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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Learn tips on how to teach grammar and usage from our editors and grammar experts. 

Grammar & Usage

<blockquote>
<p>There will never be no love at&nbsp;all.</p>

<p class="attribution">&mdash;Bob Marley</p>
</blockquote>

<p>Double negative sentences are tricky and confusing. Not only do English language learners struggle with their meanings, but L1 speakers do too! Should we even teach this structure to our students? Let&rsquo;s take a closer look at this particular sentence&nbsp;structure.</p>

<h1>To Teach or Not to&nbsp;Teach?</h1>

<p>What exactly is a double negative? A double negative occurs when two negative forms are used in the same sentence. Examples of negative forms include adverbs (<em>not</em>, <em>never</em>, <em>hardly</em>, <em>barely</em>), adjectives (<em>no</em>), prefixes <span class="inlineBlock">(<em>un-</em></span>, <em class="inlineBlock">in-</em>, <em class="inlineBlock">dis-</em>), and suffixes (<em>-</em><em>less</em>), to name a&nbsp;few.</p>

<p>Though double negatives once were common in Old and Middle English, they are not very common at all anymore. In fact, grammarians have frowned upon their usage <a href="https://www.lexico.com/en/definition/double_negative">since the 17th century</a>, which is why we need to be careful when teaching them to our&nbsp;students.</p>

<p>Double negatives can create confusion and ambiguity, so the best advice is to avoid using them. However, our students may come across them from time to time, so I believe we need to teach them to higher‑level students at some&nbsp;point.</p>

<h1>How Can We Use Double&nbsp;Negatives?</h1>

<p>We&rsquo;ve all heard that two negatives make a positive. This is indeed the main interpretation of a double negative sentence, but&nbsp;it isn&rsquo;t the only reason to double negatives. English, in all its glorious complexity and nuances, has other reasons and interpretations of this&nbsp;structure.</p>

<p>If we are going to teach our students about double negatives (and I think we should when they&rsquo;re at a high‑intermediate level and above or if it comes up in class), we should cover three possible scenarios of&nbsp;usage.</p>

<h2>Use #1</h2>

<h4>A double negative can have a positive&nbsp;meaning.</h4>

<ul>
	<li>I don&#39;t know nothing about it!&nbsp;= I know a lot about&nbsp;it.</li>
	<li>You&nbsp;should never not go. = You should always go.</li>
	<li>It&rsquo;s not unusual. = It&rsquo;s usual/common.</li>
</ul>

<h2>Use #2</h2>

<h4>A double negative can show a slight difference in&nbsp;meaning.*</h4>

<ul>
	<li>I don&#39;t know <em>nothing</em> about it. = I know a little about&nbsp;it.</li>
	<li>You can&rsquo;t <em>not</em> go. = You have to&nbsp;go.</li>
	<li>It&rsquo;s not <em>un</em>usual. = It&rsquo;s not common, but it happens&nbsp;sometimes.</li>
</ul>

<p><i>*Note: Italics indicate where a speaker would normally place the emphasis.</i></p>

<h2>Use #3</h2>

<h4>A double negative can emphasize a negative meaning (especially in certain&nbsp;dialects).**</h4>

<ul>
	<li>I don&rsquo;t know nothing about it. = I don&rsquo;t know anything about&nbsp;it.</li>
	<li>You can&rsquo;t never go. = You can never&nbsp;go.</li>
	<li>She ain&rsquo;t got no money. = She doesn&rsquo;t have any&nbsp;money.</li>
</ul>

<p><i>**Note: Sentences for this case are often considered to be grammatically incorrect.</i></p>

<h1>Which Meaning Is&nbsp;Intended?</h1>

<p>How can we tell which meaning is intended by the speaker/writer? It usually depends on the context of the conversation, which isn&rsquo;t always apparent (and which is why double negatives are best&nbsp;avoided).</p>

<p>Sometimes intonation also helps us decipher the correct interpretation (e.g., emphasizing <em>not</em> in &ldquo;you can&rsquo;t <em>not</em> go&rdquo; helps us determine that the meaning is &ldquo;you have to&nbsp;go&rdquo;). If you&rsquo;re an Ellii subscriber, you can play the audio for our Grammar &amp; Usage Resource on Double Negatives to hear the intonation difference intonation for each&nbsp;use.</p>

<p>Some dialects are often apparent throughout the speech or text and are not only noticeable when a double negative is used. Though dialects make a language rich and varied, we might do well to remind our students that some usage is not considered &ldquo;correct&rdquo; by all speakers&mdash;while students might hear double negatives on TV, they should probably avoid using them during a job interview or in an academic essay, for&nbsp;example.</p>

<h1>Further Practice</h1>

<p>We recently had a request from an <a href="https://ellii.com" target="_blank">Ellii</a>&nbsp;subscriber for teaching tips and practice on double negatives in English after they came up in her classroom. We developed a <a href="https://ellii.com/resource_categories/103/resources">Grammar &amp; Usage Resource</a> on <a href="https://ellii.com/resource_categories/103/resources/3081">Double Negatives</a> that includes a reference chart and a practice exercise. If you&rsquo;re not a subscriber, you can try some of the following&nbsp;activities:</p>

<h2>Activity #1</h2>

<p>For practice with use&nbsp;#1 above (two negatives equals a positive), put your students into pairs and have them write some double negative sentences (or write a list yourself to hand out to the class). Students can then pass their sentences to another pair. They should try to write the positive meaning. For&nbsp;example:</p>

<ul>
	<li>This place is not unfamiliar to me. &rarr; <em>This place is familiar to&nbsp;me</em>.</li>
</ul>

<h2>Activity #2</h2>

<p>For higher‑level students, put them into pairs or groups and have them find instances of double negatives online, on TV, in the newspaper, etc. Have them decide what the&nbsp;use is (#1, 2, or 3 above) and get them to express what the meaning&nbsp;is.</p>

<h2>Activity #3</h2>

<p>Discuss the use (#1, 2, or 3 above) and meaning of famous song titles that use double negatives. Why would the artists choose a double negative? Examples of such song titles&nbsp;include:</p>

<ul>
	<li>&ldquo;(I Can&rsquo;t Get No) Satisfaction&rdquo; by the Rolling&nbsp;Stones</li>
	<li>&ldquo;It&rsquo;s Not Unusual&rdquo; by Tom Jones</li>
	<li>&ldquo;Ain&rsquo;t No Mountain High Enough&rdquo; by Marvin Gaye &amp; Tammi&nbsp;Terrell</li>
	<li>&ldquo;Don&rsquo;t Ask Me No Questions&rdquo; by Lynyrd&nbsp;Skynyrd</li>
	<li>&ldquo;We Don&rsquo;t Need No Education&rdquo; by Pink&nbsp;Floyd</li>
	<li>&ldquo;Ain&rsquo;t No Sunshine When She&rsquo;s Gone&rdquo; by Bill&nbsp;Withers</li>
	<li>&ldquo;Don&rsquo;t Come Around Here No More&rdquo; by Tom Petty and the&nbsp;Heartbreakers</li>
</ul>

<h1>Related</h1>

<ul class="resources">
	<li class="resource"><a href="https://ellii.com/resource_categories/103/resources/3081">Double Negatives</a></li>
	<li class="resource"><a href="https://ellii.com/blog/negative-forms">Negative Forms</a></li>
</ul>


Double Negatives

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

Teaching with Ellii

<p>In celebration of <a href="http://www.onlinelearningday.com/">National Online Learning Day</a>, which falls on September&nbsp;15, 2019, we&rsquo;d like to share some experiences that students and teachers have had with ESL&nbsp;Library&rsquo;s new digital&nbsp;platform.</p>

<p>Over the summer, I took the opportunity to use ESL&nbsp;Library&rsquo;s new digital platform with my own group of adult learners, and I&rsquo;m pleased to report that it was a success! The summer months meant that attendance was not as regular as it had been during the school year; however, students were able to stay connected with the class and keep up with assignments, even when they were traveling. One student, Victor, visited family in China and was gone for six&nbsp;weeks.</p>

<p>During his absence, I could see that Victor was using the platform on a regular basis with the View Results feature (see Help Doc: <a href="https://help.ellii.com/article/129-how-to-access-digital-homework-teachers" target="_blank">How to Access Digital Homework Results</a>). When Victor returned to the US, I asked him what he liked most about the digital platform. Here are three of his&nbsp;comments:</p>

<blockquote>
<p>Listening materials are easy to use. I can listen to them over and over again, and also use them as dictation&nbsp;exercises.</p>
</blockquote>

<p>In my classes, we frequently begin the lesson with a dictation as a warm‑up. Since most lessons on the digital platform have an audio component, Victor was able to continue with dictation work with recorded native speakers. First, he was able to complete the Listen &amp; Type tasks, which are built into the platform. In this task type, students type the target words they hear within the context of the reading. Because Victor was already familiar and comfortable with dictation methods, he adapted the platform task to give himself even more practice by turning away from his screen and typing the entire passage! He could pause the audio at his convenience and repeat it when he needed&nbsp;to.</p>

<blockquote>
<p>The exercises are well designed to help practice grammar&nbsp;rules.</p>
</blockquote>

<p>The digital versions of our popular Grammar Practice Worksheets include concise grammar reviews that cover the rules and provide examples of the target structure. I was pleased to hear that Victor found the grammar lessons easy to use. He said that he found it useful to go back to the reviews as he worked on the&nbsp;exercises.</p>

<blockquote>
<p>Scoring attempts are nice features. They encourage you to try to learn, correct, and&nbsp;improve.</p>
</blockquote>

<p>The digital platform allows students to answer questions more than once. Victor liked this feature in particular since it allowed for self‑correction.</p>

<p>In addition to language practice, ESL&nbsp;Library&rsquo;s digital platform has benefits for students who don&rsquo;t consider themselves computer-savvy. Here&rsquo;s what Ava, a recent immigrant from Guatemala, had to&nbsp;say:</p>

<blockquote>
<p>It helped me a lot with computers. Before, I wasn&rsquo;t so comfortable, but now I feel more comfortable. I was nervous at first, but now I feel&nbsp;fine.</p>
</blockquote>

<p>Mark W. Sherman (ESL Instructor, Takoma Park, Maryland, USA) is an ESL&nbsp;Library subscriber. He teaches adults at the beginner and intermediate levels. Mark, too, has found success with the new&nbsp;platform:</p>

<blockquote>
<p>When using a textbook, there is a temptation to do the exercises associated with each grammar point and then move on. The problem is the learning doesn&rsquo;t stick because the exercises are too brief. By using the ESL&nbsp;Library digital platform, I am able to give my students a much deeper workout in the same aspect of language. In fact, I find it helpful to use the digital material first and then, once they&rsquo;ve mastered the principles, turn to the textbook. That may seem upside down, but it gives me much greater confidence that they have really absorbed something&mdash;they&rsquo;ve matched wits with their phones before they do anything else, and that process of puzzling it out, preferably with a classmate, creates a solid&nbsp;foundation.</p>
</blockquote>

<p>We hope that all of you are enjoying access to ESL&nbsp;Library&rsquo;s digital platform. We would love to hear&nbsp;about your experience!&nbsp;Happy National Online Learning&nbsp;Day!</p>


