

<h2>5. Advocate</h2>

<p>Throughout&nbsp;my years as a language teacher, I&#39;ve signed countless petitions,&nbsp;written numerous letters to politicians, and stood in the rain at many&nbsp;protests.&nbsp;</p>

<p>Advocating for refugee rights in this way helps me feel like I&rsquo;m making the world a better place. It also lets students see that I&#39;m there for&nbsp;them.&nbsp;</p>

<p>In class, it&#39;s important to support students to find their own&nbsp;voice.</p>

<p><strong>Always be ready to listen to their needs and support them to advocate for themselves where possible.</strong>&nbsp;This can mean teaching them to write emails to their local councillors or simply pointing them toward&nbsp;organizations that can&nbsp;help.&nbsp;</p>

<h2>6. Fundraise</h2>

<p><strong><img alt="A smiling Emily Bryson posing with her bike in front of a giant ceramic mosaic sculpture of a fish in Belfast, Ireland." src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/2515/content_Emily-Bryson-Belfast-Cycle.jpg" /></strong></p>

<p class="caption">Photo of Emily Bryson posing with her bike in front of the Big Fish sculpture in Belfast, Ireland.</p>

<p>I recently cycled to the <a href="https://www.iatefl.org/conference/home" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">2022 International Association of Teachers of English as a Foreign Language (IATEFL) conference</a> to raise money for a refugee education&nbsp;charity.&nbsp;</p>

<p>I cycled 150 miles (241.4 kilometers)&nbsp;in two days from Glasgow, Scotland, to Belfast, Ireland&nbsp;(I cheated a bit and took the ferry from Cairnryan).&nbsp;The hardest part was packing a limited conference wardrobe&mdash;and trying to dry my wet socks with an automatic hand&nbsp;dryer!&nbsp;</p>

<p>I raised &pound;2,500 pounds (approximately US$3,060)&nbsp;for <a href="https://www.amalaeducation.org/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Amala</a>.&nbsp;I was stunned by everyone&rsquo;s&nbsp;generosity!</p>

<p>Amala delivers educational programmes to refugee communities all over the world. They currently facilitate courses in refugee camps in Jordan, Kenya, and&nbsp;Greece.&nbsp;</p>

<p>Curious to learn more about my cycle and fundraising? Follow&nbsp;me on&nbsp;<a href="https://www.instagram.com/emilybrysonelt/?hl=en" rel="noopener noreferrer no follow" target="_blank">Instagram</a>, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/EmilyBrysonELT" rel="noopener noreferrer no follow" target="_blank">Facebook</a>, and <a href="https://mobile.twitter.com/emilybrysonelt" rel="noopener noreferrer no follow" target="_blank">Twitter</a>.&nbsp;</p>

<div class="white-box">
<h5>Share your thoughts</h5>

<p>What do you do to support learners from refugee backgrounds? Have you been involved in or are you planning any fundraising? We&rsquo;d love to know! Share in the comments&nbsp;below.&nbsp;</p>
</div>


6 Ways to Support English Learners from Refugee Backgrounds

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Posts describing lessons or activities for the ESL classroom.

Activities

<p>The end of a term,&nbsp;course, or school year is a time for celebration and reflection. It&rsquo;s an opportunity for students to look back at the distance they&rsquo;ve traveled, review key language points, and have a bit of&nbsp;fun.&nbsp;</p>

<p>Here are three&nbsp;of my favorite end-of-term activities your English learners are sure to&nbsp;love:</p>

<h2>1. Road map reflection</h2>

<p>This is a really common technique in the graphic facilitation world.</p>

<p>Simply draw a road map into the horizon (pathways and rivers also work well) on a whiteboard or&nbsp;flipchart. Give your learners sticky notes and ask them to write some ideas for how they felt at the beginning of the&nbsp;term.&nbsp;</p>

<p>You could give them prompts like:&nbsp;</p>

<ul>
	<li>How confident were you with speaking/listening/reading/writing?</li>
	<li>How did you feel about your vocabulary/grammar/pronunciation?</li>
</ul>

<p>Students then stick the notes in the distance, on the horizon of the road&nbsp;map.&nbsp;</p>

<p>Once that&#39;s complete, give them another set of sticky notes and repeat the task for how they feel now. Students can then add their ideas to the front of the&nbsp;map.</p>

<p>You can then facilitate a class discussion on distance traveled, praise, and next&nbsp;steps.&nbsp;</p>

<p>This also works well as an individual task. You could ask students to complete the horizon at the beginning of term&nbsp;and then ask them to look back once the course is&nbsp;completed.&nbsp;</p>

<p><img alt="Road map drawing where the road is fading into the horizon line." src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/2494/content_Roadmap-Emily-Bryson-ELT-.jpg" /></p>

<h2>2. Random discussion topics</h2>

<p>At the end of a term, I often find that students want to use their language skills more naturally. They also want to&nbsp;review vocabulary they&#39;ve learned.&nbsp;</p>

<p>One way to do this is to have them ask and answer questions based on random&nbsp;topics.&nbsp;</p>

<p>Ellii&#39;s&nbsp;<a href="https://help.ellii.com/article/63-how-to-create-flashcard-sets" target="_blank">Flashcard Set</a>&nbsp;feature is great for this. If you have time before class, you can create a set of flashcards which revises specific words they&rsquo;ve learned throughout the&nbsp;year.&nbsp;</p>

<p>Click through the set and have students ask and answer questions for each word. For example, if the flashcard shows &quot;beach ball&quot;&nbsp;you could ask them to talk about beach balls for one&nbsp;minute.&nbsp;</p>

<p><img alt="Ellii Beach Ball flashcard" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/2468/content_beach-ball-flashcard-Ellii.jpg" /></p>

<p>At lower levels, have one student make a question and another answer it. Encourage them to ask open questions (e.g., who, when, why, what, where) to get more interesting&nbsp;answers!</p>

<p>For example:&nbsp;</p>

<table class="horizontal">
	<tbody>
		<tr>
			<th>Student&nbsp;1:</th>
			<td>When do you play with <strong>beach balls</strong>?</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<th>Student&nbsp;2:</th>
			<td>I play with <strong>beach balls</strong> when I&#39;m on holiday.</td>
		</tr>
	</tbody>
</table>

<p>If you&rsquo;re too busy to create a flashcard set, you could simply select a ready-made flashcard topic or browse the <strong>All&nbsp;</strong>category. Students can then select a word at random through a class vote or a volunteer closing their eyes and&nbsp;pointing.&nbsp;</p>

<p><img alt="All Ellii flashcards" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/2469/content_All-Flashcards-Ellii.jpg" /></p>

<h2>3. Pictionarades</h2>

<p>The last class of the term has to be fun! And what better way to add a bit of laughter than by drawing and acting out phrases or words at the same&nbsp;time?&nbsp;</p>

<p>I&rsquo;m sure you&rsquo;re all aware of Pictionary and charades, but I&rsquo;d just like to summarize them quickly as a&nbsp;reminder.&nbsp;</p>

<p><strong>Pictionary</strong> is a game of quick drawing. Give students a vocabulary item and ask them to draw it. You can do this in teams, with one student drawing while their teammates guess, or as a whole class, with one learner drawing and the rest of the class shouting out their&nbsp;ideas.&nbsp;</p>

<p><strong>Charades</strong> is a similar idea. Participants are given a vocabulary point and they have to act it out while others guess. Much like Pictionary, it can be played in pairs, small groups, or as a whole&nbsp;class.&nbsp;</p>

<p>Why not combine the two and give students the option of whether to draw or&nbsp;act?&nbsp;</p>

<p><strong>Pictionary + Charades = Pictionarades</strong></p>

<p>This will...</p>

<ul>
	<li>allow students who prefer a bit of movement to get active</li>
	<li>allow students who&nbsp;lack confidence in drawing the option to use&nbsp;drama</li>
	<li>allow students who are shy with performing to&nbsp;draw</li>
	<li>provide an option to naturally choose the best way to communicate (e.g., some words or phrases may be easier to draw than to act or vice&nbsp;versa)</li>
	<li>allow students to draw and act at the same time, if&nbsp;necessary</li>
</ul>

<div class="white-box">
<h5>Share your thoughts</h5>

<p>Have you tried any of these activities with your English learners? How did it go? If you have any of your own favorite end-of-term activities, share them with us&nbsp;in the comments&nbsp;below!</p>
</div>


3 Awesome End-of-Term Activities for English Learners

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These posts are written for learners of English themselves. Find learning tips and ideas for learning English.

