50 Incredibly Useful Links for ELL Educators

September 4th, 2012 by Staff Writers

Teaching a new language to non-native speakers may be one of the most challenging educational jobs out there, so ELL teachers can use all of the help they can get! Thankfully, many excellent resources for ELL and ESL exist online, from full-service websites to reference tools and communities, all designed to make the task of educating ELL students just a little bit easier and more effective. We've scoured the Internet to share 50 of the best of these resources, and we hope you'll find lots of valuable content and tools through these incredibly useful links for ELL educators.

Websites

Resource tools, printables, and other great stuff for ELL educators are all available on these sites.

1. UsingEnglish.com: On UsingEnglish.com, you'll find an incredible collection of tools and resources for learning and teaching English as a second language, including a grammar glossary, printables, and teacher handouts.
2. EverythingESL: EverythingESL is an awesome place to find ESL teaching resources, from lesson plans to teaching tips and resources.
3. Colorin Colorado: Colorin Colorado is full of useful information, activities, and resources for ELL teachers, especially those at the Pre-K to third grade level. However, most activities can be adapted all the way up to high school, making this a diverse and useful website.

Articles & Advice

Check out resource lists, journal articles, and ideas for best practices in ELL on these links.

4. Preschool English Language Learners: This resource list from the state of Illinoishas a variety of support resources for preschool English language educators, with scholarships, journals, books, and more.
5. Doing What Works: Visit Doing What Works to find best practices for teaching Literacy in English to kindergarten through fifth-grade learners.
6. What Works Clearinghouse: In the What Works Clearinghouse, you'll find scholarly publications for effective outcomes in English language learning.

Organizations

Take advantage of the great opportunities and resources available from these organizations that benefit ELL teachers.

7. National Council of Teachers of English: This professional association for educators in English studies, literacy, and language arts offers plenty of benefits for bilingual teachers.
8. National Clearinghouse for English Language Acquisition: Find data, grants, even professional development resources for ELL educators from the National Clearinghouse for English Language Acquisition.
9. TOEFL: As the official language test for education, TOEFL's website is incredibly useful for sharing test-taking and studying information with students.
10. International Reading Association: This association of literacy professionals has excellent resources for literacy educators, including journal articles and an educator community.

Learning Resources

Enrich your students' learning by sharing these excellent English resources that they can check out in the classroom or on their own.

11. Culturally Authentic Pictorial Lexicon: Check out this lexicon that offers images demonstrating the true meaning of the word, making it easier for English language learners to understand.
12. ManyThings: On this website, you'll find quizzes, word games, puzzles, and a random sentence generator to help students better grasp English as a second language.
13. bab.la: Bab.la is a really fun site for ELL learners, with reference tools like a dictionary and vocabulary, supplemented with quizzes, games, and a community forum.
14. ESL Basics: On this site, you'll find free English videos for both students and teachers.
15. English Pronunciation: Okanagan College's resource offers 13 different unit lessons for learning and teaching English pronunciation.
16. BBC Learning English: In this website from the BBC, students can find help with grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation, with plenty of references to current events. Plus, you'll find a special section for ELL teachers.
17. ESL Gold: ESL Gold is, no joke, golden, with seemingly endless learning resources for English. Students can practice pronunciation, find a book to study, and even talk to someone in English on this site. Plus, teachers can find a job, search for textbooks, discover games, and so much more.
18. Real English: Check out this free site for learning English, with loads of videos from real English speakers, plus quizzes and community support.
19. Repeat After Us: In this online library, students can get access to a huge collection of English texts and scripted recordings.
20. Google Translate: An awesome resource to use for simple translations, Google Translate can help your students see how its done and better understand translations between two or more languages.
21. ESL Cyber Listening Lab: Direct your students to this ESL cyber listening lab with study guides, quizzes, and even teacher features.
22. Vocabulix: This online tool is designed to help jumpstart students' vocabulary skills, with more than 90 vocabulary lessons, and the option to create lessons of your own.
23. Wordsteps: Wordsteps makes it easy for students to build their own vocabulary collection, and even access their vocabulary through a mobile device for English language learning on the go.

