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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Teaching with Ellii

<blockquote>
<p>&ldquo;At a funeral, people are five times more likely to want to be in the casket than giving the eulogy.&rdquo;</p>

<p class="attribution">&mdash;Jerry Seinfeld</p>
</blockquote>

<p>Public speaking is the number one phobia. People are more afraid of speaking in public than death which is why Jerry Seinfeld made the remark above.</p>

<p>At some point, our learners will have to give a presentation.</p>

<p>For many of our learners, presenting&nbsp;is a different type of skill they have to learn and their struggle with the language makes it more frightening for them. For teachers, this can be difficult to teach because we teach rehearsed language as well as presentation skills and presentation design skills.</p>

<p>However, teaching our learners how to present helps them with their English related to their working environment, and provides them with&nbsp;confidence and motivation to continue their English. Great presentation skills lead to promotions and accolades from colleagues!</p>

<p>Presenting is not only for adult learners, though.</p>

<p>We can and should get our students to present to their peers from as young as 10 years old. The more they practice, the better they will be at it! Plus, these skills will help them present their ideas in future classes.</p>

<p>I hope the following tips and resources will help your learners&nbsp;improve their presentation skills.&nbsp;</p>

<h2>Tips and resources for preparing their presentations</h2>

<p>Before your students present, they will need to prepare what they want to say. Here are a few tips to get them&nbsp;started:</p>

<ul>
	<li>Have them observe famous speakers and speeches! Show them <a href="http://ed.ted.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">TED Talks</a> which are short and come with transcripts of the speeches. Here&rsquo;s a blog dedicated to <a href="http://esltedtalks.blogspot.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">TED Talk lessons for English language learners</a>. Also check out <a href="http://www.americanrhetoric.com/top100speechesall.html" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">American Rhetoric&rsquo;s top 100 speeches</a> of the century that include audio clips, video, and&nbsp;transcripts.</li>
	<li>Provide them with a simple checklist of what you expect from them as far as the topic, vocabulary to include, speech time, visual aides they can use, and&nbsp;more.</li>
	<li>Give them time to&nbsp;brainstorm.</li>
	<li>Have them diagram their presentations on paper before they begin putting it&nbsp;together.</li>
	<li>Allow them to write out their speeches and then have them summarize the main points. Many language learners will want to write out their entire speech so they can make sure the grammar is correct. Once you and their peers check their written speeches, have them create note cards with main&nbsp;ideas.</li>
	<li>Include a peer review process. <a href="http://voicethread.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Voicethread</a> is a great free tool for having peer reviews&nbsp;online.</li>
	<li>Give them plenty of time to practice, practice,&nbsp;practice!</li>
</ul>

<h2>Tips and resources for designing their presentations</h2>

<p>Now that your learners have determined what they are saying, it is time to get them to support these ideas with multimedia and visual aids. Here are a few&nbsp;tips!</p>

<ul>
	<li>Instruct them to support concepts and main points with multimedia, images, and videos. These aids should not distract from the message. The presentation should not have too much multimedia. Also, steer them away from using custom animations and transitions. Many times this will create problems with the&nbsp;presentation.</li>
	<li>Get them to use presentation tools other than PowerPoint. Here is a <a href="http://pinterest.com/shellyterrell/presentation-tools/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">list of various presentation tools</a> I&nbsp;recommend.</li>
	<li>They should design the presentation keeping their audience in&nbsp;mind.</li>
	<li>Teach them about creative commons. There are websites with free images and music. You can try <a href="http://flickr.com/" target="_blank">Flickr</a>,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/eltpics/sets/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">ELTPics</a>,&nbsp;<a href="http://compfight.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Compfight</a>, <a href="http://www.morguefile.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">MorgueFile</a>, <a href="https://groovesharks.org/" target="_blank" rel=noopener noreferrer nofollow">Grooveshark</a>,&nbsp;<a href="http://freemusicarchive.org/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Free Music Archive</a>,&nbsp;<a href="http://soundbible.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">SoundBible</a>, and&nbsp;<a href="http://www.freesound.org/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">FreeSound</a>.</li>
</ul>

<h2>Tips for dealing with the nonverbal communication</h2>

<p>Once the presentation is prepared, students should work on their nonverbal cues. They can practice giving their speech in front of a mirror or videotape themselves. Here are a few nonverbal issues that might&nbsp;arise.</p>

<ul>
	<li>To deal with pitch, pace, volume, and enunciation problems, students can practice the speech with a marker in their mouth. Once they let it out, they will notice the&nbsp;improvement.</li>
	<li>To deal with distracting pacing, students can practice presenting in a trashcan till they get&nbsp;better.</li>
	<li>To deal with too many umms, ands, and uhhs, students can practice with a peer who will ring a bell every time they do&nbsp;this.</li>
	<li>To help with eye contact, students can look at a point on the far wall and it will seem they are looking at the&nbsp;audience.</li>
</ul>

<h2>Lesson ideas</h2>

<p>Here are a few ideas to get your students&nbsp;presenting!</p>

<ul>
	<li>Have them do a short <a href="http://sixthings.net/2009/03/11/six-things-about-pecha-kucha-elt/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Pecha Kucha</a> or <a href="http://igniteshow.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Ignite presentation</a>. These are 5- to 7-minute speeches aimed at being highly visual and covering the most important points of a&nbsp;topic.</li>
	<li>Have them do a short online presentation with video and slides using free and user-friendly tools like <a href="http://present.me/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Present.me</a> or&nbsp;<a href="http://www.brainshark.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">BrainShark</a>.</li>
	<li>Have your students create their own short TED&nbsp;Talks.</li>
	<li>Have them present a project or topic in real time. They can receive immediate feedback from their peers.</li>
</ul>

<p>What other ideas can you think&nbsp;of?</p>


Tips & Resources to Help Learners with Their Presentation Skills

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

Grammar & Usage

<h1>Answering the Tough Questions</h1>

<p>We&#39;ve all been there. A student asks a question that stumps us, and our natural inclination is to say &quot;just because&quot;&nbsp;or &quot;that&#39;s just the way it is.&quot;&nbsp;Those of us who are native speakers may have never thought about the grammatical explanation&hellip;we just know what sounds right and wrong.</p>

<p>One of the most challenging aspects of being an English teacher is to learn <em>why</em> we speak and write the way we do. In fact, I think my next blog post may be about how to handle these types of questions&hellip;what are our options? As a specific example, I remember several instances of students getting confused over the adjective &quot;fun&quot;&nbsp;when using it in the <a href="https://ellii.com/courses/88/lessons/1600">comparative or superlative </a>forms. And, to be honest, I&#39;ve been guilty of using the classic excuse: &quot;It&#39;s an exception.&quot;&nbsp;It&#39;s about time I did some research into the <em>why</em>.</p>

<h2>Big = bigger, so fun = funner?</h2>

<p>In English, we have clear rules about forming the comparative (<em>-er</em> or <em>more</em>) forms of adjectives:</p>

<ul>
	<li>If the adjective has one syllable, add <em>-er</em>. For example, <em>big</em> becomes <em>bigger</em>.</li>
	<li>If the adjective has two syllables and ends in <em>-y</em>, change <em>-y</em> to <em>-i</em> and add <em>-er</em>. For example, <em>funny</em> becomes <em>funnier</em>.</li>
	<li>If the adjective has two (and doesn&#39;t end in <em>-y</em>) or more syllables, add <em>more</em>. For example, <em>beautiful</em> becomes <em>more beautiful</em>.</li>
</ul>

<p>The superlative (<em>-est</em> or <em>the most</em>) forms of adjectives follow the same rules:</p>