For Students

<p>What do you think of when you hear &ldquo;California&rdquo;? Probably palm trees, surfers, and movie&nbsp;stars.</p>

<p>But what if I told you there were two different&nbsp;Californias?</p>

<p>It&rsquo;s true! While Southern California (SoCal) and Northern California (NorCal) might be part of the same state, they have completely different <strong>climates</strong>, <strong>landscapes</strong>, and&nbsp;reputations.</p>

<p>Though it&rsquo;s important not to believe all stereotypes, many&nbsp;Californians&nbsp;still love to debate these&nbsp;differences.</p>

<p>Here are a few of the biggest differences&nbsp;between NorCal and&nbsp;SoCal:</p>

<h2>Climate</h2>

<p>If your idea of California is all sunshine and T-shirt weather, you must be thinking of SoCal. There, even in December, the average weather ranges from 58 to 79 degrees Fahrenheit or 14 to 26 degrees&nbsp;Celsius.</p>

<p>NorCal is a different story.</p>

<p>Though it can still be warm <strong>inland</strong>, coastal cities like San Francisco are known for their rainy, foggy&nbsp;weather.</p>

<p>In fact, the fog is so famous in San Francisco&nbsp;that locals have even given it a nickname: Karl the Fog.&nbsp;Karl has his own <a href="https://mobile.twitter.com/karlthefog?lang=en" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Twitter account</a>&nbsp;and is even the star of his very own <a href="https://www.chroniclebooks.com/products/karl-the-fog" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">children&rsquo;s&nbsp;book</a>!</p>

<h2>Nature</h2>

<p>California is a long state bordered to the west by the Pacific Ocean. There are beaches all along the coast, so you&nbsp;can surf pretty much anywhere. But&nbsp;if you&rsquo;re planning on surfing up north, you better wear a <strong>wetsuit</strong>&nbsp;because that water is&nbsp;cold!</p>

<p>If you&rsquo;re looking for palm trees, you&rsquo;re better off sticking to SoCal&nbsp;where most of the landscape is&nbsp;desert.</p>

<p>Because NorCal gets much more rain, it tends to be&nbsp;greener.</p>

<p>In fact, Northern California is covered in a vast forest, which is home to the world&rsquo;s tallest trees: redwoods (also known as sequoias). Redwood trees generally grow between 250 and 300 feet tall (72 and 91 meters)&nbsp;and some are wide enough to drive&nbsp;through!</p>

<blockquote>
<h3><strong>Fun Fact</strong></h3>

<p>Some redwoods can live to be 1,500 years&nbsp;old!</p>
</blockquote>

<h2>Industry</h2>

<p>SoCal is the home of Hollywood. People all over the world move to SoCal hoping to become famous and &ldquo;make it big&rdquo; in the film industry.</p>

<p>NorCal, on the other hand, is the home of Silicon&nbsp;Valley.</p>

<p>If you&rsquo;d rather develop the next big app than star in the next big movie, the San Francisco Bay Area is the place for you. This area of NorCal is home to all the big tech giants, from Facebook to Apple to&nbsp;Google.</p>

<h2>Attitude</h2>

<p>Since California is a <strong>diverse</strong> place,&nbsp;it&rsquo;s impossible to generalize everyone. There&#39;s a huge Hispanic community in California since it used to be part of&nbsp;Mexico.</p>

<p>The building of the Transcontinental Railroad in the 1860s and the California Gold Rush of 1849 also brought many Asian workers to&nbsp;California.</p>

<p>But despite all this fabulous state-wide diversity, Californians will still try to convince you why their region is the&nbsp;best.</p>

<p>As a whole, California has a reputation for being one of the more politically <strong>liberal</strong> states in the US, though there are certainly <strong>conservative</strong>&nbsp;areas.&nbsp;</p>

<p>People from NorCal will tell you that people from SoCal are <strong>superficial</strong>, thanks to Hollywood. Meanwhile, people from SoCal will say that people from NorCal are a bunch of liberal&nbsp;<strong>hippies</strong>.</p>

<div class="white-box">
<h5>Are you more NorCal or SoCal?</h5>

<p>Now that you&rsquo;ve heard about some of the big differences between SoCal and NorCal, where would you rather visit? Which part of California seems more like your scene? Tell us in the&nbsp;comments!</p>
</div>

<h2>Glossary</h2>

<ul>
	<li><strong>climate</strong>: <em>the weather of a specific region averaged over a long period of&nbsp;time</em></li>
	<li><strong>landscape</strong>: <em>the&nbsp;nature in&nbsp;a specific&nbsp;region</em></li>
	<li><strong>inland</strong>: <em>the interior of a country normally far away from the&nbsp;coast</em></li>
	<li><strong>wetsuit</strong><em>: a tight outfit used to keep people warm in the&nbsp;water</em></li>
	<li><strong>diverse</strong>: <em>composed of many different types of&nbsp;people</em></li>
	<li><strong>liberal</strong>: <em>believing more in political progress or change than in tradition</em></li>
	<li><strong>conservative</strong>: <em>believing more in political tradition than in progress or&nbsp;change</em></li>
	<li><strong>superficial</strong>: <em>caring too much about&nbsp;appearances</em></li>
	<li><strong>hippy</strong>: <em>a group of people in the 1960s and 1970s who cared about social and environmental issues and believed in love instead of&nbsp;war</em></li>
</ul>


NorCal Vs. SoCal: The Two Sides of California

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Learn how to make the most of your Ellii subscription with tips from our publishing team.

Teaching with Ellii

<p>Did you know?&nbsp;<a href="https://ellii.com/courses/88/lessons" target="_blank">Grammar&nbsp;Practice&nbsp;Worksheets</a> (affectionately referred to as GPWs by our publishing team) are used by more teachers than any other lesson section on our&nbsp;site.<br />
<br />
GPWs provide clear, thorough explanations of <strong>grammar&nbsp;targets</strong>. They also include a variety of writing tasks and group activities that give students confidence to put the structures into practice when they&#39;re producing the language on their&nbsp;own.</p>

<p>Our subscribers flock to this section no matter if they&#39;re teaching beginners or advanced learners, introducing or reviewing a grammar&nbsp;target.<br />
<br />
Here are a few warm-up and follow-up activities for&nbsp;exploiting the grammar lessons from&nbsp;our <strong>Grammar Practice Worksheets</strong> section to ensure that your students come away with a full understanding of the target at&nbsp;hand.</p>

<h1>Warm-up activities</h1>

<p>These activities take place before you hand out the GPW.</p>

<p>The first two&nbsp;grammar activities&nbsp;appeal to students who have an <strong>inductive </strong>learning style. In other words, these students respond best when grammar is presented in context or naturalistically. This type of presentation is called<strong> implicit</strong> instruction, and the focus is on&nbsp;meaning.</p>

<p>The third grammar activity is geared toward students who learn best through<strong> explicit&nbsp;</strong>instruction with a focus on&nbsp;form.</p>

<p>Let&#39;s get started!</p>

<h2>1. Present the target structure in context</h2>

<p>Students will often discover patterns and use their analytical skills to understand grammar rules when they&#39;re introduced to a target structure in&nbsp;context.</p>

<p>It&#39;s&nbsp;not necessary to point out the structure to students as they read or listen. The goal is for students to make connections between the patterns and the meaning of the text, often on a subconscious&nbsp;level.</p>

<p>Try it out:</p>

<ul>
	<li><strong>For lower-level students</strong>, Ellii has two sections with readings that focus on a particular grammar structure and present it in context: <a href="https://ellii.com/courses/90/lessons" target="_blank">Grammar&nbsp;Stories (⁠⁠Beginner&nbsp;&ndash;&nbsp;Intermediate⁠⁠)</a> and <a href="https://ellii.com/courses/129/lessons" target="_blank">True&nbsp;Grammar&nbsp;Stories (⁠⁠Beginner&nbsp;&ndash;&nbsp;Low&nbsp;Intermediate⁠⁠)</a>. Since these lessons also include an audio recording of the readings, you may choose to present the material&nbsp;aurally.</li>
	<li><strong>For more advanced students</strong>, the authentic readings found in <a href="https://ellii.com/courses/133/lessons" target="_blank">That&#39;s&nbsp;News&nbsp;to&nbsp;Me</a> may be more appropriate. For example, the following paragraph from the lesson&nbsp;<a href="https://ellii.com/courses/133/lessons/4083" target="_blank">The&nbsp;Mysterious&nbsp;Cheese&nbsp;Theft</a> provides exposure to the <a href="https://ellii.com/courses/88/lessons/1601" target="_blank">passive&nbsp;voice</a>:</li>
</ul>

<blockquote>
<p>&quot;But milk doesn&#39;t turn into cheese on its own. It has to be prepared, acidified,&nbsp;curdled, cut, pressed, and drained in a lengthy process that takes almost a whole day, van Dorp said. Next, it gets shaped into its signature round figure and put into a salt bath for one to two days. A week is then spent&nbsp;coating&nbsp;and drying it. Finally, the wheel is placed on a shelf to mature for at least three months, after which it&#39;s ready to go into the belly of a happy&nbsp;customer.&quot;</p>

<p class="attribution">&mdash;&quot;Thieves strike in the Netherlands with heist of $22,000&mdash;in cheese.&quot; April 14, 2022. &copy; The Washington Post.</p>
</blockquote>

<h2>2.&nbsp;Ask a question that uses the target structure</h2>

<p>When you ask a question that uses the target structure, students become aware of the language they need to answer&nbsp;it.</p>

<p>If you&#39;re preparing your students for a grammar lesson on the&nbsp;<a href="https://ellii.com/courses/88/lessons/1595" target="_blank">past&nbsp;progressive</a>, you can ask, &ldquo;What were you doing at 10⁠⁠:⁠⁠00 last&nbsp;night?&rdquo;</p>

