One of the ways that I do this is the use of video in my classroom. I like to use short clips from movies to introduce lessons. A great source for these clips is Class Hook. Class Hook is a website that has clips from movies and TV shows. The clips are organized and tagged by topic and skills. Another way I incorporate video in my lessons is via YouTube. I will find a short video explaining a grammar topic, or a fun music video about the skill we're practicing, and show it as part of our lesson. This not only exposes students to another English speaker, but allows them to hear a slightly different explanation of the topic we're studying. A few of my favorite YouTube channels are listed on the Helpful Free Resources document I give my students each semester (you can get your own free copy from the link above, or from the link in my blog post Student Reference Tools).
Another way I provide students with exposure to more speakers (and specifically accents), is through the use of both commercial and non-commercial listening activities. Three of my favorite commercial resources are:
The most frequent authentic listening practice we do though is TED Talk comprehension guides. These are simply Word or PDF files that have a link to a TED Talk and a list of questions for students to answer. I try to include questions from the various levels of Bloom's Taxonomy, but the number and variety of questions varies from guide to guide. Sometimes we will work through these guides together as a class, but mostly I assign them as independent work. TED Talks are great because they are all different lengths, on a variety of topics, and have authenticated closed captions and transcripts in multiple languages. When using them with beginning level students, I encourage them to turn on the closed captions, or read the transcript, in their native language. For my intermediate students, I encourage them to turn on the closed captions in English, and refer to the transcript in their native language if necessary. When teaching advanced students, I challenge them to use only the English subtitles and transcript. I really appreciate that I can trust the translations, and these supports are built right into the website. Currently, I have 18 different comprehension guides, but I'm always adding more. They are available in my Teachers Pay Teachers store as individual guides, or as a bundle (link above). My current plan is to add two more guides to the current bundle and then start a new one. If you're looking to save money, you'll want to buy the bundles when they are smaller. Each time a guide is added (I plan to have 20 guides per bundle), you'll get an email telling you the bundle has been updated, and you can download the new guide for free. In other words, you'll pay less and get more, because each time a guide is added the price goes up by fifty cents (individual guides are seventy-five cents each). Listening may be one of the hardest skills to master, but it is also one of the most valuable. In today's global society, it is more important than ever to expose our students to multiple accents and styles of speaking. I hope you've been at least a little inspired to add more listening practice to your classroom. Happy teaching, everyone.
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menu (available for free from the original blog post linked above) was based off of seventh grade Common Core Standards and the Core Competencies for the ESL department at the college where I teach. The level one English Skillology menu (also available for free by clicking the picture or this link) is also based off the Core Competencies of our department, but the Common Core Standards come from the third grade ELA set.
Much of the design was the same, and you can read about that in the first blog post. The method worked well for both the students and myself, so I saw no reason to change it. Reusing the basic design allowed me more time to focus on the activities themselves, and I think there's a good mix of skills represented. Here's a quick overview of the 20 activities: Reading
At the most basic level, English Skillology is a choice menu. It includes four activities for each of the five skill areas in ESL: reading, writing, speaking, listening, and grammar. Inspired by a Monopoly-style choice menu of someone else's, I decided to use a game board format for my own. Each skill is a side (grammar is in the corners), and has its own color. Students are then free to choose the number and type of activities they want to complete by the end of the semester. If a student were to complete all of the activities, he/she would earn 120 extra credit points.
I designed this particular board for my high intermediate students (I hope to create at least three more boards, one for each of the proficiency levels I teach.). In creating the activities I consulted two different sets of objectives: seventh grade Common Core ELA and the Core Competencies for my department at the college where I teach. Here's a quick overview of the 20 activities: Reading
So how did I create this extra credit menu? In the most general terms, here are the steps I took:
I'm really excited about this particular project. It was a lot of work to put together but I believe it will be very valuable for my students. I especially like how it allows them to earn extra credit by participating in meaningful learning activities. Don't forget to download your own copy of English Skillology from Teachers Pay Teachers today--it's free! |
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