Discover what's new or coming soon, including upcoming lessons and resources and product feature updates. 

Announcements

<h2>Tired of sending classwide emails with important updates that your students never read?</h2>

<p>One of our most requested features is here! Now you can send announcements directly to all students in your class right from within Ellii.</p>

<p>We believe clear communication is at the heart of every successful classroom. The Class Announcements feature gives you a dedicated space inside Ellii to keep your students informed&nbsp;right where they&#39;re already learning.</p>

<h2>How to send an announcement on Ellii</h2>

<p>From the new <strong>Announcements</strong> tab on your class page, you can post messages, pin important updates to the top, and manage everything in one place.</p>

<p><img alt="class announcements on Ellii" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/5541/content_Screenshot_2026-06-08_at_10.38.49_AM.png" /></p>

<h2>Where students find announcements on Ellii&nbsp;</h2>

<p>Students see your announcements at the top of their class page. New messages are clearly labeled. Pinned messages stay visible at all times.&nbsp;</p>

<p><img alt="class announcements for students on Ellii " src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/5542/content_Screenshot_2026-06-08_at_10.41.33_AM.png" /></p>

<p><img alt="class announcements on Ellii " src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/5543/content_Screenshot_2026-06-08_at_10.43.27_AM.png" /></p>

<h2>Learn more</h2>

<p>See&nbsp;step-by-step instructions in this&nbsp;Help Doc: <a href="https://help.ellii.com/article/312-how-to-create-class-announcements" target="_blank">How to Create Class Announcements</a>&nbsp;</p>


Class Announcements Feature Now on Ellii

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Tour around the ELT conference circuit as our team shares conference highlights and session reviews.

Conferences

<h2>St. Augustine&nbsp;Superlatives</h2>

<p>If you&#39;re ever looking for a real-world setting&nbsp;for teaching&nbsp;<strong>superlatives</strong>, head to St. Augustine where the <a href="https://www.aceofflorida.org/events/2026-ace-of-florida-summer-symposium-1" target="_blank">2026 ACE of Florida Summer Symposium</a> was held this past&nbsp; week!</p>

<p>This was my first time visiting this town, and I set off from Canada one day early, eager to explore what I had heard was &quot;the oldest town in Florida.&quot;&nbsp;</p>

<p><img alt="oldest masonry fort in St. Augustine" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/5552/content_oldest-fort.JPG" /></p>

<p class="caption">Castillo de San Marcos, a 17th-century fortress built by the Spanish</p>

<p>St. Augustine is formally referred to as&nbsp;<em>the oldest</em>&nbsp;continuously occupied European-founded settlement in the continental United States.&nbsp;Spanish explorer Pedro Men&eacute;ndez de Avil&eacute;s established the settlement on September 8, 1565.</p>

<p><img alt="oldest school house st. augustine" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/5544/content_oldest-school.jpeg" /></p>

<p>While touring around the historic district, I&nbsp;soon learned some of the town&#39;s&nbsp;claims&nbsp;needed fact-checking! However, I came up with my own St. Augustine list of superlatives. This&nbsp;could be a fun game to play with your students in any town, including where you teach.&nbsp;<br />
<br />
St. Augustine Superlatives:</p>

<ul>
	<li>best chocolate peanut butter cups: Whetstone Chocolates</li>
	<li>most fun popsicle shop: Hyppo (<a href="https://ellii.com/blog/funner" target="_blank">Can we say funnest?</a>)</li>
	<li>tastiest tacos: A1A Burrito Works</li>
	<li>most delicious guacamole: Salt Life</li>
	<li>coolest beachwear shop: The Surf Stop&nbsp;</li>
	<li>nicest rooftop patio: River Fort Restaurant &amp; Rooftop.</li>
</ul>

