Reading and writing numbers can pose certain challenges. Exposure and review help. Why not make the exercise more interesting with engaging facts? Check out this collection of speaking and writing tasks that review fractions, percentages, decimals, and more. Any of the statistics could turn into a jumping off point for more discussion. Choose the format…
Category: Reading
Last-Minute Ideas for the Holidays
We’re all counting down the days until the New Year. If you’re like me, you have a least a week of lessons left to teach before 2022. Are you open to a few timely suggestions? Short StoriesIn the previous post, I shared my plan to read L. M. Montgomery’s short story “Uncle Richard’s New Year…
Materials to Make Us Merry and Bright
‘Tis the season to be jolly, right? Maybe not. Here in the U.S., stores really jump the gun and start putting up holiday decorations immediately after Halloween. The corresponding merchandise also hits the shelves well before we’ve even celebrated Thanksgiving on the fourth Sunday of November. Moreover, a quick check of the news headlines is…
Off to the Races with the Headless Horseman
This week I adapted Washington Irving’s “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” for my YouTube audience. The one-hour livestream features a read-aloud session where I take the time to explain vocabulary. The original text, published in 1820, is available online thanks to the Project Gutenberg. However, that text is long, detailed, and not very accessible to…
TESOL 2019 Highlights: The Playful Side of Poetry
Did you know it’s National Poetry Month? I feel fortunate that I was among the attendees at one of the last sessions of the TESOL 2019 convention because the topic was…yes, poetry! Quite a number of us decided to attend The Uses of Poetry in the ESL Classroom at 5:00 p.m. on the final day….
Getting Reluctant Readers to Read
Not every student loves to read, but there are benefits missed by not including any reading in one’s studies. Of course, some degree of reading is unavoidable, for example, one has to read a homework assignment or a short email announcement. But extended reading? That has to be a conscious choice. Let’s see if we…
More Good Reads: 5 Short Stories
I shared a list of thought-provoking short stories in another post. (See February 2018 post.) If you work with advanced students who challenge you to find good reading material, you’ll go through that first list in good time and then be in need of new titles to choose from. Allow me to share five more….
TESOL 2018 Highlights: Engaging Learners with the Latest News
My annual TESOL experience wouldn’t be complete without running into colleagues all over the convention center. Hugs and updates are exchanged, and I sometimes even pick up interesting tips in passing. Lucky for me, I ran into Eric Roth of University of Southern California. He had just visited the Exhibit Hall and told me about…
Celebrate Women’s History Month
We’re only at the halfway point in March, so with two weeks left to go it’s not too late to observe Women’s History Month if you haven’t already. Discuss an article, assign mini reports, or include any of the unofficial anthems for International Women’s Day. There are plenty of playlists online showcasing “songs empowering women.”…
7 Thought-provoking Short Stories
A truly enjoyable experience to share with students is the discovery of great literature. Over the years, I’ve had the pleasure of reading short stories with advanced students. They bravely take on the challenge of facing unfamiliar vocabulary and sometimes dated wording. They apply their keen minds to the task of understanding themes and symbolism,…
How to Make Sense of News Headlines
I note requests from viewers for future YouTube lessons, and I have a running list of topics I’d like to cover. In a recent poll on my Community Tab, “news headlines” didn’t receive the most votes, but some viewers commented that they’d very much like to understand the grammar used in the titles of online…
English Activities with an Autumn Theme
1. Autumn in New York as performed by Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong will expose students to a good number of -ing sounds, including gleaming, shimmering, and inviting. (See lyrics.) The use of a hard /g/ in “mingled” is a nice contrast. The song is sung at a slow pace, which makes it even…
English with Jennifer 