Teaching Resources

With these resources, you can find great ways to communicate more effectively, explore lessons, and be a great ELL teacher.

24. Utah Education Network English Language Learner Resources: Check out this list of great resources for ELL, with teaching ideas, forums, and even news and research.
25. One Stop English: Specially designed for English language teachers, One Stop English has a monthly topics series, news lessons, and even an app for on the go ELL teaching.
26. Casa Notes: This ingenious tool allows ELL teachers to effectively communicate with non-English speaking parents. You'll be able to quickly make and customize notes that you can translate and send home to parents, effectively communicating information about field trips, conduct, homework, and more.
27. ESL Party Land: A great site for ELL teachers, ESL Party Land has lesson plans, strategies, worksheets, flashcards, quizzes, games, and even vocabulary resources to help you be a better ELL teacher.
28. Clip Art Collection: Check out this collection of royalty-free, language-neutral clip art designed to be used for foreign language instruction.
29. Activities for ESL Students: Thousands of teacher contributions can be found on this site full of quizzes, exercises, and tests for teaching English as a second language.
30. Szoter: Using this online annotation tool, ELL teachers can write directly on images to explain their meaning to students.
31. Oxford University Press Learning Resources Bank: A service of Oxford University Press, this learning resources bank for English language teaching has courses, titles, and interactive English reading tools.
32. English-Test.net: Encourage students to self-test with this website, offering free English tests, grammar exercises, and worksheets.
33. EduFind English Online Tests and Learning Games: Check out these test and games that offer a great way for students to test and improve their English language skills.

Reference

From reference books to a pronunciation guide, you and your students will get a lot of use out of these links.

34. Dictionary.com: This site isn't just for looking up words, although it's quite useful in that function. Dictionary.com also offers a word of the day, games, quotes, translation, and much more.
35. Thesaurus.com: Like Dictionary.com, Thesaurus.com goes beyond simple reference, bringing inspiration and fun in the form of synonyms, fun word facts, and even search trends.
36. Common Errors in English Usage: Read Paul Brian's Common Errors in English Usage on this website, and even get links to the book's blog, calendar, and entry-a-day Facebook page.
37. Play & Learn English: Through the Early Childhood Education Network's Play & Learn English resource, you can share letters, print, shapes, writing, and other relevant images for learning the English language.
38. Idiom Site: With the help of this site, English language learners can make sense of common idioms.
39. Fonetiks: Direct students to this incredibly useful pronunciation guide with instant sound and samples by native speakers.

Communities & Blogs

Get help and regular feedback for ELL education from these communities and blogs.

40. Learning the Language: On Education Week, Lesli Maxwell covers educational policy and social issues relating to English language learning in the US.
41. Dave's ESL Cafe: Check out Dave Sperling's ESL cafe, where ELL teachers and students alike can enjoy a great community of English learning, plus job resources and stuff for teachers.
42. Englishtown: Join this community of English learners from around the world to gain insight for your ELL students.
43. Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day: Want a regular dose of ELL resources? Check out Larry Ferlazzo's blog that shares news, learning resources, and other great links for ELL teachers.
44. ESL Podcast: Follow this podcast to share English language learning opportunities with your students on a regular basis.
45. ESL Resource Center: The ESL Resource Center is "where English and people connect," offering live chat rooms and forums for English practice. There are even ideas for drama and role plays, teacher development, and story telling resources.
46. Teacher Talk: Several ELL teachers contribute to this blog, sharing teaching practices, materials, ideas, and guides.
47. Pain in the English: This fun blog is a great resource for explaining gray areas of the English language to your students.
48. TEFLtastic with Alex Case: Follow Alex Case's blog to find news, views, and reviews for English language teaching.
49. The English Blog: Visit The English Blog to find resources, reviews, and much more for both learners and teachers of English.
50. Inspiration Lane: Inspiration Lane is designed to be an interactive reading activity to share with your entire ELL classroom with new learning content each day.

Clique aqui para compartilhar com seus amigos!!!