National Online Learning Day

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<h1>Overview</h1>

<p>How do you teach the negative form to your students? The negative form of English verbs is usually presented tense by tense in most textbooks. At some point, however, it might be useful for your students to see&nbsp;the negative form for different tenses at the same time so they can truly grasp the similarities and differences in patterns and sentence&nbsp;positions.</p>

<p>Before you present the three common negative verb patterns in class, try eliciting them from your students by&nbsp;asking&nbsp;the following question:</p>

<p><em>How would you make these&nbsp;sentences negative?</em></p>

<ul>
	<li>I am happy today.</li>
	<li>She was on time.</li>
	<li>You like coffee.</li>
	<li>He wanted some breakfast.</li>
	<li>They have been to&nbsp;Europe.</li>
	<li>We will be going overseas this&nbsp;year.</li>
</ul>

<h1>Patterns</h1>

<p>Go over the negative sentence patterns for the Be verb (pattern A below) and other verbs (pattern B) in the simple present and simple past. If your students are ready for more complex verb tenses (simple future, present perfect, etc.), introduce the pattern for verbs with two or more parts (pattern C).</p>

<p>Can your students think of more examples for each pattern?</p>

<h2>1. be + not</h2>

<ul>
	<li>I <strong>am not</strong> happy&nbsp;today.</li>
	<li>She <strong>was not</strong> on time.</li>
</ul>

<h2>2. do + not + verb</h2>

<ul>
	<li>You <strong>do not like</strong> coffee.</li>
	<li>He <strong>did not want</strong> any&nbsp;breakfast.</li>
</ul>

<h2>3. aux* + not + verb (+ verb)</h2>

<ul>
	<li>They&nbsp;<strong>have not been</strong> to&nbsp;Europe.</li>
	<li>We <strong>will not be going</strong> overseas this&nbsp;year.</li>
</ul>

<p>*aux = an auxiliary verb (e.g., <em>be</em>, <em>have</em>) or modal (e.g., <em>will</em>, <em>should</em>)</p>

<h1>Positions</h1>

<p>Did your students notice the placement of <em>not</em> in each of the patterns above? Ask if anyone can explain the position of the adverb in each case. If no one can explain it easily, or to reiterate, tell them the&nbsp;following:</p>

<ul>
	<li>For the simple present and past tenses, <em>not</em> follows the Be&nbsp;verb.</li>
	<li>For other verbs, start with the auxiliary <em>do</em> (present) or <em>did</em> (past), followed by <em>not</em> and the base verb.</li>
	<li>For tenses or modals with two or more parts to the verb phrase, the adverb <em>not</em> almost always goes in the second position following the auxiliary (<em>be</em>, <em>have</em>, or a modal) and preceding the rest of the verb form (present participle, past participle, or base&nbsp;form).</li>
</ul>

<h1>Examples</h1>

<p>After teaching the basic patterns&nbsp;and positions for negative sentences in English, go into more detail with the following examples. The&nbsp;examples in the charts below include different subjects (pronouns and nouns) and various tenses and&nbsp;modals.</p>

<h2>A. Negatives with Be:&nbsp;Simple Present &amp;&nbsp;Simple&nbsp;Past</h2>

<p><a href="https://ellii.com/resource_categories/103/resources/3043"><img alt="Negative Forms chart 1" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/16/content_113_Negative-Forms_Chart-1.jpg" /></a></p>

<p class="caption"><a href="https://ellii.com/resource_categories/103/resources/3043">Negative Forms</a> &ndash; Grammar &amp; Usage&nbsp;Resources</p>

<h3>Contracted Forms</h3>

<p>We often contract <em>not</em> in informal spoken and written English, so it&rsquo;s very important to teach negative verb contractions. Try having your students guess at the contracted forms for each sentence in the chart.</p>

<p>Do your students realize that there are two ways (for most subjects) to form contractions in negative simple present sentences with the Be verb? Both forms are very common and equally acceptable. Negative simple past contractions only have two forms (<em>wasn&rsquo;t</em> and <em>weren&rsquo;t</em>), depending on the&nbsp;subject.</p>

<h4>Simple Present Contractions with&nbsp;Be</h4>

<ol>
	<li>I<strong>&rsquo;m not</strong> tired&nbsp;today.</li>
	<li>You<strong>&rsquo;re not</strong> in this class. / You <strong>aren&rsquo;t</strong> in this&nbsp;class.</li>
	<li>He<strong>&rsquo;s not</strong> at school. / He <strong>isn&rsquo;t</strong> at&nbsp;school.</li>
	<li>She<strong>&rsquo;s not</strong> lazy. / She <strong>isn&rsquo;t</strong>&nbsp;lazy.</li>
	<li>It<strong>&rsquo;s not</strong> a nice day. / It <strong>isn&rsquo;t</strong> a nice&nbsp;day.</li>
	<li>We<strong>&rsquo;re not</strong> his students. / We <strong>aren&rsquo;t</strong> his&nbsp;students.</li>
	<li>They<strong>&rsquo;re not</strong> cold. / They <strong>aren&rsquo;t</strong>&nbsp;cold.</li>
	<li>Her brother<strong>&rsquo;s not</strong> hungry. / Her brother <strong>isn&rsquo;t</strong>&nbsp;hungry.</li>
	<li>My sisters <strong>aren&rsquo;t</strong>&nbsp;here.</li>
</ol>

<h4>Simple Past Contractions with Be</h4>

<ol>
	<li>I <strong>wasn&rsquo;t</strong> tired&nbsp;yesterday.</li>
	<li>You <strong>weren&rsquo;t</strong> in this&nbsp;class.</li>
	<li>He <strong>wasn&rsquo;t</strong> at&nbsp;school.</li>
	<li>She <strong>wasn&rsquo;t</strong>&nbsp;lazy.</li>
	<li>It <strong>wasn&rsquo;t</strong> a nice&nbsp;day.</li>
	<li>We <strong>weren&rsquo;t</strong> his&nbsp;students.</li>
	<li>They <strong>weren&rsquo;t</strong>&nbsp;cold.</li>
	<li>Her brother <strong>wasn&rsquo;t</strong>&nbsp;hungry.</li>
	<li>My sisters <strong>weren&rsquo;t</strong>&nbsp;there.</li>
</ol>

<h2>B. Negatives with Other Verbs: Simple Present &amp; Simple&nbsp;Past</h2>

<p><a href="https://ellii.com/resource_categories/103/resources/3043"><img alt="Negative Forms chart 2" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/20/content_113_Negative-Forms_Chart-2.jpg" /></a></p>

<p class="caption"><a href="https://ellii.com/resource_categories/103/resources/3043">Negative Forms</a> &ndash; Grammar &amp; Usage&nbsp;Resources</p>

<h3>Contracted Forms</h3>

<p>Contractions with verbs other than the Be verb are pretty simple. Tell your students that negative simple present sentences take <em>don&rsquo;t</em> or <em>doesn&rsquo;t</em>, depending on the subject. Negative simple past contractions all take <em>didn&rsquo;t</em>, which makes things easier on our learners!</p>

<p>Can your students tell you the contracted forms for all the sentences in the chart&nbsp;above?</p>

<h4>Simple Present Contractions with&nbsp;Do</h4>

<ol>
	<li>I <strong>don&rsquo;t have</strong> a&nbsp;dog.</li>
	<li>You <strong>don&rsquo;t like</strong>&nbsp;vegetables.</li>
	<li>He <strong>doesn&rsquo;t own</strong> a&nbsp;car.</li>
	<li>She <strong>doesn&rsquo;t enjoy</strong>&nbsp;shopping.</li>
	<li>It <strong>doesn&rsquo;t&nbsp;matter</strong>.</li>
	<li>We <strong>don&rsquo;t want</strong> to move to another&nbsp;country.</li>
	<li>They <strong>don&rsquo;t need</strong> any&nbsp;help.</li>
	<li>Our teacher <strong>doesn&rsquo;t give</strong> us any&nbsp;homework.</li>
	<li>My friends <strong>don&rsquo;t go out</strong> on school&nbsp;nights.</li>
</ol>

<h4>Simple Past Contractions with&nbsp;Did</h4>

<ol>
	<li>I <strong>didn&rsquo;t have</strong> a dog when I was a&nbsp;child.</li>
	<li>You <strong>didn&rsquo;t like</strong> vegetables when you were&nbsp;young.</li>
	<li>He <strong>didn&rsquo;t own</strong> a car last&nbsp;month.</li>
	<li>She <strong>didn&rsquo;t enjoy</strong> shopping last year, but she does&nbsp;now.</li>
	<li>It <strong>didn&rsquo;t&nbsp;matter</strong>.</li>
	<li>We <strong>didn&rsquo;t want</strong> to move to another&nbsp;country.</li>
	<li>They <strong>didn&rsquo;t need</strong> any&nbsp;help.</li>
	<li>Our teacher <strong>didn&rsquo;t give</strong> us any homework&nbsp;yesterday.</li>
	<li>My friends <strong>didn&rsquo;t go out</strong> last&nbsp;night.</li>
</ol>

<h2>C. Negatives with Other Tenses &amp;&nbsp;Modals</h2>

<p><a href="https://ellii.com/resource_categories/103/resources/3043"><img alt="Negative Forms chart 3" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/18/content_113_Negative-Forms_Chart-3.jpg" /></a></p>

<p class="caption"><a href="https://ellii.com/resource_categories/103/resources/3043">Negative Forms</a> &ndash; Grammar &amp; Usage&nbsp;Resources</p>

<h3>Contracted Forms</h3>

<p>What about contractions for tenses other than the simple present and simple past? The contraction takes place between the auxiliary verb or modal (e.g., <em>be</em>, <em>have</em>, <em>will</em>, <em>should</em>, <em>must</em>, <em>would</em>, <em>can</em>, <em>could</em>) and the adverb&nbsp;<em>not</em>.</p>

<p>Ask your students to tell you the contracted forms of the examples in the previous chart. Examples&nbsp;7 and 8 provide good teaching points&mdash;in North American English, <em>mustn&rsquo;t</em> is possible but not very common and <em>mightn&rsquo;t</em> is&nbsp;impossible.</p>

<h4>Contractions with Other Tenses &amp;&nbsp;Modals</h4>

<ol>
	<li>I<strong>&rsquo;m not going</strong> to the&nbsp;party.</li>
	<li>You <strong>won&rsquo;t pass</strong> this test unless you&nbsp;study.</li>
	<li>He <strong>hasn&rsquo;t given</strong> me an answer&nbsp;yet.</li>
	<li>She <strong>shouldn&rsquo;t apply</strong> for a job until she&nbsp;graduates.</li>
	<li>It <strong>wasn&rsquo;t working like</strong> it was supposed&nbsp;to.</li>
	<li>We <strong>haven&rsquo;t been living</strong> in this city for very&nbsp;long.</li>
	<li>They <strong>mustn&rsquo;t arrive</strong>&nbsp;late.</li>
	<li>(No contracted form. It is incorrect to say&nbsp;<em>mightn&rsquo;t </em>in American and Canadian English.)</li>
	<li>Those cookies <strong>weren&rsquo;t eaten</strong> by our&nbsp;children.</li>
</ol>