<ul>
	<li>If the adjective has one syllable, add <em>the </em>+ <em>-est</em>. For example, <em>big</em> becomes <em>the biggest</em>.</li>
	<li>If the adjective has two syllables and ends in <em>-y</em>, change <em>-y</em> to <em>-i</em> and add <em>the</em> + <em>-est</em>. For example, <em>funny</em> becomes <em>the funniest</em>.</li>
	<li>If the adjective has two (and doesn&#39;t end in <em>-y</em>)&nbsp; or more syllables, add <em>the + most</em>. For example, <em>beautiful</em> becomes <em>the most beautiful</em>.</li>
</ul>

<p>Following these rules, then, &quot;fun&quot;&nbsp;should take the forms &quot;funner&quot; and &quot;the funnest.&quot;&nbsp;This is logical to students, but makes native speakers shudder. We know instinctively that these forms sound wrong. But why? And how do we explain it?</p>

<h2>The History&#39;s the Thing</h2>

<p>Unfortunately, none of the three style guides I have on my desk address this issue. I&#39;ve heard it is addressed in the <em>Merriam-Webster&#39;s Dictionary of English Usage</em>, but I don&#39;t own that one yet. So my research led me to the internet, and, once again, <a href="http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/is-funnest-a-word.aspx" target="_blank">Grammar Girl</a> came up with a clear explanation. I love Grammar Girl! It turns out that &quot;fun&quot; was originally only used as a noun. In fact, some grammar gurus would argue that it should still only be used as a noun, thus making the whole funner/more fun debate moot. But language is constantly evolving, and I for one would say that it&#39;s perfectly natural to accept &quot;fun&quot;&nbsp;as an adjective&hellip;I&#39;ve been using it that way my whole life. So if we accept that &quot;fun&quot;<em>&nbsp;</em>can be used as an adjective, then the reason for the lack of comparative and superlative forms becomes clear: it was not always so. Because &quot;fun&quot;<em>&nbsp;</em>was only a noun at one point, it hasn&#39;t taken on all the usual adjectival forms. We can say &quot;more fun&quot; or &quot;the most fun&quot;&nbsp;because it is possible to use &quot;more&quot; and &quot;the most&quot;&nbsp;with nouns (think of &quot;more money&quot; and &quot;the most money,&quot;&nbsp;for example).</p>

<h2>So What&#39;s the Verdict?</h2>

<p>Perhaps one day, &quot;funner&quot; and &quot;funnest&quot;&nbsp;will be part of our everyday language. In fact, much to my surprise, my copy of&nbsp;Merriam-Webster&#39;s Collegiate Dictionary&nbsp;has the following entry: &nbsp;<strong>fun</strong> <em>adj</em>,&nbsp;<em>sometimes</em> <strong>funner</strong> <em>sometimes</em> <strong>funnest</strong> (ca. 1846). My copy of the&nbsp;Oxford Canadian Dictionary of Current English&nbsp;doesn&#39;t mention &quot;funner&quot;&nbsp;or &quot;funnest&quot;&nbsp;at all. For now, the next time students ask us why they can&#39;t say &quot;funner,&quot;&nbsp;I suggest telling them it&#39;s because &quot;fun&quot; was originally only a noun and the <em>-er</em> and <em>-est</em> forms are not commonly accepted. Stick to &quot;more fun&quot;&nbsp;and &quot;the most fun&quot;!<br />
<br />
Have fun with this!<br />
&mdash;Tanya</p>

<h3>Related</h3>

<ul class="resources">
	<li class="lesson"><a href="https://ellii.com/courses/88/lessons/1607">Equative, Comparative, and Superlative Adjectives</a> &ndash; Grammar Practice Worksheets</li>
	<li class="lesson"><a href="https://ellii.com/courses/90/lessons/1631">Comparative and Superlative Adjectives</a> &ndash; Grammar Stories</li>
	<li class="blog-post"><a href="https://ellii.com/blog/how-unique-is-unique">How Unique is &quot;Unique&quot;?</a></li>
</ul>

Why Can't We Say "Funner"? 

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<p>How do you deal with reading lessons in your ELT classroom? Do you have your students read silently in class? Do you assign the reading for homework?</p>

<p>Many ESL Library lessons have a reading component to them. How can teachers make reading lessons more interactive, communicative, and <em>fun</em>? I wanted to share three methods that have always worked well for&nbsp;me.</p>

<h1>1.&nbsp;Summarize</h1>

<p>This method incorporates many skills: reading, listening, speaking, vocabulary, and writing. Students must thoroughly analyze and understand a section of the reading, and only by working together can they understand the entire reading.</p>

<p><strong>Instructions:</strong></p>

<ul>
	<li>First, assign a paragraph of the reading to each student. If you have a lot of students, assign the paragraph to a pair of students instead.</li>
	<li>Explain that each student (or pair) will be responsible for relating the information from their paragraph<strong> <em>in their own words</em></strong>.</li>
	<li>Have students silently read through their paragraphs.</li>
	<li>If you want, get them to write out their summaries, but I usually prefer to have them give an oral, and more natural, summary.</li>
	<li>To help them and their classmates understand the reading well, have each student (or pair) choose 3&ndash;5 vocabulary words that they are unfamiliar with.</li>
	<li>Have each student (or pair) define their vocabulary words (via a dictionary: English-to-English is best) and write out each definition <em><strong>in their own words</strong></em>.</li>
	<li>Get each student to write down an example sentence for each word; this will ensure that they&#39;ve truly understood the word.</li>
	<li>Once all the students are finished their reading and vocabulary, have each student (or pair) present their vocabulary and their summaries (in the order of the original reading).</li>
	<li>Then, in pairs or as a class, answer the comprehension questions and correct them before you let the students see the entire reading.</li>
</ul>

<p>Many ESL Library lessons are formatted in short paragraphs that are ideal for using this method (for example, in <a href="https://ellii.com/courses/80/lessons">Famous People</a>, <a href="https://ellii.com/courses/81/lessons">Famous Places</a>, <a href="https://ellii.com/courses/82/lessons">Famous Things</a>, <a href="https://ellii.com/courses/98/lessons">Historic Events</a>, <a href="https://ellii.com/courses/93/lessons">Holidays &amp; Events</a>, etc.).</p>

<p>I usually have students write their words and definitions on the board for their classmates to see and copy down, but I get students to read their example sentences out loud as it usually takes too long to have them write those out, too.</p>

<h1>2.&nbsp;Cut Up &amp; Rearrange</h1>

<p>This works best for short readings or dialogues. This method ensures that students think very carefully about the meaning of each sentence.</p>

<p><strong>Instructions:</strong></p>

<ul>
	<li>Divide students into small groups or pairs.</li>
	<li>Hand out a cut-up version of the story or dialogue.</li>
	<li>Have students try to arrange the sentences in order. It helps to tell them which sentence is first.</li>
	<li>Encourage them to tell each other <em>why</em> they think a particular sentence comes next.</li>
	<li>Circle through the groups, pointing out sentences that are not in the correct position. (It helps if you bring the original around with you for easy reference.)</li>
	<li>To make it fun, you could have a prize for the team or pair that finishes first.</li>
</ul>

<p>ESL Library has a few&nbsp;sections with dialogues that are all ready formatted to be easily cut up in the PDF versions! For example, check out our <a href="https://ellii.com/courses/122/lessons">Travel&nbsp;English</a> section.</p>

<h1>3.&nbsp;Read Out Loud</h1>

<p>This technique easily turns a reading exercise into a listening exercise for a bit of variety. Students listen to you, the teacher, read aloud as a class activity.</p>

<p><strong>Instructions:</strong></p>

<ul>
	<li>First, read through the comprehension questions as a class.</li>
	<li>Read the story out loud.</li>
	<li>Give students a few minutes to answer what questions they can.</li>
	<li>Read the story out loud a second time.</li>
	<li>Give students a bit more time to answer the questions. Then correct them as a class (and hand out the reading for reference or self-study, if desired).</li>
</ul>