6 Absolutely Essential ESL Games for Vocabulary Review

by Busyteacher 

Well, it is that time again. You have finished your unit on (insert topic here) complete with vocabulary, listening, speaking, reading and writing activities, but you are not entirely done. The test is coming in just a few days, and your students need some review. When vocabulary is on that agenda, try one of these fun games to review the words your students have recently learned!

Try These Fun ESL Vocabulary Review Games and Activities

1. Charades is a fun and lively game for your ESL class to play when reviewing vocabulary. Your students will be energized and enthusiastic when their acting skills are put to the test for their classmates. It is easy to have a charade vocabulary review ready for your class at almost any time and on a moment’s notice with minimal advance preparation. The easiest way to be ready at any time is to keep a collection of vocabulary cards for the words your class has studied. When you are ready to play, divide your class into two teams. Individuals will take turns acting out one of the words from the cards that you have prepared. They will choose this card randomly on their turns and will have 2 minutes to get their team to guess the word without using books or notes. The actor cannot use any sounds but must communicate only through actions. The rest of the team should shout out any answers that come to mind. If the team is able to guess the word within the designated time, they score a point. If after two minutes the team has not guessed the word correctly, the other team gets one chance to guess the word. If they are correct, they score a point and then continue with their turn. Continue playing until you run out of time or you run out of words. The team with the higher score at the end of the game wins.
   
2. Pictionary is a similar and just as entertaining game to play for vocabulary review. The rules are similar to those of charades except that instead of acting out the word, the clue giver is permitted only to draw on the white board in front of the class. He cannot use any symbols, numbers or letters in his drawing. Again, give each person two minutes to try to get his team to guess the word. If he is unsuccessful, give the other team a chance to guess. Score the game the same way that you would score charades and announce the winning team at the end of the game.
   
3. Claymation - How creative are your students? How daring are they? If you think they would have fun with this activity, modify the same general idea that you used in charades and Pictionary with clay or play dough. Again, the rules are generally the same but in this version your students will not be acting or drawing. They will be molding clay to communicate the target word to their teams. Follow the same general rules, but this time you may want to give each person three to five minutes before turning it over to the opposite team for their guess. Scoring is done the same.
   
4. All of the Above - If you want to energize your students even further, add a little element of chance to the festivities. Using a six-sided die, have your students roll to see whether they will give a charade, draw a picture or form their clues out of clay. For rolls of one or four, the student will give a charade. For rolls of two or five the student will draw his clues. For rolls of three or six, your students will use clay to give their clues. In all cases, no letters, symbols or numbers are allowed when giving clues. The element of surprise will make the review even more exciting and entertaining for everyone!
   
5. Bingo can be another good game for vocabulary review though perhaps not as lively. Give your students a blank bingo boards and ask them to put the review words into the squares randomly. You should have some strategy for choosing the words to call and then which your students will mark on the cards. You may want to choose words randomly from a list. You may, instead, write the words on cards and choose them randomly from the deck or simply put small slips of paper into a hat to draw randomly. Whatever method you think will work best for you, once you have chosen the word do not read it. Instead, give the definition of the word to your class. Each person must then determine if he has the word that corresponds to the definition on his bingo board. When anyone gets five squares in a row, he should shout, “Bingo!” Warn your students not to clear their boards until you have checked the winner’s words to make sure they did not have an incorrect answer. Give the winner of each round a prize or allow him to call the words for the next round though you may need to supply the definitions.
   
6. Memory - A memory style card game can be another effective way for reviewing vocabulary, but you or your class will need to do some advanced preparation before you play. You will need a set of cards for the vocabulary you want to review. For each word, one card should have the target vocabulary word and another card should have the definition of the word. The players should then shuffle the deck and lay all the cards in a grid pattern face down on a large playing surface. Each person turns over two cards each turn trying to find a match. If the cards do not match, he turns them over again and the next person takes a turn. If they do match, he keeps the cards and gets an additional turn. The player with the highest number of cards at the end of the game wins.
   You can modify this game to practice matching words with their synonyms or their antonyms, too. For each, instead of using the definition card to match the vocabulary card, use a card with either a synonym or an antonym printed on it. Play continues the same as above. Just be sure you keep the sets of cards separated so you are ready to play at any time.
   