<h2>D. Never</h2>

<p>There are other ways to express negativity in English besides using the adverb <em>not</em>. <em>Never</em> is an adverb of frequency that means &ldquo;not ever.&rdquo; The patterns and positions for <em>never</em> are similar to <em>not</em> with one important difference: The auxiliary verb <em>do</em> is not needed with <em>never</em>.</p>

<p>Try to elicit this difference before or after presenting the following examples to your&nbsp;students.</p>

<ol>
	<li>I <strong>am never</strong>&nbsp;late.</li>
	<li>You <strong>never call</strong>&nbsp;me.</li>
	<li>He <strong>never completed</strong> the&nbsp;assignment.</li>
	<li>She <strong>will never eat</strong>&nbsp;meat.</li>
	<li>It <strong>would never snow</strong> in summer in my&nbsp;hometown.</li>
	<li>We <strong>have never been</strong> to&nbsp;Australia.</li>
	<li>They&nbsp;<strong>must never enter</strong> this room without&nbsp;permission.</li>
</ol>

<h2>E. Negative Questions</h2>

<p>What about using &ldquo;not&rdquo; in questions? Negative questions are possible, but they aren&rsquo;t commonly used. Tell your students that they might hear or use negative questions&nbsp;to show surprise or to get confirmation.</p>

<ul>
	<li>Are you <strong>not</strong> feeling well today?<br />
	(e.g., ask this if your friend is quieter than usual)</li>
	<li>Do you <strong>not</strong> like pizza?<br />
	(e.g., ask this if your friend isn&rsquo;t eating pizza when everyone else is)</li>
	<li>Have you <strong>not</strong> seen this movie?<br />
	(e.g., ask this if your friend isn&rsquo;t joining in a discussion about a popular film)</li>
</ul>

<p>Your students will undoubtedly ask you about the correct way to answer negative questions. This can be a bit tricky! When using &ldquo;not&rdquo; in a question, a &ldquo;no&rdquo; answer shows agreement with the question and a &ldquo;yes&rdquo; answer shows disagreement. Give your students the following examples.</p>

<h4>Example 1</h4>

<table>
	<tbody>
		<tr>
			<th>Question:</th>
			<td>Are you <strong>not</strong> feeling well today?</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<th>Answer&nbsp;(agree):</th>
			<td><strong>No</strong>, I&rsquo;m <strong>not</strong>. I woke up with a headache.</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<th>Answer&nbsp;(disagree):</th>
			<td>I&rsquo;m feeling fine. Why do you ask?</td>
		</tr>
	</tbody>
</table>

<h4>Example 2</h4>

<table>
	<tbody>
		<tr>
			<th>Question:</th>
			<td>Do you <strong>not</strong> like pizza?</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<th>Answer&nbsp;(agree):</th>
			<td><strong>No</strong>, I <strong>don&rsquo;t</strong>, actually.</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<th>Answer&nbsp;(disagree):</th>
			<td>I love pizza! I&rsquo;m just too full to eat any.</td>
		</tr>
	</tbody>
</table>

<h4>Example 3</h4>

<table>
	<tbody>
		<tr>
			<th>Question:</th>
			<td>Have you <strong>not</strong> seen this film?</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<th>Answer&nbsp;(agree):</th>
			<td><strong>No</strong>, I <strong>haven&rsquo;t</strong> seen it yet.</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<th>Answer&nbsp;(disagree):</th>
			<td>Yeah, I&rsquo;ve seen it. I just didn&rsquo;t think it was very good.</td>
		</tr>
	</tbody>
</table>

<p>For examples of negative forms in tag questions, see <a href="https://ellii.com/courses/88/lessons/2376">this lesson</a>.</p>

<h1>Related</h1>

<ul class="resources">
	<li class="resource"><a href="https://ellii.com/resource_categories/103/resources/3043">Negative Forms</a></li>
	<li class="lesson"><a href="https://ellii.com/courses/88/lessons/1591">Simple Present &ndash; Be</a></li>
	<li class="lesson"><a href="https://ellii.com/courses/88/lessons/2403">Simple Present</a></li>
	<li class="lesson"><a href="https://ellii.com/courses/88/lessons/1594">Simple Past</a></li>
	<li class="lesson"><a href="https://ellii.com/courses/88/lessons/1963">Verb Tense Review 1</a></li>
	<li class="lesson"><a href="https://ellii.com/courses/88/lessons/1997">Verb Tense Review 2</a></li>
	<li class="lesson"><a href="https://ellii.com/courses/88/lessons/2241">Adverbs of Frequency</a></li>
</ul>


Negative Forms

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

Articles

<h1>What are Koans?</h1>

<p>Earlier this year, I wrote a post called &ldquo;<a href="https://ellii.com/blog/introducing-students-to-meditation" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Introducing Students to Meditation</a>.&rdquo; One reader included a link to a Wikipedia article with her <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zazen" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">comment</a> that describes the Japanese discipline of meditation called&nbsp;Zazen.</p>

<p>One distinguishing feature of Zazen is its use of &quot;koans&quot; (pronounced&nbsp;<em>ko&rsquo; an</em>). Koans are paradoxical statements, dialogues, parables, and questions. Clicking on this term, I learned that koans are used &ldquo;to provoke &lsquo;great doubt&rsquo; and to practice or test a student&rsquo;s progress in Zen.&rdquo; I began to wonder if koans could be used in the ESL&nbsp;classroom.</p>

<p>While researching the concept of koans, I came across one particular koan again and&nbsp;again:</p>

<blockquote>
<p>When both hands are clapped, a sound is produced. Now listen to the sound of one hand clapping. What do you&nbsp;hear?</p>
</blockquote>

<p>At first glance, the obvious answer is &ldquo;silence.&rdquo; But is it really so obvious? Upon analysis, the answers turns out not to be so black and white after all. By definition, clapping requires striking two objects together. Can one hand even be said to clap, much less make a noise (or lack thereof) when it does, or rather&nbsp;doesn&rsquo;t?</p>

<p>By exposing students to koans, we encourage them to embrace the &ldquo;grayness&rdquo; of life. Using koans in class may help students realize that most situations can be approached from many perspectives. And perhaps they will dig deep within themselves to come up with the language needed to express their own unique take on a given&nbsp;koan.</p>

<h1>Using Koans</h1>

<p>I suggest using koans in the following&nbsp;way:</p>

<ol>
	<li>Dictate the koan to the&nbsp;class.</li>
	<li>Have pairs compare their&nbsp;dictations.</li>
	<li>Put students in small groups and have them discuss the meaning of the&nbsp;koan.</li>
	<li>Have students write a one-paragraph response to the&nbsp;koan.</li>
</ol>

<h1>Sample Koans</h1>

<p>Here are a few koans to get your students thinking:</p>

<div class="white-box">
<h5>Koan #1</h5>

<p>What can you do when you can do&nbsp;nothing?</p>
</div>

<div class="white-box">
<h5>Koan #2</h5>

<p>Maybe you are searching among the branches for what only appears in the&nbsp;roots.</p>
</div>

<div class="white-box">
<h5>Koan #3</h5>

<p>One day, two monks, Tanzan and Ekido, were walking down a muddy road during a heavy rainfall when they came upon a beautiful young girl. The young girl was in distress because a big mud puddle was preventing her from crossing an&nbsp;intersection.</p>

<p>&ldquo;Don&rsquo;t worry, girl!&rdquo; Tanzan called out. Then he lifted her in his arms and carried her across the&nbsp;puddle.</p>

<p>Ekido was troubled by what he saw. He didn&rsquo;t say anything until later that night when the two monks arrived at a lodging temple. Finally, he couldn&rsquo;t be quiet any&nbsp;longer.</p>

<p>&ldquo;You know it is against the rules for us monks to talk to young girls, much less touch them. What were you&nbsp;thinking?&rdquo;</p>

<p>&ldquo;I left the girl there,&rdquo; Tanzan replied. &ldquo;Why are you still carrying&nbsp;her?&rdquo;</p>
</div>

<div class="white-box">
<h5>Koan #4</h5>

<p>Two monks were arguing about the temple flag. One monk said, &ldquo;The wind is moving.&rdquo; The other monk said, &ldquo;No, the flag is&nbsp;moving.&rdquo;</p>

<p>A wise man came along and said, &ldquo;Do not argue, my friends. It is not the wind that moves or the flag that moves. It is your mind that&nbsp;moves.&rdquo;</p>
</div>


Paradoxical Thinking in the Classroom

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Find useful resources and tips for teaching English with interactive apps and sites.

EdTech

<blockquote>
<p>Technology is just a tool. In terms of getting the kids working together and motivating them, the teacher is most&nbsp;important.</p>

<p class="attribution">&mdash;Bill Gates</p>
</blockquote>

<p>It&rsquo;s that exciting time of the year when we meet new students. Technology can help us support and engage learners who struggle with language skills and literacy. Technology can also help us communicate with parents who are English learners&nbsp;themselves.</p>

<p>Below are several free web tools and apps to help you support your language learners this year so that they surpass their academic and personal learning goals. This list is to get you started, but you can visit this blog regularly to discover the free web tools and apps we share! The web tools listed focus on literacy, reading, writing, comprehension, and fluency in the four skills (listening, speaking, reading, and&nbsp;writing).</p>

<h1>Versatile Tools</h1>

<p><a href="https://education.microsoft.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Microsoft Education</a> and <a href="https://edu.google.com/products/gsuite-for-education/?modal_active=none" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Google for Education</a> have several tools, apps, and features to help every learner. Both feature a suite of apps and tools students can use to create presentations, spreadsheets, surveys, or documents. Additionally, several of the apps have helpful features like spelling and grammar checks, translation, commenting, and dictionaries. These two platforms also provide teachers with training and free resources so they learn how to manage their classrooms, assess, grade and provide feedback much faster and&nbsp;easier.</p>

<p><a href="https://www.classroomscreen.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Classroomscreen</a> is an incredible classroom management tool with a timer, qr code maker, random name caller, voice level signals, and more! No registration is&nbsp;required.</p>

<h1>Literacy</h1>

<p><a href="https://www.onenote.com/learningtools" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Immersive Reader</a> &ndash; Microsoft&rsquo;s Immersive Reader is a game changer for language learners. No registration is required. Students copy and paste any text from a website, pdf, or document in order to have the words read aloud, see the parts of speech color coded, look up words quickly with a picture dictionary and more. <a href="https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/Education-Blog/Immersive-Reader-is-coming-to-an-app-near-you-now-partners-can/ba-p/679795" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Immersive Reader is being integrated</a> into various popular free third party apps such as <a href="http://www.buncee.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Buncee</a>, <a href="https://www.thinglink.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Thinglink</a>, and&nbsp;<a href="https://wakelet.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Wakelet</a>.</p>

<p><a href="https://rewordify.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Rewordify</a> &ndash; Paste in difficult sentences, paragraphs, or chapters of text and rewordify changes it into easier language and vocabulary. Teachers who register can create games or quizzes with the vocabulary. Students who register can keep track of their reading&nbsp;progress.</p>

