77 Educational Games and Game Builders I'm often asked if I know of any games for subject "x," "y," or "z" for a particular grade level or age group. My answer is usually yes, but I need to search my archives. Therefore, I've gone through my archives and dug up many of games that I've mentioned over the last four years that are still active online. Consider this my humongous list of educational games. 1. 2.Spin and Spell has been featured on a number of blogs over the last year. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27. 28. 29. 30. 31. 32. 33. 34. 35. 36. 37. 38. 39. the World Food Programme's website offers students a large selection of educational online games and activities. 40. 41. 42. 43. 44. 45. 46. 47. 48. 49. 50. 51. 52. 53. 54. 55. 56.
The Lilead Project | about school library leaders English : The best site for the Students to learn English online. 10 Best Free Listening Websites with Quizzes to Practise for Listening Exams So what do you do to practise listening for exams? Growing up, I never had the opportunity to do any extra practice to improve my listening skills. We didn’t have the Internet and the thousand possibilities it offers to learners of any language nowadays. So, exams are just around the corner and I know you’re beginning to freak out. These are, in my opinion, the best sites with quizzes to practise listening comprehension. url: three main levels (beginner, intermediate and advanced)Pre-listening /Post-listening activities: noTranscript: yesAudio Download: noWhat I like best: it has some other listening activities like dictations or listening based on pictures for lower levels. Check also:
Plot Generator I-PICK Book Tasting | Tree Frog Blog! Before I get any farther with this post, I need to give credit where it’s due: thanks to Mr. Plemmons at Barrow Elementary for inspiring this lesson! You can read more about his I-PICK activity here. At our school, teachers use a framework called the Daily Five for literacy instruction in their classrooms. To help students build self-efficacy in choosing good-fit books for themselves, many of our teachers share with students a strategy called I-PICK: image from our-cool-school.blogspot.com (click to visit) I always do an I-PICK library lesson at the beginning of the school year with 1st and 2nd grades because their curiosity in the library often outpaces their ability to read everything independently. Rather than telling students that certain books are off-limits, we have a conversation about how the library includes books for everyone–including Pre-K kids who can’t read words yet and 5th graders who can read all kinds of really challenging material. image from demco.com (click to visit)
Top 10 Websites to Learn English Online for Free There are many ways for you to learn and improve your English, such as to hire a teacher, to go to school, to take an online course, and so on. And among those ways, the cheapest and still efficient way is to learn English online for free. You just need a computer with internet access, then visit some English learning websites and teach yourself without paying any money. It sounds cool, right? 1. Elllo focuses on your English listening skill. Go to Elllo 2. Fun Easy English mainly focuses on the basic English knowledge and teaching tips, its courses include pronunciation, grammar, idioms, slang, writing, tests and much more. Go to Fun Easy English 3. Go4English.com is owned by British Council, which is the UK’s international cultural relations body. Go to Go4English.com 4. Lang-8 focuses on writing in a foreign language. Go to Lang-8 5. For every language you choose to learn, Busuu provides a few courses, including writing exercises, vocabulary training, reading comprehension, and so on.
TED talks for autonomous listening: ten activities The first week of the Electronic Village Online is in full swing! I’m co-moderating the session on teaching listening, and this week, under the guidance of Lizzie Pinard, we’ve started out with the topic of encouraging learner autonomy. One great thing about online sessions like this one is that there are a lot of participants who share a wealth of tips about the activities and resources they use. From what I’ve read in our discussion threads, it seems that a lot of teachers encourage their learners to watch TED talks out of class, and the participants have suggested a variety of ideas for activities based on the talks. What also often happens, however, is that the teacher recommends this resource but the learners don’t start using it – and the teacher kind of knows that they don’t, but they don’t even ask because that would be admitting failure (oh haven’t I been there a lot of times?) So, if we get back to TED talks, this means that Below I outline ten ideas for tasks based on TED talks
The Best Story Structure Tool We Know By Glen C. Strathy Of the various story structure models or theories that exist, we have chosen to focus mainly on Dramatica, which was developed by Melanie Anne Phillips and Chris Huntley. We chose to work with this model because it is the only one that... 1. 2. 3. 4. What's more, Dramatica embodies certain insights into story structure that no other theory does. The aim of this website is to present practical tips and exercises to help writers, while avoiding a lot of theory. Finding A Roadmap For Creating Your Novel The most important thing you need from any story theory is help creating a good roadmap for your novel. Specifically, you want help creating a plot that will keep the reader engaged and bring the story to an emotionally satisfying conclusion. You especially want a clear story structure that will guide you through those times when you get stuck and haven’t the faintest idea which direction to head next. Traditional Story Theory Is Too General 1. 2. 3. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Genres
Level the playing field Veteran journalist and documentary filmmaker Soledad O’Brien tells how technology can help overcome barriers and close achievement gaps. “Education is the next civil rights,” said Soledad O’Brien in her opening keynote address at ISTE 2015. This story appears in SmartBrief’s digital publication, SmartReport on ISTE 2015. To see more features, tips and our Tech Showcase, download it now. Seventeen-year-old Maria Castro had a dream: to attend Stanford University and study solar engineering. The sixth of seven children in a working-class immigrant family, Maria was a standout honors student at Carl Hayden Community High School in Phoenix. Determined, Maria set out to get the course she needed. Unfortunately, despite Maria’s hard work, her story didn’t have a fairy tale ending. This is “unfair” and “criminal,” said veteran journalist and documentary filmmaker Soledad O’Brien. “Maria should have access to online classes and high-speed wireless networks to do research,” said O’Brien.
Why we have been teaching listening skills wrongly for decades' | Tes Introduction Listening is often described as the ‘cinderella skill’, as it is by far the area of language instruction that language teachers neglect the most. The reasons for this neglect are manifold. First and foremost, as much research has shown, listening is the skill MFL teachers understand the least and consequently do not feel confident teaching. Add to this the fact that instructional materials are often uninspiring, poorly designed and usually under-exploited by course-books. Listening – a pivotal skills Yet, listening is by far the most important skill-set, especially if we are preparing our students for the real world, where 45 % of communication occurs through the aural medium and only 25 % through reading and writing. Why traditional listening instruction is ineffective The main reason why many students fail at listening is that MFL teachers do not actually teach aural skills. From quizzing to modelling Yet listening instruction ought to be about modelling. Conclusion
The Golden Rules for a Good Plot Writing a novel can be a daunting task. Here are some helpful tips to ensure you write a good plot. Is it your dream to become a best-selling author? Plot Rule 1: Create a plot skeleton A plot outline will help you choose a complication and the steps to resolve it. Plot Rule 2: Flesh out your plot Fleshing out your plot with colorful characters and a vivid setting will enhance your novel and grab your readers’ attention. Plot Rule 3: Bring your plot to a powerful resolution Have you used each scene and story event to guide readers to a plot resolution? Plot Rule 4: End your story at a natural stopping place After the climax, wrap up the story as quickly as possible. Plot Rule 5: Make sure your characters resolve conflicts on their own Don't rely on an act of nature or an unknown hero to clean things up at the last minute. A final note on creating a good plot… Creating a good plot isn't as easy as it sounds.