Vocabulary is a part of every ESL class, but that does not mean it has to be boring.

These games are both fun and educational and are never boring. The next time you have vocabulary to review, change things up with a game and help your students see that fun can be effective learning, too!

The Best Icebreakers

Here's some creative, teacher-tested icebreakers.

MAKING INTRODUCTIONS

Many icebreaker activities are focused on helping teachers get to know their students and helping students get to know one another. These activities are fun ways to learn about students' backgrounds and personalities and to start to form bonds that will last all school year long.

Recipe Card Mix-Up

Provide each student with a recipe or index card. Ahead of time choose about five questions that you might ask of students. Be as creative as you want with the questions. Possible questions might include the following:

What is the title of a favorite book?

What do you like doing in your free time when you're not at school?

What is your favorite board game?

What is your favorite candy bar?

If you could request your favorite meal for your birthday, what would that meal be?

When students -- and the teacher -- have written their answers to the questions, collect the recipe cards. Shuffle the cards. Then pass out a card to each student; be sure students do not receive their own cards. When everyone has a card, then the job of each student is to find the student in the room who belongs to the card the student holds. When everybody has found the person who wrote the answers on the card they hold, they must make sure they know how to pronounce that student's full name and that they understand everything that is written on the card. Then it is time for introductions. The teacher can begin the activity by asking the student on the card s/he holds to come to the front of the room. As that student stands by, the teacher introduces the student to the rest of the class by saying, "Class, I'd like you to meet ___. Her favorite book is ___. Her favorite board game is… Please welcome ___ to our fourth grade class!" (Classmates then give the student 4 claps [for 4th grade]). The student that the teacher introduced continues the activity by calling up the student whose card he or she holds. Continue until all students have introduced someone to the class. When everyone has been introduced, take all the cards, shuffle them, and call out responses on one card at a time to see if students can remember who belongs to each card.

Getting-to-Know-You Venn Diagram

Gather groups of three students. Supply a prepared three-circle Venn diagram (see an editable sample) for each group. Students talk in their groups about themselves and the things they like to do. After a brief discussion, students must…

decide on at least three ways in which they are all alike; they write those things in the area of the diagram that intersects all three circles.

find ways in which they are like one other student in the group and record those ways in the appropriate areas of the diagram.

determine a few facts that make each of them unique and write those facts in the appropriate sections of the diagram.

This activity helps students recognize and appreciate likenesses and differences in people. It also introduces them to Venn diagrams on the first day of school. This type of graphic organizer might be used many times throughout the year.

Student Dictionary

Write five questions on the board. Questions might include the following:

What is your name?

Where were you born?

How many brothers or sisters do you have?

What are their names?

Do you have any pets?

Tell students to write those questions on a piece of paper and to add to that paper five more questions they could ask someone they don't know. Pair students, and have each student interview his or her partner and record the responses. Then have each student use the interview responses to write a "dictionary definition" of his or her partner to include in a Student Dictionary. You might model this activity by creating a sample dictionary definition about yourself.

Getting-to-Know-You Chart

Create a large chart titled Getting to Know You. Include on the chart sections for students' names and interesting facts, such as how many people are in their families, how many pets they have, their favorite colors, favorite school subjects, favorite sports, and so on… Laminate the chart and hang it on the wall. On the first day of school, have each student "sign in." Leave the chart up for several weeks. The kids love to wander over to it when they have free time. They keep learning new things about one another. The chart can be a good source of "data" for a lesson in graph-making too.

SETTING THE TONE

The last two activities above are perfect ones for setting the tone for a productive and respectful school year. When the going gets rough -- when students are not respecting their classmates or when they are losing sight of their goals -- you could always refer back to the lessons learned from the "giving tree" or Booker T.

Following are a few more activities that can help you set a tone on the first day of school that will carry over thoughout the year.