<p><a href="http://quizlet.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Quizlet</a> &ndash; Make flashcards with vocabulary lists or choose from many flash cards users have already created. Play games with these vocabulary lists. Accessible on any&nbsp;device.</p>

<p><a href="https://kids.wordsmyth.net/we/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Wordsmyth&rsquo;s Children&rsquo;s Dictionary</a> and <a href="https://kids.wordsmyth.net/wild/#/home" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Picture Dictionary</a> &ndash; Online dictionaries with images, audio of the word sounded out, related words, vocabulary activities, puzzles, and a&nbsp;thesaurus.</p>

<p><a href="https://www.storylineonline.net/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Storyline Online</a> &ndash; A website with videos of celebrities reading children&rsquo;s&nbsp;books.</p>

<p><a href="https://newsela.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Newsela</a> &ndash; News articles written for students with quizzes and the ability to annotate. Choose articles by grade level or reading&nbsp;level.</p>

<p><a href="https://www.commonlit.org/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Commonlit</a> &ndash; Access readings, fiction and nonfiction for 5th to 12th graders. Search and filter the collection by lexile, grade, theme, genre, literary device, or common core&nbsp;standard.</p>

<p><a href="https://www.owleyes.org/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Owl Eyes</a> &ndash; A web tool to annotate the classics and answer&nbsp;quizzes.</p>

<p><a href="https://www.getepic.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Epic Books</a> &ndash; Unlimited access to 35,000 of the best books, learning videos, quizzes and more for ages 12 and&nbsp;under.</p>

<p><a href="https://www.dogonews.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">DOGO News</a> &ndash; A website and iOS/Android app for K to 12 students to find current events and research based articles. Each article includes images or videos and gives a citation for students to&nbsp;copy.</p>

<p><a href="http://www.englishcentral.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">English Central</a> &ndash; Students practice their pronunciation by watching popular videos and measuring their pronunciation of what was said in the&nbsp;video.</p>

<p><a href="http://more.starfall.com/?" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Starfall</a>​ &ndash; Interactive stories and phonics games for very young learners.</p>

<p><a href="http://learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Learn English Kids</a> &ndash; Interactive games, songs, stories, and videos for young language&nbsp;learners.</p>

<h1>Language Learning Apps</h1>

<p><a href="https://www.duolingo.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Duolingo</a> &ndash; iOS, Android, and web app that gamifies learning English. Students earn points for correct answers, racing against the clock, and completing short&nbsp;lessons.</p>

<p><a href="https://www.busuu.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Busuu</a> &ndash; Students learn English with bite-sized lessons, flashcards, quizzes, and chats with native&nbsp;speakers.</p>

<p><a href="https://bilingua.io/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Bilingua</a> &ndash; A language exchange iOS and Android app that connects learners with native speakers through messaging, games, and soon video and audio. A bot helps provide conversation tips and defines&nbsp;words.</p>

<h1>Parent Engagement</h1>

<p><a href="https://www.classdojo.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Class Dojo</a> &ndash; An iOS, Android, and web app for sharing photos and videos of wonderful classroom moments, student work, and student behavior achievements. Communicate with parents quickly through messaging. Instantly translate messages into 30+&nbsp;languages.</p>

<p><a href="https://www.remind.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Remind</a> &ndash; An iOS, Android, and web app where teachers can send text messages with links, images, and attachments to anyone who subscribes. Translate messages into more than 70&nbsp;languages.</p>

<p><a href="https://www.classtag.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Class Tag</a> &ndash; Offers a variety of tools to communicate with parents via text messages or the phone. Messages are translated in the parent&rsquo;s preferred language then back to&nbsp;English.</p>

<p><a href="https://www.bloomz.net/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Bloomz</a> &ndash; An iOS, Android, and web app for sharing photos, videos, and announcements in multiple&nbsp;languages.</p>

<h1>Digital Storytelling and&nbsp;Presentations</h1>

<p><a href="http://www.buncee.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Buncee</a> &ndash; Create digital books, posters, greetings, or presentations with audio, video, stickers, templates, stylized fonts, qr codes, and more. Students can use immersive reader within the&nbsp;platform.</p>

<p><a href="https://www.genial.ly/en" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Genially</a> &ndash; Create interactive content, such as timelines, animated presentations, infographics, videos, posters, and&nbsp;quizzes.</p>

<p><a href="http://www.makebeliefscomix.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Makebeliefs</a> &ndash; Create comics in multiple languages. Choose from the library of characters and&nbsp;backgrounds.</p>

<p><a href="https://www.mystorybook.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">My Story Book</a> &ndash; Very young children can easily create a storybook by choosing backgrounds, adding characters, and typing in the story. No registration is required and ad&nbsp;free.</p>

<p><a href="http://www.toondoo.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Toondoo</a> &ndash; Create comic strips or books with a library of characters and backgrounds or draw your&nbsp;own.</p>

<p><a href="http://storybird.com/accounts/signup/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Storybird</a> &ndash; Students create beautiful text stories by choosing from their library of free art. The story is embeddable. With a teacher account create student logins and students able to collaborate on&nbsp;stories.</p>

<p><a href="https://bookcreator.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Book Creator</a> &ndash; Create digital books or comics with easy to use templates, 50 different fonts, and stickers. Students can include video, audio, and text. There are several accessibility features, such as adding descriptions to&nbsp;images.</p>

<p><a href="https://www.writereader.com/en/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">WriteReader</a> &ndash; Children from ages 3 to 10 years-old can learn to read by writing and publishing digital&nbsp;books.</p>

<h1>Class Discussion</h1>

<p><a href="https://flipgrid.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Flipgrid</a> &ndash; Engage and empower every voice in your classroom by recording and sharing short videos with the ability to include stickers. Students can respond to other videos or share their videos in augmented reality. Students can also access immersive reader within the&nbsp;platform.</p>

<p><a href="http://en.linoit.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Linoit</a> &ndash; Sticky web wall accessible on any device in which students can post videos, images, audio, or text notes. No registration&nbsp;required.</p>

<p><a href="http://padlet.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Padlet</a> &ndash; Create a beautiful sticky web wall with their various templates and images. Only 3 are free. Students can post videos, images, audio, or text&nbsp;notes.</p>

<p><a href="https://parlayideas.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Parlay</a> &ndash; A web tool that helps you design collaborative online class discussions investigating any topic, video, article, or link. You can choose from the database of created topics with a set of questions to choose from or create a discussion from&nbsp;scratch.</p>

<p><a href="http://ed.voicethread.com/register" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">VoiceThread</a> &ndash; Interactive way to present stories, images, or host discussions. Parents and students can leave comments by text, video, or audio. They can draw on the images and choose&nbsp;avatars.</p>

<h1>Audio Recording</h1>

<p><a href="http://vocaroo.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Vocaroo</a> &ndash; Easily record audio then email to students who can record audio back. No registration is required. You can also send a link, create a qr code, or download the&nbsp;clip.</p>

<p><a href="http://www.voki.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Voki</a> &ndash; Add voice via text or audio to animated characters, animals, and historical figures. Students can add their own drawings as a&nbsp;background.</p>

<h1>Design a Game or Quiz</h1>

<p><a href="https://kahoot.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Kahoot</a> &ndash; Teachers and students can create engaging trivia quizzes and games accessible on any device. New features include a question bank, polls, autosave, and new&nbsp;characters.</p>

<p><a href="http://quizizz.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Quizizz</a> &ndash; A web tool and app to create fun games and quizzes. Teachers have the option of showing a meme after a question is&nbsp;answered.</p>

<p><a href="https://www.tinytap.it/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Tiny Tap</a> &ndash; An iOS app where students create learning games, interactive presentations and quizzes. The website has a free library of thousands of games, presentations, and quizzes designed by&nbsp;others.</p>

<h1>Virtual Learning Environments</h1>

<p><a href="https://www.google.com/intl/en-US/edu/classroom/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Google Classroom</a> &ndash; Create a virtual classroom where students can turn in assignments or post responses to discussions. Students can respond to each other. Easily assign work, grade, and create&nbsp;rubrics.</p>

<p><a href="https://www.edmodo.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Edmodo</a> &ndash; A safe virtual learning platform for schools. Create assignments, grade or give a digital badge. Accessible on any&nbsp;device.</p>

<p><a href="https://www.schoology.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Schoology</a> &ndash; Set up a learning management system that is accessible on any device and easily post assignments, grade, and keep&nbsp;attendance.</p>

<p><a href="http://www.nearpod.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Nearpod</a> &ndash; Create assignments and presentations for your classes. Students enter your live session with a pin on any device and turn it into you right there. Grade their&nbsp;work.</p>

<p><a href="http://edublogs.org/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Edublogs</a> &ndash; Student blogging platform and virtual classroom designed for educational purposes to keep students&nbsp;safe.</p>

<p><a href="http://www.pbworks.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">PBWorks</a> &ndash; Create several free collaborative websites that are ad free where students can add images, video, or embedded creations. Comes with a plagiarism&nbsp;checker.</p>

<p>What are your favorite back to school web tools and apps for language&nbsp;learners?</p>

<p>If you want to receive more of Shelly&rsquo;s tips for online resources for teaching English, <a href="https://ellii.com/blog/authors/shelly-terrell">check out her&nbsp;feed</a>!</p>


40+ Back to School Web Tools & Apps to Help English Learners Succeed

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<blockquote>
<p>Blended learning is an approach to learning that combines face-to-face and online learning&nbsp;experiences.</p>

<p class="attribution">&mdash;<a href="https://www.teachthought.com/learning/the-definition-of-blended-learning/">TeachThoughtStaff</a></p>
</blockquote>

<h2>Blended Learning</h2>

<p>Are you experimenting with blended learning and the flipped classroom approach? Try ESL&nbsp;Library&rsquo;s new interactive <strong>Listen &amp; Type</strong> task. (Scroll down for video demo.) As a <a href="https://ellii.com/pricing">Plus plan</a> user, you&nbsp;can now assign this task to your students for homework or in-class work (with headphones). Your students can do the interactive task on any mobile device or&nbsp;computer. (As a Standard plan user, you can launch this task in class and work on it together on a shared screen.)</p>

<p>If you&rsquo;re an ESL&nbsp;Library subscriber, your students are likely familiar with this task type because many of our topical paper-based lessons have a similar gap‑fill task. Now, in addition to getting reading, listening, and spelling practice, your students can improve their digital&nbsp;literacy.</p>

<p>Note: The Listen &amp; Type task doesn&rsquo;t have to be used as a final task in a reading lesson. It can be assigned as a preview task, a review task, or an assessment or diagnostic task. It&rsquo;s also useful for students who want extra homework practice. Other parts of our lessons, such as discussion questions, surveys, and role‑plays, are more suitable for face‑to‑face, in‑class&nbsp;work.</p>

<h2>Assign Tasks</h2>

<p>Go to the reading lesson of your choice and toggle to <strong>Digital</strong>. Then choose <strong>Assign Tasks</strong>&nbsp;and assign the Listen &amp; Type task with the due date of your choice to the class of your&nbsp;choice.</p>

<blockquote>
<p><a href="https://help.ellii.com/article/122-how-to-assign-digital-homework">How to Assign Tasks (Digital Homework)</a></p>
</blockquote>