<p>At the rooftop patio, we also had <em>the most scrumptious</em> lobster&nbsp;flatbread served by&nbsp;<em>the wittiest </em>waitress who told us she had no need for&nbsp;the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.floridashistoriccoast.com/things-to-do/history/fountain-youth/" target="_blank"><strong>Fountain of Youth</strong></a>&nbsp;herself,&nbsp;but directed us where to go to find Ponce de Leon&#39;s&nbsp;healing waters. She also&nbsp;shared tips on&nbsp;<em>the best </em>beach for shell collecting<em> </em>(Vilano Beach).&nbsp;</p>

<p><img alt="Old Senator in St. Augustine" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/5551/content_oldest-oak.JPG" /></p>

<p class="caption">Old Senator in St. Augustine, located at Villa 1565</p>

<h2>Adult Ed in Florida</h2>

<p>At the ACE symposium, vendors exhibit in the same room where all the sessions take place. This is <em>the most effective</em>&nbsp;way to set up a PD&nbsp;event in ELT! Like all attendees, vendors need to&nbsp;stay on top of important updates and I was pleased to be able to attend every session while also manning the Ellii booth.</p>

<p><img alt="" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/5547/content_ACE-2026.JPG" /></p>

<h2>ACE Takeaways</h2>

<p>Various speakers took the floor at the ACE of Florida Summer Symposium, including several representatives from the Florida Department of Education. The main purpose of these talks was to demonstrate the case for workforce education in adult ed. We learned about:&nbsp;</p>

<ul>
	<li>unemployment rates and causes (job leaver 13%, job loser 40%, entering/reentering workforce 46%)</li>
	<li>changing labor demand by level of education in Florida&nbsp;</li>
	<li>top demand occupations in Florida (tractor trailer truck drivers, medical assistants, real estate agents, carpenters, mechanics...)</li>
	<li>the aging workforce (24% of the US workforce is 55+)</li>
	<li>skills expectations (by 2031, 72% of jobs will require some postsecondary education or training)</li>
	<li>untapped talent (1.8 million adults without a high school diploma in Florida)</li>
	<li>Title II Adult Ed MSG rate and success (needs improvement!)</li>
	<li>student retention challenges (transportation, childcare, motivation, work obligations) and strategies (constant communication, newsletters, rapport, bus passes, counseling, career exploration, flexible scheduling)&nbsp;</li>
</ul>

<blockquote>
<p>&quot;When we invest in adult learner upskilling to improve economic &amp; career mobility, everybody wins.&quot;</p>

<p>~2026 ACE of Florida Summer Symposium</p>
</blockquote>

<p>Interestingly, the day I returned back to my office, <em>the savviest </em>Product team (Ellii&#39;s!) released a new feature that is tied directly to data about student engagement: <a href="https://ellii.com/blog/class-announcements-feature-now-on-ellii" target="_blank">Class Announcements</a>. We hope this new feature is useful in your schools and programs!</p>

<h2>Ellii + Ventures</h2>

<p>At the ACE symposium, we exhibited next to our partner, Cambridge University Press &amp; Assessment. Regional Manager (CUPA) Jim Goldstone&nbsp;knows Florida well and was <em>the wisest </em>mentor and host! Jim introduced me to several&nbsp;directors and leaders in adult ed and I was grateful for his mentorship and industry knowledge.&nbsp;If you&#39;re interested in learning more about <em>the most practical </em>partnership in adult ed&nbsp;(<a href="https://ellii.com/ventures" target="_blank">Ellii + <em>Ventures</em></a>), please reach out. We are all excited for the upcoming release of the <em>Ventures</em> 4th edition books and related Ellii collections.&nbsp;</p>

<h2>The Embassy Suites &amp; Attendees</h2>

<p>This year&#39;s ACE symposium took place at St. Augustine&#39;s Embassy Suites, a beautiful resort on a beach next to the Anastasia State Park that goes far beyond what you can see. The ocean water was 82&deg; and we could watch surfers catching waves during the built-in sunshine breaks. Like several&nbsp;attendees, I made a point of waking up a little&nbsp;early to catch <em>the prettiest </em>Florida sunrise.&nbsp;</p>

