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>If there is one thing you should never do as a language teacher (or in life), it is to ask &quot;Do you understand?&quot;</p>

<p>No one wants to admit in front of their peers that they don&#39;t understand! Humans live in fear of being the only person in a group who hasn&#39;t understood something. It makes the palms sweat, the&nbsp;heart beat faster, and the face turn a telltale shade of red.&nbsp;</p>

<p>Faced with this question, most people will nod, agree, and hope that the next activity will bring clarity&mdash;or at least be simpler.&nbsp;</p>

<p>In this blog post, I will share much more effective ways to check that students have understood.&nbsp;</p>

<h2>1. Concept check questions</h2>

<p>Concept check questions zoom in on detailed aspects of the language. They allow teachers to check that students have understood a grammar point or the meaning of a vocabulary item. They are particularly helpful after presenting a new grammar target.&nbsp;</p>

<p>Asking the right concept check questions can take some practice. When you&#39;re starting out in teaching, you might want to prepare them before a lesson. Over time,&nbsp;you&#39;ll likely be able to create your own as and when the need arises.&nbsp;</p>

<p>Here are some top tips for concept check questions:&nbsp;</p>

<ul>
	<li><strong>Keep it simple</strong>.&nbsp;Questions with short&nbsp;answers are the best. Aim to use very simple <em>wh-</em>&nbsp;questions, or questions with <em>yes/no</em> or <em>either/or</em> answers.&nbsp;</li>
	<li><strong>Use language students already know.</strong>&nbsp;Try not to use more complex concepts or vocabulary than the one you are checking. So don&#39;t ask questions in past perfect progressive&nbsp;when you&#39;re checking understanding of the simple past.&nbsp;</li>
	<li><strong>Play around with different questions.</strong> It&#39;s okay to ask a few questions to check meaning.&nbsp;</li>
	<li><strong>Ask questions to focus on the meaning and form.</strong>&nbsp;</li>
</ul>

<p>Let&#39;s use the following sentence to teach the simple past:&nbsp;&quot;She went to the ice cream shop last night.&quot;&nbsp;Some concept check questions might be:</p>

<ul>
	<li><em>Where did she go? &gt; The ice cream shop.&nbsp;</em></li>
	<li><em>Is she at the ice cream shop now? &gt; No.</em></li>
	<li><em>When did she go? &gt; Last night/yesterday.&nbsp;</em></li>
	<li><em>Is &quot;last night&quot; about the past, present, or future? &gt; Past.</em></li>
	<li><em>Is &quot;went&quot;&nbsp;present or past tense? &gt; Past.</em></li>
	<li><em>To talk about &quot;now,&quot; do I use &quot;went&quot;&nbsp;or &quot;go&quot;? &gt; Go.</em></li>
</ul>

<p>You can find more about concept check questions in this British Council blog post:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/professional-development/teachers/managing-lesson/articles/checking-understanding">Checking Understanding</a></p>

<h2>2. Physical concept checks</h2>

<p>To check understanding and get students our of their chairs, you could bring an element of movement into the classroom. Designate each corner of the classroom as &quot;yes,&quot; &quot;no,&quot; or &quot;maybe.&quot; Have students stand up,&nbsp;ask them a concept check question, and ask&nbsp;them to move to the corner of the room that answers that question. You could also do this by having students stand in a line and step left for &quot;yes,&quot; step right for &quot;no,&quot; and stay in the same place for &quot;maybe.&quot;</p>

<h2>3. Mediation</h2>

<p>Mediation is another way to check understanding. While concept checking relies on the teacher asking the right questions to assess students have understood, mediation allows students to take a more active role in demonstrating it.&nbsp;</p>

<p>Mediation tasks prompt students to take notes, summarize, critically evaluate, compare information, and rephrase content. They allow learners to share their understanding with others by putting their learning into practice and perhaps explaining it to others.&nbsp;</p>

<p>You can find out more in this blog post:&nbsp;<a href="https://ellii.com/blog/mediation">Mediation: The What, Why &amp; How Explained</a></p>

<h2>4. Visual checks</h2>

<p>Visuals are a great way to check understanding. You could have students create their own visual summaries, <a href="https://ellii.com/blog/sketchnoting-101-supercharged-professional-development-with-visual-notes">sketchnotes</a>, mind maps, infographics,&nbsp;timelines, or doodles to check meaning. For example, ask them to draw (or point to) a tomato or the verb &quot;run.&quot; You could also show them a couple of visuals and ask them which is correct or to adapt it to be correct.&nbsp;</p>

<p>You could also use visual metaphors to allow students to share how confident they feel about a topic. Leave colored circles with &quot;traffic lights&quot;&nbsp;on their desk and have them display &quot;red&quot;&nbsp;if they definitely need support, &quot;orange&quot;&nbsp;if they might need help, and &quot;green&quot; if they are happy with their understanding. This also works well with weather symbols (a rain cloud = I need help&nbsp;/&nbsp;a sun = I&#39;m all good)&nbsp;and emojis (sad face = help me&nbsp;/ happy face = I don&#39;t need help).&nbsp;</p>

<h2>5. Peer-to-peer learning</h2>

<p>The best way to learn is to teach something!&nbsp;I&#39;ve always found that students love to &quot;be the teacher.&quot; It is an instant confidence boost to be trusted to explain something to someone else&nbsp;and a great way to give students a chance to share their understanding with others. It also has the added bonus of allowing students to potentially explain concepts in their first language&nbsp;so they can express and understand&nbsp;it more easily.&nbsp;</p>

<p>You could&nbsp;pair a student who feels confident with a student who needs more support, and have them explore the linguistic point in more detail. Alternatively, have students check each others work or write quizzes or comprehension questions for each other.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>

<h2>6. Assessment tools</h2>

<p>Ellii has over 70 assessment tools designed specifically to help teachers check students&#39; understanding. These range from placement tests to needs assessments and&nbsp;reflection tools.&nbsp;</p>

<p>Here is an example from the Exit Slips&nbsp;resource. Students can complete these before leaving to help them evaluate and share what they learned in class that day.&nbsp;</p>

<p><a href="https://app.ellii.com/lesson/2228-exit-slips"><img alt="Ellii's exit slips" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/4861/content_exit-slip.png" /></a></p>

<p>You can access these resources here:&nbsp;</p>

<ul>
	<li><a href="https://app.ellii.com/lesson/2228-exit-slips">Exit Slips</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/resources/assessment-tools">Assessment Tools</a></li>
</ul>

<p>Here are some other blog posts on checking reading comprehension that we think you&#39;ll love:&nbsp;</p>

<ul>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/blog/pre-reading-activities-to-boost-comprehension">Pre-Reading Activities to Boost Comprehension</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/blog/10-activities-to-increase-understanding-while-reading">10 Activities to Increase Understanding While Reading</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/blog/9-post-reading-activities-to-help-students-reflect-on-a-text">9 Post-Reading Activities to Help Students Get the Most Out of a Text</a></li>
</ul>

<blockquote>
<p>Have you tried any of these techniques to check understanding? What are your top tips? We&#39;d love to hear your experiences and ideas. Let us know in the comments!</p>
</blockquote>

<p>&nbsp;</p>

<p>&nbsp;</p>


The Perils of "Do You Understand?" & How to Check Comprehension Effectively

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Find quick links to each episode of the Teacher Think-Aloud podcast, hosted by Shélynn Riel and Anna Ciriani-Dean and sponsored by Ellii.  

Teacher Think-Aloud Podcast

<section>
<p>In the latest episode of&nbsp;<a href="https://www.teacherthinkaloud.com/" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">The Teacher Think-Aloud Podcast</a>, hosts Sh&eacute; and Anna are joined by Harry Waters, a global ELT educator, teacher trainer, and climate activist behind&nbsp;<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/harry-waters/?originalSubdomain=es">Renewable English</a>. Together, they explore how sustainability can become a consistent, student-driven context in the English language classroom&mdash;not just a one-off Earth Day activity.<br />
&nbsp;</p>

<blockquote><em>We&rsquo;re not just teaching nouns and verbs. We&rsquo;re helping students find their voice in a noisy world.</em></blockquote>

<p>From student-led recycling campaigns to eco-themed grammar activities, Harry shares practical ways to embed environmental awareness into your teaching&mdash;without overhauling your curriculum. His strategies include small but powerful shifts, like ending a lesson with &ldquo;How does today&rsquo;s topic connect to the planet?&rdquo; or reframing the second conditional to ask, &ldquo;If our school planted 1,000 trees&hellip;&rdquo;.</p>

<p>But this episode goes deeper. Harry also tackles the tough questions&mdash;what happens when student projects fail? How do we keep going when change feels slow? And how can we empower students to lead, even when systems resist?</p>

<p>🎧 Tune in for honest insights, tangible ideas, and the reminder that every lesson is a chance to model agency, connection, and care for the world we share.</p>
<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/_CwkBAl6tEk?si=e015Uo2loTQO9-Os" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe>

<p>🎙️&nbsp;<strong>Listen now on your favorite platform:</strong></p>

<ul>
	<li><a href="https://www.teacherthinkaloud.com/episodes" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">The Teacher Think-Aloud Podcast</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://www.youtube.com/@thinkaloud_pod" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">YouTube</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/2zv5mVNpSqkDNiNbQlnm7B" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">Spotify</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/the-teacher-think-aloud-podcast/id1629819608" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">Apple Podcasts</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;</li>
</ul>

<p>🔗&nbsp;<strong>Follow The Teacher Think-Aloud Podcast on social media for more updates:</strong></p>