<p>Alternatively, read the story out loud twice in a row, and have students try to answer questions in pairs before correcting in order to incorporate some speaking.</p>

<p>To make it even more communicative, higher-level students can pair up and each read half the story aloud to the other, then try to answer the questions together.</p>

<p>If students are reading out loud, you can circulate and correct their pronunciation as needed, or note some common pronunciation errors to go over as a class at the end of the activity.</p>

<p>What are some other ways to make reading lessons interactive that work well for you? It would be great if we could share our preferred methods in the comment section below.</p>


3 Ways to Make Reading Lessons More Interactive  

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

Articles

<blockquote>&ldquo;Be regular and orderly in your life, so that you may be violent and original in your work.&quot;&nbsp;~&nbsp;Gustave Flaubert</blockquote>

<p>Learning online can be an incredible journey but at some point, you may feel overwhelmed with the surplus of information and resources. You may feel very excited about a resource you come across, but want to access that resource at some other date. Perhaps, you are teaching your students how to research online and they want to bookmark and create notes on websites. Many free webtools exist to help us quickly save, bookmark, categorize, store, and share information. These tools are very advanced and store our information&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud_computing">in the cloud</a>. Our information and the way we organize it is stored in cyberspace so that we have access to it when we connect to the Internet. Below are ways that I use this technology to keep me organized wherever I go. I hope the following tips and resources will help you and your students keep organized.</p>

<h3>Googlize It!</h3>

<p>Jump on the bandwagon and get a Google account if you haven&rsquo;t already. Google has so many tools that keep you organized and save you time. I will list a few of my favorites and how to use them. Learn more about each and&nbsp;<a href="http://www.google.com/intl/en/about/products/index.html">download them here</a>.</p>

<p><strong>Gmail &ndash;</strong> Make the switch to Gmail. It has so many features and ways to keep organized. You can keep emails in various folders, star those that have priority, and filter emails into folders by keywords. The search feature is amazing and quick. Plus, the interface continues to get more intelligent and integrates with various Google apps and tools. For example, when my email has a date, my Gmail will often pick that up and give me options to schedule that event in my Google Calendar. Another feature I enjoy is how easy it is to create contacts and categorize them. Next to each email, on the right-side, I can see an image of the contact if they are on GooglePlus or have a Google account, and I can add them to circles, chat with them, or edit their details. My Android smartphone automatically syncs these contacts with their information and images.</p>

<p><strong>Google Drive &ndash;</strong> If you haven&rsquo;t already, make the switch from Google Apps to Google Drive. You have to sign up for it and it will take a few days to be accepted. Once you do, you will have access to a storage platform that goes wherever you install it. It allows you to create and store text documents, PDFs, slide presentations, videos, spreadsheets, forms, surveys, and more! You can categorize the files in folders and give links to anyone you want to have access to them or edit them. The search feature is very advanced with many options. The best feature, though, is that whatever is on your Google Drive goes everywhere you go because you can install Google Drive on your desktop, mobile device, or laptop.</p>

<p><strong>Google Chrome &ndash;</strong> This is my browser of choice because it doesn&rsquo;t matter what computer I use; I just have to download the browser and log in to have access to my bookmarks, favorite sites, and more. I carry my browser wherever I go with my preferred settings. Often, it will even remember passwords and login details for those I have previously allowed. This saves me a lot of time and aggravation when I cannot use my laptop. There are many customization options so I can personalize the background and make it look nice. Also, it has a very user-friendly interface that shows me clickable thumbnails of the places I visit the most. I can download several apps that tell me the time in all time zones, give me access to my bookmarks, and so much more. I can quickly install&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bookmarklet">bookmarklets</a> of the various online tools I use and they will be easily accessible in my browser&rsquo;s toolbar.</p>

<p><strong>Google Calendar &ndash;</strong> Create events and send yourself and students reminders. You can create and share various calendars with students and their parents. You can create a calendar for each class. One of the best features is that you have the option to send yourself and your students alerts a week/day/hour in advance. The alerts will pop up on your mobile device or you can choose to text the alerts to any mobile device to remind students and their parents of important events (like a parent-teacher meeting) or homework.</p>

<h3>Bookmarklet It!</h3>

<p>A bookmarlet is a tiny icon that can be dragged and dropped into most browsers. Many online tools like Diigo, ScoopIt, Pinterest, and Delicious have bookmarklets. When you click that icon, you will be able to use the features of that tool quickly. For example, when I click my&nbsp;<a href="http://www.diigo.com/tools/diigolet">Diigo bookmarklet</a>, a small box pops up and I am able to quickly bookmark a website, add tags, categorize it, and share on social networks.</p>

<h3>Bookmark It!</h3>

<p>There are several free webtools that allow you to quickly bookmark, organize, and share resources. This means you have access to your bookmarks wherever you have Internet access. When you bookmark on any platform (a laptop, a friend&rsquo;s computer, your mobile device), it automatically saves it to be accessed anywhere. Great bookmarking tools include <a href="http://diigo.com">Diigo</a>,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.pearltrees.com/">PearlTrees</a>,&nbsp;<a href="http://livebinders.com">LiveBinders</a>,&nbsp;<a href="http://scoop.it">ScoopIt</a>, and&nbsp;<a href="http://pinterest.com">Pinterest</a>.&nbsp;The best one of these, however, is Diigo. Diigo has so many options to get you organized and save you time. Additionally, you can bookmark from your mobile device with the free app and it has a bookmarklet. It allows you to create notes and highlight information on websites you bookmark. You can easily share your resource on social networks like Twitter and Facebook. You can set Diigo to create automatic posts on your blog of all the links you bookmark for the week or you can autobookmark any links you retweet or favorite on Twitter. The hashtags become the tags that categorize the information.</p>

<h3>Go Mobile!</h3>

<p>Your mobile device is your bestfriend when it comes to organization. Download free apps like Evernote, Dropbox, Diigo, Google Drive, and more to stay organized.The trick is to download the free apps that are linked to the organizational tools you already use online. This way you have all the information available on all your devices. Below is a description of two of these apps.</p>

<p><a href="http://evernote.com/">Evernote</a> has a desktop and online app as well as a mobile app. Create text, photo and audio notes that auto-synchronize your notes to your Mac or PC. Add, sync, access, and share files (PDF, Word, Excel, PPT, and more) among the different versions of Evernote. A free version is available on iPhone, iPod, Android, and Blackberry.</p>

<p><a href="https://www.dropbox.com/anywhere">Dropbox</a> has a desktop and online app as well as a mobile app. It gives you&nbsp;2 GB of storage for free to upload photos, videos, documents, presentations, and audio. You can make these private or public (provides you a link to share for others to download). Save photos and videos taken with your phone&rsquo;s camera, share and send files via email, or copy and paste links to share with another app. Export files to other apps and favorite them for offline viewing. A free version is available on iPhone, iPod, Android, and Blackberry.</p>

<h3>More Resources</h3>

<p>For more tips on how to help with organization, check out my post,&nbsp;<a href="http://teacherbootcamp.edublogs.org/2010/07/10/tips-and-tools-to-manage-your-twitter-time/">Tips and Tools to Manage Your Twitter Time</a> and Nicky Hockly&rsquo;s great post,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.emoderationskills.com/?p=159">Not Waving but Drowning</a>! What are your favorite organization tools?</p>


Tips and Tools To Keep Teachers Organized

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<h3>Can you compare or modify a word like &ldquo;unique&rdquo;?</h3>

<p>It was brought to my attention recently that a teacher using our site disagreed with the use of &ldquo;the most unique&rdquo; within one of our lessons. This led me to do a bit of research regarding this &ldquo;unique&rdquo; dilemma.</p>