<p><img alt="" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/5548/content_sunrise-st-augustine.JPG" /></p>

<p class="caption">Embassy Suites, St. Augustine</p>

<p>The breakfasts, lunches, and&nbsp;poolside chats were excellent opportunities to learn firsthand from attendees about what&#39;s new and challenging&nbsp;in their state and programs. While I attended the sessions, the world&#39;s <em>most productive </em>Publishing team&nbsp;(Ellii&#39;s!) was already working on an outline for a new course that a director at ACE mentioned was lacking at her school.</p>

<p><img alt="Karla Galleguillos National Program Specialist and Pamela Jo Wilson Palm Beach County" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/5553/content_karla-pamela.JPG" /></p>

<p class="caption">Karla Galleguillos, National Program Specialist, and Pamela Jo Wilson, Case Manager, Palm Beach County School District</p>

<p>The hotel had friendly, efficient service and even&nbsp;offered free use of&nbsp;cruiser bikes, which I made use of to ship our exhibit contents off to the conference Ellii is attending next week&mdash;the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.casas.org/training-and-support/SI" target="_blank">CASAS Summer Institute</a> in Orange County, California!&nbsp;</p>

<p><img alt="Tara Benwell VP of Publishing Ellii" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/5550/content_bike-courier.JPG" /></p>

<p class="caption">Tara Benwell, VP of Publishing at Ellii</p>

<p>Ellii would like to wish a happy retirement to&nbsp;ACE Executive Director Julie Roberts&nbsp;and a warm welcome to Dave Barnes, incoming director. Thank you both for helping us feel so welcome at ACE!</p>

<p>We hope&nbsp;to see you in October at the <a href="https://www.aceofflorida.org/events/2026-southeast-regional-ace-conference-" target="_blank">2026 Southeast Regional ACE Conference</a> in Orlando!<br />
<br />
~ Tara<br />
<br />
PS. As a Canadian, I have to admit that <em>the juiciest</em> update I heard at the symposium&nbsp;was&nbsp;that the state of <a href="https://www.gulfcoastnewsnow.com/article/free-orange-juice-florida-welcome-center-citrus-industry-challenges/71363715" target="_blank">Florida will continue to offer free orange juice</a> at the state border welcome centers. I think we may need a current events lesson on this!</p>


The Oldest City, the Newest Updates: Reflections on ACE of Florida Summer Symposium 2026

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Find quick links to each episode of the Teacher Think-Aloud podcast, hosted by Shélynn Riel and Anna Ciriani-Dean and sponsored by Ellii.  

Teacher Think-Aloud Podcast

<p id="unlocking-ai-use-in-the-english-language-classroom">In the latest episode of&nbsp;<a href="https://www.teacherthinkaloud.com/" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">The Teacher Think-Aloud Podcast</a>, hosts Anna and Sh&eacute; are joined by Rachel Toncelli and Ilka Kostka&mdash;seasoned educators at Northeastern University and co-authors of&nbsp;<a href="https://press.umich.edu/Books/A/Artificial-Intelligence-Real-Teaching2" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">Artificial Intelligence, Real Teaching: A Guide to AI in ELT</a>&mdash;for an honest and practical conversation about what it really looks like to bring AI into language teaching. From their initial intrigue with ChatGPT in late 2022 to the development of a full framework for AI integration, Rachel and Ilka exemplify what happens when educators meet new technology with curiosity rather than panic. As they see it, every challenge AI presents is a teaching problem&mdash;not a reason to ban or retreat.</p>

<p>The conversation tackles widespread misconceptions head-on, particularly the fear that AI might replace language learning altogether. Both guests advocate for transparency and dialogue with students, sharing how critical analysis of AI-generated output can deepen learner engagement and help students recognize what makes their own voices distinctive.</p>