<ul>
	<li><a href="https://www.facebook.com/teacherthinkaloud" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">Facebook</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://www.instagram.com/thinkaloud_pod/" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">Instagram</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://bsky.app/profile/thinkaloudpod.bsky.social" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">Bluesky</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@thinkaloud_pod" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">TikTok</a></li>
</ul>
</section>


Greening ELT: Addressing Sustainability in the English Language Classroom

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

Teaching with Ellii

<h1>The ultimate all-in-one platform for ELT teacherpreneurs</h1>

<p>Years ago, I was teaching English at a university an hour&rsquo;s drive from my home. Luckily, I had three English-teacher friends all commuting to the same city. Our daily carpool conversations usually revolved around classroom dilemmas and teaching methodology. Very often, while brainstorming our lesson plans, one of us would say, &ldquo;Ellii has the perfect lesson for that!&rdquo; or &ldquo;Today is an Ellii day!&rdquo; (Of course, back then, it was ESL&nbsp;Library, but you get the idea.)&nbsp;Ellii was the most popular resource in school.</p>

<p>When I left classroom teaching and became an independent &ldquo;teacherpreneur,&rdquo; turning to Ellii was a no-brainer.&nbsp;<strong>Here&rsquo;s why Ellii has everything I need to run my teaching business</strong>.</p>

<div class="videoWrapper"><iframe allow="autoplay; fullscreen" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/1107880312" width="640"></iframe></div>

<h2>Engaging, ready-made lessons for every student</h2>

<p>Like many independent teachers, my students range widely in age and level on any given day. I always count on Ellii to meet each student&rsquo;s needs and interests.</p>

<p>When a shy middle school student came to her first 1:1 lesson terrified to speak English, Ellii&rsquo;s <a href="https://ellii.com/lessons/true-grammar-stories">True Grammar Stories</a> got her excited to discuss trailblazers like Ruby Bridges and fascinating places like Chile&rsquo;s Marble Caves.</p>

<p>When a socioeconomics student felt &ldquo;stuck&rdquo; expressing her opinions, Ellii&rsquo;s <a href="https://ellii.com/lessons/discussion-starters">Discussion Starters</a> lesson on <a href="https://app.ellii.com/lesson/2775-universal-basic-income">Universal Basic Income</a> gave her the language to communicate more deeply on a real-world topic that truly mattered to her.</p>

<p>When the cashier at a convenience store in Cyprus asked me to explain the present perfect tense, I pulled up Ellii&rsquo;s <a href="https://app.ellii.com/lesson/1597-present-perfect">Present Perfect</a> Grammar Practice Worksheet&nbsp;on my phone for an impromptu grammar lesson. He responded, &ldquo;You just clarified in five minutes something that has confused me my whole life!&rdquo;</p>

<p>Ellii offers a massive library of&nbsp;<strong>high-quality, ready-made lessons</strong>, interactive games, engaging videos, and more&mdash;with new materials added daily. Ellii&rsquo;s content isn&rsquo;t just interesting and current; it&rsquo;s designed by real teachers to foster meaningful language encounters and genuine human connection.</p>

<p><img alt="Search results for &quot;travel&quot; showing 210 results in Lessons &amp; Resources" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/4832/content_Lesson-Search.png" /></p>

<h2>Super simple class management</h2>

<h3>Student accounts</h3>

<p>As a private teacher, I need a simple system to keep track of everyone and give each student a personalized learning experience. Ellii&rsquo;s <strong>built-in LMS</strong> (Learning Management System) is perfect for this.&nbsp;Ellii offers an <a href="https://ellii.com/pricing"><strong>affordable Individual plan</strong></a> that comes with 35 student licenses.&nbsp;Students can be placed into an unlimited number of classes. I can create a class for one specific student or add multiple students to the same class.</p>

<h3>Drag-and-drop lesson prep</h3>

<p>With Ellii&rsquo;s kanban-style&nbsp;<a href="https://ellii.com/blog/try-class-prepping-with-elliis-lesson-planner"><strong>Lesson Planner</strong></a>, class prep is a breeze. I just drag and drop content into the Prepping, Teaching, or Taught lanes to get ready for upcoming classes, assign tasks to my students, and keep track of what&rsquo;s been done. I have full control over the timing and pace of each student&rsquo;s learning journey. My business students appreciate a structured, intentional flow of exercises. My grammar fanatics love having a curated collection of tasks to tackle. And my conversation students enjoy seeing connected topics and feeling a sense of progress in their language development.</p>

<p><img alt="Ellii's drag-and-drop Lesson Planner showing lessons in the Prepping, Teaching, and Taught lanes" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/4833/content_Lesson-Planner.png" /></p>

<h3>Flexible organization</h3>

<p>Whenever I&rsquo;m browsing Ellii&rsquo;s content library, something always catches my eye. I can quickly &ldquo;<strong>like</strong>&rdquo; lessons or save content to customizable&nbsp;<a href="https://ellii.com/folders"><strong>Folders</strong></a>. I can also create <a href="https://ellii.com/flashcard_sets"><strong>Flashcard Sets</strong></a> to share with my students. Whether I&rsquo;m planning days ahead or pulling things together last minute, Ellii keeps me organized.</p>

<h3>Streamlined grading &amp; feedback</h3>

<p>Ellii&rsquo;s&nbsp;<a href="https://ellii.com/blog/introducing-grade-feed"><strong>Grade Feed</strong></a>&nbsp;also makes it easy to monitor and support my students&rsquo; progress. I can leave meaningful feedback with stars, written comments, and&mdash;my personal favorite&mdash;audio responses. When I&rsquo;m pressed for time or just need a little inspiration, the suggested responses (created by an Ellii writer) and&nbsp;<strong>Ellii Bot</strong> (built-in AI assistant)&nbsp;are lifesavers.</p>

<p><img alt="Ellii's Grade Feed showing a student's answer and Ellii Bot's suggested response" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/4834/content_Grade-Feed.png" /></p>

<h3>Built-in support &amp; professional development</h3>

<p>Teachers spend hours a day connecting with students, but running an independent teaching business can still feel isolating. Over the years, I&rsquo;ve leaned on Ellii for support and guidance.</p>

<p>Ellii is built by teachers, for teachers. Beyond great lesson content, Ellii supports teachers with a weekly&nbsp;newsletter, a huge library of&nbsp;teacher resources, and tons of&nbsp;tutorials, demo videos, and practical&nbsp;teaching tips. When I&rsquo;m looking for a curated sequence of lessons, I turn to Ellii&rsquo;s ready-made&nbsp;<a href="https://ellii.com/packs/?page=1"><strong>Courses</strong>&nbsp;<strong>&amp;</strong>&nbsp;<strong>Study Packs</strong></a>. When I&rsquo;m not sure what to teach next, I check the <a href="https://ellii.com/discover"><strong>Discover page</strong></a> and <a href="https://ellii.com/calendar"><strong>Lesson Calendar</strong></a> for fresh content and timely topics. If I&rsquo;m ever stuck on how to break down a tricky language point, I head to the&nbsp;<a href="https://ellii.com/blog"><strong>blog</strong></a>&mdash;it&rsquo;s full of expert insights and inspiring stories from the Ellii team and guest writers from the English teaching community.</p>

<h2>Teacher webinars</h2>

<p>And coming soon, Ellii is launching a brand-new<strong>&nbsp;webinar series for independent teachers</strong>!&nbsp;Join our free, practical sessions led by experienced educators who understand the unique challenges of private teaching. Register now for one of our&nbsp;upcoming webinars on <a href="https://www.crowdcast.io/c/teachwithellii-aug28" target="_blank"><strong>August 28 at 2:00 pm ET</strong></a> or <a href="https://www.crowdcast.io/c/teachwithellii-aug29" target="_blank"><strong>August 29 at 11:00 am ET</strong></a>.</p>

<p>Discover how Ellii can be your full teaching tool kit&mdash;everything you need to help your business thrive!</p>


Run Your Independent Teaching Business with Ellii

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<p>Have you heard the talk of the town? Ellii&nbsp;has a new <strong><a href="https://ellii.com/packs/conversation-phrases-course/materials">Conversation Phrases</a></strong> course!&nbsp;</p>

<p data-end="438" data-start="251">This video-based course is designed to help students improve their speaking&nbsp;skills and&nbsp;focuses on <strong>reduced pronunciation</strong> for more natural, fluent speech.</p>

<p data-end="745" data-start="440">Throughout the course, students will become familiar with <strong>useful, everyday phrases</strong> they can use to greet people, make plans, make small talk, talk about preferences, and wrap up a conversation. Each video lesson also leads students through oral reduced pronunciation practice and provides opportunities for speaking in a guided conversation.&nbsp;</p>

<p data-end="745" data-start="440">By the end of this course, students will gain the confidence they need to <strong>interact comfortably</strong> in various everyday conversations.</p>

<p data-end="807" data-start="747">Watch the <strong>introductory video</strong> from this course to learn more:</p>

<div class="videoWrapper"><iframe allow="autoplay; fullscreen" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/1098554567" width="640"></iframe></div>

<p data-end="859" data-start="811">The course includes the following <strong>lesson topics</strong>:</p>

<ul data-end="1010" data-start="861">
	<li>How to Start a Conversation</li>
	<li>How to End a Conversation</li>
	<li>How to Make Plans</li>
	<li>How to Make Small Talk</li>
	<li>How to Talk about Likes &amp; Dislikes</li>
</ul>

<p data-end="1371" data-start="1012">Each video-based lesson introduces 12 to 15 <strong>common, conversational phrases</strong> grouped into four sets of questions and responses. Students will hear natural examples of colloquial phrases and expressions, practice reduced pronunciation, and role-play guided conversations. The final video also teaches students how to agree and disagree with someone in a conversation.</p>