<p>Students may try to use the simple past tense in their answer but will recognize that their response does not match the&nbsp;question.</p>

<h2>3.&nbsp;See what students already know</h2>

<p>Most of our GPWs include a quiz at the end of the&nbsp;lesson.</p>

<p>Have students take the quiz before you begin the lesson. Their results can be used as a pacing&nbsp;guide.</p>

<p>If students do well on the quiz, you can approach the grammar lesson as a review. If they do poorly, you will need to spend extra time on the <strong>Notes </strong>section&nbsp;and going over the answers of each&nbsp;task.</p>

<p><strong><img alt="Image of highlighted notes section in Past Progressive Lesson " src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/2445/content_Ellii-teacher-note-grammar-quiz.jpg" /></strong></p>

<h1>Follow-up activities</h1>

<p>Recycle the warm-up activities&nbsp;by using these follow-up activities to check and reinforce students&#39; understanding of the target&nbsp;structure.</p>

<h2>1.&nbsp;Have students review the&nbsp;text you used to present the structure in&nbsp;context</h2>

<p>This time, have students circle all the instances where the structure is used. As an extra challenge, have them explain why it was&nbsp;used.</p>

<p>If you had students just listen to the text the first time, play the recording again and have students raise their hand each time they hear the grammar&nbsp;target.</p>

<h2>2. Ask the same question</h2>

<p>See if students can apply the target structure to their&nbsp;answer.</p>

<p>At this point, it&#39;s okay to correct students or to ask them to pause and answer the question again if they make mistakes using the grammar target.</p>

<h2>3. Have students retake the&nbsp;quiz</h2>

<p>Compare their scores to the quiz before they did the lesson and after. Seeing their scores improve will give students a real confidence&nbsp;boost!</p>

<div class="white-box">
<h5>Share your thoughts</h5>

<p>What activities do you have your students do before and after they complete a Grammar Practice Worksheet?&nbsp;Please share your ideas in the comments&nbsp;below.</p>
</div>


Maximize the Benefits of Grammar Practice Worksheets with Warm-Up & Follow-Up Activities

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<div class="white-box">
<p>This article is part of a series of posts highlighting our community of teachers around the world. We hope you find their stories interesting and inspiring!</p>
</div>

<p>Camila Mu&ntilde;oz was working as a translator when she had an epiphany.</p>

<p>&ldquo;Working as a translator in different places made me realize that, not only is English crucial for any job, but also that people are very intimidated when it comes to learning and speaking the language,&rdquo;&nbsp;said Camila.</p>

<p>This is what made her decide to teach English.</p>

<p>&quot;I wanted to show people that learning English can be hard at the beginning (like anything you try for the first time), but when you know the basics and how it works, you can have a lot of fun!&rdquo;</p>

<p>Camila&#39;s been teaching for almost five years now.</p>

<p>She started out teaching in an in-person setting, but when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, she moved to teaching online.</p>

<p>&ldquo;It&#39;s&nbsp;been great!&rdquo; she said enthusiastically. &ldquo;I discovered that I could teach students from everywhere. Teaching online has been wonderful because not only does it save traveling time (and costs!), but it also allows me to use the interactive tools on the Ellii platform.&rdquo;</p>

<p>Currently, Camila teaches English remotely from her home in Concepci&oacute;n, Chile.</p>

<p>Her students live in different cities all over the country, ranging from pre-school age to adults. Most of her students are at the beginner and intermediate levels.</p>

<p><img alt="Camila Muñoz, a smiling woman with long hair, glasses, and a plaid shirt sitting at her desk holding an Ipad and headphones." src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/2437/content_Teacher-Feature_Camila-Munoz.jpg" /></p>

<p class="caption">Camila Mu&ntilde;oz&nbsp;is pictured here.</p>

<p>For Camila, a typical day of teaching starts at 9:00 am. She spends her mornings planning her afternoon and evening lessons. Once that&rsquo;s done, she looks over completed homework tasks.</p>

<p>Lessons take place from 3:00 pm until 7:00 pm.</p>

<p>&ldquo;This is when I have the most fun since I get to teach and connect with my students,&rdquo; she said.</p>

<h2>How Camila uses Ellii in the classroom</h2>

<p>Camila loves how organized Ellii is and finds the platform incredibly useful.</p>

<p>&ldquo;I use many of the <a href="https://ellii.com/courses/82/lessons" target="_blank">Famous Things</a> lessons since I can decide which one to use depending on my students&rsquo; interests and they can practice the four skills when we use them,&quot; said Camila. &quot;There are so many topics and choices. It&rsquo;s truly amazing!&rdquo;</p>

<p>Her students also really enjoy the role-play activities.</p>

<p>&ldquo;They can have so much fun with them, and it&rsquo;s great speaking practice,&rdquo; she said.</p>

<p>Check out Camila&#39;s&nbsp;text response below to learn more about why she loves Ellii and how she uses it with her students.</p>

<p><iframe allow="autoplay *; encrypted-media *; fullscreen *;" height="400px" src="https://www.videoask.com/afyoi8plwzah1ak07n7r8xkbphl42b4sk7tqyh4b" style="border: none; border-radius: 24px" width="100%"></iframe></p>

<h2>The challenges of teaching groups</h2>

<p>For Camila, teaching groups can be challenging.</p>

<p>&ldquo;When it comes to group sessions, one of the major challenges is to make sure every student understands what the lesson is about,&quot; she said.</p>

<p>Camila admits that sometimes&mdash;especially when there are many students in the class&mdash;it&rsquo;s hard for teachers to make sure everyone is able to learn.</p>

<p>&quot;Since students are often embarrassed or don&rsquo;t want to share their answers in front of the whole class, the challenge that&nbsp;we must overcome as teachers&nbsp;is to give our students a safe learning environment that will allow them to learn and share more,&rdquo; she explained.</p>

<p>Camila finds that teaching young children can be just as challenging.</p>

<p>&ldquo;Also&mdash;and especially with preschool students&mdash;it&rsquo;s very challenging to keep them motivated and get their attention,&quot; she said. &quot;Therefore, we need to find different strategies to make learning a fun and engaging experience.&rdquo;</p>

<h2>When teaching becomes a self-fulfilling experience</h2>

<p>Despite these challenges, Camila finds being a teacher incredibly rewarding.</p>

<p>&ldquo;I love when my adult&nbsp;and teenage students, who were once terrified to speak English, realize that it wasn&rsquo;t that hard and that they&rsquo;re able to communicate and do things,&quot; she said. &quot;[They can] . . . enjoy&nbsp;their favorite TV show or listen&nbsp;to their favorite artists and actually understand&nbsp;what they are saying.&quot;</p>

<p>Camila says her favorite part&nbsp;about teaching her pre-school students is that they&#39;re like little sponges because &quot;they soak&nbsp;everything up and learn super fast.&rdquo;</p>

<p>She describes teaching English as one of the most self-fulfilling experiences she&#39;s had.</p>

<p>&ldquo;I never thought teaching could bring me and my students so much joy,&quot; she said. &quot;As a translator and somebody that loves language and teaching English, being able to share what I know and make it easier for others has been an amazing experience.&rdquo;</p>

<blockquote>
<p>Want the chance to be featured in our Teacher Feature series? Visit our&nbsp;<a href="https://ellii.com/blog/20th-anniversary-giveaway" target="_blank">20th Anniversary Giveaway</a>&nbsp;blog post&nbsp;to tell us why you love Ellii and how you use it in your classroom.</p>
</blockquote>


Teacher Feature: Camila Muñoz

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<p>English language teaching is about equipping learners with skills and confidence to succeed. As teachers, we have the opportunity to support our learners to&nbsp;feel invincible when they leave the&nbsp;classroom.</p>

<p>I&rsquo;d like to share a quick and simple well-being activity I use with my learners called &quot;Inner Troll Vs. Inner Angel.&quot;</p>

<p>It focuses on quieting their inner troll and giving their inner angel a louder voice.&nbsp;</p>

<p>The inner troll is the part of the brain that wants to protect you from embarrassment or failure. It exacerbates self-limiting beliefs by using negative language such&nbsp;as:&nbsp;</p>

<ul>
	<li>You <b>can&rsquo;t</b> do that.&nbsp;</li>
	<li>You&rsquo;<strong>re</strong> <b>not</b> good enough.&nbsp;</li>
	<li>You&rsquo;<b>ll never</b> be able to do that.&nbsp;</li>
</ul>

<p>The inner angel is your inner troll&rsquo;s friendly and encouraging alter ego. It wants you to succeed in life and to try, even if something is difficult. It isn&rsquo;t worried about failure or embarrassment. It uses positive affirmations which give confidence such&nbsp;as:&nbsp;</p>

<ul>
	<li>You <b>can</b> do it.&nbsp;</li>
	<li>You <b>are</b> good enough.&nbsp;</li>
	<li>You<b>&rsquo;ll </b>get better in time.&nbsp;&nbsp;</li>
</ul>

<p>Many people battle with their inner troll. Learning how to <strong>switch negative thoughts to positive affirmations</strong> can have a life-changing effect on&nbsp;success.&nbsp;</p>