<h2>Task Features</h2>

<p>The Listen &amp; Type task features the main reading and audio recording from a reading‑based ESL&nbsp;Library lesson. As students listen to the recording they can follow along with the text and type in the missing&nbsp;words.</p>

<p><img class="with-border" height="auto" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/11/IMG_2861.PNG" width="320" /></p>

<h2>Review</h2>

<p>After students complete the Listen &amp; Type task, they can listen again and review any mistakes they&nbsp;made.</p>

<p><img class="with-border" height="auto" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/12/IMG_2862.PNG" width="320" /></p>

<h2>View Results</h2>

<p>As a teacher, you can see your students&rsquo; Listen &amp; Type results after they complete the&nbsp;task. Make sure you are logged in. Then go to Class Prep and navigate to Results.</p>

<blockquote>
<p><a href="https://help.ellii.com/article/129-how-to-access-digital-homework-teachers">How to View Digital Homework Results</a></p>
</blockquote>

<p><img class="with-border" height="auto" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/13/IMG_2864.PNG" width="320" /></p>

<h2>Lesson Sections</h2>

<p>The Listen &amp; Type task is currently available in the following sections:</p>

<ul class="resources">
	<li class="lesson"><a href="https://ellii.com/courses/72/lessons">Discussion Starters</a></li>
	<li class="lesson"><a href="https://ellii.com/courses/93/lessons">Holidays &amp; Events</a></li>
	<li class="lesson"><a href="https://ellii.com/courses/80/lessons">Famous People</a> (Low Int)</li>
	<li class="lesson"><a href="https://ellii.com/courses/118/lessons/">Phonics Stories</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;</li>
	<li class="lesson"><a href="https://ellii.com/courses/117/lessons">Discovery</a></li>
</ul>

<p>Look for the computer screen icon to check if a lesson has digital&nbsp;tasks.</p>

<p><img height="auto" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/8/Screen_Shot_2019-07-22_at_2.51.22_PM.png" width="400" /></p>

<h2>Listen &amp; Type: Demo</h2>

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/z2BdzzP-B5Q" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen></iframe>

<h2>Related</h2>

<ul class="resources">
	<li class="blog-post"><a href="https://ellii.com/blog/product-feature-update-matching-vocabulary-preview">Matching: Interactive Vocabulary Preview Task for English&nbsp;Learners</a></li>
	<li class="blog-post"><a href="https://ellii.com/blog/see-and-spell">See &amp; Spell: Interactive Spelling &amp; Listening Practice for Beginner English&nbsp;Learners</a></li>
	<li class="blog-post"><a href="https://ellii.com/blog/image-match-interactive-vocabulary-building-for-beginner-english-learners">Image Match: Vocabulary Building for Beginner ELLs</a></li>
	<li class="blog-post"><a href="https://ellii.com/blog/launch-or-preview-digital-tasks">Launch or Preview Digital&nbsp;Tasks</a></li>
</ul>


Listen & Type: An Interactive Task for Blended Learning

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<p>When asked what they get out of the classroom in addition to language skills, ESL students will often tout the friendships they&rsquo;ve made with their classmates, their increased confidence when interacting with native speakers, and a better understanding of English-speaking cultures. Wouldn&rsquo;t it be great if they could add a coping strategy to deal with stress to their&nbsp;list?</p>

<p>Introducing students to meditation teaches them a way to find calm in their hectic lives. It&rsquo;s a strategy that&rsquo;s easy to incorporate into ESL lessons and complements a number of language topics including the present tense, sensory verbs, the imperative, and prepositions. It also lends itself to general themes such as health, modern life, and daily routines. Below you will find a guided meditation used to reinforce vocabulary related to body&nbsp;parts.</p>

<p>Before you begin the mediation session with your students, pre-teach any unfamiliar words or phrases (e.g., breathe, breath, rise, fall, tighten, loosen, inhale, exhale, etc.). Share some of the benefits of meditation (e.g., reduces stress, controls anxiety, lengthens attention span, etc.).</p>

<p>Briefly explain the activity. Tell students you are going to guide them through a number of steps that will help them focus on different parts of their&nbsp;body.If possible, turn off or dim the lights before you lead the meditation. Then read out the following steps to your&nbsp;students:</p>

<ol class="spaced-list">
	<li>Close your eyes. Make sure both feet are on the floor and your back is touching your&nbsp;chair.</li>
	<li>Take a few deep breaths. Breathe in through your nose. Breathe out through your mouth. Put your hand on your chest. Notice how it rises when you breathe in and falls when you breathe&nbsp;out.</li>
	<li>Now bring your attention to your feet. Move your toes around a little. Feel them as they touch your socks and&nbsp;shoes.</li>
	<li>Slowly move your attention up to your legs. Notice how the chair feels against your&nbsp;thighs.</li>
	<li>Think about your back and where the chair touches it. Allow yourself to relax into the chair. Notice where you feel the chair on your back&nbsp;now.</li>
	<li>Move your attention back to your chest. Focus again on the rise and fall of your chest as you&nbsp;breathe.</li>
	<li>Now tighten your jaw. Hold it there. And relax. Feel the muscles as they&nbsp;loosen.</li>
	<li>Direct your attention to your nose. Feel your nostrils as you inhale and&nbsp;exhale.</li>
	<li>Take one more deep breath. As you breathe out, slowly open your&nbsp;eyes.</li>
</ol>

<p>Make sure to ask follow-up questions after the session (e.g., How did you feel before the session? How did you feel during it? How do you feel&nbsp;now?).</p>

<p>If this practice is something your students enjoy, consider letting a student volunteer lead subsequent meditations. You can also write the meditations with the class on the board or assign them as group work. The important thing is to keep the stress level as low as possible. And&nbsp;breathe!</p>

<h1>Related</h1>

<ul class="resources">
	<li class="collection"><a href="https://ellii.com/collections/27/lessons" target="_blank">Health &amp; Safety Lesson Collection</a></li>
	<li class="lesson"><a href="https://ellii.com/courses/95/lessons/1836" target="_blank">Stress</a></li>
	<li class="lesson"><a href="https://ellii.com/courses/97/lessons/1990" target="_blank">Yoga</a></li>
	<li class="flashcards"><a href="https://ellii.com/flashcard_genres/4/flashcard_categories/27" target="_blank">Daily Routines &ndash; Flashcards </a></li>
	<li class="blog-post"><a href="https://ellii.com/blog/7-stress-busters-for-teachers/" target="_blank">7 Stress Busters for Teachers</a></li>
</ul>


Introducing Students to Meditation

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<blockquote>
<p>&ldquo;Everybody likes a&nbsp;compliment.&rdquo;</p>

<p class="attribution">&mdash;Abraham Lincoln</p>
</blockquote>

<h1>Word Wall + Valentine&rsquo;s Day = Community</h1>

<p>Whether you&rsquo;re freshening up your classroom for the second half of the school year or getting ready to start a brand-new term, January is a great time to focus on building community in the classroom. One way to do this is by creating a word wall and calling it &ldquo;Positive Personality&nbsp;Traits.&rdquo;</p>

<p>Between now and Valentine&rsquo;s Day, have students suggest words&mdash;such as <em>generous</em>, <em>confident</em>, <em>patient</em>, and <em>kind</em>&mdash;for this new wall as they come across them in and outside the classroom. Before you know it, you will have a large collection of feel‑good&nbsp;adjectives!</p>

<p><img alt="Illustration of a word wall poster" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/205/content_Ann_Word-Wall-Poster.png" /></p>

<p>When Valentine&rsquo;s Day is close at hand, get a blank piece of paper for each student and write their name at the top. Distribute the papers to everyone in your class, making sure that no one gets the paper with his/her own name on it. Ask students to write one or two adjectives from the &ldquo;Positive Personality Traits&rdquo; word wall that describe the student whose name appears on the paper they have. When they have finished, have them switch papers with a classmate so that they have a new name on their paper. Do this until students have had a chance to write adjectives for each of their classmates. Collect the papers for the next&nbsp;step.</p>

<p>Now the fun part. Take a minute to write your students a valentine card. At the end of each card, add &ldquo;Your classmates think you are&hellip;&rdquo; In speech bubbles, write the adjectives that show how classmates perceive this student. You will be amazed at how these cards help your students develop rapport with each&nbsp;other!</p>

<p><img alt="Illustration of a valentine card" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/204/content_Ann_Word-Wall-Card.png" /></p>

<h1>Related</h1>

<ul class="resources">
	<li class="collection"><a href="https://ellii.com/collections/4/lessons" target="_blank">Love &amp; Relationships Lesson Collection</a></li>
	<li class="lesson"><a href="https://ellii.com/courses/92/lessons/2615" target="_blank">Giving &amp; Receiving Compliments</a></li>
	<li class="lesson"><a href="https://ellii.com/courses/88/lessons/2093" target="_blank">Adjectives</a></li>
	<li class="lesson"><a href="https://ellii.com/courses/93/lessons/1959" target="_blank">Valentine&rsquo;s Day &ndash; Beg </a></li>
	<li class="lesson"><a href="https://ellii.com/courses/93/lessons/1863" target="_blank">Valentine&rsquo;s Day &ndash; Low Int </a></li>
	<li class="lesson"><a href="https://ellii.com/courses/93/lessons/1862" target="_blank">Valentine&rsquo;s Day &ndash; High Int </a></li>
	<li class="resource"><a href="https://ellii.com/resource_categories/107/resources/2145" target="_blank">Love Idioms Poster</a></li>
	<li class="flashcards"><a href="https://ellii.com/flashcard_genres/21/flashcard_categories/107" target="_blank">Valentine&rsquo;s Day &ndash; Flashcards </a></li>
	<li class="blog-post"><a href="https://ellii.com/blog/how-to-give-a-compliment/" target="_blank">Giving and Accepting Compliments</a></li>
	<li class="blog-post"><a href="https://ellii.com/blog/compliment-vs-complement/" target="_blank">Compliment Vs. Complement</a></li>
	<li class="blog-post"><a href="https://ellii.com/blog/valentines-day-interview-a-love-story/" target="_blank">Valentine&rsquo;s Day Interview: A Love Story</a></li>
</ul>


Everybody Likes a Compliment

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<p>There are few feelings more uncomfortable than reaching the end of a lesson plan, glancing at the clock, and discovering that the bell won&rsquo;t ring for another 10 or 15&nbsp;minutes.</p>

<p>Here&rsquo;s a list of 10 fillers that will make those extra minutes fly by. (And best of all, you won&rsquo;t need to run to the teachers&rsquo; lounge to make&nbsp;photocopies!)</p>