<blockquote>
<p>&quot; If teachers are worried that their students are gonna outsource everything, then you need to be having regular conversations about how to use AI, how not to use AI, and the purpose of schooling. What are we here to do?&quot; &mdash; Rachel Toncelli</p>
</blockquote>

<p>Ultimately, this conversation is an invitation to start small, collaborate with colleagues, and approach AI with a mindset of exploration. Rachel and Ilka&#39;s work reminds us that as AI technology evolves, our teaching must adapt alongside it&mdash;keeping human interaction and cultural learning at the center.</p>

<div class="videoWrapper"><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ypEj-OmXRro?si=-VPW4ZjeghwVKf2m" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe></div>

<p><strong>🎙️ Listen now on your favorite platform:</strong></p>

<ul>
	<li value="1"><a href="https://www.teacherthinkaloud.com/episodes" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">The Teacher Think-Aloud Podcast</a></li>
	<li value="2"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/@thinkaloud_pod" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">YouTube</a></li>
	<li value="3"><a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/2zv5mVNpSqkDNiNbQlnm7B" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">Spotify</a></li>
	<li value="4"><a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/the-teacher-think-aloud-podcast/id1629819608" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">Apple Podcasts</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;</li>
</ul>

<p><strong>🔗 Follow The Teacher Think-Aloud Podcast on social media for more updates:</strong></p>

<ul>
	<li value="1"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/teacherthinkaloud" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">Facebook</a></li>
	<li value="2"><a href="https://www.instagram.com/thinkaloud_pod/" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">Instagram</a></li>
	<li value="3"><a href="https://bsky.app/profile/thinkaloudpod.bsky.social" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">Bluesky</a></li>
	<li value="4"><a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@thinkaloud_pod" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">TikTok</a></li>
	<li value="5"><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/teacher-think-aloud/" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">LinkedIn</a></li>
</ul>


Unlocking AI Use in the English Language Classroom

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<p>On the latest episode of&nbsp;<a href="https://www.teacherthinkaloud.com/" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">The Teacher Think-Aloud Podcast</a>, hosts Anna and Sh&eacute; are joined by Dr. Linh Phung&mdash;language educator, researcher, and creator of the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.eduling.ai/" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">Eduling app</a>&mdash;for a grounded and practical exploration of Task-Based Language Teaching (TBLT). At its core, TBLT shifts teaching away from isolated grammar and vocabulary instruction and toward meaningful, goal-oriented communication. As Dr. Phung explains, not every classroom activity qualifies as a &ldquo;task.&rdquo; True tasks require a focus on meaning, a communicative gap, the use of learners&rsquo; existing language resources, and a clear outcome. This reframing challenges teachers to move beyond practice for its own sake and instead design opportunities where language is used to do something purposeful.</p>

<p>Drawing on second language acquisition research, Dr. Phung connects TBLT to key principles such as input, output, interaction, and corrective feedback. The conversation also addresses common implementation concerns, including how to adapt TBLT for beginner learners, large classes, exam-driven contexts, and varying participation norms.</p>

<blockquote>&quot; When the students learn a language by engaging in communicative tasks, then the chance of transferring the skills during learning activities to real life is higher because the conditions in which they perform the tasks or the activities are similar to real life tasks.&quot;<br />
&mdash; Dr. Linh Phung</blockquote>

<p>Ultimately, this conversation invites educators to reconsider not just what they teach, but why and how. By positioning language as a tool for communication rather than an end in itself, TBLT opens the door to more engaging, effective, and human-centered learning experiences.</p>

<div class="videoWrapper"><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/eThdBEC0NoU?si=Zt_Q0I840A4Ip9YG" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe></div>

<p><br />
🎙️&nbsp;<strong>Listen now on your favorite platform:</strong></p>

<ul>
	<li><a href="https://www.teacherthinkaloud.com/episodes" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">The Teacher Think-Aloud Podcast</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://www.youtube.com/@thinkaloud_pod" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">YouTube</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/2zv5mVNpSqkDNiNbQlnm7B" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">Spotify</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/the-teacher-think-aloud-podcast/id1629819608" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">Apple Podcasts</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;</li>
</ul>