<h2>Inner Troll Vs. Inner Angel: How it works</h2>

<p><img alt="Drawing of frowning inner troll with an empty thought bubble and smiling inner angel with an empty through bubble." src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/2444/content_content_Screen_Shot_2022-05-24_at_1.32.44_PM.jpg" /></p>

<p>Use the<strong> Inner Troll Vs. Inner Angel&nbsp;</strong>activity to help your students&nbsp;develop a growth mindset through&nbsp;writing <a href="https://ellii.com/blog/affirmations-for-english-learners" target="_blank">positive affirmations</a> and learning how to silence their inner&nbsp;troll.</p>

<p>Here&#39;s how it works:</p>

<ol>
	<li>Draw an inner troll and an inner angel on the whiteboard. Add thought bubbles over each&nbsp;head.&nbsp;</li>
	<li>Give students a piece of paper. Ask them to draw their<strong> inner&nbsp;troll </strong>and a speech bubble. Then ask them to write some of the things their inner troll tells them. Let your students know&nbsp;this is confidential and not to look at other students&rsquo; papers. Give them some examples (perhaps your own) if&nbsp;necessary.&nbsp;</li>
	<li>Give students another piece of paper. Ask them to draw their <strong>inner&nbsp;angel.</strong> Then ask them to write some of the things their inner angel tells them. Again, ensure students know this is confidential. Give them examples if necessary.&nbsp;Some students may find this section difficult. Ask them to think about the nice things their friends and family say to them. It can help to think of their inner angel as a good friend.&nbsp;If the class knows each other well and has a good rapport, you could ask students to give each other compliments, and help each other with this part of the&nbsp;task.&nbsp;</li>
	<li>This is fun the part! Once students have completed their inner angel, ask them to pick up their inner troll once more. As dramatically as possible, ask students to tear the piece of paper with their inner troll into tiny little pieces, or scrunch it up&nbsp;and throw it in the&nbsp;bin.</li>
	<li>Ask them to look once more at their inner angel. Discuss ways they can try to focus on the positive affirmations. Suggest that students&nbsp;keep it close to them or display it somewhere they can see it, so they can easily remind themselves when their inner troll gets&nbsp;loud.&nbsp;</li>
</ol>

<div class="white-box">
<h5>Share your thoughts</h5>

<p>Have you tried this well-being activity with your class? How did it go? If you have any other activity ideas that promote confidence and well-being in the classroom, we&#39;d love to hear them! Share your thoughts and ideas in the&nbsp;comments.</p>
</div>


A Quick Activity to Boost Confidence & Well-Being: Inner Troll Vs. Inner Angel

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<div class="white-box">
<p>This post is part of our monthly&nbsp;<strong>Student Showcase series</strong> where we highlight teacher creativity and show off the amazing work students are doing around the&nbsp;world!</p>

<p>Since June 21 is officially the start of summer in the Northern Hemisphere and the start of winter in the Southern Hemisphere, we&rsquo;re challenging English language teachers around the world to do one of these seasonal activities&nbsp;with their students in&nbsp;class.</p>
</div>

<h2>June&#39;s Student Showcase challenge: Changing seasons</h2>

<p><iframe allow="camera *; microphone *; autoplay *; encrypted-media *; fullscreen *; display-capture *;" height="600px" src="https://www.videoask.com/fspla9jmh" style="border: none; border-radius: 24px" width="100%"></iframe></p>

<p>The beginning of a new season is always exciting, isn&rsquo;t it? There are so many fun seasonal activities that we can only do at a certain time of year. What are you looking forward to this&nbsp;June?</p>

<p>To answer this question, we&rsquo;ve come up with some activities that you can do in class with your students to celebrate the changing&nbsp;season.</p>

<p>Start by completing&nbsp;one of the activity challenges&nbsp;below. Then&nbsp;upload your students&rsquo; work through the video above or send it to <a href="mailto:hello@ellii.com?subject=June Student Showcase">hello@ellii.com</a> with a brief description for a chance to be featured in our follow-up Student Showcase blog&nbsp;post!</p>

<p>We want to see how different teachers around the world are adapting the same activity to other class and community&nbsp;realities.</p>

<h2>Activity 1: Vocabulary builder for young &amp; beginner learners</h2>

<p>If you&#39;re teaching young learners, we have great vocabulary-building resource activities you can use in class for both <a href="https://ellii.com/resource_categories/126/resources/2958" target="_blank">summer</a> and <a href="https://ellii.com/resource_categories/126/resources/2957" target="_blank">winter</a>!</p>

<p>For&nbsp;this activity, get your students to color in the picture and label it with the related vocabulary&nbsp;words.</p>

<div class="white-box">
<p><strong>Summer Vocabulary:</strong> sand, crab, waves, sandcastle, sunglasses, sun, starfish, seagull, towel, beach ball<br />
<br />
<strong>Winter Vocabulary:</strong> scarf, snowflake, mitten, snowball, beanie, snowman, snowshoes, ice skates, sled, snowboard</p>
</div>

<h3>Summer Scene Coloring Picture</h3>

<p><img alt="Summer scene coloring activity page: Three people building sandcastles on a sandy beach by the ocean." src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/2442/content_Summer.jpg" /></p>

<h3>Winter Scene Coloring Picture&nbsp;</h3>

<h3><img alt="Winter scene coloring activity page: Girl throwing snowballs to boy on skates, child sledding, boy building snowman holding a snowboard, old man snowshoeing." src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/2443/content_Winter.jpg" /></h3>

<h2>Activity&nbsp;2: Adverbs of frequency for intermediate learners</h2>

<p>Take advantage of the theme of changing seasons to teach your intermediate students about <strong>adverbs of&nbsp;frequency</strong>.</p>

<p>Use our <a href="http://ellii.com/resource_categories/103/resources/2234" target="_&quot;blank&quot;">Adverbs of Frequency</a>&nbsp;lesson and then try this activity to learn more about how your students spend their time during the winter and&nbsp;summer&nbsp;seasons!</p>

<p>This activity can be done in class or online. Get started by&nbsp;following these three simple&nbsp;steps:</p>

<h3>Step 1</h3>

<p><strong>In class:</strong> Distribute five&nbsp;slips of paper to each student and have them write an action on each slip. Provide them with examples such as &ldquo;sleep under the stars,&rdquo; &ldquo;play ice hockey,&rdquo; &ldquo;plant flowers in the garden,&rdquo;&nbsp;etc.</p>

<p><strong>Online:</strong> Have your students write five&nbsp;actions on a piece of paper or in a private document on their computer or device. Provide them with&nbsp;examples such as &ldquo;sleep under the stars,&rdquo; &ldquo;play ice hockey,&rdquo; &ldquo;plant flowers in the garden,&rdquo;&nbsp;etc.</p>

<h3>Step 2</h3>

<p><strong>In class:</strong> Collect the slips of paper and mix them up. Divide your students into groups of four or five. Then divide up the slips and hand them out to the&nbsp;groups.</p>

<p><strong>Online:</strong> Divide your students into groups of four or five and send them into breakout rooms. If this isn&#39;t possible, you can always do this activity together as an entire&nbsp;class.</p>

<h3>Step 3</h3>

<p><strong>In class:</strong> Have your students take turns picking up a card and forming a question using &ldquo;how often&rdquo; and &ldquo;in the winter/summer.&rdquo; Each group member should then answer using an adverb of&nbsp;frequency.</p>

<p><strong>Online:</strong> Have your students take turns using the actions they wrote down to&nbsp;form a question using &ldquo;how often&rdquo; and &ldquo;in the winter/summer.&rdquo; Each group member should then answer using an adverb of&nbsp;frequency.</p>

<h3>Example</h3>

<table class="horizontal">
	<tbody>
		<tr>
			<th>Student&nbsp;1:</th>
			<td>How often do you go swimming in the summer?</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<th>Student&nbsp;2:</th>
			<td>I <strong>often</strong> go swimming in the summer at my cottage.</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<th>Student&nbsp;3:</th>
			<td>I <strong>never</strong> go swimming in the summer because I don&rsquo;t know how to swim!</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<th>Student&nbsp;4:</th>
			<td>I <strong>usually</strong> go swimming in my backyard pool when the weather is nice.</td>
		</tr>
	</tbody>
</table>

<p>Check out this&nbsp;<a href="https://ellii.com/blog/adverbs-of-frequency" target="_blank">blog post</a>&nbsp;to&nbsp;learn&nbsp;more about&nbsp;adverbs of frequency and how to teach them to your&nbsp;students.</p>

<div class="white-box">
<h5><strong>Submit your students&rsquo; work and&nbsp;get featured</strong></h5>

<p>Complete one of the activity challenges listed above, and then send over your students&rsquo; amazing projects to <a href="mailto:hello@ellii.com?subject=June Student Showcase">hello@ellii.com</a> by&nbsp;<strong>June 28, 2022</strong>. Don&rsquo;t forget to give us a brief description of your students&rsquo;&nbsp;work!</p>