Chain Gang

Begin by asking students "Who can do something really well?" After a brief discussion about some of the students' talents, pass out paper and ask students to write down five things they do well. Then provide each student with five different-colored paper strips. Have each student write a different talent on each paper strip. Then create a mini paper chain by linking the five talent strips together. As students complete their mini chains, use extra strips of paper to link the mini chains together to create one long class chain. Have students stand and hold the growing chain as you link the pieces together. Once the entire chain is constructed and linked, lead a discussion about what the chain demonstrates. For example, it might illustrate that…

All students have talents.

The students in this class have many talents.

If the students in this class work together, they can accomplish anything.

Our class is stronger when students work together than when individual students work on their own.

Hang the chain in the room as a constant reminder to students of the talents they possess and the benefits that can result from teamwork.

Puzzling It Out

This activity is especially valuable if you have in your class students who are new to your school. Those students probably will be experiencing a range of emotions -- including fear, shyness, and uncertainty. Before the activity, create a word processing document containing many different messages -- preferably in different type sizes and fonts -- that convey such messages as

Welcome!

Don't be puzzled, you'll fit right in!

We're here for you!

Depending on the age of student with whom you work, you might include a few messages or a dozen. Print multiple copies of the document (one for each small group of students). Then cut each copy into puzzle pieces, and place the pieces of each copy in a separate envelope. Post on an overhead transparency instructions that direct students to work with others at their table to assemble the puzzle pieces in their group's envelope. As students enter the classroom on the first day of school, be sure they read the instructions and begin the activity. This activity accomplishes several goals: It offers a quiet activity that you can observe; as you observe, you will learn about your students and discern potential problems. It gives students something to do when they first enter the classroom -- something they will be successful at. And it can be a great discussion starter.

Ugly Words Are Out!

As you discuss classroom expectations, introduce the idea that "ugly words" have no place in your classroom. Ask students what they think you mean by "ugly words." Then have the class generate a list of words that might be found on an ugly-word list, and write the words on a piece of chart paper. (Explain to students that any word that is considered a swear word would definitely be on the ugly-word list, so there is no need to mention them. Point out that the same is true for such words as dummy, jerk, dork, geek, hate, or ugly.) You might start the list with the word "can't." What about the word quit? Go around the room and give each student an opportunity to add an ugly word to the list. When you are satisfied that the students' supply of ugly words has run dry, dramatically rip the chart paper off the pad, let it fall to the floor, and stomp all over it. Next, rip it up and crush it into a ball. Finally, get a shovel, take students outside, and ceremoniously bury the list of ugly words. This activity will have quite an impact: students will always remember the "ugly words" that will not be accepted in class.

Advantages and challenges of teaching large classes

Teaching a small group of students is a whole lot easier than teaching a large group. But unfortunately due to budget and space constraints, many ESL schools only offer large classes that may consist of 50 or more students. No matter what the size of your class is, an ESL teacher has to come up with ideas and activities that will interest and engage his / her students. Fortunately, there are many coping skills and activities that will make your job easier.

Advantages of Teaching Large Classes

• Classes with many students will be quite noisy. But they also offer a high energy setting that is more fun and exciting.

• Classes will go by quickly when there are numerous students seeking your attention. In fact, while teaching a large class you will never find yourself looking at the clock. Lessons and activities will take longer to complete, so there will be no need for fillers.

Challenges of Teaching Large Classes

• You may never to get to know your students as well as you would like to. You may also feel anxious about being outnumbered by your students.
• Grading assignments and tests will take longer than you would like to them.

• That you are teaching a large class doesn’t necessarily mean that you will get fatter pay checks than those teaching smaller classes.

More distractions

• It is quite easy to get distracted in a large class. There will always be latecomers. You will also find plenty of students chatting while you are teaching and that can be pretty distressing.

Source: Englishpractice

Motivating Your Students: A 10-Step Guide

(By Hugh Dellar, published in New Routes Magazine, January 2011)

1. Listen Your Students;
2. Talk To Your Students;
3. Tell Your Students About Yourself;
4. Teach Them USEFUL Things;
5. Teach The Class First (and the coursebook second);
6. Be Careful How You Correct Your Students;
7. Test Your Students;
8. Worry Less About Topics;
9. Worry More About Language and Anecdotes;
10. Look Deep Into Your Coursebook.