<p data-end="1542" data-start="1373">This&nbsp;course includes two digital <strong>assessments</strong> (a mid-course and final assessment) and an optional speaking task that teachers would need&nbsp;to review and score manually.</p>

<p data-end="1693" data-start="1544">You can find our new&nbsp;<a href="https://ellii.com/packs/conversation-phrases-course/materials"><strong data-end="1605" data-start="1557">Conversation Phrases</strong></a>&nbsp;course in the&nbsp;<a href="https://ellii.com/packs/?category=2&amp;page=1">Life Skills</a> section in&nbsp;Ellii&#39;s&nbsp;<a href="https://ellii.com/packs/?page=1">Courses &amp; Study Packs</a>.</p>

<p data-end="1842" data-start="1695">From the course page, you can easily click the <a href="https://ellii.com/packs/conversation-phrases-course/materials">&quot;Add to class&quot;</a> button to assign lessons to your students right away or schedule them through your <a href="https://ellii.com/blog/try-class-prepping-with-elliis-lesson-planner">Lesson Planner</a>.</p>

<p data-end="1979" data-start="1844">Don&rsquo;t forget to check out the <a href="https://ellii.com/packs/conversation-phrases-course/materials">Materials</a>, <a href="https://ellii.com/packs/conversation-phrases-course/overview">Overview</a>, and <a href="https://ellii.com/packs/conversation-phrases-course/notes">Teachers&#39; Notes</a>&nbsp;tabs&nbsp;for helpful resources and teaching suggestions.</p>

<p data-end="2119" data-start="2104">We hope you and your students enjoy this new type of course!</p>


Introducing Ellii's New Conversation Phrases Course

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<p>In the latest episode of&nbsp;<a href="https://www.teacherthinkaloud.com/" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">The Teacher Think-Aloud Podcast</a>, hosts Sh&eacute; and Anna are joined by Sharon Tjaden-Burkes, a former English language educator who successfully transitioned into instructional design (ID). Sharon shares her deeply personal and practical story of leaving adjunct teaching behind to pursue a more sustainable, fulfilling path in learning and development.</p>

<blockquote><em>We all have one life. Choose something you&#39;d want to do during the day. &nbsp;&mdash;Sharon&nbsp;Tjaden-Burkes</em></blockquote>

<p>From battling burnout while raising two young kids to upskilling through a graduate certificate and hobby projects, Sharon offers both encouragement and concrete advice for educators who are ready for change&mdash;but unsure where to begin. Her journey speaks to the realities many teachers face: invisible labor, limited growth opportunities, and the pressure to do it all alone. Through candid storytelling, Sharon helps listeners see how their classroom experience is not just transferable&mdash;it&rsquo;s transformational.</p>

<p><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/FNNR9ImkRMo?si=vALU92iAfUXehv2j" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe></p>

<p>🎙️&nbsp;<strong>Listen now on your favorite platform:</strong></p>

<ul>
	<li><a href="https://www.teacherthinkaloud.com/episodes" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">The Teacher Think-Aloud Podcast</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://www.youtube.com/@thinkaloud_pod" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">YouTube</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/2zv5mVNpSqkDNiNbQlnm7B" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">Spotify</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/the-teacher-think-aloud-podcast/id1629819608" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">Apple Podcasts</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;</li>
</ul>

<p>🔗&nbsp;<strong>Follow The Teacher Think-Aloud Podcast on social media for more updates:</strong></p>

<ul>
	<li><a href="https://www.facebook.com/teacherthinkaloud" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">Facebook</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://www.instagram.com/thinkaloud_pod/" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">Instagram</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://twitter.com/thinkaloud_pod" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">X</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://bsky.app/profile/thinkaloudpod.bsky.social" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">Bluesky</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@thinkaloud_pod" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">TikTok</a></li>
</ul>


From the Classroom to the Design Desk: Transitioning from ELT to Instructional Design

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<p>Yes! It&rsquo;s a &quot;thing&rsquo;.&quot; There<em> really is</em> an International Sketchnote Camp! And it<em> really is</em>&nbsp;as much fun as it sounds.</p>

<p>Every year, visual thinkers from all over the world get together to share ideas, collectively doodle, and inspire each other.</p>

<p>When I discovered it was in Birmingham, UK, I immediately booked a ticket and raised my hand to volunteer.</p>

<p>In many ways, it was a no-brainer. The venue was right across the road from the NATECLA venue, where I would be delivering the keynote the week before.</p>

<p><img alt="Emily visually recording the closing plenary at NATECLA" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/4779/content_Emily-Bryson-at-NATECLA.jpg" /></p>

<p class="caption">Emily visually recording the closing plenary at NATECLA</p>

<h2><strong>ELT conference to International Sketchnote Camp!</strong></h2>

<p>It struck me that my professional career has led me to frequent English Language Teaching conferences such as <a href="https://ellii.com/blog/reflections-from-iatefl-2025">IATEFL</a>, <a href="https://www.natecla.org.uk/">NATECLA</a>, <a href="https://ellii.com/blog/perutesol-2024-reflections-and-take-aways">Peru TESOL</a>, and <a href="https://ellii.com/blog/anglo-congress-2024-reflections-take-aways">Anglo Uruguay</a>. Occasionally, I&rsquo;ll dip my toes in wider educational waters, but in general I stick in the cozy realms of communicative language classrooms.</p>

<p>I was intrigued to see what a sketchnoting conference would have in store for me. In this post, I&rsquo;ll share some of my ELT-brained reflections.</p>

<h2><strong>Lesson 1: Conference names have character</strong></h2>

<p>I absolutely love that ISC markets itself as a &quot;Camp,&quot;<em>&nbsp;</em>albeit one that doesn&rsquo;t involve waking up in a soggy tent. The name immediately exudes fun, relaxed, and creative vibes.</p>

<p>Sketchnoting&nbsp;is one of the most therapeutic, enjoyable, and impactful skills that I have developed.</p>

<p>Then there is&nbsp;&quot;International.&quot; ISC is now in its eighth year. The event passes the organizational baton to enthusiastic visual thinkers around the world, making it a truly global event. This year, the event was organized by Paddy Dhanda and Grant Wright from&nbsp;<a href="https://www.thevisualjam.com/">The Visual Jam</a>, who also run supercool visual thinking meetups.&nbsp;</p>

<p>Previous camps have taken place in Birmingham (UK),&nbsp;San Antonio (USA), Leiden (The Netherlands), Szczecin&nbsp;(Poland), Brussels (Belgium), Paris (France), Lisbon (Portugal), and&nbsp;Hamburg (Germany).&nbsp;Next year, the event will be in Verona (Italy) in September. Watch out for #ISC26 for updates or follow the organizer,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.instagram.com/federica.tabone_visual.psy/">Federica Tabone</a>.&nbsp;</p>

<p><img alt="Federica holding up 'Verona'" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/4780/content_The_big_reveal_Mike_Rohde_with_Federica_Tabone.jpg" /></p>

<h2><strong>Lesson 2: Visual games are a great way to connect</strong></h2>

<p>ISC 2025 kicked off with as much fun as you&#39;d expect from 120 or so creatives. I teamed up with fellow volunteers&nbsp;<a href="https://www.instagram.com/sketchnotesbygeorgina/">Georgina Dean</a> and <a href="https://www.instagram.com/ania_staskiewicz/">Ania Staskiewicz</a> to bring everyone together for visual games. While ELT conferences I&#39;ve attended start with speeches, it got me wondering why, as a playful profession, we aren&#39;t starting with games!&nbsp;</p>

<p>I got everyone warmed up with an activity I learned from&nbsp;<a href="https://www.instagram.com/inksight.nl/">Maaike Borsboom</a>. We drew our own portraits while holding a piece of paper&nbsp;to our face. Then we added an interesting&nbsp;fact, scrunched up the paper, and launched it across the room. Campers were then asked to retrieve a paper ball and find its owner.&nbsp;</p>

<p>Ania then handed out her beautifully presented &quot;Human Bingo&quot;&nbsp;(aka &quot;Find Someone Who&quot;) cards. Instead of writing, our campers&nbsp;doodled&nbsp;an icon on finding a match&mdash;all while hunting for the creator of some rather interesting self-portraits.&nbsp;</p>

<p>For the finale, Georgina Dean gave out playground chalk and task cards representing the theme for this year:&nbsp;Human Connections. The campers then created a collaborative artwork by doodling themes such as &quot;new best friends&quot; and &quot;social bonds.&quot;</p>

<p>If you&#39;d like some templates for Bingo or Find Someone Who, check out Ellii&#39;s&nbsp;<a href="https://ellii.com/resources/warm-ups-fillers">Warm-Ups &amp; Fillers</a>. There are some pretty great ideas to help people get to know each other&nbsp;or kick off a conference in style.&nbsp;</p>

<h2><strong>Lesson 3: FOMO lessens when you can share pretty notes</strong></h2>

<p>Conferences can lead to tough decisions. Often there are so many fantastic sessions happening at the same time that we are forced to choose.</p>

<p>ISC was no different. I was challenged to decide between Georgina Dean&rsquo;s Adobe Fresco session or Stuart Young exploring Emotional Intelligence in the Age of AI. I also had to choose between bringing my doodles to life with Alejo Porras or developing my drawings of emotions with Andy Gray.</p>

<p>I needn&rsquo;t have worried&nbsp;as I soon realized that multiple stunning crib notes would shortly appear on the camp Padlet and Whatsapp chat. These beautiful notes allowed me to catch up on what I missed and let me see a variety of sketchnoting styles.</p>