<p>We&rsquo;ll select a few submissions at random and feature them at the end of the month in our follow-up Student Showcase blog post. We can&rsquo;t wait to see what you come up&nbsp;with!</p>
</div>

<h2>Related</h2>

<ul class="resources">
	<li class="collection"><a href="https://ellii.com/collections/everyday-topics/weather" target="_blank">Weather &amp; Seasons</a></li>
	<li class="flashcards"><a href="https://ellii.com/flashcards/weather-nature-environment/weather-seasons" target="_blank">Weather &amp; Seasons</a></li>
</ul>


Student Showcase: Changing Seasons Challenge

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<h2><a id="scope-and-sequence"></a>What is a scope &amp; sequence?&nbsp;</h2>

<p>A scope and sequence is a planned curriculum for a book,&nbsp;course, or&nbsp;program. The <strong>scope</strong> refers to the <em>range</em> or <em>breadth</em> of material. The <strong>sequence</strong> refers to the&nbsp;<em>order</em> in which the content is meant to be used.</p>

<p>A curriculum or program may be&nbsp;organized by <strong>grade</strong> or <strong>proficiency level</strong>. In some cases, it&#39;s organized by <strong>subject matter&nbsp;</strong>(e.g., science)&nbsp;or<strong> theme </strong>(e.g., community).&nbsp;Ellii, on the other hand, is more of a content library than either a ready-made program or curriculum. However, we do have ready-made pathways to help if you are looking for more structure. Keep reading!</p>

<p>In this post, you&#39;ll find answers to the following frequently asked questions about Ellii:</p>

<ul>
	<li><a href="#ellii-s-s">Does Ellii have a scope and sequence?</a></li>
	<li><a href="#courses">Does Ellii have ready-made courses?</a></li>
	<li><a href="#teaching-order">Does Ellii have a&nbsp;suggested&nbsp;teaching order?</a></li>
	<li><a href="#curriculum">Can I create my own curriculum with Ellii?</a></li>
	<li><a href="#targets">What targets and themes should I focus on for each Ellii level?&nbsp;</a></li>
	<li><a href="#levels">What if I don&#39;t know what Ellii level my students are?&nbsp;</a></li>
	<li><a href="#assessment">Can I assess my students&nbsp;with Ellii?&nbsp;</a></li>
</ul>

<h2><a id="ellii-s-s"></a>Does Ellii have a scope &amp; sequence?</h2>

<p>If you&#39;re used to using a textbook series, you may be wondering where to find Ellii&#39;s scope and sequence information.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>

<p>Ellii (formerly ESL Library) has 2,500+ ready-made <strong>lessons</strong> and <strong>resources</strong> as well as&nbsp;4,000+&nbsp;<strong>flashcards</strong>. We also have <strong>videos</strong>, <strong>prompts</strong>, and other <strong>activities </strong>for teaching English&nbsp;for every <strong>age</strong>, <strong>level</strong>, and <strong>need</strong>. Our in-house publishing team adds new content daily based on teachers&#39; requests and needs.</p>

<p>Teachers from all over the world use Ellii in a variety of ways. Ellii materials can be used...</p>

<ul>
	<li>in <strong>traditional</strong> classrooms</li>
	<li>in <strong>online</strong> and <strong>hybrid</strong>&nbsp;classes</li>
	<li>to <strong>complement</strong> an existing&nbsp;curriculum (e.g., further practice with a&nbsp;target or theme)</li>
	<li>to <strong>build </strong>a&nbsp;curriculum</li>
	<li>to&nbsp;<strong>supplement&nbsp;</strong>a curriculum (e.g., lessons on holidays, current events, etc.)</li>
	<li>to focus on a certain <strong>macro</strong>&nbsp;(e.g., reading) or <strong>micro</strong>&nbsp;(e.g.,&nbsp;grammar) skill</li>
</ul>

<p>Teachers also use Elli with a variety of types of English learners. Teachers use Ellii with...</p>

<ul>
	<li><strong>adult</strong> newcomers who require&nbsp;<strong>life skills</strong>&nbsp;and foundational English content</li>
	<li>&nbsp;<strong>K&ndash;12</strong>&nbsp;or <strong>higher-ed</strong> students who need English for <strong>academic purposes</strong></li>
	<li><strong>1:1 learners&nbsp;</strong>who need to learn English for specific purposes, such as&nbsp;<strong>workplace English</strong> or <strong>conversation English</strong>,<strong>&nbsp;</strong>or for improving a particular skill</li>
	<li><strong>multilevel</strong> classes</li>
</ul>

<p>At Ellii, we believe teachers know their students best! Rather than developing a single program that may or may not work for all students in a class, we focus on creating&nbsp;high-quality materials&nbsp;for every age, level, and need.</p>

<p>However, if you aren&#39;t sure what you need, we do offer mini-courses, collections, and a suggested teaching order for some sections.</p>

<p>Read on for Ellii tools and features that make planning easier.</p>

<h2><a id="courses"></a>Does Ellii have ready-made courses?</h2>

<p>Yes, and this area of Ellii is growing quickly. Visit our <a href="https://ellii.com/packs?page=1" target="_blank">Courses &amp; Study Packs</a> area and watch this library&nbsp;grow.&nbsp;</p>

<p><strong>Example Courses &amp; Packs</strong><br />
<br />
Here are just a few of our ready-made Courses &amp; Packs:</p>

<ul>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/blog/ell-grammar-curriculum" target="_blank">Grammar Courses 1&ndash;9</a>&nbsp;(Grammar)</li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/packs/?category=43&amp;page=1">Ellii Up A &ndash; E</a> (General English) - More coming soon.</li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/packs/simple-present/materials" target="_blank">Simple Present Power Pack</a> (Grammar)</li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/courses/112/lessons" target="_blank">Pre-Employment</a>&nbsp;(Workplace)</li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/courses/135/lessons" target="_blank">Functional Business</a>&nbsp;(Workplace)</li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/packs/english-at-work/materials" target="_blank">English at Work</a>&nbsp;(Workplace)</li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/courses/122/lessons" target="_blank">Travel in English</a>&nbsp;(Dialogues)</li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/packs/essay-essentials/materials" target="_blank">Essay Essentials</a>&nbsp;(Academic)</li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/courses/77/lessons" target="_blank">Everyday Idioms 1</a>&nbsp;(Vocabulary)</li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/courses/79/lessons" target="_blank">Detective Series 1</a>&nbsp;(Vocabulary)</li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/packs/medical-matters/materials" target="_blank">Medical Matters</a> (Life Skills)</li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/packs/banking-basics/materials" target="_blank">Banking Basics</a>&nbsp;(Life Skills)</li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/packs/pioneers-of-progress/materials" target="_blank">Partners in Progress</a>&nbsp;(Academic)</li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/packs/moon-time/materials" target="_blank">Moon Time</a>&nbsp;(YL)</li>
</ul>

<p>Here is a scope &amp; sequence for Ellii Up A&ndash;E (low beginner). More courses in this General English (4 skills) category are coming soon.</p>

<p><a href="https://ellii.com/packs/?category=43&amp;page=1" target="_blank"><img alt="" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/4951/content_Ellii-Up-A-F-Curriculum_chart_D.jpg" style="width: 1200px; height: 1062px;" /></a><br />
<br />
Please <a href="mailto:hello@ellii.com">get in touch</a> if there&#39;s a specific course or pack that would be helpful for your students. Be sure to mention their age, level, and specific needs.&nbsp;</p>

<h2><a id="teaching-order"></a>Does Ellii have a&nbsp;suggested&nbsp;teaching order?</h2>

<p>Ellii&#39;s materials are divided into lesson and resource sections.</p>

<p>Within one section, you will find content that&#39;s formatted in a similar way.</p>

<p>Some of Ellii&#39;s lesson sections have a built-in teaching order. We don&#39;t recommend only using content from within one section (unless it&#39;s a serial). However, we do recommend that you teach&nbsp;targets&nbsp;at the recommended proficiency level.</p>

<p>Here are some sections that have a&nbsp;<strong>Teaching Order</strong>. (This may not be the default sort filter, so you will need to change the category sort&nbsp;filter&nbsp;to Teaching Order.)&nbsp;</p>

<ul>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/courses/123/lessons" target="_blank">Super Simple Grammar</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/courses/110/lessons" target="_blank">Super Simple Questions</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/courses/92/lessons" target="_blank">Functional English</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/courses/88/lessons" target="_blank">Grammar Practive Worksheets </a>(Teens &amp; Adults) or <a href="https://ellii.com/courses/116/lessons" target="_blank">Fun Grammar Lessons</a> (YL)</li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/courses/89/lessons" target="_blank">Basic Grammar Sentences</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/courses/90/lessons" target="_blank">Grammar Stories</a></li>
</ul>

<p>Note that if you choose the&nbsp;Teaching Order sort filter in our&nbsp;<a href="https://ellii.com/courses/93/lessons" target="_blank">Holidays &amp; Events</a> section, you will see the content sorted by calendar order.</p>

<h2><a id="curriculum"></a>Can I create my own curriculum with Ellii?&nbsp;</h2>

<p>Yes! You can save and create your own materials to build a curriculum&nbsp;that meets the needs of your class or even one student.<br />
<br />
Learn all about how to use the <a href="https://ellii.com/blog/introducing-elliis-lesson-planner" target="_blank">Lesson Planner</a> here.</p>