 
Clique aqui para compartilhar com seus amigos!!! 

USING READERS IN THE ESL, EFL CLASSROOM

What is a reader?

A reader (also called a graded reader) is a book containing simplified language that is used to help you learn the language. Readers come in different levels, from beginners to advanced. If you are learning English, you must choose a reader that is suitable for your level. Readers will often have a list of headwords. The more headwords, the more difficult the book will be.

Why use readers?

Here are four answers to this question:

·         There is a lot of research that shows that extensive reading improves all aspects of language learning (Krashen, 1993). This includes vocabulary, speaking skills, fluency and writing skills. It also includes reading comprehension of course. In sum, people who read in English learn more English quicker than people who don’t read.

·         Reading is a way of learning English without classes, without studying and without a teacher. It is perfect for learner independence.

·         Successful reading leads to more reading. This is what Nuttal (1996) calls the ‘virtuous circle of reading’. The more you read, the better you become at reading. The better you become at reading, the more you want to read. The more you want to read, the more you read. And so on.

·         Reading can be a negative experience if you don’t understand the majority of what is written. If you are reading extensively, you should not do this with a dictionary. Readers grade the language for the level, so that learners don’t have to run to a dictionary every sentence.

If you decide to use readers with your classes, explain the benefits of reading to your learners before you start.

How do I get started?

There are two ways to use readers. One is to have the class all read the same book, a class set. Another way is to have the class read different books at different times. For this you need a class library. Below you will find ideas for both class sets and class libraries.

How do I know the right level?

If your class is all reading the same book, choose one which is appropriate for their level. For more advice on readers and levels, look at the Macmillan website for readers at: www.onestopenglish.com/readers/ . 

If your class is reading different books, you can have a selection of books at different levels. In this case, don’t worry too much about the level. A learner who is interested in detective stories might read a book that is one level above his/hers if he/she is motivated enough.

Using a Class Set (the same book for everybody)

The following activities are to use when all students are reading the same book. How students actually read the book depends on their age, motivation levels and class time available. Some classes like to read silently, others like to read aloud in small groups and some enjoy being read to by the teacher. However you go about it, be sensitive to the class and ask for their opinions. Reading should be seen as a pleasurable part of the course and not something to be endured!

 

 

Pre–reading activities

Before students even get a chance to open the book it is important to spark interest in the story and in the whole process of reading. Let students know that you have chosen a book for them to read which you like yourself and you believe they will enjoy too.

·         Guess the story from the cover – Show the cover to the class and elicit as much vocabulary as you can. Students then guess the story and write short summaries of the imaginary plot. These could be kept until you have read the book to see which one was closest to the real story.

·         Jumbled chapter titles – Give strips of paper with the chapter titles on to students in pairs or groups. They decide the best order for the chapters and think about the possible story. Compare the answers with the other groups and then look in the book to see who was closest.

·         Find out about the author – Ask students what they know about the author. Ask students to write some questions about the author that they would like to know the answers to. Then use the internet to search for the answers to the questions. If you don’t have access to the internet for the students, try to print off some information yourself and have it stuck around the room for the students to skim read and try to find the answers. Try typing the name of the author and the title of the book into a search engine and select the most suitable site for the age group or level. You could also try the site www.biography.com which has over 250,000 concise and clear biographies.

·         Photocopy the pictures – If the reader has pictures or photos, enlarge these and use them to familiarise the students with the main characters. Students can read the introduction page or the back of the book to guess who is who.

During reading

These activities should be selected at appropriate stages throughout the book. Some may be suitable after reading the first few chapters and others for the halfway mark. It is important to read enough of the book in the first ‘go’ so as to get students hooked on the story line.

·         Comic strips – Choose a suitable chapter or chapters that can be broken down into chunks to make a comic strip. Encourage students to be creative with the characters and give them an example of the type of language to put in the speech bubbles.

·         Radio plays – In groups students select part of the book to make into a radio play. Students are assigned character roles and one is the narrator. Plays can be recorded and listened back to for future pronunciation work. Encourage students to really get into the roles of the character they are playing. For younger students the tapes of all groups could be listened to and students could vote on the best radio play.