<h2><strong>Lesson 4: Every conference needs (GIANT) visual notes</strong></h2>

<p>As well as delegates&#39; own personal notes, the conference also had Andy Gray taking large-scale visual recordings of each session.&nbsp;Having a live illustator&nbsp;capture the event meant that all the key takeaways could be shared easily&nbsp;and referred to for years to come.</p>

<p>It was a joyful experience to see Andy at work. For me, it brought the event to life and added a touch of magic. I feel like every conference needs a graphic recorder, whether they are working big on large sheets of paper&nbsp;or creating something digitally! 😉</p>

<p><img alt="Andy's giant visual notes" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/4781/content_Visual_Recording_by_Andy_Gray.jpg" /></p>

<h2><strong>Lesson 5: Embrace your own style</strong></h2>

<p>It would be impossible for everyone&rsquo;s notes to look the same. This camp very much celebrated crafting our own unique style and the freedom of not comparing ourselves to others.</p>

<p>As someone with no formal art training who found sketchnoting in recent years, this was a powerful message. When I first signed up, I had been worried about feeling out of place, but I immediately felt at ease.&nbsp;</p>

<p>It was freeing to see messy, scribbled, quick notes that were functional. The purpose of visual note-taking is not art, but communication.</p>

<h2><strong>Lesson 6: Bar camps give everyone a voice</strong></h2>

<p>On the final day of the camp, <a href="https://www.stuartyoung.uk/">Stuart Young</a> organized a &quot;bar camp&quot;&nbsp;session. This allowed all delegates the opportunity to explore topics of their choosing and share their skills organically.</p>

<p><img alt="Stuart's drawing of how to deliver Bar Camp" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/4782/content_Stuart_Young_Bar_Camp.jpg" /></p>

<p>Stuart set up a space for attendees to add their ideas on Post-its. These could be things people would like to explore more or informal workshops they would like to deliver.</p>

<p>I enjoyed the flexibility of this space and made two suggestions&nbsp;based on my own expertise and interest: neurodiversity and language teaching.</p>

<p><img alt="image of post-its" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/4783/content_Bar_Camp_Post-its.jpg" /></p>

<h2><b>Bar Camp 1: Neurodiversity in the visual thinking community</b></h2>

<p>This session was inspired by some discussions and sharing that had evolved in the ISC Whatsapp group. Many shared their personal experiences of neurodivergent thinking and how visuals have supported them to plan, organize, and focus.</p>

<p>We noticed&nbsp;that our community of visual thinkers has more neurodiverse minds than average. This cemented our view&nbsp;that&nbsp;visual thinking and sketchnoting are highly effective ways to support neurodiverse&nbsp;learners.&nbsp;</p>

<h2><b><b>Bar Camp 2: Language teaching for visual thinkers &nbsp;</b></b></h2>

<p>My second bar camp session was on visual thinking for language teachers. I wanted to bring together educators who were currently using their graphic facilitation skills and visual tools to support language acquisition. The session was extremely well attended and I was delighted to meet so many like-minded individuals.</p>

<p>This gave us&nbsp;the opportunity to share some of our favorite tools and techniques. Our plan is to stay connected and continue to share these ideas. <a href="https://padlet.com/emilybrysonelt/visual-thinking-for-language-teachers-btf5z4xu9q481ysr">Here&#39;s a Padlet we are working on</a>. Feel free to add your own ideas.&nbsp;</p>

<p><img alt="Fernanda and Jane" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/4784/content_Emily_Bryson_with_Fernanda_Freytes_and_Jane_Carvell.jpg" /></p>

<p class="caption">I got to meet two of my visual-thinking-in-language-teaching heroes: <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/fernanda-freytes-ramos/">Fernanda Freytes</a> and <a href="https://www.jcenglishtraining.com/">Jane Carvell</a>.&nbsp;</p>

<p>If you&rsquo;d like to find out more about sketchnoting and visual thinking in ELT, check out these blog posts:</p>

<p><a href="https://ellii.com/blog/sketchnoting-101-supercharged-professional-development-with-visual-notes">Sketchnoting 101: Supercharge Professional Development with Visual Notes</a></p>

<p style="margin-bottom:11px"><a href="https://ellii.com/blog/graphic-facilitation-101">Graphic Facilitation 101: Teaching English through Visual Communication</a></p>

<div>
<div class="msocomtxt" id="_com_2" language="JavaScript" onmouseout="msoCommentHide('_com_2')" onmouseover="msoCommentShow('_anchor_2','_com_2')"><a href="https://ellii.com/blog/how-to-simplify-complex-tasks-with-visual-prompts">How to Simplify Complex Tasks with Visual Prompts</a></div>

<div class="msocomtxt" language="JavaScript" onmouseout="msoCommentHide('_com_2')" onmouseover="msoCommentShow('_anchor_2','_com_2')">&nbsp;</div>

<div class="msocomtxt" language="JavaScript" onmouseout="msoCommentHide('_com_2')" onmouseover="msoCommentShow('_anchor_2','_com_2')"><a href="https://ellii.com/blog/graphic-organizers-for-language-skills-development">Using Graphic Orgnizers for Language Skills Development</a></div>

<div class="msocomtxt" language="JavaScript" onmouseout="msoCommentHide('_com_2')" onmouseover="msoCommentShow('_anchor_2','_com_2')">&nbsp;</div>

<div class="msocomtxt" language="JavaScript" onmouseout="msoCommentHide('_com_2')" onmouseover="msoCommentShow('_anchor_2','_com_2')"><a href="https://ellii.com/blog/how-to-use-pictures-as-grammar-prompts">How to Use Pictures as Grammar Prompts</a></div>

<div class="msocomtxt" language="JavaScript" onmouseout="msoCommentHide('_com_2')" onmouseover="msoCommentShow('_anchor_2','_com_2')">&nbsp;</div>

<div class="msocomtxt" language="JavaScript" onmouseout="msoCommentHide('_com_2')" onmouseover="msoCommentShow('_anchor_2','_com_2')">If you&#39;d like to see more photos and ideas from the camp, check out <a href="https://www.instagram.com/reel/DLzEtDHoiPt/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&amp;igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==">this post</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.instagram.com/reel/DL7fyY0IKrh/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&amp;igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==">others</a> on my Instagram.&nbsp;</div>

<div class="msocomtxt" language="JavaScript" onmouseout="msoCommentHide('_com_2')" onmouseover="msoCommentShow('_anchor_2','_com_2')">&nbsp;</div>

<div class="msocomtxt" language="JavaScript" onmouseout="msoCommentHide('_com_2')" onmouseover="msoCommentShow('_anchor_2','_com_2')">Have you tried sketchnoting or using visual thinking strategies in the classroom? What would you love to see at ELT conferences? We&#39;d love to hear your ideas.&nbsp;</div>
</div>


What ELT Conferences Can Learn from Sketchnoting Camps

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<p>If you&rsquo;re a teacher using Ellii, you&rsquo;ve likely already met our trusty assistant:&nbsp;<a href="https://help.ellii.com/article/267-how-to-use-the-grade-feed">Ellii Bot</a>. This tool helps you save time by auto-scoring student answers and writing personalized feedback on their Writing and Speaking tasks.</p>

<p>We&rsquo;ve heard your feedback, and we&rsquo;ve been listening closely. Teachers have told us they love the time-saving magic of Ellii Bot, but they have also noticed a few things that could be better.</p>

<p>So we&#39;ve rolled up our sleeves and made Ellii Bot even smarter.</p>

<h2>Smarter scoring, more consistent feedback</h2>

<p>Have you ever seen a student&rsquo;s answers get scores that felt a bit too high or too low compared to others on the same task? Or noticed&nbsp;Ellii Bot was a little too focused on matching the Answer Key perfectly?</p>

<p>That&rsquo;s because, in the past, Ellii Bot looked at each Writing or Speaking question individually&nbsp;without considering the full context of the task or the lesson. And it treated the Answer Key like the only possible correct response, which sometimes made things feel a bit too rigid.</p>

<p>For example, students are given the following instructions:&nbsp;Rewrite the sentence. There is a mistake in each sentence. Find the mistake and then rewrite the sentence correctly.</p>

<p><strong><img alt="" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/4787/content_image-1-2.png" /></strong></p>

<p>The result? Inconsistent scoring and feedback that didn&rsquo;t always reflect your teaching goals&mdash;or your students&rsquo; true understanding.</p>

<p><strong><img alt="" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/4788/content_image-3-4.png" /></strong></p>

<p>The new Ellii Bot changes that. It now reads and scores&nbsp;<b>all of a student&rsquo;s answers together</b>, which leads to&nbsp;<b>more consistent scoring</b>&nbsp;across the full task. It understands how the questions connect and evaluates them as a whole, just like a teacher would.</p>

<p>And when it comes to Answer Keys, Ellii Bot now treats them as&nbsp;<b>one of many valid reference answers</b>&nbsp;rather than as a strict standard. It uses the key as a helpful guide, but focuses on whether the student&rsquo;s answer is strong and appropriate on its terms.</p>

<h2>Context matters&mdash;and Ellii Bot knows it</h2>

<p>Before giving any feedback, the new Ellii Bot now reads and understands the&nbsp;<b>lesson</b>. This means it knows what your students are supposed to be focusing on&mdash;and tailors its scoring and feedback accordingly:</p>

<ul>
	<li>In a&nbsp;<b>grammar </b>lesson, it emphasizes language accuracy.</li>
	<li>In a&nbsp;<b>topic-based </b>lesson, it prioritizes comprehension and relevant content.</li>
	<li>For <strong>personal</strong>&nbsp;<b>opinion </b>questions, it can recognize thoughtful, on-topic responses&mdash;even when there&rsquo;s no single correct answer.</li>
</ul>