<p>More:&nbsp;</p>

<ul>
	<li><a href="https://help.ellii.com/article/217-how-to-use-folders" target="_blank">How to Use Folders</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://help.ellii.com/article/63-how-to-create-flashcard-sets" target="_blank">How to Create &amp; Save Flashcard Sets</a></li>
</ul>

<p>We recommend using our <a href="https://ellii.com/collections" target="_blank">Collections</a> to find content from all different sections based on the <strong>theme</strong>, <strong>target</strong>,&nbsp;<strong>subject, </strong>or<strong> competency.&nbsp;</strong>You can then filter by <strong>level</strong> or <strong>age</strong>. When you click into the content, you can save it to your folder of choice.</p>

<p>Here are some popular ways to use some of our Collections:&nbsp;</p>

<ul>
	<li>Find content by <a href="https://ellii.com/collections/new-content" target="_blank">What&#39;s New</a></li>
	<li>Find content by <a href="https://ellii.com/collections/grammar" target="_blank">Grammar Target and Level/Age</a></li>
	<li>Find content by <a href="https://ellii.com/collections/academic-subjects" target="_blank">Academic Subject&nbsp;and Level/Age</a></li>
	<li>Find content by <a href="https://ellii.com/collections/clb-competencies" target="_blank">CLB</a> or <a href="https://ellii.com/collections/casas-competencies" target="_blank">CASAS</a>&nbsp;competency</li>
</ul>

<h2><a id="targets"></a>What targets and themes should I focus on for each level?&nbsp;</h2>

<p>Here are some suggested targets, themes, and learning objectives for each proficiency level. Visit our<a href="https://ellii.com/equivalencies" target="_blank"> Equivalency Scale</a> for more information about levels.</p>

<table>
	<tbody>
		<tr>
			<th>Ellii level</th>
			<th>Suggested grammar targets</th>
			<th>Suggested themes</th>
			<th>Learning objectives</th>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Pre&nbsp;Beg</td>
			<td>be, have, simple present, nouns, adjectives, yes/no questions, can</td>
			<td>colors, shapes, letters, numbers, signs</td>
			<td>identify letters and some numbers, count, read signs, understand very familiar everyday words or expressions (survival English)&nbsp;</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Low Beg</td>
			<td>be,simple present, singluar &amp; plural nouns, articles, pronnouns, imperative verbs</td>
			<td>familiar objects, food, daily routines, animals, family, body, familiar verbs, people, community</td>
			<td>say and read high-frequency words with visual support, describe everyday actions, describe familiar people and things, read and say short sentences, give date and time, give commands or warnings, describe daily routines</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>High Beg</td>
			<td>modals of ability - present, present progressive, simple present vs. present progressive, adverbs of frequency, prepositions of time, prepositions of place, parts of speech, simple past, there is there are, yes/no questions, wh- questions, adjectives</td>
			<td>stories, surveys, fables, shopping, restaurants,&nbsp;directions, travel, short narratives (fiction and non-fiction), health</td>
			<td>listen and read along to short stories, ask and answer simple questions, give personal information, write simple sentences,&nbsp;listen and comprehend more familiar information, understand and give directions</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Low Int</td>
			<td>modals of ability - past, count vs. non-count nouns, quantifiers, possessive nouns, articles, adverbs of manner, prepositions, simple future, subject-verb agreement, pronouns, gerunds and infinitives, modals of advice, modals of possiblity, present perfect, present perfect progressive, comparatives</td>
			<td>workplace, sports, holidays and culture, fashion, biographies, education, school</td>
			<td>describe future plans, describe likes and preferences, follow and describe procedures, compare and contrast, make suggestions, discuss unreal situations and possibilities, understand information on less familiar topics, recognize informal English</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>High Int</td>
			<td>present perfect, present perfect progressive, modals verb collocations, first conditional, equative, second conditional, comparative and superlative adjectives, comparatives, present perfect, present perfect progressive, modas of necessity and obligation, conjunctions</td>
			<td>current events, workplace, relationships, environment, historic events, soft skills</td>
			<td>discuss complex issues, offer a personal response, use academic and business vocabulary,&nbsp;work independently in groups, understand more natural everyday English, critical thinking</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Adv</td>
			<td>tag questions, past progressive, future progressive, phrasal verbs, passive, causative verbs, third conditional, past modals, adjective clauses, adjective phrases, adverb clauses, passive causative, direct and reported speech, embedded questions, past perfect, past perfect progressive, subjunctive, noun clauses, future perfect, future perfect progressive</td>
			<td>psychology, technology, politics, business, media, human rights, social justice, crime and punishment, law</td>
			<td>debate and discuss controversial topics, work on projects, read some authentic materials, argue, understand and use collocations and phrasal verbs, comprehend information at natural speeds, understand more idiomatic language and slang</td>
		</tr>
	</tbody>
</table>

<h2><a id="levels"></a>What if I don&#39;t know what level my students are?&nbsp;</h2>

<p>Try&nbsp;<a href="https://ellii.com/resource_categories/104/resources/4226" target="_blank">Ellii&#39;s Placement Test</a>&nbsp;(60-minute, 4-skills) or <a href="https://ellii.com/resource_categories/104/resources/4164">Ellii&#39;s Placement Quiz</a> (30-minute, M/C). You can also use&nbsp;our <a href="https://ellii.com/blog/introducing-our-new-grammar-tests" target="_blank">Grammar Tests</a>&nbsp;and <a href="https://ellii.com/resource_categories/125/resources/2872" target="_blank">Language Scenes</a> for placement.&nbsp;</p>

<h2><a id="assessment"></a>Can I assess my students&#39; progress with Ellii?</h2>

<p>Ellii offers <strong>formative</strong> assessment opportunities in every lesson. In the digital versions, you can view your students&#39; results. (Some tasks require manual scoring by the teacher.)&nbsp;<br />
<br />
Each lesson section offers a different approach to assessment. Some lessons include a formal assessment task at the end.</p>

<p>For example, all of our <strong>Grammar Practice Worksheets</strong> lessons have a quiz to check the understanding of the target. Other lesson sections, such as&nbsp;<strong>Functional English</strong>, have assessments at the end of the lessons with ready-made rubrics.</p>

<p>We also have ready-made generic&nbsp;<a href="https://ellii.com/resource_categories/104/resources" target="_blank">assessment tools</a> that you can use or adapt to your own needs. You&#39;ll also find <strong>summative</strong> assessments in our&nbsp;mini-courses and some&nbsp;serials.&nbsp;</p>

<h2>What leveling and standards does Ellii align with?</h2>

<p>Teachers all over the world use Ellii for a variety of ages and levels, so we do not stick with one specific system. We have an <a href="https://ellii.com/equivalencies" target="_blank">Equivalency Scale</a> to help you out and we try to tag our content with every search term imaginable. Some teachers use <strong>CEFR</strong> levels and others use <strong>CLBs </strong>or&nbsp;<strong>ELDs</strong>. Others use something more aligned with specific assessments, such as <strong>CASAS</strong>&nbsp;competencies or&nbsp;<strong>NRS</strong> levels.&nbsp;In your <strong>Account</strong> settings, you can choose to view Ellii&#39;s levels and correlations in a few different ways. We are&nbsp;always adding new tags and filters, so let us know what you or your program needs! The Focus area of our lessons also includes <strong>modalities</strong> that may be useful for you to see.&nbsp;<br />
<br />
<em>We hope you find everything you need!&nbsp;</em></p>


Scope & Sequence FAQs

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<p>I predominantly teach people seeking refuge and asylum at a further education college in&nbsp;Scotland.</p>

<p>I&#39;ve&nbsp;taught there since 2007, and in that time I&#39;ve met many English language learners from different backgrounds. Some have difficult living situations, family worries, or mental health problems such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), anxiety, or depression. Others face economic&nbsp;hardship.</p>

<p>Creating a safe space where students feel valued, supported, and relaxed is crucial for motivation and student success. In order to best support them, I aim to make my English language classroom as supportive as&nbsp;possible.&nbsp;</p>

<p>Here&nbsp;are the&nbsp;five tried-and-tested methods I like to use to&nbsp;promote mental health in the&nbsp;classroom:</p>

<h2>1. Listen &amp; be flexible</h2>

<p>I&#39;m very aware that learning English may not be my learners&rsquo; top priority.</p>

<p>I would love it if they did every piece of homework and always arrived to class on time, but I understand that asylum claims, work, family, and health are more&nbsp;important.&nbsp;</p>

<p>If my students aren&rsquo;t performing as they should, I set time aside to speak to them in private and ask them how I can help. If they need to make changes to their class times or workload, then we can discuss that and make a&nbsp;plan.</p>

<h2>2. Offer community support &amp; resources</h2>

<p>In some cases, I may not be able to help. I&rsquo;ve had students who have&nbsp;become homeless or who have experienced severe trauma, torture, or&nbsp;abuse.</p>