<h3>What do the style guides think?</h3>

<p>The Chicago Manual of Style (16th ed.) agrees with our subscriber. It states the following:</p>

<blockquote>&ldquo;<strong>An adjective that, by definition, describes an absolute state or condition is called incomparable. It cannot take a comparative suffix and cannot be coupled with the comparative terms more, most, less, or least. Nor can it be intensified by words like very, largely, or quite</strong>&rdquo; (2010, 226).</blockquote>

<p>On the other hand, the Copyeditor&#39;s Handbook argues that it depends on how you interpret the meaning. It explains this difference in the following way: </p>

<blockquote>&ldquo;<strong>There are also disputes about whether certain adjectives and adverbs are absolute (that is, they cannot be used in the comparative or the superlative and cannot be modified by the intensifier very). As Merriam-Webster&#39;s Dictionary of English Usage points out, each generation of usage experts proposes its list based on its notions of semantics and logic&hellip;Unique also means &lsquo;distinctive&rsquo; or &lsquo;unusual,&rsquo; and these meanings certainly admit comparison and intensification</strong>&rdquo; (Einsohn 2011, 370-1).</blockquote>

<p>Both the Merriam-Webster&rsquo;s Collegiate Dictionary and the Oxford Canadian Dictionary agree that &ldquo;unique&rdquo; has two meanings:</p>

<blockquote><strong>1) only one (and therefore can&rsquo;t be modified or compared)<br />
2) unusual (and therefore can be modified or compared)</strong></blockquote>

<p>So does it all depend on how you interpret the meaning of &ldquo;unique&rdquo;?</p>

<h3>What do others think?</h3>

<p>I recently came across two examples where &ldquo;unique&rdquo; had been modified. I saw a post on my Facebook newsfeed from SfEP (the Society for Editors and Proofreaders in the UK), who posted an article from flavorwire.com entitled &ldquo;<strong>Incredibly Unique Bookmobiles around the World.</strong>&rdquo; Also, when I was watching American Idol (my guilty pleasure) on April 25, I heard Jimmy Iovine say that the way Freddy Mercury used to sing was &ldquo;<strong>so, so unique.</strong>&rdquo; Like it or not, modifying and comparing absolute adjectives like &ldquo;unique&rdquo; seems to be commonplace.</p>

<h3>What do I think?</h3>

<p>Personally, I don&#39;t have a problem with using &ldquo;very unique&rdquo; or &ldquo;more/most unique.&rdquo; For example, I would be fine with the following sentence:</p>

<blockquote>&ldquo;<strong>Gotye and Kimbra are two artists with very unique singing styles, but I think that Gotye&#39;s style is more unique than Kimbra&rsquo;s.</strong>&rdquo;</blockquote>

<p>I fall into the category of people who use &ldquo;unique&rdquo; to mean &ldquo;unusual,&rdquo; so I don&#39;t see anything wrong with emphasizing &ldquo;unique&rdquo; or using it comparatively or superlatively. But since I follow the Chicago Manual of Style when editing for ESL Library, I do feel a bit at odds with this situation.</p>

<h3>What do you think?</h3>

<p>I&#39;d love to hear your thoughts. Would you have a problem using &ldquo;very unique,&rdquo; &ldquo;more unique,&rdquo; or &ldquo;the most unique&rdquo;? Or, if it&#39;s your first time considering this dilly of a pickle, what do you think now? May your days be filled with rainbows and unique-orns,</p>

<h3>&nbsp;</h3>

How Unique Is “Unique”?

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<blockquote>
<h3>Meet Tanya</h3>

<p>The ESL Library staff is proud to welcome Tanya Trusler to the blogging team. Tanya is our new editor! She is responsible for editing and proofing new materials and content for Red River Press. This year Tanya will also be helping us adapt some of our current lesson plans in order to make them accessible for your lower-level students. With her extensive experience in the ESL industry, Tanya is an excellent asset to our team. We are very excited to add her voice to our blog!</p>
</blockquote>

<h3>Hello Teachers</h3>

<p>Hello all! I thought it might be nice to introduce myself before we sink our teeth into the grammar-related blog posts I plan to write. I&#39;ve been the editor at&nbsp;ESL Library&nbsp;since January 2012, and I&#39;m enjoying it immensely. It&#39;s the perfect place to combine my teaching experience with my editing skills.</p>

<p>I&#39;ve always had a passion for helping others improve their communication; it started with tutoring French to kids way back in high school. After graduating from Simon Fraser University with a BA in Linguistics and a Certificate in TESL, I moved to New Zealand for one year to teach ESL. After that, I accepted a job at GEOS Language Academy in Vancouver, BC, where I spent the next eleven years (minus one year spent living in Amsterdam, NL) teaching students of many different ages, levels, and nationalities. I especially loved teaching TOEIC (business English test prep) and TOEFL (university entrance test prep). While at GEOS, I met the lovely and talented Tara Benwell, who, as many of you know, is the Media Director and a materials writer for ESL Library. We worked together for two years, and have been friends ever since. It&#39;s so great to be working with her again even though we&#39;re many provinces apart now.</p>

<p>During my last two years teaching English, I was also editing academic papers for a client who was doing a master&#39;s degree in psychology, and I caught the editing bug. I finally decided it was time to switch careers and to focus my love of grammar and communication on editing, so I&#39;ve spent the past year completing an Editing Certificate at SFU. Now I&#39;m truly enjoying being an editor &mdash;it&#39;s like I was born to do this!</p>

<h3>Joining the Blogging Team</h3>

<p>I&#39;m excited to start blogging for ESL Library. I plan to do at least two blog posts a month, focusing on teaching tips and contentious grammar points. Let&#39;s get some good debates going! My aim is to make my blog posts useful and interesting for you, so I invite you to do one or more of the following (in the comments section below):</p>

<ul>
	<li>introduce yourself</li>
	<li>let me know of any grammar points you find difficult to explain to students</li>
	<li>let me know of any questions you may have about teaching (multi-level classes, classroom management, etc.)</li>
	<li>let me know of any aspects of the English language that may confuse, annoy, or amaze you</li>
</ul>

<p>In the words of my illustrious ex-colleagues, let&#39;s get grammared!</p>

<p>&mdash;Tanya</p>

<h3>&nbsp;</h3>

Introducing Tanya: ESL Library's New Editor

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<blockquote>&ldquo;We are born into a box of time and space. We use words and communication to break out of it and to reach out to others.&rdquo; &mdash; Roger Ebert</blockquote>

<p>Language learning involves community. Learners need to be able to take the vocabulary and skills they learn in the classroom and apply them in real world contexts. They need to be able to interact with other language learners and participate in real conversations. I&rsquo;ve been an English teacher for over a decade and have tried to find the best way to get my students to be able to practice language outside the classroom. One of the most effective ways is to get the students to use online tools that foster communication in English. As a language teacher, you can get your students to use these websites to participate in discussions or collaborate on projects. In this way, the students are applying what they learn in class to specific tasks. I hope the following tips and resources will help you plan these tasks.</p>

<h2>Collaborative Tools and Tasks</h2>

<p>These are some of the most effective and free collaboration tools I recommend and a few ideas on what your language learners can do with them.</p>

<p><a href="http://www.facebook.com/groups">Facebook Groups</a>&nbsp;- Facebook is the most popular social network so chances are your learners are already set up on there. This means they do not have to register so they are more likely to use this social network.</p>

<p><a href="http://www.edmodo.com/">Edmodo</a>&nbsp;- Learners can collaborate in a private, secure environment. They post discussions through the threaded feature that looks similar to Twitter and Facebook. They also can upload pictures, links, videos, and more.</p>