<h2>Simplified feedback&nbsp;based on student level</h2>

<p>Students are not all the same; they are at&nbsp;different levels, even when we are teaching the same lesson. Feedback is now&nbsp;<b>adapted to the learner&rsquo;s level</b>, making it more accessible, supportive, and appropriate for each stage of their learning journey.</p>

<p><strong><img alt="" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/4789/content_image-5.png" /></strong></p>

<p>Even though both classes are working on the same intermediate-level lesson, Bicycles,&nbsp;beginner students are performing above their current level, while advanced students are working below theirs, which can result in lower scores for the more advanced group.</p>

<p><strong><img alt="" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/4790/content_image-6-7.png" /></strong></p>

<ul>
	<li><b>Beginner students</b>&nbsp;now receive&nbsp;<b>shorter, simpler</b>&nbsp;comments with clear and encouraging language.</li>
	<li><b>More advanced students</b>&nbsp;get&nbsp;<b>deeper, more detailed</b>&nbsp;feedback that challenges their thinking and supports further growth.</li>
</ul>

<p>This thoughtful approach helps ensure students understand and benefit from the feedback without being overwhelmed by it.</p>

<h2>Built to empower teachers&mdash;not replace them</h2>

<p>We recognize the importance of the human connection between teachers and learners. AI will never replace the insight, empathy, or guidance of a teacher. Instead, our goal is to build tools that&nbsp;<b>support your work,&nbsp;</b>freeing you to focus on what matters most: fostering student growth.</p>

<p>Read more about our philosophy at&nbsp;<a href="https://ellii.com/ai">ellii.com/ai</a></p>

<p>The new Ellii Bot is designed to be a helpful partner, making your day a little easier and your feedback process more efficient and aligned with your goals.</p>

<p>We&rsquo;re excited to keep improving it&mdash;and we&rsquo;re so grateful to the educators who help shape the tools we build.</p>

<blockquote>
<p>Got feedback? We&rsquo;re always listening, and we count on you to help us keep getting better.</p>
</blockquote>


Ellii Bot Just Got Smarter

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<p>In the latest episode of&nbsp;<a href="https://www.teacherthinkaloud.com/" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">The Teacher Think-Aloud Podcast</a>, hosts Anna and Sh&eacute; share a curated list of&nbsp;<strong>13 impactful reads</strong>&nbsp;perfect for educators navigating language, identity, and culture in the English language classroom. They warn that these are not light summer reads&mdash;they are powerful stories that explore migration, memory, and belonging, offering teachers new ways to connect with students across borders.</p>

<p><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/PUaTsFhfWhk?si=VmYpuQPphFWx6mhU" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe></p>

<p>The episode features titles like&nbsp;<em>Solito</em>&nbsp;by Javier Zamora,&nbsp;<em>Beautiful Country</em>&nbsp;by Qian Julie Wang,&nbsp;<em>Homegoing</em>&nbsp;by Yaa Gyasi, and&nbsp;<em>Airplane Mode</em>&nbsp;by Shahnaz Habib&mdash;books that dive deep into lived experiences of displacement, resistance, and the search for home. Some titles, like&nbsp;<em>The Covenant of Water</em>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<em>The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane</em>, offer immersive, intergenerational narratives rooted in specific places, while others like&nbsp;<em>The Penguin Book of Migration Literature</em>&nbsp;present a range of voices and journeys from around the globe.</p>

<p>Anna and Sh&eacute; reflect on how these stories inform their teaching and inspire classroom activities. Some of the&nbsp;<strong>literature-based strategies</strong>&nbsp;they discuss for bringing these stories into ELT contexts, from leveraging memoirs for&nbsp;<strong>personal storytelling</strong>&nbsp;to&nbsp;<strong>practicing perspective-taking&nbsp;</strong>and rewriting stories through a different lens.&nbsp;</p>

<blockquote>&ldquo;Wherever you are right now&mdash;in a hammock, on a long train ride, or just taking a few minutes between lesson prep for the upcoming school year&mdash;we hope these stories find you well. And we hope they leave you changed, just a little. Because the best stories do.&rdquo; - Sh&eacute; and Anna</blockquote>

<p>🎙️&nbsp;<strong>Listen now on your favorite platform:</strong></p>

<ul>
	<li><a href="https://www.teacherthinkaloud.com/episodes" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">The Teacher Think-Aloud Podcast</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://www.youtube.com/@thinkaloud_pod" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">YouTube</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/2zv5mVNpSqkDNiNbQlnm7B" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">Spotify</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/the-teacher-think-aloud-podcast/id1629819608" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">Apple Podcasts</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;</li>
</ul>

<p>🔗&nbsp;<strong>Follow The Teacher Think-Aloud Podcast on social media for more updates:</strong></p>

<ul>
	<li><a href="https://www.facebook.com/teacherthinkaloud" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">Facebook</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://www.instagram.com/thinkaloud_pod/" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">Instagram</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://twitter.com/thinkaloud_pod" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">X</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://bsky.app/profile/thinkaloudpod.bsky.social" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">Bluesky</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@thinkaloud_pod" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">TikTok</a></li>
</ul>


Stories That Cross Borders: A Summer Reading Special for ELT Educators

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<p>We&#39;ve all attended online workshops and webinars that have bored us to the point of checking our emails or cleaning our desk. Perhaps the content wasn&#39;t what we were expecting, or maybe the presenter was just reading word for word from a set of busy slides.&nbsp;</p>

<p>In this blog post, I&#39;ll share some of my top tips for delivering awesome teacher training online. These are tips and tricks I use myself and that I&#39;ve learned through watching other experts in the field at work.&nbsp;</p>

<h2><strong>Make it count</strong></h2>

<p>In&nbsp;any training session, we want participants to feel like they have invested their time wisely. Time is precious, especially for teachers. No one wants to waste it on a poorly researched session delivered in mono<em>dr</em>one. We need to make each second count&nbsp;and aim to have delegates leave feeling like they&#39;ve really learned something transformative.&nbsp;</p>

<h2><strong>Know your topic</strong></h2>

<p>To make the session count, you need to be knowledgeable about your topic. Make sure your information is up to date by&nbsp;joining groups on social media, watching webinars, listening to podcasts, and chatting to colleagues as well as&nbsp;reading research, articles, and blogs.&nbsp;</p>

<p>It is often best to choose something that you have lived experience with or a subject that you have researched passionately. Your enthusiasm will shine through if you choose to speak about something that really excites you.&nbsp;</p>

<h2><strong>Value the audience</strong></h2>

<p>Every teacher brings their own unique skills and experience to the session. As teacher trainers, our role is to help teachers share their ideas, tips, and activities with each other.&nbsp;</p>

<p>Harry Waters, one of my teacher training idols, once made the point that teacher trainers give teachers ideas&nbsp;so&nbsp;they can&nbsp;add their own spin to them and make those ideas bigger and better.</p>

<p>Allowing the training room to be a sharing space lets teachers capitalize on the expertise of the trainer as well as their own and their peers&#39;.&nbsp;</p>

<h2><strong>Be interactive</strong></h2>

<p>Making sessions interactive gets the audience involved, makes them feel valued, and helps them learn through each other by sharing their expertise. It also avoids turning an online workshop into a lecture. One of the simplest ways to do this is through posing questions in the chat&nbsp;and reading out any interesting and helpful ideas.&nbsp;</p>

<p>Depending on the size of the audience&nbsp;and the learning platform, you&nbsp;could also make use of online tools such as:&nbsp;</p>

<ul>
	<li>Polls:&nbsp;Ask questions and get people voting in Zoom or via Mentimeter or perhaps even with an&nbsp;<a href="https://app.ellii.com/gather/polls">Ellii Poll</a>.</li>
	<li>Reactions: Ask participants to share their thoughts using emojis in the chat&nbsp;or the reactions tool.&nbsp;</li>
	<li>Annotation: Have participants interact on screen using&nbsp;text, drawings, or icons by&nbsp;using annotation tools.</li>
	<li>Breakout Rooms: Give attendees time in pairs or groups to share their ideas, solve a problem, or create an activity.</li>
	<li>Shared Documents:&nbsp;Use Google Docs, MS Word Online, or Padlet&nbsp;to have participants collaborate.</li>
	<li>Whiteboards: Complete tables, add information in visual templates, or create mind maps using interactive whiteboards such as <a href="http://Canva.com">Canva</a>, <a href="http://www.miro.com">Miro</a>, or <a href="http://mural.co">Mural</a>.&nbsp;</li>
</ul>

<h2><strong>Use minimal text&nbsp;</strong></h2>

<p>Too many words on a slide can be distracting. Participants will naturally aim to read the text, which can be quite confusing if they are also trying to listen&nbsp;to what the presenter is saying at the same time. This can often lead to neither textual nor oral input being comprehensible.&nbsp;</p>

<p>Instead, use text sparingly to remind yourself&nbsp;of points you&#39;d like to make. A few clear bullet points will support the participants to follow your talk. Alternatively, use icons, images, or doodles as visual cues.&nbsp;</p>

<h2><strong>Use engaging visuals</strong></h2>

<p>Visuals are an impactful way of generating discussions, simplifying complex information, and helping your audience think more deeply about a topic. Some of the best workshops and webinars I have attended used only images to express information, add a touch of humor, and generate questions to get the audience involved.&nbsp;</p>