<p>It&rsquo;s useful to have a list of local support organizations&nbsp;that can be contacted in this instance. Consider collating a shared resources document within your team with contact&nbsp;details.</p>

<p>For example:&nbsp;</p>

<ul>
	<li>Fire, police, and health services</li>
	<li>Women&rsquo;s aid shelters</li>
	<li>Homeless charities</li>
	<li>Mental health support teams</li>
	<li>Community centers</li>
	<li>LGBTQ+ support agencies</li>
</ul>

<p>If possible, try to develop partnerships with these organizations over time. You&rsquo;ll probably find that they&rsquo;re eager to work with you. They may even offer visits or weekly drop-in sessions specifically for your&nbsp;school.&nbsp;</p>

<p>See&nbsp;<a href="https://ellii.com/resource_categories/104/resources/2134" target="_blank">My Community Services</a>&nbsp;resource for a ready-made template that newcomer students can fill out with your&nbsp;help.</p>

<h2>3. Practice mindfulness</h2>

<p>Mindfulness is developing the ability to be aware of your feelings, situation, and surroundings without judgment. It&#39;s been found to be beneficial for relaxation and mental&nbsp;well-being.&nbsp;</p>

<p><a href="http://ellii.com/blog/practicing-mindfulness-in-the-classroom" target="blank">Practicing mindfulness in the classroom</a> is&nbsp;a&nbsp;great way to start or end a lesson. You can also use mindfulness&nbsp;to calm students who are&nbsp;feeling anxious about upcoming assessments or who need to relax and focus after an energetic&nbsp;activity.&nbsp;</p>

<h2>4. Draw</h2>

<p>As a graphic facilitator, I find more and more benefits to drawing in class every day. One of these benefits is its therapeutic nature and the ability to make people&nbsp;laugh.&nbsp;</p>

<p>Herbert Bensen, a Harvard&nbsp;cardiologist, found that drawing has&nbsp;a relaxation response. The movements necessary to draw were found to decrease blood pressure and lower pulse and breathing&nbsp;rates.&nbsp;</p>

<p>Ellii has plenty&nbsp;of worksheets, activities, and blog posts incorporating drawing in class. You can search for &quot;draw&quot; or check out these drawing-related&nbsp;materials:</p>

<ul>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/blog/3-tips-for-using-flashcards-no-prep-required" target="_blank">3 Tips for Using Flashcards&ndash;No Prep Required</a>&nbsp;</li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/blog/how-to-use-pictures-as-grammar-prompts" target="_blank">How to use Pictures as Grammar Prompts</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/resource_categories/126/resources" target="_blank">Drawing Activities</a></li>
</ul>

<h2>5. Get outside</h2>

<p>Being outside has been found to...&nbsp;</p>

<ul>
	<li>reduce stress levels and anxiety</li>
	<li>improve confidence, mood, concentration, and sleep</li>
</ul>

<p>So it&rsquo;s a good idea to take your English classes outside when you&nbsp;can.</p>

<p>If there&rsquo;s a park or recreation space nearby, use it for speaking activities, or language games.&nbsp;Day trips, walking tours, or setting up an outdoor-themed&nbsp;club (e.g., football, cycling, or gardening) can also be&nbsp;beneficial.&nbsp;</p>

<div class="white-box">
<h5>Share your thoughts</h5>

<p>How do you promote mental health in your classroom? Have you tried any of the things I mentioned? Share your thoughts and ideas in the&nbsp;comments.</p>
</div>

<h2>Related lessons</h2>

<ul class="resources">
	<li class="lesson"><a href="https://ellii.com/courses/133/lessons/3753" target="_Blank">Biles Protects Her Mental Health</a></li>
	<li class="lesson"><a href="https://ellii.com/courses/133/lessons/4090" target="_blank">Unhappy Birthday</a></li>
	<li class="lesson"><a href="https://ellii.com/courses/72/lessons/3881" target="_blank">Burnout</a></li>
	<li class="lesson"><a href="https://ellii.com/resource_categories/114/resources/4025" target="_blank">TikTok&rsquo;s Effect on Kids&rsquo; Health</a></li>
	<li class="lesson"><a href="https://ellii.com/courses/133/lessons/3970">Doctors&nbsp;Prescribe National Park&nbsp;Passes</a></li>
</ul>


5 Ways to Promote Mental Health in the English Language Classroom

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Tour around the ELT conference circuit as our team shares conference highlights and session reviews.

Conferences

<p>Did you watch <a href="https://www.teflonline.net/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">International TEFL &amp; TESOL Training</a>&rsquo;s&nbsp;webinar on&nbsp;<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VxoF1jJy6XA&amp;t=1677s" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">mistakes&nbsp;to avoid while teaching English</a>? If you missed it, don&rsquo;t worry&mdash;we&rsquo;ve got you&nbsp;covered.</p>

<p>Here are five&nbsp;key takeaways from the webinar we think every English teacher should know&nbsp;about.</p>

<h2>Mistake #1: Neglecting your students&rsquo; goals</h2>

<p>Every group of students will have different goals and&nbsp;motivations.</p>

<p>According to webinar host Linda Dunsmore, if the goal isn&rsquo;t clear from the type of class you&rsquo;re teaching, your job as the teacher is to find out why your students are interested in learning English in the first place. From there, you&nbsp;can&nbsp;tailor your lessons to better fit their needs and&nbsp;interests.</p>

<p>Lessons should be meaningful and relevant for your students. They should also&nbsp;relate back to their&nbsp;goals.</p>

<p>Not sure what your students&rsquo; goals are? Use the following&nbsp;assessment tools to find out what your students hope to accomplish with their language&nbsp;learning:</p>

<ul>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/resource_categories/104/resources/2127" target="_blank">My Language Goals</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/resource_categories/104/resources/2224" target="_blank">Goal-Setting &ndash; Can Do</a></li>
</ul>

<h2>Mistake #2: Not thinking&nbsp;long-term</h2>

<p>There&rsquo;s nothing worse than getting to the end of the year or the course and not having&nbsp;your students reach their&nbsp;goals. That&rsquo;s why Dunsmore encourages teachers&nbsp;to think long-term&nbsp;and to plan out the entire year or course ahead of&nbsp;time.&nbsp;</p>

<p>When you set goals, make sure to keep your students&rsquo; needs top of&nbsp;mind. Make a detailed&nbsp;outline of&nbsp;when each goal should be reached&nbsp;and then plan each lesson&nbsp;accordingly.</p>

<p>For helpful, ready-made planning templates, check out our assortment of&nbsp;<a href="https://ellii.com/resource_categories/106/resources" target="_blank">Classroom Management</a> tools or try out two of our most&nbsp;popular:</p>

<ul>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/resource_categories/106/resources/2169" target="_blank">Weekly Planner</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/resource_categories/106/resources/2461" target="_blank">Monthly Planner</a></li>
</ul>

<h2>Mistake #3: Teaching every student the same&nbsp;way</h2>

<p>Every student has different needs, interests, and talents. Some students might learn better through games while others may learn better through videos. That&#39;s why it&#39;s important to take the time to really get to know your&nbsp;students.</p>

<p>Once you learn a little more about them, Dunsmore suggests you adjust your lessons and teaching style to align with their learning needs and interests. If some students require more practice in one area, you can also assign them different homework&nbsp;exercises.</p>

<p>A good way to get to know your students is by having them fill out a questionnaire. You can make your own or use these&nbsp;assessment&nbsp;tools:</p>

<ul>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/resource_categories/104/resources/2832" target="_blank">English Questionnaire</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/resource_categories/104/resources/2123" target="_blank">Autobiography &ndash;&nbsp;Beg</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/resource_categories/104/resources/2124" target="_blank">Autobiography &ndash;&nbsp;Int</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/resource_categories/104/resources/2125" target="_blank">Autobiography &ndash;&nbsp;Adv</a></li>
</ul>

<h2>Mistake #4: Overcorrecting grammar</h2>

<p>Unless you&rsquo;re teaching a grammar class or your students are completing a written assignment, try to avoid correcting&nbsp;every single grammar mistake they&nbsp;make.</p>

<p>When you&#39;re having your students practice their speaking, your main goal is to get your&nbsp;students talking.&nbsp;Speaking a new language in front of other people is hard and can be intimidating for some. If you correct every grammar error they&nbsp;make, your students will get discouraged and may not want to&nbsp;talk.</p>

<blockquote>
<p>&quot;Fluency is more important than accuracy.&quot;</p>

<p class="attribution">&mdash;Linda Dunsmore, TEFL &amp; TESOL Marketing Professional</p>
</blockquote>

<p>For more tips on how to get your students talking, check out our blog post on&nbsp;<a href="https://ellii.com/blog/key-takeaways-from-esl-talk-podcast-on-speaking-strategies" target="_blank">effective speaking&nbsp;strategies</a>.</p>

<h2>Mistake #5: Thinking you&rsquo;re the only&nbsp;teacher</h2>

<p>While you may be&nbsp;the teacher, you&rsquo;re not the only teacher in the room. There will be plenty of times when your students will teach you something&nbsp;new.</p>

<p>Be open to exchanging ideas and learning from each other. This builds rapport, creates a meaningful and safe learning environment, and gives your students the opportunity to share their ideas with you and the rest of the&nbsp;class.&nbsp;</p>