<p>🔗&nbsp;<strong>Follow The Teacher Think-Aloud Podcast on social media for more updates:</strong></p>

<ul>
	<li><a href="https://www.facebook.com/teacherthinkaloud" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">Facebook</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://www.instagram.com/thinkaloud_pod/" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">Instagram</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://bsky.app/profile/thinkaloudpod.bsky.social" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">Bluesky</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@thinkaloud_pod" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">TikTok</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/teacher-think-aloud/" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">LinkedIn</a></li>
</ul>


Task-Based Language Teaching in Real Classrooms

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These posts are written for learners of English themselves. Find learning tips and ideas for learning English.

For Students

Stay up-to-date with ELT trends and ideas with articles from experts and teachers in the field.

Articles

<p>There are many different varieties of English all over the world. Around 75 countries use it as an official language.</p>

<p>Then there are regional differences. For example, in the UK, there isn&#39;t just one form of English. People speak English differently in different parts of the country.&nbsp;</p>

<p>I am from Scotland, so I speak Scottish English (or West Central&nbsp;Scots). In this post, I&#39;ll share some common words and phrases that will help you understand and be understood in Scotland, or around Scottish people.&nbsp;</p>

<h2>What languages do people speak in Scotland?&nbsp;</h2>

<p>The main language in Scotland is English. <a href="https://www.scotlandscensus.gov.uk/census-results/at-a-glance/languages/" target="_blank">Government records show that 98.6% of people in Scotland speak it</a>.</p>

<p>Historically, Gaelic is&nbsp;the traditional language. It&nbsp;used to be spoken all over the country. Now only 0.5% of the population speak it at home&mdash;mostly in the Western Isles and North West Highlands.&nbsp;</p>

<p>Then there&#39;s Scots. Government information shows that 1.1% of people said that they spoke this at home. Though, in my opinion, this number should be much higher. There are many English speakers in Scotland who don&#39;t realize they are speaking Scots.&nbsp;I was one&mdash;until I taught my first &quot;English&quot;&nbsp;class!</p>

<p>The reason for this is that there is a lot of confusion over what&nbsp;Scots language is, what a dialect is (a local version of the language), and what Scottish English is (English with some Scots words and sounds).&nbsp;</p>

<p>According to Scotland.org,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.scottishbooktrust.com/writing-and-authors/what-is-scots" target="_blank">Scots is a language made up of different dialects from across the country</a>:&nbsp;</p>

<ul>
	<li>Dundonian dialect in Dundee</li>
	<li>Doric dialect in Aberdeenshire</li>
	<li>Edinburgh Scots dialect in&nbsp;Edinburgh</li>
	<li>Glaswegian dialect in Glasgow</li>
</ul>

<p>When I first started teaching, I used a lot of Scottish words and sounds. The students, who spoke excellent global English, didn&#39;t understand me. I quickly learned what was English and what was Scots.&nbsp;</p>

<p>From experience, there are lots of Scottish English speakers who are exactly like me when I started teaching. Don&#39;t be afraid to ask them if they are speaking Scottish or English! This will help them to reflect and rephrase what they&#39;ve said into understandable English (hopefully)!&nbsp;</p>

<h2>Do I need to learn Scottish English?&nbsp;</h2>

<p>No, not really. It would be impossible to learn every different variety of English.&nbsp;</p>

<p>If you plan to live in Scotland for a while, it will probably be helpful to learn some Scottish words. But if you are just staying for a short holiday, it&#39;s best to use these skills for speaking English anywhere:</p>

<ul>
	<li>Ask for the meaning of words that you don&#39;t know</li>
	<li>Ask people to repeat or say things more slowly</li>
	<li>Rephrase what people have said to check that you have understood them</li>
</ul>