<p>For example, say you are delivering a session on student well-being. Instead of presenting a comprehensive&nbsp;list of challenges that may affect a learners&#39; mental health or confidence, you could display this image of &quot;Storm Man.&quot;&nbsp;</p>

<p><img alt="Ellii Photo prompt, storm man" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/4744/content_Ellii-Photo-prompt-storm-man-image.jpg" /></p>

<p>Then you could have people write their own ideas in the chat or by using annotation tools. This way the activity is more interactive and you can actively involve your audience in the session.&nbsp;</p>

<h2><strong>Encourage movement</strong></h2>

<p>As in face-to-face training, sitting still for too long can make us stiffen up, feel sluggish, and&nbsp;even induce aches and pains. Online English language classes are more fun with a bit of movement and so too are training sessions.&nbsp;</p>

<p>You could try these techniques to re-energize:</p>

<ul>
	<li>Doodling: Describe or demonstrate how to draw something and have participants draw their own image. For example, have them draw their own &quot;Storm Man.&quot;&nbsp;</li>
	<li>Movement Voting: Host an interactive poll where participants stand up for yes, shake their head animatedly for no, lift&nbsp;their arms in the air for maybe, and bend to the right or left for not sure.</li>
	<li>Pass the Pen: Hold a pen and introduce yourself or share a teaching tip, and then pass the pen remotely to another participant. They have to pick up the pen and add their own input to the task, and then pass the pen to the another person of their choice.</li>
	<li>Chair Yoga: Do some gentle stretches from your chair.</li>
	<li>Movement while Brainstorming: If you&#39;d like to give participants five minutes to think about something, have them walk around the room as they do it and then come back to share their ideas.&nbsp;</li>
</ul>

<h2><b>Get the lighting (and tech) right</b></h2>

<p>Make sure your face isn&#39;t in a shadow. Aim to have the light source in front of you. Natural light is best so sitting facing a window can often be the best option. However, a strong lamp or ring light can be just as effective.</p>

<p>It is a good idea to arrive a little early in case you need to play around with curtains, blinds, or lamps. This is also a good opportunity to check that there is no clutter (or anything embarrassing) in the background and that all your tech is working correctly. Check your mic, camera, and screensharing capabilities as a minimum.&nbsp;</p>

<h2><strong>Be yourself!</strong></h2>

<p>I&#39;m sure everyone has their own online teacher training idols. These are people whose sessions you attend with awe and&nbsp;aspire to be just like them. The reality is that everyone is different and will present in different ways. Some speakers are natural comedians, others are fantastic at telling stories, and some even use singing, drawing, or drama to bring their sessions to life. Share your own unique self and shine as brightly as&nbsp;only you can!</p>

<blockquote>
<p>What are your top tips for delivering teacher development sessions online? Who are your teaching training idols? We&#39;d love to know what makes an awesome webinar to you.&nbsp;</p>
</blockquote>

<h2>Check out these Ellii webinars</h2>

<p><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/1ZeOTiexGtM?si=-vPzmRRGLmS_09cU" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe></p>

<ul>
	<li><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ZeOTiexGtM&amp;list=PLP0N5nuiA3aOnP9kH4IYJ4INeniYQpYGa&amp;index=24" target="_blank">How to Use Ellii&#39;s Lesson Planner</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q1BucslnAsw&amp;list=PLP0N5nuiA3aOnP9kH4IYJ4INeniYQpYGa&amp;index=23" target="_blank">Boosting Student Talk Time</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMlFNOxnhwg&amp;list=PLP0N5nuiA3aOnP9kH4IYJ4INeniYQpYGa&amp;index=22" target="_blank">How to Use Ellii&#39;s Career Pathway Content: Allied Healthcare Webinar 2024&nbsp;</a></li>
</ul>


How to Deliver Online Teacher Training That Rocks!

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<p>We&#39;ve just built and deployed another really cool new game called <strong><a href="https://app.ellii.com/gather/dilemmas" target="_blank">Ellii Dilemmas</a></strong>. Have you tried it yet?</p>

<div class="videoWrapper"><iframe allow="autoplay; fullscreen" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Kte1oAeUYwE?si=3n6VhVgtPCKqRpKm" width="640"></iframe></div>

<p>Just like Ellii Polls, <strong><a href="https://app.ellii.com/gather/dilemmas" target="_blank">Ellii Dilemmas</a></strong> are super simple, highly engaging, and delightfully fun. 😎&nbsp;</p>

<p>With Ellii Dilemmas, your students face impossible choices&mdash;two difficult options with no clear&nbsp;right answer&mdash;and must <strong>choose</strong>,&nbsp;<strong>justify</strong>, and&nbsp;<strong>defend</strong> their pick.</p>

<p>So how does it work?</p>

<blockquote>
<ol>
	<li>Start by presenting an <a href="https://app.ellii.com/gather/dilemmas" target="_blank">Ellii Dilemma</a> on your screen in front of your class. Have your students join the session by scanning a <strong>QR code</strong>.</li>
	<li>Have students&nbsp;<strong>read</strong> the dilemma on their own devices and&nbsp;<strong>vote</strong> for the choice they would make in that particular situation.</li>
	<li>Assign your students to small groups to discuss their choices&nbsp;using the built-in technology. If you&#39;re teaching online, you can put your students in breakout rooms.&nbsp;</li>
	<li>Gather again as a full group and encourage students to use&nbsp;the &quot;Speak up&quot; function to explain their reasoning and back up their choices.</li>
	<li>Finally, after students have had a chance to speak up, get everyone to vote&nbsp;again to see if anyone&#39;s opinion has been swayed. Compare the results.</li>
</ol>
</blockquote>

<p>You can use Ellii Dilemmas as a <strong>warm-up</strong>&nbsp;or&nbsp;<strong>cooldown</strong> activity to start or end any class.&nbsp;</p>

<p>Check out the video above to see how it works. Then try it out with your students this week and let us know what you think! We will be adding more dilemmas soon.</p>

<div class="whiteBox"><span class="label hangingLabel">New</span>

<p class="circleThumb"><a href="https://app.ellii.com/gather/dilemmas" target="_blank"><img alt="" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/4771/content_Ellii-Dilemmas-thumb.png" /></a></p>

<h2><a href="https://app.ellii.com/gather/dilemmas" target="_blank">Try Dilemmas Now!</a></h2>

<p>Ellii Dilemmas is a free feature. So please tell all your teacher friends who don&#39;t have an Ellii account that they can use it without buying a subscription!</p>
</div>


Announcing Ellii Dilemmas!

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<p>You may know that there are more than 600 long-form videos in <a href="https://ellii.com/media/videos">Ellii&#39;s Media Gallery</a>, but were you aware that we also have a lot of short-form videos?&nbsp;We recently released our <strong>150th short</strong> on Ellii&#39;s social media channels and app, so what better time&nbsp;to discuss how you can make use of all this bite-sized content in class?</p>

<h2>Where can I find Ellii&#39;s shorts?</h2>

<h3>YouTube</h3>

<p>Have you seen Ellii&#39;s&nbsp;<strong><a href="https://www.youtube.com/@ellii/featured">YouTube channel for students</a></strong>? We post weekly shorts&nbsp;on YouTube&mdash;usually one or two per week. We make shorts on all kinds of topics, including grammar, vocabulary, idioms, phrasal verbs, pronunciation,&nbsp;listening, and speaking.</p>

<p>Go to&nbsp;the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/@ellii/shorts"><strong>Shorts&nbsp;tab</strong></a> from our home page (or just click on the following image) to see them all.</p>

<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/@ellii/shorts"><img alt="Image of shorts index page on Ellii's YouTube channel for students" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/4736/content_Youtube-Channel-Shorts.png" /></a></p>

<p>We also have our long-form <a href="https://www.youtube.com/@ellii/videos">videos</a> organized by <a href="https://www.youtube.com/@ellii/playlists">playlists</a> on our channel, as well as a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.youtube.com/@ellii/community">community posts</a> area where we regularly pose questions to students about grammar, vocabulary, idioms, etc.</p>

<p>In case you missed it, we also have a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/@elliiteachers">YouTube channel for teachers</a>!</p>

<h3>Instagram</h3>

<p>We also regularly post reels to our Instagram channel for students, <a href="https://www.instagram.com/elliienglish/reels/">@elliienglish</a>. Reels are often shared as stories as well so that students can easily find our&nbsp;new content.</p>

<p>Go to the <a href="https://www.instagram.com/elliienglish/reels/"><strong>Reels&nbsp;tab</strong></a> on our home page to view them all.</p>

<p><a href="https://www.instagram.com/elliienglish/reels/"><img alt="Image of reels index on Ellii's Instagram for students account" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/4735/content_Instagram-Reels.png" /></a></p>

<p>Looking for our Instagram account for teacher? Find it&nbsp;here: <a href="https://www.instagram.com/esllibrary/">@esllibrary</a></p>

<h3>Ellii Solo/English App</h3>

<p>Did you know we have a self-study add-on to Ellii called <a href="https://ellii.com/solo">Ellii Solo</a> that schools or libraries can purchase for pre-enrollment programs or computer labs?&nbsp;We also have a self-study app (called <a href="https://www.englishapp.com/">English App</a>) that&nbsp;students can purchase on their own. Both Ellii Solo and English App&nbsp;offer mini-courses,&nbsp;study packs, and a vocabulary bank&nbsp;for self-study along with videos and shorts for extra learning.</p>

<p>Once you&#39;re inside the <a href="https://www.englishapp.com/">app</a>&nbsp;(when using Ellii Solo or English App), go to <strong>Videos</strong> on the bottom menu, and then select&nbsp;<strong>&quot;View all&quot;</strong> to scroll through our library of shorts.</p>