<div class="white-box">
<h5>Share your thoughts</h5>

<p>Teachers, what&nbsp;other mistakes do you see happen&nbsp;in the classroom that you think should be avoided? Let us know in the comments&nbsp;below.</p>
</div>


Key Takeaways from International TEFL & TESOL Training Webinar on Mistakes to Avoid While Teaching English

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<p><a href="https://www.edutopia.org/blog/scaffolding-lessons-six-strategies-rebecca-alber" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Edutopia describes scaffolding</a> as &ldquo;breaking up the learning into chunks and providing a tool, or structure, with each&nbsp;chunk.&rdquo;</p>

<p>In other words, scaffolding makes it easier for students to learn new concepts and master tasks because it breaks down the lesson into smaller, more manageable steps. Think of it like using training wheels when learning how to ride a&nbsp;bike.</p>

<p>One of the biggest benefits of incorporating instructional scaffolding is that it provides a welcoming and <strong>supportive learning environment</strong> for&nbsp;students.</p>

<p>Other benefits of instructional scaffolding:</p>

<ul>
	<li>Engages learners and motivates them to want to learn more</li>
	<li>Increases the likelihood students will achieve their instructional&nbsp;goal</li>
	<li>Improves problem-solving and comprehension skills</li>
	<li>Opens the door for peer-teaching and learning</li>
	<li>Minimizes student frustration</li>
</ul>

<p>As Ellii&rsquo;s Chief Impact Officer, I work with English language administrators all over the US. I know that scaffolding lessons is a very time-consuming process for teachers. There&rsquo;s also the potential to assign tasks that don&rsquo;t match the student&rsquo;s abilities, which can hinder&nbsp;success.&nbsp;</p>

<p>So it comes as no surprise that one of the questions I get asked the most is, <strong>&ldquo;Does Ellii provide scaffolded instruction for&nbsp;students?&rdquo;</strong></p>

<p>The answer is yes!</p>

<p>The Ellii platform is specifically designed for English learners (ELs). This means that all the lessons are already scaffolded for ELs, allowing for a more <a href="https://www.teachthought.com/pedagogy/gradual-release-responsibility/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">gradual release of&nbsp;responsibility</a>.</p>

<p>Here&rsquo;s how Ellii incorporates instructional scaffolding in lesson plans to save your teachers time and support student&nbsp;learning:</p>

<h2>Warm-up questions</h2>

<p>Ellii lessons often start with warm-up&nbsp;questions.</p>

<p>These warm-up questions activate prior knowledge, which help your teachers assess what their students already know. Students also build the background knowledge necessary for understanding the text they&rsquo;re about to&nbsp;read.</p>

<p>Having a conversation at the beginning of a lesson does more than just get your students talking. It also helps them make connections between the material and their own lives, <strong>increasing their motivation to&nbsp;learn</strong>.</p>

<h2>Vocabulary preview</h2>

<p>Content-focused Ellii lessons also begin with a vocabulary&nbsp;preview.</p>

<p>Typically, students are asked to either match up a word with its meaning or fill in the&nbsp;blanks.</p>

<p>Front-loading vocabulary gives students the opportunity to review the vocabulary they will later encounter in the text. This <a href="https://ellii.com/blog/pre-reading-activities-to-boost-comprehension" target="_blank">pre-reading activity</a> helps students better understand a reading, especially one that has a lot of new&nbsp;vocabulary.</p>

<h2>Visual learning</h2>

<p>Many Ellii lessons include pictures, videos, and <a href="https://ellii.com/flashcards" target="_blank">flashcards</a> to further engage students and help them grasp the material. These visual aids can be used with the lesson or on their own as a single&nbsp;activity.</p>

<h2>Reading &amp; listening activities</h2>

<p>During the reading component of the lessons, students hone their reading and listening skills. They have the option of reading the text themselves or using <a href="https://ellii.com/blog/how-to-use-microsoft-immersive-reader-on-ellii" target="_blank">Microsoft&rsquo;s Immersive Reader</a> to hear the language modeled for&nbsp;them.</p>

<h2>Writing &amp; speaking tasks</h2>

<p>After the reading, it&rsquo;s time to put their learning to the&nbsp;test!</p>

<p>Ellii lessons include&nbsp;plenty of vocabulary review and opportunities for students to show what they&rsquo;ve&nbsp;learned.</p>

<p>Through comprehension questions, vocabulary practice, grammar exercises, personal reflections, dialogues, role-plays, discussion questions, and speaking tasks, teachers can check for understanding while students practice writing and using English out&nbsp;loud.</p>

<p>ELs don&rsquo;t have to complete every activity either. Teachers can choose to focus on one specific skill if they&nbsp;like.</p>

<h2>Key takeaways</h2>

<p>It&rsquo;s important to encourage students to work independently. Teachers should only help their students with activities that are beyond their&nbsp;abilities.</p>

<p>Additionally, teachers should assign tasks that match the student&rsquo;s skill level. Activities that are way beyond their capabilities can cause stress or frustration. Same applies to tasks that are below their&nbsp;capabilities.</p>

<p>Lastly, while independent learning is important, teacher-student interaction is just as essential. Open conversation with students allows teachers to address questions and to tailor their instruction for more personalized&nbsp;learning.</p>

<blockquote>
<p><strong>Ready to get started with Ellii?</strong></p>

<p>If you&#39;re a teacher or part of a school or an adult education organization, please contact Lei at <a href="mailto:lei@ellii.com">lei@ellii.com</a>.</p>
</blockquote>


Instructional Scaffolding: How Ellii Supports Student Learning

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<div class="white-box">
<p>This post is part of our monthly&nbsp;<strong>Student Showcase series</strong> where we highlight teacher creativity and show off the amazing work students are doing around the&nbsp;world!</p>
</div>

<p>At the beginning of May, we recognized Mental Health Awareness month by challenging teachers like you to complete one of our positive mental health class activities with your students. We then asked you to share some pictures with us to show off your&nbsp;students&rsquo; work! Take a look at the&nbsp;<a href="https://ellii.com/blog/student-showcase-positive-mental-health-challenge" target="_blank">original post</a>&nbsp;that inspired these&nbsp;submissions.</p>

<p>Thank you to everyone who&nbsp;answered&nbsp;our Video Challenge. We hope&nbsp;these teacher and student submissions inspire you to try new and creative activities with your&nbsp;class.&nbsp;</p>

<h2>Student Showcase</h2>

<h3>Student feature 1</h3>

<p>This student completed Challenge 1 with their class and wrote out a&nbsp;list of&nbsp;positive affirmations using some of our recommended sentence structures. The final results are guaranteed to make you&nbsp;smile.</p>

<p>Here are just a few of the affirmations they came up&nbsp;with:</p>

<ul>
	<li>I am smart. I am brave. I am strong.</li>
	<li>I try my best. I work hard. I study a lot.</li>
	<li>I am proud of myself for learning English.</li>
</ul>

<p>Way to go, we love your positivity!</p>

<p><img alt="List of 8 positive affirmations written on paper." src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/2433/content_positive-affirmations.jpg" /></p>

<h3>Student feature 2</h3>

<p>The second student featured in this month&rsquo;s Student Showcase completed Challenge 2 with their class. They created a beautiful poster that explains their emotions&nbsp;and what they do when they feel sad, angry, anxious, or scared.</p>

<p><strong>Example:</strong>&nbsp;When I feel anxious...</p>

<p><strong>Student&#39;s reply:&nbsp;</strong>&quot;I go somewhere that I feel safe and take deep breaths. I hug my dog and let my body&nbsp;relax.&quot;</p>

<p><img alt="My emotions poster where students write down how they feel when they're sad, angry, anxious, or scared." src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/2434/content_my-emotions-poster.jpg" /></p>

<h3>Student Feature 3</h3>

<p>Our final student feature also created a poster but decided to use stickers as their inspiration instead. Some of the stickers include affirmations like &quot;Take care of yourself,&quot; &quot;Share kindness today!&quot; and &quot;Good things are&nbsp;coming.&quot;</p>

<p>After drawing a picture, they wrote out their affirmations under&nbsp;the stickers to practice their spelling and learn a few&nbsp;new phrases.&nbsp;</p>

<p>This is an excellent&nbsp;way to give your students the chance to get creative in class, explore their emotions, and spread some positive&nbsp;vibes!</p>

<p><img alt="Collage of positive affirmation stickers." src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/2435/content_affirmation-stickers.jpg" /></p>

<p><img alt="Written list of the same positive affirmations found on the stickers." src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/2436/content_affirmations.jpg" /></p>

<p>We hope you find these projects as inspiring as we do. Try these <a href="https://ellii.com/blog/student-showcase-positive-mental-health-challenge" target="_blank">creative mental health challenges</a>&nbsp;yourself next time you teach about emotions or positive mental&nbsp;health!</p>

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<h5>Share your thoughts</h5>

<p>What kind of activities, projects, or games did your class do for Mental Health Awareness month? Tell us about them&nbsp;in the&nbsp;comments&nbsp;below!</p>
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