<p><a href="http://www.twiddla.com/">Twiddla</a>&nbsp;- This is an online collaborative whiteboard. Students can post documents, brainstorm, view a website, and so much more in real-time. Students don&rsquo;t have to register. They just click a button and are given a room link for others to join. The learners can even talk to each other while they work using the live audio feature.</p>

<p><a href="https://docs.google.com/">Google Docs</a>&nbsp;- Learners collaborate in real-time when&nbsp;editing a text document, spreadsheet, or slide presentation. There are chat and comment functions that make it easy for learners to communicate. Use this tool to have your learners brainstorm.</p>

<p>What other collaborative activities can you think of?</p>

Collaborative Tools and Tasks to Motivate Language Learners

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

Conferences

<p>We&#39;ve just returned from a busy week in Philadelphia at the annual TESOL convention. This trip started out a bit rocky (no pun intended, Philly), as I realized a few nights before the trip that I was booked on the PM instead of AM flight! I owe a very special thank you to Adam from <a href="http://www.facebook.com/aircanada" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Air Canada&#39;s Facebook</a> team for helping me get on the morning flight. Thanks to Adam, I arrived in time to help Ben set up the ESL Library booth before the big day!</p>

<p>On <strong>Day 1</strong> we left our booth in care of our neighbours for an hour, and Ben gave an impressive presentation about using ESL Library to engage teen and adult learners. He shared information about our small, dedicated Red River Press team, and demoed how teachers can use the ready-made lesson plans and flashcards to supplement their curriculums. He also shared a few <strong>sneak previews </strong>about what&#39;s coming up in the summer and fall. My favourite part was when Ben talked about the making of our <a href="https://ellii.com/courses/98/lessons/1381" target="_blank">Chilean Miner</a> lesson plans. This brought back some great memories, and made me feel very proud to be part of a team that brings materials to teachers in a timely manner. Over 5,000 teachers downloaded this lesson plan in the first ten hours. We published it a few minutes after the last miner was rescued, and made it free for all. Ben talked about how some teachers shared their 33 Things We&#39;re Thankful For lists (an exercise from the lesson), which we published on our blog.</p>

<p><strong>Back at the booth</strong> Ben and I spoke with hundreds of teachers, administrators, and authors from all over the world. Many satisfied subscribers, including Erica from Harvey High School in Ohio and Cara from Columbia University (pictured left), came by to tell us how happy they are with the ESL Library. One teacher came by to tell us how much fun her students had with the <a href="https://ellii.com/resource_categories/105/resources/2193" target="_blank">&#39;Chatterbox&#39;</a> warmup we posted on our blog. Another came by to beg us for more <a href="https://ellii.com/courses/73/lessons" target="_blank">Mini-Debates</a>! We received many requests for lower level versions of our <a href="https://ellii.com/courses/80/lessons" target="_blank">Famous People</a>, <a href="https://ellii.com/courses/81/lessons" target="_blank">Places</a>, and <a href="https://ellii.com/courses/82/lessons" target="_blank">Things</a> lessons. This is one of the reasons we go to this convention every year, as we focus on building our library based on teacher requests. We also demonstrated&nbsp;how to use the <a href="https://ellii.com/flashcard_genres" target="_blank">flashcard library</a>, the podcasts, and the&nbsp;<a href="https://ellii.com/calendar" target="_blank">lesson plan calendar</a>. Finally, we exchanged twitter handles and promised to stay in touch in a variety of ways.</p>

<blockquote><p>&#39;I think most of these things make lazy teachers, but <em>this one</em> (ESL Library) is very helpful.&#39;</p><p class="attribution">Daniel Loges, a subscriber who stopped by our booth at TESOL.</p></blockquote>

<p>If you&#39;ve ever worked in an exhibition hall, you know how hard it can be to get away to grab a coffee, or take in a presentation. This year I insisted on slipping away to a few sessions. I enjoyed a great presentation called <strong>Vocabulary Revisited</strong>, by American professor Frances Boyd. Frances started out by having us write down a list of body parts in our second language. She gave us two minutes, and I was ashamed to only get nine words down before the time was up (most were spelled incorrectly). It was great to be in the learner&#39;s shoes again. Frances spoke about <strong>chunking</strong>, <strong>sorting,</strong> and helping students become proud <strong>&#39;collectors&#39;</strong> of vocabulary. She stressed the importance of <strong>frequent short practice</strong>, <strong>repeated exposure</strong>, and learning words inside out. She also talked about teaching students to become <strong>&#39;fluent guessers&#39;</strong> by showing them how to dissect vocabulary. The most interesting part for me was about helping learners change their attitude so that they can learn to take control of their own learning journeys. Over the weekend I took this approach while teaching my daughter how to ride a two-wheeler. We set up 8 fifteen-minute focused lessons, and by the end of the 4th she was riding on her own. (We had tried many times before, but her attitude and focus this time made all the difference.) <strong>Can you help your students learn that vocabulary building is a lifelong project?</strong> One idea Frances shared is to invite them to create (and revisit often) lists of words that they <strong>know</strong>, <strong>half-know</strong>, or <strong>don&#39;t know</strong> at all!</p>

<p>I also enjoyed a well-attended session by Brazilian teacher (and PLN member) Carla Arena, titled <strong>&#39;Making Waves Through Online Circles of Learning.&#39;</strong> Carla invited participants to expand their learning toolkits. She spoke about several professional development tools that are in my own toolkit, such as <a href="http://twitter.com/ESLLibrary" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">twitter</a>, Facebook, and Scoop.it. She also introduced some tools that I&#39;d love to learn more about such as the Learning2gether Wiki and the Electric Village Online. Carla&#39;s enthusiasm for online collaboration and learning has helped convert many technophobes around the world. She reminded teachers that they can&#39;t wait for their institutions to pay for professional development. The best story from this session was about a tech savvy teacher from Carla&#39;s school who used to lend her flash drive (full of self-created presentations and materials) to any teacher who asked. Over time the school built a wiki that <strong>all 2000</strong> teachers could add to and share. One of my favourite lines from Carla&#39;s presentation was, <strong><em>&#39;You don&#39;t need to join twitter. Just search. You&#39;ll see people are talking about serious stuff!&#39;</em></strong></p>

<p>In addition to meeting teachers, attending sessions, building a toolbox, and giving teachers a free trial of our digital library of materials, I got a new T-shirt! This was not any ordinary shirt, &#39;nor was it something I won in a TESOL raffle. This was an #ELTChat shirt that came all the way from Glasgow, Scotland, special delivery from Alex Williams of Oxford University Press. Like the Facebook miracle I shared at the beginning of this post, this gift arrived thanks to twitter. Just prior to the TESOL conference, I was virtually attending #IATEFL via Glasgow Online (Check out all of the recorded interviews and sessions!). During one of the symposiums I noticed some of my favourite <em>tweechers</em> were wearing #ELTChat shirts. I wished I had one to wear at the TESOL conference. (Twitter is not popular with TESOL attendees, and I figured a T-shirt might speak louder than words.) Within minutes of my twitter request, a special delivery had been arranged. OUP&#39;s social media guru was on his way to Philly from Glasgow and offered to bring a shirt to me.</p>

<p>Though I never got the chance to run &#39;Rocky-style&#39; up the steps of the Philadelphia Art Museum, I did come back to Canada feeling ready to &#39;go the distance&#39; in my work as an ELT materials writer, online teacher/admin, and social media director/curator. Attending a teaching conference fills me up every time. If you were unable to attend any of the local or international teaching conferences this season, it&#39;s not too late! Check out the Virtual Round Table web conference from April 20-22. It&#39;s free and you can learn, share, and connect with hundreds of other teachers (in your&nbsp;pajamas). Finally, I&#39;d like to get it in writing that we&#39;ll be wearing ESL Library T-shirts, jeans, and comfortable running shoes to the next TESOL conference. (Ben promised.) &nbsp; Next year&#39;s TESOL conference is in Texas! Are you in?</p>