<p><a href="https://ellii.com/solo"><img alt="Image of video landing page for Ellii Solo / English App" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/4725/content_App-Video-Feed.jpg" /></a></p>

<h2>How can I use Ellii&#39;s shorts in class?</h2>

<p>Now that you know where to find them, what can you do with them in class? Here are a few ideas you could use them for:</p>

<h3>1. Introduce or review&nbsp;a target</h3>

<p>Use a related short as a fun introduction to a grammar, vocabulary, or pronunciation target or to do a quick review of it the next day. For example, if you&#39;re about to start&nbsp;a unit on Travel English, you could use our <a href="https://youtu.be/cCQUp73awL4?si=-vCaU8_yqcCexmOP">Airport Vocabulary</a> short to introduce the topic and elicit vocabulary.&nbsp;You could also assign it as homework.</p>

<div class="videoWrapper"><iframe allow="autoplay; fullscreen" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/990227625" width="640"></iframe></div>

<p>Curious how you can search for the topic you want? Never fear! We&#39;ll cover how to search for a specific topic in the next section of this post.</p>

<h3>2. Expand on a target</h3>

<p>No matter what skill you&#39;re teaching, we probably have a short (or five) that expands on that topic. For example, if you&#39;re teaching your students how to pronounce the /m/ sound,&nbsp;you could use our <a href="https://youtu.be/eUJ1Afz2Sf0?si=HiVGbfp3yumvvFYS">short comparing the three nasal sounds</a> to see if they can&nbsp;distinguish /m/ from&nbsp;the other nasal sounds in English.</p>

<div class="videoWrapper"><iframe allow="autoplay; fullscreen" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/1090980404" width="640"></iframe></div>

<h3>3. Answer questions that come up&nbsp;in class</h3>

<p>We often cover tricky topics such as commonly confused words or grammar exceptions in our shorts. We all know students love asking the tough questions about exceptions to a rule, so why not answer these in a fun, visual way? Check out this example that <a href="https://youtu.be/rgr_AEJZtjs?si=VDOJE7jMSptW37Dg">compares &quot;compliment&quot; and &quot;complement.&quot;</a></p>

<div class="videoWrapper"><iframe allow="autoplay; fullscreen" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/1065624880" width="640"></iframe></div>

<h3>4. Use shorts as a basis for a pair activity or presentation topic</h3>

<p>Get your students to scroll through our shorts for homework and pick one that they didn&#39;t know about. The next day, have them teach a partner, group, or even the whole class about what they&#39;ve learned. After all, the best way to learn something really well is to teach it! Here&#39;s an example with <a href="https://youtu.be/V1QA6y7vWHU?si=NzdxwPBd0qoOdn24">&quot;prefer&quot; and &quot;rather&quot;</a>&nbsp;that would work well as a presentation topic.</p>

<div class="videoWrapper"><iframe allow="autoplay; fullscreen" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/1084808845" width="640"></iframe></div>

<h3>5. Use them to keep faster students from getting bored</h3>

<p>In any class, there will always be students who complete an assignment more quickly than others. Having them watch shorts while they wait for their peers to finish up is a fun, engaging task they&#39;ll enjoy. If they don&#39;t have earbuds or headphones at hand, you can have them mute the audio because all of our shorts have closed captions on YouTube and Instagram. (Captions on our app and Ellii Solo are coming soon!)</p>

<p>For example, they might enjoy this popular short on <a href="https://www.youtube.com/shorts/7b1NKPtrutQ?feature=share">&quot;especially&quot; and &quot;specially.&quot;</a></p>

<div class="videoWrapper"><iframe allow="autoplay; fullscreen" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/989656485" width="640"></iframe></div>

<h3>6. Use them for extra practice</h3>

<p>Shorts are also great for extra practice on a topic a student is struggling with or is asking about. For example, if a student keeps making mistakes with articles, you could have them watch one or all of our shorts on <a href="https://youtu.be/lC9UsaCV-20?si=CoSV7TlWGBR8wOpK">articles</a>.</p>

<div class="videoWrapper"><iframe allow="autoplay; fullscreen" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/989124592" width="640"></iframe></div>

<h3>7. Use them as a review before teaching</h3>

<p>Sometimes we all need a little refresher, especially when it comes to more advanced grammar targets. Our shorts might even inspire you to teach or present something in a new way. As an example, here&#39;s a good way to&nbsp;teach students <a href="https://youtu.be/WRzQc-SaVpM?si=IdilcxGkuKmouecz">how to use &quot;however</a>&quot; in writing.</p>

<div class="videoWrapper"><iframe allow="autoplay; fullscreen" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/1082695695" width="640"></iframe></div>

<h2>Can I search through Ellii&#39;s shorts by topic/target?</h2>

<p>If you want students to do one short per day or random shorts during a study break, there may be no need to search for a specific topic. But if you&#39;re looking for quick teaching tips on something specific, such as a particular pronunciation or grammar target, what&#39;s the best way to&nbsp;search through Ellii&#39;s shorts?</p>

<p>The easiest way is to use our <a href="https://www.youtube.com/@ellii/shorts">student YouTube channel</a>. Instagram doesn&#39;t show titles, which makes searching more difficult (though we&#39;ve tried our best to make the topic clear in the thumbnails). And though there are filters on English App/Ellii Solo for long videos, our shorts are not filtered just yet (that&#39;s coming in a later phase, though). That&#39;s why <a href="https://www.youtube.com/@ellii/shorts">YouTube</a> is your best bet for search, followed by <a href="https://www.instagram.com/elliienglish/reels/">Instagram</a>.</p>

<h3>YouTube</h3>

<p>To search for a topic on YouTube, go to <a href="http://www.youtube.com/@ellii">our channel&#39;s home page</a> and look for the&nbsp;search bar in the tabs on the home page (below the banner). Enter your keywords there, and YouTube will display results only from our&nbsp;channel. Don&#39;t be confused by the main search bar at the top of the page (above the banner)&mdash;that search will give you results from all of YouTube, not just Ellii.</p>

<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/@ellii/featured"><img alt="Image of search field on Ellii's YouTube for students channel" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/4726/content_Youtube-Channel-Search.jpg" /></a></p>

<h3>Instagram</h3>

<p>While you can&#39;t search for a specific target as well as you can on YouTube, you can filter by general topic (grammar, pronunciation, idioms, etc.) in the highlights area on <a href="https://www.instagram.com/elliienglish/reels/">Ellii&#39;s Instagram page</a>. Within these highlights are all our reels from 2025 grouped by topic that you can quickly flip through or watch one after the other. Note that the story highlight&nbsp;cuts off after a certain amount of time, but you can select &quot;watch full reel&quot; within any story to see the whole thing.</p>

<p><a href="https://www.instagram.com/elliienglish/reels/"><img alt="Image of highlights area on Ellii's Instagram for students account" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/4734/content_Instagram-Highlights.png" /></a></p>

<h2>Conclusion</h2>

<p>With Ellii&#39;s short-form videos, you have a lot of quick and easily digestible&nbsp;content at your fingertips. We hope our shorts and reels&nbsp;will be useful for both you and your students!</p>

<blockquote>How have you used Ellii&#39;s shorts in class? Share your experience with us in a comment below, or let us know if there&#39;s a target you&#39;d like us to cover in a short.&nbsp;We love taking requests!</blockquote>


How to Use Ellii's Shorts in Class

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

Conferences

<h1>The Happiest Conference</h1>

<p>You may have seen that Disneyland was celebrating its 70th year, but did you know that CASAS was busy marking&nbsp;its own milestone just a few blocks away?<br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.casas.org/" target="_blank">CASAS</a> (Comprehensive Adult Student Assessment Systems) is used to measure the basic skills of adult learners in the US.&nbsp;CASAS assessments help adult educators identify skill gaps, place students into appropriate programs, and monitor progress of employment-related competencies.</p>

<p>The annual <strong>CASAS Summer Institute</strong> conference was held in Garden Grove last week. Over 1,000&nbsp;attendees gathered to learn, network,&nbsp;and celebrate its 45th year. Ellii was excited to take part!</p>

<p><img alt="Yacht Rocks" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/4728/content_boat.jpeg" /></p>

<p class="caption">Not a boat! Ellii team (Tara, Marta, and Wendy) and friends at the CASAS networking social, <em>Yacht Rock!</em>, in the driveway&nbsp;at Hyatt Regency.</p>

<p>Despite&nbsp;<a href="https://app.ellii.com/lesson/5548-trump-deploys-troops-to-la-immigration-protests" target="_blank">tension in LA</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;hazy skies that locals described as&nbsp;<strong>June Gloom</strong>,&nbsp;our week in Garden Grove was filled with&nbsp;<strong>energy</strong>, <strong>hope</strong>, and <strong>camaraderie</strong>.</p>

<p>Here are some highlights and takeaways.</p>

<h2>Learning</h2>

<p>Ellii sponsored, presented at, and attended the CASAS Summer Institute (SI) this year, and it was fun to be a first-timer!&nbsp;&nbsp;As head of Ellii&#39;s content team, I&nbsp;spent my time soaking up information at the sessions, focusing on&nbsp;research about the following hot topics in US adult ed:&nbsp;</p>

<ul>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/collections/el-civics" target="_blank">EL Civics (COAAPS)</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/collections/us-civics" target="_blank">Citizenship Preparation</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/packs/?category=6&amp;page=1" target="_blank">IET Programs</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/blog/the-multi-modal-multi-sensory-multi-cultural-power-of-multi-literacy-learning" target="_blank">Multiple Literacies</a>&nbsp;</li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/resources/casas-test-preparation" target="_blank">CASAS STEPS</a>&nbsp;</li>
</ul>