<ol class="spaced-list">
	<li>Have students look around the classroom and write down all the objects that begin with the letter <em>b</em>. Set a timer for two minutes and make it a competition to see who can name the most items. Let the winner choose another letter and play the game&nbsp;again.</li>
	<li>Ask students to describe their country&rsquo;s flag as you draw it on the board. If you have a multicultural class, pair students with someone from a different country. Have them describe their flags to each&nbsp;other.</li>
	<li>Put students in groups of three. Direct students to choose something in their wallet, purse, or backpack and tell their group members about it. They should say where they got the object, how long they&rsquo;ve had it, why it&rsquo;s important to them,&nbsp;etc.</li>
	<li>Erase the board and have students call out any new words and expressions from the day&rsquo;s lesson that they can remember. Then have students rank these vocabulary items based on how useful they think the items&nbsp;are.</li>
	<li>Write a four- or five-letter word, such as <em>tooth</em>, on the board. See if students can change just one letter to make a new word. For example, you can change the first <em>t</em> to <em>b</em> to form the word booth; then change the <em>h</em> to <em>s</em> and you have the word <em>boots</em>. Challenge students to make ten new&nbsp;words.</li>
	<li>Tear a piece of paper into several slips, which you&rsquo;ll distribute as needed during the game. Sit in a circle with your students. Draw a simple object on one of the slips. Show the picture to the student on your left. Have that student whisper the name of the object they think the picture depicts to the person on his/her left. That person should then draw a picture of the word they hear, and so&nbsp;on.</li>
	<li>Have students sit in a circle. Choose a category of nouns, such as animals. Call out a word from this category: <em>bird</em>. The person on your right must say an animal that begins with the last letter of this noun: <em>d</em> (e.g.,&nbsp;<em>dog</em>).</li>
	<li>Tell students that you have a friend named Mrs. McGillicutty and that this friend likes many things, but there are some things she doesn&rsquo;t like at all. It is their job to figure out what makes her fond of certain things&mdash;they all have double letters in their names. Give students a few examples: Mrs. McGillicutty likes cheese, but she doesn&rsquo;t like crackers. She likes soccer and she adores volleyball, but she doesn&rsquo;t like sports. Then have students ask you questions about things Mrs. McGillicutty likes and doesn&rsquo;t like. (E.g., Does she like dessert? Yes, she does. Does she like chocolate? No, she doesn&rsquo;t. Does she like apple pie? Yes, she&nbsp;does.)</li>
	<li>Give students a few minutes to think about a mistake they have made while speaking English this week. Ask them to write down a sentence that contains this error. Have them show the sentence to a partner and see if their partner can correct&nbsp;it.</li>
	<li>Write a fairly long word on the board such as dictionary. Students must make as many words as they can from the letters in the word (e.g., <em>a</em>, <em>dart</em>, <em>any</em>, <em>day</em>, <em>city</em>, <em>yard</em>, <em>tidy</em>,&nbsp;<em>ration</em>).</li>
</ol>

<h1>Related</h1>

<ul class="resources">
	<li class="resource"><a href="https://ellii.com/resource_categories/105/resources">Warm-Ups &amp; Fillers</a></li>
	<li class="blog-post"><a href="https://ellii.com/blog/opposites-a-fun-way-to-learn-new-vocabulary/">Opposites &ndash;&nbsp;A Fun Way to Learn Vocabulary</a></li>
	<li class="blog-post"><a href="https://ellii.com/blog/bell-ringers">Engage Learners with Bell-Ringer Activities</a></li>
	<li class="blog-post"><a href="https://ellii.com/blog/tearable-puns">10 Tearable Puns: An English Language Activity</a></li>
	<li class="blog-post"><a href="https://ellii.com/blog/my-favourite-warm-up-activity">My Favorite Warm-Up Activity</a></li>
</ul>


10 Zero-Prep Fillers

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<blockquote>
<p>&ldquo;I have no special talents. I am only passionately&nbsp;curious.&rdquo;</p>

<p class="attribution">&mdash;Albert Einstein</p>
</blockquote>

<p>Einstein credited curiosity as the driving force of his success. By asking questions and indulging his curiosity, he was able to challenge centuries‑old views about the universe and turn them upside&nbsp;down.</p>

<p>And who knows? You could have the next Einstein right in your classroom. By introducing your students to the concept of thin and thick questions, you may be able to pull out the Einstein in all of&nbsp;them.</p>

<p>Reading fiction can serve as a conduit for developing curiosity. To start the process, first make sure that students understand the basic storyline of the passage you are working with. A fail-safe way to know students have gotten the gist is to ask &ldquo;thin&rdquo; questions&mdash;literal questions that ask about the specific details of the text. Questions that can be answered with a few words, yes/no, or a number fall into this category. They often start with <em>who</em>, <em>what</em>, <em>when</em>, or&nbsp;<em>where</em>.</p>

<p>Once students have the confidence that goes hand‑in‑hand with comprehension, the real engagement with curiosity can begin. By learning how to ask &ldquo;thick&rdquo; questions, students can begin to probe beneath the surface of the reading. Unlike thin questions, thick questions require students to activate prior knowledge, and the answers are open-ended and often complex. If you have 20 students in a class, you may get 20 different answers to the same thick question. The answers to these questions don&rsquo;t jump off the page; students have to use their imagination to respond to&nbsp;them.</p>

<p>So how does this actually work in the classroom? Take <em>Jack and the Beanstalk</em>. First, have students read the story. To check comprehension, ask a few thin questions. For&nbsp;example:</p>

<ol>
	<li>Who are the main characters in the&nbsp;story?</li>
	<li>Where does the story take&nbsp;place?</li>
	<li>What happens to the seeds after Jack&rsquo;s mother throws them out the&nbsp;window?</li>
</ol>

<p>Once you have made sure that students understand the story, pose several thick questions and have students discuss them in groups or pairs. For&nbsp;example:</p>

<ol>
	<li>What character traits describe&nbsp;Jack?</li>
	<li>Why is the ogre&rsquo;s servant willing to help&nbsp;Jack?</li>
	<li>What do you think happens to Jack and his mother after the story&nbsp;ends?</li>
</ol>

<p>Remind students that there are no right or wrong answers. After the discussion, challenge groups or pairs to come up with their own thick questions. Give them a few question starters as a&nbsp;guide:</p>

<ol>
	<li>What if&hellip;?</li>
	<li>How did&hellip;?</li>
	<li>Why is&hellip;?</li>
	<li>What character traits describe&hellip;?</li>
	<li>What would happen&nbsp;if&hellip;?</li>
	<li>How would you feel&nbsp;if&hellip;?</li>
	<li>What caused&hellip;?</li>
	<li>What does the author mean&nbsp;by&hellip;?</li>
</ol>

<p>Once students have created their own thick questions, put them in small groups to discuss the new questions. (Hopefully they will enjoy piquing their classmates&rsquo;&nbsp;curiosity!)</p>

<p>As students become comfortable with this new skill, encourage them to ask thick questions before, during, and after a reading. And always keep in mind what Einstein said, &ldquo;The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for&nbsp;existing.&rdquo;</p>

<h1>Related</h1>

<ul class="resources">
	<li class="lesson"><a href="https://ellii.com/courses/80/lessons/1328">Albert Einstein</a></li>
	<li class="lesson"><a href="https://ellii.com/courses/72/lessons/2919">Wonder</a></li>
	<li class="lesson"><a href="https://ellii.com/courses/88/lessons/1627">Wh- Questions</a></li>
	<li class="resource"><a href="https://ellii.com/resource_categories/103/resources/2462">Question Formation</a></li>
</ul>


Thin & Thick Questions

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<blockquote>
<p>&ldquo;Poetry is when an emotion has found its thought and the thought has found&nbsp;words.&rdquo;</p>

<p class="attribution">&mdash;Robert Frost</p>
</blockquote>

<p>It is National Poetry Month, but year round students can enjoy learning from poetry. Different forms of poetry appeal to various age groups and literacy levels. All our students can discover poems that make them laugh, smile, or think.</p>

<p>Additionally, teachers can find poems about any topic that help students make a deeper connection to the vocabulary and ideas related to the topic. Students can learn from the examples of poetry they consume to produce their own poems, which gives students the opportunity to experiment with language structures, rhythm, phrasing, figurative language, and literary&nbsp;devices.</p>

<p>The following resources are filled with lesson ideas, activities, and generators to help students write various forms of poetry.</p>

<p>You will also find websites with glossaries of poetic terms and devices so that students can try using these poetic devices in their writing. There are also examples from various famous poets of the different forms of poetry that are listed in this&nbsp;post.</p>

<h2>General Poetry Resources</h2>

<ul>
	<li>The <a href="https://www.poetrygames.org/poetry-machine/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Poetry Machine</a> is an awesome website with different poetry generators that walk students through the process of creating several different forms of poetry, including the ones listed&nbsp;below.</li>
	<li><a href="https://storybird.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Storybird</a> has a library of beautiful artwork created by professionals that students can choose from to create a poetry book. This is a great way to display all the poems they write in your&nbsp;class.</li>
	<li>For lesson ideas, check out the ESL&nbsp;Library lessons <a href="https://www.ellii.com/courses/74/lessons/2026" target="_blank">How to Write a Poem</a> and <a href="https://www.ellii.com/courses/80/lessons/1343" target="_blank">William&nbsp;Shakespeare</a>.</li>
	<li>The <a href="https://www.poets.org/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Academy of American Poets</a> shares a database of thousands of poems, activities, videos, audio recordings, and other materials for teachers to browse and&nbsp;use!</li>
	<li><a href="https://www.youngwriters.co.uk/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Young Writers</a> is a website with regular competitions for students and a poetry glossary with examples. Also find poetry collections and teaching&nbsp;materials.</li>
	<li>Below find several poetry student interactives from <a href="http://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/calendar-activities/april-national-poetry-month-20478.html" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Read Write Think</a>, which is one of my favorite websites for helping students write in any&nbsp;genre.</li>
	<li>Find printables, videos, and poems very young children will enjoy on the <a href="http://www.shelsilverstein.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Shel Silverstein&nbsp;website</a>.</li>
</ul>

<h2>Acrostic Poems</h2>

<p>Acrostic poems are one of the simplest forms of poetry to write. Students choose a word and then write a poem with the first letter of each line spelling a word or phrase (e.g.,&nbsp;<strong>CAT</strong>&nbsp;&ndash; <strong>C</strong>urious <strong>A</strong>nimal <strong>T</strong>iny tiger).</p>

<p>I usually have students begin with their names. Students simply find adjectives or create phrases to describe themselves. The poem does not have to rhyme and this is a great way for our students to get to know each other!</p>

<p>For a challenge, students can also write acrostic poems where the last letters in the line spell out a word. <a href="https://www.youngwriters.co.uk/types-acrostic" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Find a definition and examples&nbsp;here</a>.</p>

<p>Read Write Think has an interactive that defines acrostic poetry, provides examples, and helps students create their own. Students can download their acrostic poems or email&nbsp;them.</p>

<p><a href="https://commaful.com/create" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Commaful</a> is a very simple and free creative writing online tool that allows users to choose a background image from their library and easily type text on top of the image. Students will enjoy using Commaful to compose several different types of poetry, including acrostic poems. Students don&rsquo;t have to register to create, publish, or share the link to their&nbsp;poems.</p>

<p><a href="https://app.edu.buncee.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Buncee</a> is a multimedia presentation tool students can use to animate all forms of poetry with stickers, images, audio clips, banners, and more. See this <a href="https://app.edu.buncee.com/buncee/96d282f325e944709c2c4cff4af71d9e" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">example</a> of an Acrostic poem created with&nbsp;Buncee.</p>

<h2>Blackout Poetry</h2>

<p>This is one of the newest and most popular ways to get students to enjoy writing poetry.</p>