<p>Remember there are two people (or more) in each conversation. They can help you by using their communication skills too.&nbsp;</p>

<h2>Be confident: Even proficient language users find Scots English hard</h2>

<p>I have many examples of friends who speak absolutely fantastic English, but&nbsp;find&nbsp;Scottish speakers difficult to understand.&nbsp;</p>

<p>One friend is a doctor from South Africa. He grew up speaking English. When he moved to Scotland, he found that there were lots of words he didn&#39;t understand. He started a vocabulary&nbsp;list on his phone so every time he learned a new word, he made a note of it. That list now has hundreds of words!&nbsp;</p>

<p>Another friend is from Portugal. They use English for work every day. When they met some people I&nbsp;know from Dundee, they were so confused. I&nbsp;had to translate the Dundonian Scottish into general English for them. My Dundonian friends didn&#39;t even realize&nbsp;that they weren&#39;t speaking globally understood English.&nbsp;</p>

<p>So, you are not alone, and it&#39;s not that you don&#39;t understand&mdash;the other speaker might just be unclear!</p>

<h2>Some common differences in Scottish English to help you understand!</h2>

<h3>There&#39;s no &quot;t&quot;&nbsp;in Sco&#39;land!</h3>

<p>Sco&#39;ish people often don&#39;t pronounce the &quot;t&quot;&nbsp;sound. Words like <em>butter</em>, <em>wetter</em>, and&nbsp;<em>better</em> become &quot;bu&#39;er,&quot;&nbsp;&quot;we&#39;er,&quot;&nbsp;and &quot;be&#39;er.&quot;</p>

<div class="ckeditor-html5-audio" style="text-align: center;">
<audio controls="controls" controlslist="nodownload" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/attachments/5484/scoish.mp3">&nbsp;</audio>
</div>

<p>To speak clearly and be easily understood, it&#39;s best to pronounce your consonant sounds. However, it&#39;s good to know you might hear this in Sco&#39;land.&nbsp;</p>

<h3>&quot;How?&quot;&nbsp;can mean &quot;Why?&quot;</h3>

<p>In Scotland, many people will ask you &quot;How?&quot;&nbsp;when they mean &quot;Why?&quot;</p>

<p>For example:&nbsp;</p>

<blockquote>
<p>A: I will be&nbsp;late.&nbsp;</p>

<p>B: How?&nbsp;</p>
</blockquote>

<p>B wants to know the reason<em> why</em> A will be late.&nbsp;</p>

<h3><strong>Cannae, isnae, wasnae, gonnae</strong></h3>

<p>Instead of &quot;not,&quot;&nbsp;many people in Scotland use &quot;nae.&quot;</p>

<div class="ckeditor-html5-audio" style="text-align: center;">
<audio controls="controls" controlslist="nodownload" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/attachments/5483/Gonnae.mp3">&nbsp;</audio>
</div>

<ul>
	<li>can&#39;t &gt; cannae</li>
	<li>isn&#39;t &gt; isnae</li>
	<li>wasn&#39;t &gt; wasnae</li>
	<li>going to&nbsp;&gt; gonnae</li>
	<li>can you &gt; gonnae</li>
</ul>

<p>&quot;Gonnae&quot; can mean two things. It can mean the future tense &quot;going to.&quot;&nbsp;People also use it to ask someone for help or to do something:&nbsp;</p>

<ul>
	<li>&quot;Gonnae clean your room?&quot;&nbsp;= &quot;Can you clean your room?&quot;</li>
</ul>

<h3>Wee = small</h3>

<p>In Scotland, we use &quot;wee&quot;&nbsp;instead of &quot;small&quot; or &quot;little.&quot; For example:&nbsp;</p>

<div class="ckeditor-html5-audio" style="text-align: center;">
<audio controls="controls" controlslist="nodownload" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/attachments/5482/wee.mp3">&nbsp;</audio>
</div>