·         News articles – Students become journalists and report on part of the story. Choose a piece of action and students write it up as if it were to be published in a national or local paper. Focus on writing good headlines and prepare the articles in the format of a newspaper story.

·         Video parallels – If the reader you are using in class has a film version use this to spot the differences in the plot between the book and the film. Always start with the book so that students can create their own visual images of the characters. They can compare their imagined characters with those in the film.

·         Horoscopes – At an appropriate stage in the plot development, students write horoscopes for the characters predicting their future. From what they know so far about their personalities, which star sign do they think they are? At a later stage these can be used to compare against the real events of the book. Did the horoscope prediction come true?

·         Character interviews – Students role-play an interview with one of the characters. Take a couple of the main characters ‘out’ of the book and bring them into the classroom! Assign students the roles of the characters and the rest of the class prepare questions they would like to ask them. The students playing the roles of the characters must try to put themselves in the characters’ shoes and give suitable answers. Time and support must be given by the teacher to both the interviewees and the interviewers in order to make this successful. Depending on the book you could imagine that the interviews are taking place in a police station, on a TV chat show or wherever seems appropriate. With a little imagination it can be a lot of fun! 

Post – reading activities

When you have finished reading the book some of these activities could be tried.

·         Book reviews – Students write reviews of the book giving it a star rating from one to five. Before doing this it would help to look at the style and language of book reviews.

·         Quiz time – In teams students prepare questions about the book’s plot and character’s. Questions would be used in an inter-team quiz to see which group is the most knowledgeable. This may involve students re-reading parts of the book.

·         Change the ending – In groups students re-write the ending of the book. If it was a happy ending, make it sad and vice versa!

·         Cinema posters – Tell students that the book is now going to be made into a Hollywood blockbuster and they are responsible for creating the poster and casting actors to the roles of the characters.

 

Using a class library (everybody reading different books)

Choosing a book
Ideally, learners should choose their own books to read. To do this, you will need a class library. If you are lucky, your school will pay for the books. You can get learners to choose titles they think are interesting by looking at a catalogue of readers. If you already have a selection of books let the learners choose from what you have available. One way of doing this is by laying out a series of readers on a table. Let the learners browse and choose one which interests them, just like in a book shop. Another way is by reading aloud the opening paragraphs of a couple of different books. Ask the learners to suggest a title for the book. Then ask them which of the books interests them the most.

When to read
Obviously, learners should be encouraged to read at home, on the bus, in their spare time. However, this doesn’t mean that they can’t read in class as well. One idea that has been used successfully in the United States is called DEAR (Drop Everything And Read). This means setting aside ten or twenty minutes in a class for learners to read their books. This doesn’t have to be scheduled. If a class is getting boring or you want to change the focus, call out “DEAR time” and let everyone have a ten minute reading break. Note: if you decide to have DEAR time, join in yourself and read a book too! This shows that you value reading as much as you expect them to.

More ideas for extensive reading
Set up a series of book reviews. When learners finish a book, ask them to write a short review and give it a star rating (one to five stars, a five star book being excellent). Book reviews should not be book reports. Don’t ask learners to write a summary of the plot, this is usually difficult, takes a lot of time, and also gives away the plot for the others.
Have a mini book fair. Ask learners to make posters related to their favourite book. They should then try to “sell” the book to others in the class.
Play Call my Bluff. Ask one learner to show the cover and title of their book to the rest of the class. Then ask everyone to write a paragraph about what they think is inside the book (including the learner whose book it is). Collect the paragraphs. Read them out loud. Ask the learners to vote for which one they think really reflects the book.

Play Find Someone Who... which is connected to books and reading. For example: 

Find someone who...

·       likes crime stories

·       reads in bed

·       has read more than three books this term

·       started a book but didn’t finish it

·       has read a book based on a movie

For more ideas about reading and books, see the Methodology articles on Using Literature in the Classroom.

Further reading:

·       Krashen, Stephen - The Power of Reading; Libraries Unlimited Colorado

·       Nuttal, Christine - Teaching Reading Skills in a Foreign Language; Macmillan Oxford