<p>Give students newspapers, magazines, or other texts. Students scan the article and put brackets around anchor words or words that jump out at them. Then students take a black marker and blackout all the words in the text except those they earlier put brackets around.</p>

<p>Blackout poetry was made popular by the famous author, Austin&nbsp;Kleon. Introduce blackout poetry by showing students the video <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XqB9kXzJ0UA" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">interview with Austin Kleon</a> or <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKpVgoGr6kE" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">How to Create a Newspaper Blackout Poem by Austin&nbsp;Kleon</a>.</p>

<p>Check out several examples of <a href="http://newspaperblackout.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Newspaper Blackout Poetry</a> on Austin Kleon&rsquo;s Tumblr. Students can pick out their favorites and then see if they can find these poems in their own&nbsp;newspapers.</p>

<p><a href="https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/lesson/8b7fcd91373afa80742ca8b226047a6a" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">K20 Learn</a> has a great lesson plan creating blackout poems and lists more&nbsp;resources.</p>

<p>This <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5ngjrLo_Ao" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">video</a> shows you how to create blackout poems online with Google&nbsp;Draw.</p>

<h2>Magnetic Poetry</h2>

<p>Magnetic poetry is easy and fun for learners! Students simply make poems from words they see on magnets. I have had students create magnet poems with cookie or pie pans and magnetic words. Students can also make their own set of magnetic words by writing them on a magnetic sheet and cutting them out. You can find magnetic sheets in the craft area of stores or at a craft&nbsp;store.</p>

<p>Students can also create magnetic poetry digitally using the <a href="https://magneticpoetry.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Magnetic Poetry</a> and <a href="https://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/student-interactives/word-mover-b" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Word Mover</a> websites. No registration necessary.</p>

<p>Another web tool where students choose words to create a poem is <a href="https://piclits.com/piclit-types/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">PicLits</a>. Students pick a picture and then drag words onto the image from a list provided.</p>

<p>Students can also create magnetic poems by using the free Google Drawing and Google Slide templates created by <a href="https://shakeuplearning.com/magneticpoetry/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Shake Up Learning</a> and <a href="https://www.controlaltachieve.com/search?q=magnetic+poetry" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Eric&nbsp;Curts</a>.</p>

<h2>Concrete Poetry</h2>

<p>Concrete poems are shape poems. Students choose a shape and write phrases and adjectives to describe their feelings and thoughts about the shape. Check out any of these free shape cloud generators that make it much easier for students to create their shape&nbsp;poems:</p>

<p><a href="http://neoformix.com/Projects/WordHearts/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Neoformix</a> and the <a href="https://www.poem-generator.org.uk/concrete/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Poem Generator</a> are free shape generators where students can choose from a free library of shapes, type their words, and choose the shape. An image will be generated for them to download and&nbsp;print.</p>

<p><a href="https://wordart.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Word Art</a> and <a href="http://www.tagxedo.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Tagxedo</a> are word cloud generators with several different types of fun shapes for students to choose. They can also color the fonts and styles of the words. A word cloud generator scatters the words inputted, but students can keep phrases together by adding a ~ between words. The words that are most repeated will also be much bigger than other&nbsp;words.</p>

<h2>Diamante Poetry</h2>

<p>Diamante poems are in the shape of a diamond and about two topics. It is a simple poem to write with only a few words, adjectives, and ing ending words. <a href="https://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/student-interactives/diamante-poems" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Read Write Think</a> has an interactive that walks students through the process of writing this type of poem. Find a definition, the format, and examples&nbsp;<a href="http://www.readwritethink.org/files/resources/interactives/diamante_poems_2/diamante_examples.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">here</a>.</p>

<h2>Haikus</h2>

<p>Haikus originate from Japan and are usually about nature. A haiku is a 3-line poem that follows a specific syllabic structure: line 1 is 5 syllables, line 2 is 7 syllables, and line 3 is 5 syllables. Find simple interactives for students to create their haikus on <a href="https://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/student-interactives/haiku-poem-interactive" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Read Write Think</a> and the <a href="https://www.poetrygames.org/poetry-machine/poetry-15.php" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Poetry&nbsp;Machine</a>.</p>

<p>What other resources do you recommend for teaching with&nbsp;poetry?</p>

<p>If you want to receive more of Shelly&rsquo;s tips for online resources for teaching English, then check out her <a href="https://ellii.com/blog/authors/shelly-terrell" target="_blank">blog&nbsp;feed</a>.</p>


20+ Ideas, Web Tools & Resources to Help ELLs Compose Poetry

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

Conferences

<h1>TESOL 2019 Sessions</h1>

<p>The annual TESOL convention is the perfect opportunity for materials writers and editors to learn from the masters and keep up with the changing needs of English language teachers and&nbsp;learners.</p>

<p>Balancing our time between the booth and the classroom is always a struggle at TESOL. While we would love to spend the whole time attending sessions, TESOL is our busiest week of the year! In addition to squeezing a week‑long trip into our busy publishing schedule, we have to present our own sessions, meet with potential partners, and&mdash;most importantly&mdash;chat with teachers and subscribers in person at the&nbsp;booth.</p>

<p>This year we were fortunate enough to have Ben, Taylor, and Ginny tending the booth throughout the conference. This allowed the publishing team leads to attend more TESOL sessions than ever&nbsp;before.</p>

<p>Here are our top 10 takeaways from sessions we attended at TESOL in&nbsp;Atlanta!</p>

<p><img alt="Tara Benwell and Tanya Trusler TESOL 19" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/2166/content_content_TT_Top-10-TESOL_01.jpg" /></p>

<p class="caption">From left to right: Tara (publishing director) &amp; Tanya (managing editor) at TESOL in&nbsp;Atlanta</p>

<h2>1. Kahoot! Is a Hoot</h2>

<p>We attended several sessions on digital tools where presenters talked about and demonstrated how they used Kahoot! in the classroom. As we continue to make improvements to our own <a href="https://help.ellii.com/article/132-video-digital-platform-webinar">digital platform</a>, we learned the importance of offering a competitive element. Kahoot! can be used for gathering prior knowledge, checking comprehension, and reviewing or assessing content. We love that students can also create their own&nbsp;Kahoots!</p>

<blockquote>
<p>&ldquo;Technology can give learners a voice they may not have had&nbsp;before.&rdquo;</p>

<p class="attribution">&mdash;Jennifer McGraner</p>
</blockquote>

<h2>2. Words Are Wordy</h2>

<p>In a session by Frances Boyd of Columbia University, we were reminded that knowing a word goes far beyond knowing its meaning and form. Boyd described English as a &ldquo;combo of high-flown and down-home words.&rdquo; To really learn a word, students need to notice it, retrieve it, and use and create with&nbsp;it.</p>

<p>Beyond learning the meaning and word form, she suggested that students record syllable stress, multiple meanings, collocations, root, affixes, origin, and more in their vocabulary notebooks (something she requires all of her learners to&nbsp;keep).</p>

<p>Boyd also pointed out that &ldquo;most textbooks don&rsquo;t do much after teaching pre‑vocabulary.&rdquo; Here are four good practices Boyd&nbsp;shared:</p>

<ol>
	<li><strong>F</strong>ocus on target words with frequent, short&nbsp;activities.</li>
	<li><strong>A</strong>ctivate learner autonomy (require a vocabulary&nbsp;notebook).</li>
	<li><strong>C</strong>reate teachable moments (words are&nbsp;everywhere).</li>
	<li><strong>T</strong>each strategies (ignore, infer,&nbsp;investigate).</li>
</ol>

<p>Boyd also reminded us that students are much more likely to learn a new word in context if they know 90-95% of the words surrounding it. This is a helpful reminder for our materials&nbsp;writers.</p>

<blockquote>
<p>&ldquo;Things that stick in your mind are simple, unexpected, and linked to&nbsp;story.&rdquo;</p>

<p class="attribution">&mdash;Frances Boyd</p>
</blockquote>

<h2>3. Students Measure Progress by Speaking&nbsp;Ability</h2>

<p>We were wishing an ESL&nbsp;Library representative had been invited to join Joe McVeigh&rsquo;s publishing panel for the session on <em>Current Trends in ELT Publishing</em>. The panel was made up of leading editors from Pearson, Cambridge, Oxford, National Geographic, and Pro&nbsp;Lingua.</p>

<p>While we would have loved to add our voice, for the most part we felt validated by what the panelists had to share. Rather than following ELT publishing trends over the years, we&rsquo;ve been setting them! Our subscription-based model that has been in place for the past 17 years is finally being adopted by many of the large publishing&nbsp;houses.</p>

<p>Laura Le Dr&eacute;an described how ELTs today want more flexibility from publishers rather than the traditional textbook units. Teachers want to be able to &ldquo;take a little bit of this and a little bit of that&rdquo; and use digital when it suits them. We thought this described ESL&nbsp;Library pretty&nbsp;well!</p>

<p><img alt="TESOL 19 slide" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/2167/content_content_TT_Top-10-TESOL_02.jpg" /></p>

<p>Jeff Krum pointed out that one thing publishers often forget is that ELLs measure their progress by how well they can speak. We couldn&rsquo;t agree more! Our goal for our digital platform is to focus on pair and group speaking practice, and we&rsquo;re working on many new task types that will give learners more opportunities to&nbsp;speak.</p>

<blockquote>
<p>&ldquo;Anything you measure&nbsp;improves.&rdquo;</p>

<p class="attribution">&mdash;Jeff Krum</p>
</blockquote>

<p>In 2019 we&rsquo;ll also be working on adding more <a href="https://ellii.com/resource_categories/104/resources">assessment tasks and tools</a> to our library for both print and&nbsp;digital.</p>

<h2>4. Language Learning Projects Offer Student&nbsp;Autonomy</h2>

<p>We&rsquo;ve all had students who need or want extra work. Some are a bit behind their peers while others are way ahead. In an excellent session by Sharon Graham and Deborah Pfeifer, we learned tips on motivating learners to create their own individualized learning plans using these five&nbsp;guidelines:</p>

<ol>
	<li>goal</li>
	<li>materials</li>
	<li>plan</li>
	<li>method</li>
	<li>criteria for measuring progress</li>
</ol>

<p>As Pfeifer and Graham demonstrated with their research, students who create their own plans are more likely to follow&nbsp;through.</p>

<div class="white-box">
<p>Watch for an upcoming LLP resource in our <a href="https://ellii.com/resource_categories">Resources</a> section!</p>
</div>

<h2>5. The Purpose of the Citizenship Test Is Not Just to Pass a&nbsp;Test</h2>

<p>In an excellent session by Domminick McParland from the Office of Citizenship, we learned some useful tips about the US Naturalization Test. For the Civics portion of the test, McParland recommended teaching learners thematically rather than just focusing on the 100 questions. As he pointed out, the goal of the test is to prepare immigrants for life in their new country. Rather than just memorizing answers, he suggests teaching learners about the history, geography, and laws of the country they are going to be living in. The English they learn will help prepare them for the other parts of the&nbsp;test.</p>

