‘I’ve given up marking – and so should you’ Teachers are marking too much. Or, at the very least, we’re doing far too much of the wrong sort of marking; the sort of marking that keeps pencil cases open, and mouths and hearts shut. We’re spending too much time ticking, flicking and dicking about in the children’s books and it simply isn’t fair. On us or on them. According to the Department for Education’s Workload Challenge report of 2015, the majority of teachers believe that marking is something that takes “too much time”. Yet, worryingly – given this rather large allocation of time – teachers deem marking to be the second most “unnecessary and unproductive” task they undertake; narrowly beaten only by data entry and analysis. Pupils beam with pride as I listen to them read aloud a piece of work This perverse situation has presumably been caused by the more earnest among us wrongly interpreting “feedback” as “spending loads of time writing comments in books that kids will spend no time reading”. It does not have to be this way. 1.
A Guide to Use Blogs to Help Students Achieve Fluency You have met Veronika Palovska on my blog before. She is an online teacher with a unique niche: she teaches writing to online creative entrepreneurs and teachers at DoYouSpeakFreedom.Com. Writing is essential when it comes to communication, and it takes up a part of our time as teacherpreneurs. Today I wanted to introduce a slightly different angle for my posts. I asked Veronika to share with us how you can use blogs in your online teaching to enhance your students’ language immersion and boost their fluency. I was born in a non-English speaking country. When I was learning English in school, textbooks were the only medium we had access to. When the teachers wanted to pepper our lessons with some “real-life” English, they brought in a Beatles song, a British newspaper clipping, or a Mr. Remembering this feeling, as a teacher, I don’t let my students get used to the luxury of English textbooks and EFL learning material. Nowadays, the possibilities are endless.
25 ideas for using WhatsApp with English language students | Oxford University Press Philip Haines is the Senior Consultant for Oxford University Press, Mexico. As well as being a teacher and teacher trainer, he is also the co-author of several series, many of which are published by OUP. Today he joins us to provide 25 engaging and useful classroom activities for language learners using WhatsApp. There are three main obstacles to the use of technology in ELT. First is the availability of technology and internet connection in the classroom. Second is teacher techno-phobia. WhatsApp or similar messaging services can help overcome these obstacles. Many self-confessed, techno-phobic teachers that I know use WhatsApp on a regular basis in their private lives, so already feel quite comfortable with it. Here are 25 ideas of how to make good use of WhatsApp for language learning. Like this: Like Loading...
Effective Revision Strategies I led the 15 Minute Forum tonight, as a late replacement, for a member of staff who was ironically leading a Year 11 Revision session. The focus of the session was to share some effective revision strategies which could be used by teachers with their students. I wanted to start by actually thinking about the word ‘revision’. to correct faults and make improvements in (a book etc)to study one’s previous work, notes etc in preparation for an examination etcthe act of rewriting something However, should this only happen at the end of a two-year cycle? to look over, study, or examine againto look over, study, or examine againto go over or restudy material In essence, the same meaning, but when I use the word reviewing students see this as a more frequent episode rather than revision at the end of the course. As a school, we are basing our exam preparation programme around the work of the Learning Scientists and particularly their ‘Six Strategies for Effective Learning’. Like this:
Top 12 Effective End of the Year Activities Ah, the end of the year. Everyone’s tired and losing focus. Some tests are behind you (state tests, AP exams), some may be ahead of you, and probably no one – you or your students – is really at their best. So what’s a teacher to do? Goal: Review What We’ve Learned You’ve got one last chance to review your material before exams (or the great mind-eraser of summer vacation). Let the kids teach the class. Split the class into groups and assign each a specific topic you studied this year. Have students write a children’s book. When writing for younger children, your students will have to really simplify and emphasize the key elements of your course. Here's why emerging and struggling readers need technology in the classroom. Integrate these teaching strategies into your curriculum to help your students... Here's what your 5th graders need to know in order to succeed in higher grades. A few of the top classroom management questions and answers that every novice... Create a class scrapbook.
The Best Fun Videos For English Language Learners In 2016 – Part Two I use short, funny video clips a lot when I’m teaching ELLs, and you can read in detail about how I use them in The Best Popular Movies/TV Shows For ESL/EFL (& How To Use Them). In short, there are many ways to use them that promote speaking, listening, writing and reading (including having students describe – in writing and verbally – a chronological description of what they saw). I’ve posted a few of them during the second half of this year, and I thought it would be useful to readers — and to me — if I brought them together in one post. I’ve also published quite a few during the previous ten years of this blog. You can find those in these lists: The Best Fun Videos For English Language Learners In 2016 – So Far The Best Fun Videos For English Language Learners In 2015 – Part Two The Best Fun Videos For English Language Learners In 2015 – So Far The Best Fun Videos For English Language Learners In 2014 – Part Two The Best Fun Videos For English Language Learners In 2014 – Part One Related
Larry Ferlazzo - Five Guidelines For Effective Classroom Management Yes, having engaging lessons is an important element of good overall classroom management, but it's not enough. We live in the world as it is, and not as we'd like it to be. No matter how good of a teacher you are, not every lesson is going to be engaging to every student. Not only might the content or the process not hit the mark, but our students experience stress both inside and outside of school that affects how they see and act in the world - just as we all do. So, then, what might be some guidelines for a long-term and effective classroom management strategy? Here are my suggestions: 1. 2. 3. You can read about practical actions teachers can take in the classroom to implement these characteristics at my Edutopia article, Strategies For Helping Students Motivate Themselves. 4. 5. Larry Ferlazzo teaches English and Social Studies at Luther Burbank High School in Sacramento, California.
Sense of humour How many syllabi include the ability to tell or understand a joke? Yet understanding the sense of humour of a people is a key element of understanding the culture and language and perhaps even more importantly of developing relationships with people from that country. Humour and culture Humour and classroom dynamics A few ideas When the laughter stops Conclusion Humour and culture The humour of a nation or individual is an integral part of that person or nation's culture and we need to help students to appreciate the humour in order to help them understand the culture and language. To try to define the 'humour' of a nation is always going to be an impossible task, as different people within that nation are always going to have their own individual sense of humour, but we can help our students to explore this area. One way of doing this is to look at the kinds of TV comedy programmes which are popular within that country. References Krashen, Stephen D.