TESOL 12 Convention Recap

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<p>Music is the soul of language. &mdash;Max Heindel</p>

<p>I am very interested in what motivates students to learn English. In conversations outside my classroom, I often ask language learners how and why they learned English. No matter what the age, I have found music to be a very powerful motivational tool for learning a language. For example, a friend of mine from Korea told me she learned English by studying the lyrics to her favorite English songs. This sounds like a more interesting and engaging way to learn a language than from a textbook. Teaching with music is also a great idea because it:</p>

<ul>
	<li>helps students learn language and even grammar in chunks</li>
	<li>is all around us. I have traveled to 22 countries and all had English music playing in the shopping centers or the radio.</li>
	
	<li>shows the vernacular. If students listen to popular music they can pick up slang phrases and idioms that are difficult to teach.</li>
	<li>promotes movement, which is a healthy and effective way to learn a language.</li>
	<li>is an effective way to teach about various cultures. We can learn about dances, traditions, costumes, instruments and more!</li>
</ul>

<h2>Activity Ideas and Resources</h2>

<p>It&#39;s Music in Our Schools Month! I hope the following tips and resources will help you along your journey towards integrating music into your curriculum.</p>

<h3>Modernize the Lyrics</h3>

<p>Learners modernize the lyrics to a popular song from the past, then create a music video. Works best with old children&rsquo;s songs, holiday music, or classics.</p>

<h3>Teach Chunks of Grammar</h3>

<p>Specific songs are great for pinpointing difficult grammar. You can have students highlight a specific grammar point by delineating movements for specific words or phrases. For example, the student can wave every time a verb is used in the past tense. Highlighting through movement helps learners listen to the lyrics carefully and pay specific attention to the language structure.</p>

<h3>Create a Lip Dub</h3>

<p>In a lip dub, students learn the lyrics to a song then record a video in which they mouth the words to the lyrics as the music plays. The students lip sync in the video.</p>

<h3>Drop the Lyrics</h3>

<p>Getting your students to learn a song can often be difficult. You can make learning the lyrics into a game. Display the lyrics to the song on the board. Play the song once for students to get comfortable with the beat. Then play only the instrumental version of the song and together as a class sing the entire song. Round one begins where you instruct your students to sing the song but drop the last few words or lines of the song. Continue doing this as often as you like. Usually, teachers play this using the lyrics to Row, Row, Row Your Boat.</p>

<h3>Dissect the Lyrics to My Favorite Song</h3>

<p>Have your students bring in the lyrics and sound samples of their favorite songs. At the beginning of the class, give each student a different colored marker. Instruct each student to go to the board and write down one line of the song on the board. Then instruct the other students to each write down one idea that relates to that line under the lyric. The idea is not related to the song just that one lyric. When everyone finishes, the class can try to guess the song. Each student presents their song and discuss the meaning and whether the ideas under the lyric hint at the meaning.</p>

<h3>Soundtrack</h3>

<p>Have your students research the life of a famous person they admire. Then have them choose 3 to 5 songs that represent significant events in that person&rsquo;s life. These events could include birth, death, a marriage, something that signifies why the person is famous, and so forth. The student presents this person&rsquo;s autobiography by playing snippets of the song and explaining the song choice behind that event. Another idea is for students to create a short film about a book or short story they are reading. The students will just write a short summary. Along with this writing, they should include a soundtrack. Alternatively, your students could choose 3 to 5 songs that represent the soundtrack of their lives.</p>

<h3>A Personal Theme Song</h3>

<p>Ask your students what personal theme song they would choose and why. They can create their own music videos using <a href="http://animoto.com/">Animoto</a>, Windows Movie Maker, <a href="http://glogster.com/">Glogster</a>, or other tools. Read <a href="http://teacherbootcamp.edublogs.org/2009/12/11/my-favourite-tools-by-alexandra-francisco/">this post</a> and <a href="http://teacherbootcamp.edublogs.org/2009/12/05/my-favourite-cool-sites-by-eva-buyuksimkesyan/">this post</a> for more ideas of web 2.0 tools your students can use for this activity.</p>

<h3>Have a Karaoke Day</h3>

<p>Every Friday, my friend <a href="http://gret.wordpress.com/2010/10/25/itsoktohavefun/">Greta&rsquo;s 5th graders in Argentina</a> would get to learn a new English song of their choice and sing it together. Once a week or month, designate a special day for your students to learn the lyrics of a song through Karaoke. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/user/TheKARAOKEChannel">Youtube has many Karaoke videos</a> for most songs students would like to sing.</p>

<h3>Make a Game Out of It</h3>

<p>Several video games include learning the lyrics to a song. If you get access to a game consule, your students will love learning the lyrics to a song with a game like <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZ-he3-7KTs">Guitar Hero</a>. Click on the link to see how these games are used to teach kids in the classroom!</p>

<h2 dir="ltr">More Resources</h2>

<p>These websites have plenty of activities and videos for teaching English through songs.</p>

<ul>
	<li><a href="http://lyricstraining.com/">Lyrics Training</a>&nbsp;- Learn English through lyrics!</li>
	<li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Qqlvg2LfOQ">Top 10 Songs for Teaching Conditionals</a>&nbsp;- Youtube video listing songs to teach conditionals</li>
	<li><a href="http://mondostoppops.blogspot.com/">Mondo&rsquo;s Song Lessons</a>&nbsp;- several lesson plans based on music videos</li>
	<li><a href="http://www.tuneintoenglish.com/">Tune Into English</a>&nbsp;- worksheets, Karoake, lesson plans, and more</li>
	<li><a href="http://www.musicalenglishlessons.com/index-ex.htm">Musical English Lessons</a>&nbsp;- categorizes by grammar taught</li>
	<li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/user/collolearn?feature=watch">Various ESL Rap Videos and Songs by Fluency MC</a></li>
	<li><a href="http://www.eslpartyland.com/teachers/music/musicimpressions.htm">Music Impressions</a>&nbsp;- interview and discussion activity based on listening to four samples of music</li>
	<li><a href="http://linguisticconsultancy.blogspot.com/2010/07/song-to-motivate-students-to-speak.html">A Song to Motivate Students to Speak</a> by Marisa Pavan</li>
	<li><a href="http://linguisticconsultancy.blogspot.com/2010/05/song-for-class.html">English Lesson Based on Enjoy the Silence</a> by Depeche Mode</li>
	<li><a href="http://civitaquana.blogspot.com/2010/05/eighteen.html">English Lesson Based on Marble Halls by Enya</a> by Janet Bianchini</li>
</ul>

<p>What activities do you do with music? You can also tweet your ideas, and follow the tag #MIOSM (Music in Our Schools Month).</p>

Activities and Resources for Teaching Language Through Song Lyrics

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<blockquote>
<p>&quot;The pages are still blank, but there is a miraculous feeling of the words being there, written in invisible ink and clamoring to become visible.&quot;</p>

<p class="attribution">&mdash;Vladimir Nabakov</p>
</blockquote>

<p>Our language learners have powerful stories to share, but they need their teachers to help them get these stories out in English. When our learners can tell their stories in English, they are able to share these experiences with a worldwide audience. Like all storytellers, our learners are strongly motivated to share their stories with an audience who will listen. For this reason, we often see learners sharing personal events of their lives on blogs, Facebook, YouTube, or Twitter. These social networks have millions of users and provide our learners with a global audience of parents, teachers, friends, and learners who will comment on their stories. Through storytelling we motivate our learners to apply, contextualize, visualize, and personalize the language they learn. There are great tools and websites to inspire your learners to think creatively and begin writing their thoughts. I hope the following tips and resources will help you along your journey towards integrating storytelling into your curriculum.</p>

