Creating Your Own Distance Learning Course
Posted in Distance Learning Tools, Lessons/Materials, Video on Jun 8th, 2010
Category Archive for 'Lessons/Materials'
Teaching Summarizing: A Three-Part Workshop Series
Posted in Abstracts/Presentations, Lessons/Materials, Teaching Reading, Teaching Writing on Jun 8th, 2010
Each summarizing workshop is about one hour. See below for details of each session. Download PowerPoint and handouts here. Session 1: Reading Strategies for Summarizing In this workshop, participants will explore various approaches to reading which enhance students’ skills in summarizing. The workshop will focus on basic pre- during- and post-reading strategies that improve overall [...]
Lesson Plan: “Reduce the Prison Population in Your State”
Posted in American Studies, Lessons/Materials, Speaking, Teaching Reading on Apr 4th, 2010
In this activity, students are divided into small groups and told that they are members of the governing legislature in a hypothetical American state. They want to reduce their population of prisoners while also not adding to the state’s budget. Students must work together to devise a plan using the information provided below. To generate [...]
One from the Heart: The Music of Tom Waits
Posted in Abstracts/Presentations, American Studies, Lessons/Materials, Listening on Jan 19th, 2010
This is a workshop designed for teachers of English on the music of American singer-songwriter Tom Waits. The activities included are for the songs, “Hold On,” “San Diego Serenade” and “Clap Hands” and they encourage students to develop their listening and speaking skills by exploring the uniquely American themes and landscapes of Waits’ music using [...]
The Christmas Gift: A Reading Lesson
Posted in Lessons/Materials, Teaching Reading on Dec 18th, 2009
The attached lesson is designed for intermediate to high level learners at least 14 years of age. In a group of at least 10, it should take about 90 minutes. The focus of the lesson is a short holiday story about a young man and woman who have an argument about a Christmas gift. But [...]
Adbusting: Critical Media Literacy in a Multi-Skills Academic Writing Lesson
Posted in Lessons/Materials, Publications, Teaching Writing on Dec 11th, 2009
Attached to this post is a copy of the article I co-wrote with English Language Fellow Anna Grigoryan for English Teaching Forum magazine. It was published in 2008. Forum website Link to issue containing article Link to download article in PDF
Teaching Reading: A Skills Course for EFL Teachers
Posted in Lessons/Materials, Teaching Reading on Dec 11th, 2009
Attached below is a copy of all the materials I have used when teaching a six-week course on teaching reading in the EFL/ESL classroom. Included are outlines of workshops, handouts, worksheets and relevant articles from English Teaching Forum magazine. Download materials here.
A Contextuialized Grammar Lesson: Present Perfect
Posted in Lessons/Materials, Speaking, Uncategorized on Nov 21st, 2009
Attached below is a sample lesson plan I designed for teaching the present perfect tense. Of note is that the lesson focuses on a particular communicative task, not the target structure specifically. it is very important to provide students with a real communicative purpose for the structures they learn so that they will know when [...]
Developing Newspaper Literacy
Posted in American Studies, Lessons/Materials, Teaching Reading on Nov 10th, 2009
Reading an American newspaper is a unique skill, and your mastery of the genre can help you a great deal in your studies. Most notable when discussing newspaper literacy is your ability to locate useful and/or interesting information. This means you have an understanding of the organizational structure of the American newspaper. Just as native [...]
Activities to Develop Newspaper Literacy
Posted in Lessons/Materials on Nov 8th, 2009
There are several in-class or homework activities that can improve a student’s ability to use a newspaper more effectively. Generally, these can be streamlined with summary-writing activities and are facilitated by students having actual copies of newspapers. Here are some examples of possible activities: 1) The instructor can choose two different types of articles (one [...]