<div class="white-box">
<p>Check out our <a href="https://ellii.com/collections/30/lessons">Americana Lesson Collection</a>, which has all sorts of theme-based lessons, including an <a href="https://ellii.com/collections/30/lessons/2277">American Citizenship</a>&nbsp;lesson.</p>
</div>

<p>On the other hand, McParland pointed out that test day is NOT the day for your students to show off their knowledge. If a question asks for one answer, they should not give more than one. There are no bonus points and the officer decides if the first answer is right or&nbsp;wrong.</p>

<p>The reading and writing portion of the English test is now on a tablet, so it is recommended that teachers include some digital literacy in their lessons. For the writing portion, students have to use a stylus or their finger to write the dictated sentence (they don&rsquo;t&nbsp;type).</p>

<p>The speaking part is the hardest part. When it comes to the N‑400 form, it is imperative that learners know all of the vocabulary on it. They can&rsquo;t rely on answering &ldquo;No&rdquo; to a question such as &ldquo;Are you a habitual drunkard?&rdquo; if they don&rsquo;t know what the question means. The officer can ask test-takers to explain their answer at any&nbsp;time.</p>

<p>Here are some useful insider tips for preparing your students for the citizenship&nbsp;test:</p>

<ul class="spaced-list">
	<li>Focus on Part 12 of the N‑400 (it&rsquo;s the most&nbsp;difficult).</li>
	<li>Remind your students to always tell the&nbsp;truth.</li>
	<li>Practice asking an officer to repeat or rephrase a question (and remind students that they are allowed and encouraged to advocate for themselves during the test, including asking for a manager if&nbsp;necessary).</li>
	<li>An abbreviated word will not be accepted for the dictated sentence in the writing&nbsp;section.</li>
	<li>Practice writing with a stylus or finger on a&nbsp;tablet.</li>
	<li>On the reading test, students can fail for pausing too long. Practice reading questions out loud. (Students are not required to answer the question they read out&nbsp;loud.)</li>
</ul>

<h2>6. Grammar Has an Authentic Purpose</h2>

<p>We learned some useful tips in a session about grammar and TBLT (Task-Based Language Teaching) by Jennifer Brown, Emma House, Zach Meyer, and Megan Wright. They teach an intensive English program that focuses heavily on grammar practice. Using the TBLT approach, they have integrated real‑world activities into their program, including writing thank-you notes and cover letters, and they base target structures off those tasks (e.g., using gerunds after the phrase &ldquo;Thank you&nbsp;for&hellip;&rdquo;).</p>

<p>While the jury is still out on just how effective TBLT is for language learners, the presenters found that their students were much more engaged in learning when they used the TBLT approach. Their students appreciated using the grammar as a tool for communicating for an authentic purpose rather than just mindlessly writing down sentences featuring the grammar&nbsp;target.</p>

<p>Our Functional English and Writing sections would be useful for teachers who want to give TBLT a try in their classrooms. For example, teachers could use our <a href="https://ellii.com/courses/92/lessons/1739">Saying Thank You</a>, <a href="https://ellii.com/courses/74/lessons/2365">How to Write a Note</a>, or <a href="https://ellii.com/courses/74/lessons/2102">How to Write a Cover Letter</a> lessons. One of the main goals of our <a href="https://ellii.com/courses/88/lessons">Grammar Practice Worksheets</a> section is to include as many speaking tasks as possible in order to practice the target in a more authentic&nbsp;context.</p>

<p>When it comes to authentic materials, teachers have a habit of pointing out the grammar in context. At higher levels, learners should should be encouraged to identify the targets they&rsquo;ve learned in the language they encounter. Students can use real-world audio, video, and articles to &ldquo;spot grammar in the&nbsp;wild.&rdquo;</p>

<p><img alt="Tara Benwell and Tanya Trusler TESOL 19" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/2168/content_content_TT_Top-10-TESOL_03.jpg" /></p>

<h2>7. Suprasegmentals Are Superior</h2>

<p>In an informative session on pronunciation, Nihat Polat presented the findings he and colleague Laura Mahalingapappa gathered after a comprehensive review of current pronunciation research. An overall finding was that accuracy should never be the main goal&mdash;comprehensibility (overall speech patterns) and intelligibility (how much is understandable) should. This means that our students (and teachers!) should never try to &ldquo;get rid of&rdquo; their lovely accent. It might be difficult to convince our students of this, but a reminder might help improve their confidence and refocus their pronunciation&nbsp;goals.</p>

<p>Many teachers conduct pronunciation lessons that focus on only one or two sounds (segmental). Yet another conclusion reached by analyzing current research was that suprasegmentals (intonation, stress, etc.) are more important to pronunciation than segmentals (sounds/words).</p>

<p>While ESL&nbsp;Library&rsquo;s <a href="https://ellii.com/courses/118/lessons">Phonics &amp; Pronunciation</a> section does include phonics stories with the sounds in context (where students listen and say a story using stress and intonation), the majority of our pronunciation practice is geared towards individual sounds and minimal pairs. We resolved to develop lessons specifically on stress and intonation this&nbsp;year!</p>

<h2>8. Explicit Vocabulary Instruction Offers Best&nbsp;Results</h2>

<p>Having recently developed a comprehensive lesson on <a href="https://ellii.com/courses/88/lessons/2800">Verb Collocations</a> and with plans to develop many more, we were very interested in attending this well-researched session by Marijana Macis and Suhad Sonbul. Attendees may have been surprised to learn that direct vocabulary instruction (explicit learning) resulted in a much higher retention rate in study after&nbsp;study.</p>

<p>In their own study, the presenters also compared spaced (words repeated several times in a lesson) and massed (words presented only once) learning of vocabulary words. Their results showed that students retained vocabulary through explicit spaced learning to a significantly higher degree that the other conditions. In fact, their students&rsquo; scores in the incidental massed condition went down! They surmised that when an item is spaced out, it becomes encoded in memory in different contexts and is therefore better retained in&nbsp;real life.</p>

<p>How can you practice spaced, explicit vocabulary in your classrooms? The presenters suggested&nbsp;using:</p>

<ul>
	<li>apps</li>
	<li>quizzes</li>
	<li>cumulative tests and assessments</li>
	<li>pair work to discuss previous class concepts/vocabulary</li>
</ul>

<p>The presenters concluded by saying they found that recycling vocabulary five or more times yielded the highest retention&nbsp;rates.</p>

<p>In our <a href="https://ellii.com/lessons">lessons</a>, we almost always include a vocabulary preview, the words in context in the reading, two vocabulary review activities, and the words in context in the listening, so we were happy to hear that the presenters&rsquo; findings corresponded to what we do in our materials. And with ESL&nbsp;Library&rsquo;s new <a href="https://help.ellii.com/article/132-video-digital-platform-webinar">digital platform</a>, there are even more ways to present and practice vocabulary in your&nbsp;classroom!</p>

<h2>9. Old-School Grammar Instruction Improves&nbsp;Accuracy</h2>

<p>How should you present grammar in class? Should you use grammar notes/charts/instruction or teach it communicatively via grammar in context/task-based activities? This topic has been debated for as long as we can remember. Presenter Richard Oandasan examined past research and then conducted his own study in search of a definitive&nbsp;answer.</p>

<p>Past research results showed that communicative language teaching (CLT) can negatively affect students&rsquo; attitudes toward successful language learning. Many studies deemed CLT&nbsp;&ldquo;insufficient.&rdquo;</p>

<p>After seven weeks of form-focused grammar instruction, Richard&rsquo;s study participants demonstrated statistically significant improvements in grammar&nbsp;accuracy.</p>

<p>However, Richard acknowledged that explicit knowledge does not necessarily convert to implicit knowledge of real‑life communicative&nbsp;functions, and he suggested that proficiency in a language is not solely affected by a particular kind of instruction. At ESL&nbsp;Library, we strive to give teachers options on how they can present the grammar target. We include grammar notes/review at the beginning of our <a href="https://ellii.com/courses/88/lessons">Grammar Practice Worksheets</a> lessons (that teachers can choose whether or not to use), while the lessons in our <a href="https://ellii.com/courses/90/lessons">Grammar Stories</a> section show the target in context. Our goal is to provide teachers and students with variety in how they teach and learn&nbsp;grammar.</p>

<p>Richard&rsquo;s key recommendations were:</p>

<ul>
	<li>use explicit instructions in grammar&nbsp;classes</li>
	<li>integrate form-focused grammar instructions with communicative&nbsp;activities</li>
</ul>

<p>As Richard stated, one thing is for sure&mdash;students need a lot of grammar&nbsp;practice!</p>

<blockquote>
<p>&ldquo;Output is as important as&nbsp;input.&rdquo;</p>

<p class="attribution">&mdash;Richard Oandasan</p>
</blockquote>

<h2>10. Assessment Can Empower&nbsp;Students</h2>

<p>Debora Nacamuli Klebs and Esther Vasquez led a lively session on effective assessment and feedback techniques. At ESL&nbsp;Library, we&rsquo;ve been adding more and more materials to our <a href="https://ellii.com/resource_categories/104/resources">Assessment Tools</a> resources, so we were delighted to hear how valuable assessment tools can be as well as get some ideas for future resources and lessons during this&nbsp;session.</p>

<p>Here are some the presenters&rsquo; key takeaways about&nbsp;assessment:</p>

<ul>
	<li>Praise effort, not just&nbsp;results.</li>
	<li>There is a difference between not knowing something and not knowing something&nbsp;<strong>yet</strong>.</li>
	<li>Don&rsquo;t overdo the praise or overload students with&nbsp;corrections.</li>
	<li>With formative assessment, feedback and adjustments are&nbsp;important.</li>
	<li>Try &ldquo;two stars and a wish&rdquo; (i.e., give students two good things and one thing that needs&nbsp;improvement).</li>
	<li>Remember to &ldquo;close the loop&rdquo; (i.e., review and recap at the end of the&nbsp;lesson).</li>
	<li>Try using <a href="https://ellii.com/resource_categories/104/resources/2228">Exit Slips</a> to close the&nbsp;loop.</li>
	<li>Instead of asking &ldquo;Do you understand?&rdquo; ask &ldquo;Which is right, A or&nbsp;B?&rdquo;</li>
	<li>In tests, try including a &ldquo;What I studied that you didn&rsquo;t ask&rdquo; section for bonus&nbsp;points.</li>
	<li>Believe in your&nbsp;students!</li>
</ul>

<p><img alt="Tara Benwell and Tanya Trusler TESOL 19" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/2169/content_content_TT_Top-10-TESOL_04.jpg" /></p>

<h1>Home of the Braves</h1>

<p>We are so grateful to have been able to attend and sponsor TESOL 2019 in Atlanta this year. We always love having the opportunity to meet current subscribers and many other teachers/administrators, give away great prizes, get inspired from all the excellent sessions, and explore a new&nbsp;city.</p>

<p>We are already looking forward to next year&rsquo;s conference in Denver, Colorado! TESOL 2020 will be a big one for us. It will be Tara&rsquo;s 10th and Tanya&rsquo;s 8th TESOL conference. Atlanta will be hard to beat, but we&rsquo;ve heard great things about the friendly people and fresh mountain air in&nbsp;Denver.</p>

<p>See you next year!</p>

<p>Tara &amp; Tanya</p>


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