<h3>Teach Them Free Writing</h3>

<p>Many times our students do not get the chance to write without having to edit themselves and worry about grammar. Being able to recall phrases and think in English without worrying about the structure is also an important part of learning the language. We can motivate our students to write for short time periods about whatever comes to mind. Some of the ideas below will help stimulate their minds.</p>

<h3>Get Them Writing Regularly</h3>

<p>Every day my students knew the drill. They would enter the class, look at the writing prompt on the board, and have 10 to 15 minutes to write in their journals. Every other Friday I would collect these journals and give them a completion grade. My concern was not over the grammar so much as getting them to apply the language they learned and helping them get into the habit of thinking and writing in English. Starting classes this way helped my learners to get their brains ready to think in English as well as express their thoughts on an interesting or thought-provoking writing prompt. Below, I share many websites where you can find 1,000s of writing prompts.</p>

<h3>Change the Environment</h3>

<p>On sunny days, my students and I would go outside and find a nice place around the school campus to take 10 minutes to write. These writings would be in their daily journals. I have also been part of a group that would go hiking once a month. Mid-hike we would stop and contemplate our natural setting and write any poetry, thoughts, or prose that came to&nbsp;mind.</p>

<h3>Stimulate with Music</h3>

<p>In these classes I often allowed my students to get out their mp3 players and listen to music. Many of them had English songs they listened to. They would have time to write while listening to the music. <a href="http://evasimkesyan.edublogs.org/2010/12/03/warmers-fillers-and-improvisations-in-efl-classrooms/">In this slide presentation</a>, Eva Buyuksimkesyan has many great ideas for using music to inspire your language learners to write. One of the activities includes playing a piece of music and then asking students to imagine what kind of movie would include this in the soundtrack. The students then write out the movie scene.</p>

<h3>Create a Scene</h3>

<p>Make a paper cut-out of a body and tape it to the floor (or create the body outline with masking tape). Put the students&rsquo; desks around this body and have them ask questions about the body, such as &quot;<em>What happened to this person? Is he/she dead or alive?</em>&quot;. Then the students write what happened to this individual. They can even do this as a news report. I got this idea from <a href="http://lessonstream.org/2011/02/27/lying-on-the-pavement/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Jamie Keddie&rsquo;s lesson here</a>.</p>

<h3>Use Word Clouds</h3>

<p><a href="http://marisaconstantinides.edublogs.org/2010/07/31/word-clouds-to-integrate-reading-and-writing/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Marisa Constantinides</a> created a great word cloud with images. She asks learners to create a story with the words then share the story on Voicethread. In classes, you can have your students create these stories in groups then listen to each group&rsquo;s stories to see if they are similar. With lower levels, I will ask students to use 5 to 8&nbsp;words.</p>

<h3>Writing Prompts, Story Starters, and Other Great Webtools</h3>

<p>These websites have plenty of writing prompts, story starters, and inspirational images to get your students writing.</p>

<ul>
	<li><a href="http://www.slideshare.net/ShellTerrell/ideas-for-inspiring-students-to-write" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Slideshow presentation: Ideas for Inspiring Our Learners to Write</a></li>
	<li><a href="http://exclusivetutors.com/apps/journaljar/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Journal Jar</a> &ndash; free web and phone app that when shaken comes up with a question to write about.</li>
	<li><a href="http://piclits.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">PicLits</a> &ndash; choose an image and your students drag and drop words onto the image to create a story.</li>
	<li><a href="http://stopmotionmovies.yolasite.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Kevin Hodgson&#39;s Animation Site</a> &ndash; Several incredible storyboarding worksheets to help your students brainstorm.</li>
	<li><a href="http://tinyurl.com/scholasticstory" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Scholastic Story Starters</a> &ndash; this is an interactive website where students write their names and fill out questions.</li>
	<li><a href="http://smories.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Smories</a> &ndash; 100s of children read stories they created out loud on video.</li>
	<li><a href="http://plinky.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Plinky</a> &ndash; a question appears and below the question students write their opinion.</li>
	<li><a href="http://www.storyit.com/Starters/ststart.htm" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">StoryIt</a> &ndash; print out a picture that has the first paragraph of a story.</li>
	<li><a href="http://bogglesworldesl.com/creativewriting.htm" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Boggles World Creative Writing</a> &ndash; several creative writing prompts to print that were especially designed for English language learners.</li>
	<li><a href="http://moodstream.gettyimages.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Moodstream</a> &ndash; beautiful images accompanied by great music to help with the brainstorming process. Use this website with teens or adults but always check before you use a website.</li>
	<li><a href="http://5card.cogdogblog.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Five Card Flickr</a> &ndash; 5 random pictures from Flickr are posted and students can write a story in the space provided or view several other pictures.</li>
	<li><a href="http://oneword.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">One Word</a> &ndash; This excellent website posts one word and your students have 60 seconds to write on the website whatever comes to mind.</li>
	<li><a href="http://writingfix.com/classroom_tools/dailypromptgenerator.htm" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Writing Fix</a> &ndash; hundreds of journal writing prompts, writing games, and more.</li>
	<li><a href="http://www.lightningbug.com.au/index.htm" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Lightning Bug</a> &ndash; find a story idea or develop one.</li>
	<li><a href="http://www.100wordstory.org/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">100 Word Story</a> &ndash; an image is posted and you can submit a story that is only 100 words. This site doesn&rsquo;t filter so you can use your own images and have the students create the stories in class.</li>
	<li><a href="http://issuu.com/turtle2000/docs/interactive_writing_tools?mode=a_p" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Multimedia Uses: Using Interactive Websites</a> by Keith Schoch has various webtools and ideas outlined.</li>
</ul>

<p><strong>How do you motivate your students to write?</strong></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 other&nbsp;posts</a>!</p>


10+ Tips and Resources for Inspiring Learners to Write

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<p>Suggested Activities for Using Valentine&#39;s Day Flashcards:</p>

<p><strong>1. Design a Valentine&#39;s Greeting</strong> Print out a few sets of our <a href="https://ellii.com/flashcard_genres/21/flashcard_categories/107">Valentine&#39;s Day flashcards</a>. Allow students to choose a picture and create a Valentine&#39;s Day card for another student in the school. You could also have students choose blindly so that they don&#39;t know which image they are going to get. They could write appropriate words to go under the image to create a Valentine (not for someone specific). Have a class vote to decide which Valentine is the best! Work together to correct the writing.</p>

<p><strong>2. The Perfect Date </strong> Invite your students to invent an imaginary couple. (They could cut out a couple from a magazine.) Work together (as a class or in small groups) to gather flashcards as you plan the perfect date for the couple on Valentine&#39;s Day. You could also plan a &quot;Nightmare date.&quot;</p>

<ul>
	<li>What will they wear?</li>
	<li>What will they do?</li>
	<li>Where will they go?</li>
	<li>What gifts will they give each other?</li>
	<li>How will they feel?</li>
</ul>

<p><strong>3. Put the Love Story in Order </strong>Spread out the flashcards on a floor or table (in small groups or as a class). Work together to tell a love story line by line. Students take turns picking a flashcard and telling a related line of the story until all of the cards are gone. You could also place the cards face down so that students don&#39;t know which card they are going to get. After the story is told orally, you can invite students to write the story out. How many vocabulary words can they remember?</p>

<p><strong>4. Spell Your Heart Out</strong> Have a spelling bee with the Valentine&#39;s Flashcards. Students choose a card and try to spell the word. If they get it right, give them a heart (write a heart on the board or hand out candy or paper hearts). Who will collect the most hearts?</p>