<h2>Best practices road trip</h2>

<p>It was refreshing to attend an education conference&nbsp;where there were several sessions that barely touched on AI. Every session I attended at CASAS SI was informative and useful for the Ellii team;&nbsp;however, the one I enjoyed the most was a&nbsp;CASAS session titled&nbsp;<em>Best Practices Road Trip</em> by <strong>Laura Fetter</strong> and <strong>Astrid Robitaille</strong>. Throughout the session, educational specialists were invited&nbsp;up to speak about special programs and initiatives that teachers and administrators had implemented in&nbsp;their state.</p>

<p>Educators touched on a variety of topics from <strong>assessment</strong> to <strong>orientation</strong>. One popular tip everyone appreciated was the idea of&nbsp;waiting until Day 2 to assign the CASAS test, which agencies found resulted&nbsp;in fewer students dropping out before they even get started.&nbsp;</p>

<p>After the mini-presentations, Laura and Astrid&nbsp;summarized the highlights by reading out postcards, sometimes even attempting to mimic the state&#39;s English accents! The session had all of the essentials of <a href="https://ellii.com/blog/speaking-at-an-elt-conference-top-tips-for-successful-presentations" target="_blank">a successful ELT presentation</a>.</p>

<p><img alt="CASAS best practice road trip session and postcard from CASAS" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/4740/content_postcard-road-trip.jpg" /></p>

<h2>Resources</h2>

<p>Ellii received several shout-outs at the sessions, and it was great to hear this enthusiasm in California.&nbsp;Here are some other resources that were shared in the sessions:</p>

<ul>
	<li><a href="https://www.youtube.com/user/CASASAssessment">CASAS YouTube Channel</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://elcivics.otan.us/" target="_blank">EL Civics Exchange</a> (Contact elcivicsATcasas.org to get on the email list)</li>
	<li><a href="https://www.uscis.gov/citizenship" target="_blank">USCIS Resource Center</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://www.youtube.com/@uscis" target="_blank">USCIS YouTube Channel</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://usahello.org/" target="_blank">USA Hello</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://www.usalearns.org/" target="_blank">USA Learns</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://www.cambridge.org/us/esl/venturesadulted/venturesarcade/" target="_blank">Ventures Arcade</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://www.crowded.worlded.org/skillblox" target="_blank">SkillBlox</a></li>
</ul>

<p>We are now prioritizing a long list of actionables related to content and features, rewriting our own road map&nbsp;to ensure we are providing just what adult educators need. This includes finding out which <strong>civics objectives&nbsp;</strong>our subscribers are focusing on next year, adding more <strong>high-beginner </strong>civics content, amping up our <strong>Citizenship Prep</strong> content,&nbsp;and continuing to build new exploratory&nbsp;<strong>IET courses</strong> that are in high demand.&nbsp;</p>

<h2>Presenting</h2>

<p>Wendy Klatt, our education specialist, delivered two&nbsp;presentations at the conference&nbsp;and also managed the booth and poster area where attendees could stop in anytime for live demos, Q&amp;As, and merch!<br />
<br />
In the first presentation, Wendy walked teachers and administrators through <strong>Supporting CASAS STEPS Success with Ellii</strong>, sharing our <a href="https://ellii.com/collections/casas-competencies">CASAS collections</a> and NEW <a href="https://ellii.com/resources/casas-test-preparation" target="_blank">CASAS Test&nbsp;Preparation</a> section, which has a digital/printable practice test for every level of the Reading STEPS and Listening STEPS tests.&nbsp;<br />
<br />
Ellii was honored to have <em>Ventures</em> author Donna Price join&nbsp;Wendy for a session on <strong>Connecting Engaging Lessons and Games to the English Language Proficiency Standards</strong>.&nbsp;</p>

<p><img alt="Wendy Klatt and Donna Price, enthusiastic attendees at Ellii session at CASAS SI 2025" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/4741/content_wendy-donna-audience-ellii.jpg" /></p>

<h2>Networking</h2>

<p>What was different about the CASAS conference from other recent conferences I&#39;ve attended? The CASAS team set the vibe! Even though it was a large conference and it was my first time attending, it had a small, close-knit feeling. People chatted over breakfast, in the elevators, and on the nice breaks between sessions. You saw speakers and attendees more than once. There were scheduled social events, including morning fitness opportunities.</p>

<p>Perhaps most importantly, this conference did not feel rushed. It helped being able to pop up into our rooms whenever we needed to reflect or refresh.</p>

<p><img alt="Kevin and Deb" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/4729/content_Kevin-debra.jpeg" /></p>

<p>At breakfast, we met Kevin and Deb (above) from <strong>Dinuba Adult School</strong>. They manage a small adult school outside of Fresno and spoke so highly of their ESL instructor (who they likened to Mary Poppins) whose students come to class even on prep days and feel lost without her when school is not in session.&nbsp;We all felt&nbsp;a renewed sense of gratitude for being in this industry where we can experience a strong sense of purpose at work every day.&nbsp;<br />
&nbsp;</p>

<p><img alt="Marta Solodun (Ellii COO) and Donna Price (Ventures author)" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/4743/content_donna-marta.jpeg" /></p>

<p class="caption">Marta Solodun (Ellii COO) and Donna Price (Ventures author and VIP guest) at the CASAS luncheon</p>

<p>At the booth, I met Lauren, an Ellii super user who has been using our new <a href="https://ellii.com/resources/casas-test-preparation" target="_blank">CASAS Practice Tests,</a> which she described as &quot;more rigorous&quot; than our competitors.&nbsp;We took in the keynote together and chatted about multiple literacies, including financial literacy, AI literacy, and even driver&#39;s literacy. Lauren shared an interesting life-skills&nbsp;learning opportunity that happend&nbsp;in her class when two students bumped into each other in their cars. She brought the class out to the parking lot as they exchanged information and took photos of the scene. The entire class learned language and practical tips to use at the&nbsp;scene of an accident.</p>

<h2>Food &amp; fun</h2>

<p>We did not go hungry at this conference, unlike many others I have attended over the years.&nbsp;</p>

<p>A full breakfast was served each day, and&nbsp;coffee&nbsp;and water were widely available. CASAS and its sponsors also provided a luncheon and an outdoor dinner party with food and dancing. In the evenings, friends of Ellii joined us at some&nbsp;local eateries:&nbsp;<strong>Nova Kitchen &amp; Bar</strong> for sushi and mochi and&nbsp;<strong>Puesto Anaheim</strong> for tacos and cocktails. I also enjoyed a 5K run&nbsp;to <strong>Downtown Disneyland</strong>, where I indulged in a kid&#39;s meal at <strong>Ballast Point Brewing</strong>. We even caught the Disney fireworks from our hotel parking lot!</p>

<p><img alt="sushi restaurant Garden Grove" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/4731/content_sushi.jpeg" /></p>

<p class="caption">Nova Kitchen &amp; Bar with Tara Benwell (Ellii VP of Publishing), Marta Solodun (Ellii COO), Donna Price (<em>Ventures</em> author), Wendy Klatt (Ellii Education Specialist), and Alisa Takeushi (OTAN)</p>

<h2>Adult ed acronyms</h2>

<p>As Canadians who are often traveling to the US for adult ed conferences, we are constantly learning new acronyms. Here are some that came up often at the CASAS conference last week and might be useful for anyone who is new to this industry or market.</p>

<blockquote>
<p>ABE: Adult Basic Education</p>

<p>AEFLA: Adult Education and Family Literacy Act</p>

<p>CAEP:&nbsp;Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation (a nonprofit organization that accredits educator preparation programs)</p>

<p>CASAS:&nbsp;Comprehensive Adult Student Assessment Systems (assessments that measure the basic skills of adult learners in the US)</p>

<p>CCR: College and Career Readiness Standards</p>

<p>COAAPS:&nbsp;Civic Objectives and Additional Assessment Plans (pre-approved objectives and assessment plans designed to help adult learners develop civic knowledge and skills in California)</p>

<p>ELA: English Language Acquisition</p>

<p>ELP: English Language Proficiency standards</p>

<p>IELCE:&nbsp;Integrated English Literacy and Civics Education (education services provided to the English language learners who are adults&nbsp;to help them achieve competency in English language and acquire skills needed to function effectively as parents, workers, and citizens in the US)</p>

<p>IET:&nbsp;Integrated Education and Training (blends adult ed/ESL with workforce training and preparation)</p>

<p>N-400: application for naturalization in the US</p>

<p>NRS: National Report System for adult education (the accountability system for federally funded adult ed&nbsp;programs in the US)</p>

<p>OTAN:&nbsp;Outreach and Technical Assistance Network (provides support for instructional technology and distance learning to literacy and adult educators&nbsp;in California)</p>

<p>STEPS: CASAS&#39;s Student Test of English Progress and Success&nbsp;</p>

<p>USCIS:&nbsp;United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (government agency that processes immigration applications in the US)</p>

<p>WIOA:&nbsp;Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (to help job seekers access employment, education, training, and support services)</p>
</blockquote>

<p>Thank you to CASAS organizers and friends Jane, Jennifer, and Karla for making us feel welcome and putting on an outstanding conference. We hope to see you next year for CASAS Summer Institute 2026!&nbsp;</p>

<p>PS. If you haven&#39;t tried Ellii&#39;s NEW&nbsp;<a href="https://ellii.com/resources/casas-test-preparation" target="_blank">CASAS Practice Tests</a>, we hope you&#39;ll check them out and send us some feedback.</p>

<p>&nbsp;</p>


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