<ul>
	<li>Gonnae cut me a wee slice of cake?&nbsp;= Can you cut me a little slice of cake?&nbsp;</li>
	<li>I&#39;m a wee bit tired after that class. = I&#39;m a little tired after that class.&nbsp;</li>
</ul>

<p>When I&#39;m with speakers of English from other places, I try not to use Scots words. But I can&#39;t stop saying &quot;wee.&quot;</p>

<p>This can sometimes cause confusion. Once, I was helping my Australian friend&#39;s child at a playground. He wanted to reach but was too small. I said, &quot;You&#39;re too wee.&quot; His reply was &quot;I&#39;m not a wee-wee.&quot; (&quot;I&#39;m not a pee.&quot;)&nbsp;The wee man had a good point!&nbsp;</p>

<h3>Aye = yes&nbsp;</h3>

<p>In Scotland, people say &quot;aye&quot; instead of &quot;yes&quot; or &quot;yeah.&quot; It sounds the same as &quot;eye&quot; the body part, but has a different meaning.&nbsp;</p>

<div class="ckeditor-html5-audio" style="text-align: center;">
<audio controls="controls" controlslist="nodownload" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/attachments/5476/aye.mp3">&nbsp;</audio>
</div>

<blockquote>
<p>A: Would you like a wee cup of tea?</p>

<p>B: Aye!&nbsp;</p>
</blockquote>

<h3>Yous for plural &quot;you&quot;</h3>

<p>In English, &quot;you&quot; can be one person or many people. In my humble Scottish opinion, this can be quite confusing.&nbsp;</p>

<p>In Scotland, we use &#39;you&#39; for one person and &#39;yous&#39; for many. This might sound strange if you haven&#39;t heard it before, but it makes it much clearer who we are talking about. For example:&nbsp;</p>

<div class="ckeditor-html5-audio" style="text-align: center;">
<audio controls="controls" controlslist="nodownload" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/attachments/5477/yous.mp3">&nbsp;</audio>
</div>

<ul>
	<li>Are you coming to the party? &nbsp;(asking one person if they are coming)</li>
	<li>Are yous coming to the party? (asking two or more people if they are coming)&nbsp;</li>
</ul>

<h3>But = though</h3>

<p>You might hear a lot of sentences ending with &quot;but.&quot; It is commonly used to contrast meaning.&nbsp;</p>

<div class="ckeditor-html5-audio" style="text-align: center;">
<audio controls="controls" controlslist="nodownload" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/attachments/5478/but.mp3">&nbsp;</audio>
</div>

<ul>
	<li>She said she didnae want to come but.&nbsp;</li>
	<li>He&#39;s friendly, but.&nbsp;</li>
</ul>

<p>You might think that the person speaking has forgotten to finish their sentence! They havnae&nbsp;but!</p>

<h3>Bairns vs. weans</h3>

<div class="ckeditor-html5-audio" style="text-align: center;">
<audio controls="controls" controlslist="nodownload" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/attachments/5485/weans.mp3">&nbsp;</audio>
</div>

<p>In West Coast Scots, people use &quot;weans&quot; (pronounced like&nbsp;&quot;wane&quot; or the same sound as&nbsp;&quot;rain&quot;) to talk about children. In the East Coast, people tend to say &quot;bairns&quot; (pronounced like &quot;bear&quot;). You can use this to tell which Scots people speak.&nbsp;</p>

<h3>Who&#39;s Ken?&nbsp;</h3>

<p>In some parts of Scotland, you&#39;ll hear the word &quot;ken&quot; a lot. &quot;Ken&quot; means &quot;know&quot; in Eastern Scotland. This can be confusing as it is also a man&#39;s name.&nbsp;</p>

<div class="ckeditor-html5-audio" style="text-align: center;">
<audio controls="controls" controlslist="nodownload" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/attachments/5481/ken.mp3">&nbsp;</audio>
</div>