<p><strong>5. Cupid Says </strong>This is a <em>Simon Says</em> variation. Have students take turns being &quot;Cupid.&quot; Cupid will have the stack of Valentine&#39;s flashcards. They will pick one and tell the other students to do an action related to the card.&nbsp;For example: &quot;<em>Cupid says put on an earring&quot;</em>&nbsp;or &quot;<em>Cupid says blow a kiss&quot;&nbsp;</em>or &quot;C<em>upid says act like you are heartbroken&quot;</em>. If&nbsp; &quot;Cupid&quot;&nbsp;says&nbsp; &quot;<em>go to a restaurant&quot;</em>&nbsp;without saying &quot;<em>Cupid says&quot;&nbsp;</em>all of the students who start to act out the flashcard have to sit down. (Cupid can sling an invisible arrow at these students.)</p>

<p><strong>6. Be My Valentine</strong> Choose one student to be the &quot;Prince&quot;&nbsp;or &quot;Princess.&quot; All of the other students want them to be their Valentine. Have the other students take turns picking a card from the set. Students look at their cards and make a special offer to the royal student related to the card. The &quot;Prince&quot;&nbsp;or &quot;Princess&quot;&nbsp;has to decide whose offer is the best. For example: Student A chooses the &quot;rose&quot;&nbsp;card: <em>I will buy you roses for Valentine&#39;s Day. Will you be my Valentine?</em> Student B chooses &quot;movie theatre&quot;: <em>I will take you to a movie theatre. Will you be mine?</em> Student C chooses &quot;chocolate cake&#39;&quot;&nbsp;<em>I will bake you a chocolate cake. Will you be my Valentine?</em> Princess: <em>I love flowers. Red roses are my favourite. You can be my Valentine, Student A.</em></p>

<p><strong>7. Find your Valentine</strong> Print out two sets of the Valentine&#39;s flashcards (use only enough for the amount of people in your class). If you have an uneven amount of students, the teacher should play too. Give each person a card. Students should not show each other the card they received. Students will go around the room trying to find a match. They can&#39;t say the word they are, but they can describe their word using other words. They can&#39;t ask the same question twice! For example: Student A has the &#39;ring&#39; flashcard. A: Hi, are you a piece of jewelry? B: No, sorry. A: Hi, can I put you on my finger? C: Ha! No, I don&#39;t think so. A: Are you made of gold? D: Yes! Can I buy you at a&nbsp;jewelry&nbsp;shop? A: Yes! Are you a ring? D: Yes! You are my Valentine. (The first partners to find each other come in 1st place. Put the 1st, 2nd, 3rd place partnerships on the board. Continue until all of the match ups are made.)<strong> </strong></p>

<h3>Create your own Valentine&#39;s Day Materials and Notices</h3>

<p>Will you be creating your own Valentine&#39;s Day worksheets and quizzes? Will you be sending home notices or newsletters? As a subscriber, you are licensed to use ESL Library Flashcards in your worksheets and quizzes (not for publishing online, sorry).</p>

<h3>Related Valentine&#39;s Day Lessons in the ESL Library</h3>

<ul class="resources">
	<li class="lesson"><a href="https://ellii.com/courses/93/lessons/1959">Valentine&#39;s Day (Beginner)</a> &ndash; Holidays &amp; Events</li>
	<li class="lesson"><a href="https://ellii.com/courses/93/lessons/1863">Valentine&#39;s Day (Low-Intermediate)</a> &ndash; Holidays &amp; Events</li>
	<li class="lesson"><a href="https://ellii.com/courses/93/lessons/1862">Valentine&#39;s Day (High-Intermediate)</a> &ndash; Holidays &amp; Events</li>
	<li class="lesson"><a href="https://ellii.com/courses/72/lessons/1237">Soulmates</a> &ndash; Discussion Starters</li>
	<li class="lesson"><a href="https://ellii.com/courses/72/lessons/1217">Online Dating</a> &ndash; Discussion Starters</li>
	<li class="lesson"><a href="https://ellii.com/courses/81/lessons/1423">The Love Canal</a> &ndash; Famous Places</li>
	<li class="lesson"><a href="https://ellii.com/courses/76/lessons/1715">Going to a Movie</a> &ndash; Everyday Dialogues</li>
	<li class="lesson"><a href="https://ellii.com/courses/76/lessons/1713">Ordering at a Restaurant</a> &ndash; Everyday Dialogues</li>
</ul>

Flashcards for Valentine's Day 

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<p>Vision without action is a daydream. Action without vision is a nightmare. &ndash;Japanese Proverb</p>

<p>Part of any language curriculum should involve students taking charge of their learning through goal-setting and reflecting. This process helps students find out how they learn best and what motivates them. It also helps them take control of their own learning.</p>

<p>January is a great time to get your students to reflect on their learning journey. When students actively reflect on where they were at the beginning of your class and what they have achieved, it gives them an idea of what they need to do to get to where they want to be at the end of the semester.</p>

<p>I&#39;ve tried many different approaches to get my students to ponder their language learning goals and create plans to achieve them. These are a few ideas that have been successful.</p>

<h3>Have them map out their goals</h3>

<p>Students should write out their learning goals on either a journal, blog, website, mobile device, or paper. They need to be able to keep a copy to refer to later. Concept maps are also useful.</p>

<p>Students can list English language goals as the main concept and then have branches listing specific goals.</p>

<h3>Goals should be specific and individualized</h3>


<p>Encourage your students to create personal goals that relate to their interests or needs. Also, encourage them to be specific.</p>

<p>For example, your student might write, &ldquo;I want to be able to read a novel in English or understand the lyrics to my favorite English song.&rdquo; Another student might need to learn English in order to pass a test.</p>

<h3>Create action plans</h3>

<p>After writing these statements, you can have your students pair up and come up with action plans to achieve these goals.</p>

<p>For example, students might decide the best way to read a novel in English is to read a certain number of pages each week and join an online discussion about the book. This type of activity spurs discussion among your students as they discover a little about each other. You can even pair them up according to those who have similar goals.</p>

<p>Encourage students to also determine problems they may have along the way to completing their goals and write out solutions.</p>

<h3>Goals should be posted and shared</h3>

<p>My students post their short goal statements on our class wiki page. This way, they are committed to accomplishing the goal and have a constant reminder of their goals each time they visit the wiki.</p>

<h3>Reflect on their goals</h3>

<p>Along the way, have your students go through previous assignments and tasks to see where they began and see how much they have progressed. Have them write down or discuss how they feel about their progress and think about what they need to do to achieve more.</p>

<h3>Motivating students to reach their goals</h3>

<p>Your students may need some motivation to accomplish their language learning goals. The following ideas may help:</p>

<ul>
	<li>A wall of inspiration - Put butcher paper over one wall and have students write out quotes, sayings, or thoughts that inspire them daily. They can also add pictures of them doing tasks to reach their goals. Students love writing on walls.</li>
	<li>A goal collage - Have students create collages with pictures that relate to their goals. Students can create multimedia collages online with this&nbsp;free webtool:&nbsp;<a href="http://glogster.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Glogster</a>.</li>
</ul>

<h3>More resources</h3>

<p>For more tips for achieving goals with language learners, visit these resources:</p>

<ul>
	<li>Slide presentation:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.slideshare.net/ShellTerrell/success-goals-language-tesol-images" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_bank">Showing Our Learners to Achieve Success with Resolutions</a></li>
	<li>Video archive:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL4D7B60589206511D" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_bank">Goal-setting with English Language Learners</a></li>
	<li><a href="http://teacherbootcamp.edublogs.org/2009/11/18/goal-setting-with-english-language-learners/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_bank">Goal-Setting with Language Learners</a> post</li>
</ul>

<p>How do you motivate your students to accomplish their learning goals?</p>

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