<ul>
	<li>&quot;Do you ken whit I mean?&quot; = &quot;Do you know what I mean?&quot;</li>
	<li>&quot;I dinnae ken.&quot; = &quot;I don&#39;t know.&quot;</li>
</ul>

<h3>Cheers = thanks</h3>

<p>One of my students once asked me &quot;Why does everyone say &#39;cheese&#39;&nbsp;when I hold a door open for them or do something nice for them?&quot;&nbsp;</p>

<p>I was confused. &quot;Cheese?&quot;</p>

<p>&quot;Yeah,&quot; the student replied. Then they acted it out.&nbsp;</p>

<ul>
	<li>&quot;Aaaah! Cheers! &#39;Cheers&#39; means &#39;thanks&#39;!&quot;&nbsp;</li>
	<li>&quot;Aaaah!&quot; said my student. &quot;Cheers! I ken now!&quot;</li>
	<li>&quot;Nae bother,&quot; I replied. Because in Scotland that means &quot;no problem&quot; or &quot;no bother.&quot;&nbsp;</li>
</ul>

<h3>Rain</h3>

<p>It rains a lot in Scotland. That&#39;s why we have hunners (hundreds) of words for rain. Here are some:&nbsp;</p>

<div class="ckeditor-html5-audio" style="text-align: center;">
<audio controls="controls" controlslist="nodownload" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/attachments/5479/rain.mp3">&nbsp;</audio>
</div>

<ul>
	<li>drizzle, smirr, mizzle,&nbsp;Scotch mist =&nbsp;light rain&nbsp;</li>
	<li>pouring doon, tipping it doon, chucking it doon&nbsp;=&nbsp;&nbsp;heavy rain (doon = down)</li>
	<li>dreich = not raining, but the sky is dark, gray, and miserable</li>
	<li>drookit = a great adjective to describe when you are soaking wet (probably because it&#39;s pouring doon)</li>
</ul>

<h3>Taps aff or taps oan</h3>

<div class="ckeditor-html5-audio" style="text-align: center;">
<audio controls="controls" controlslist="nodownload" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/attachments/5480/taps-aff.mp3">&nbsp;</audio>
</div>

<p>People in Scotland like to laugh at themselves and the weather. They also get excited when the sun comes out. When the temperature rises over 20&deg;C, some guys like to sit in the park with their tops off&mdash;until their skin burns.&nbsp;</p>

<p>This is why we use the terms&nbsp;&quot;taps aff&quot; and &quot;taps oan&quot;&nbsp;to describe the weather.&nbsp;</p>

<ul>
	<li>A &quot;taps aff&quot; (tops off) day is when it is hot enough to enjoy the sunshine with light summer clothing.&nbsp;</li>
	<li>A &quot;taps oan&quot; (tops on) day is a day when it is chucking it doon, drizzly, dreich, or cold enough to wear all your clothes.&nbsp;&nbsp;</li>
</ul>

<p>If you would like to get your weather this way, check out <a href="https://www.taps-aff.co.uk/" target="_blank">Taps-Aff.co.uk</a>!</p>

<h2>More on Scottish English</h2>

<p>To learn more about Scottish English, search online for films and TV from Scotland. I&#39;d recommend:&nbsp;</p>

<ul>
	<li>Film:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1924394/" target="_blank">The Angel&#39;s Share</a></li>
	<li>Film:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0380366/?ref_=fn_t_1" target="_blank">Aye Fond Kiss</a></li>
	<li>Film:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3823098/" target="_blank">Edie</a></li>
	<li>TV: <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3006802/" target="_blank">Outlander</a></li>
	<li>TV: <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0108803/?ref_=fn_i_2" target="_blank">The High Life&nbsp;</a></li>
	<li>TV: <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0155450/?ref_=fn_i_1" target="_blank">Para Handy</a></li>
</ul>

<p>I&#39;d also recommend <a href="https://thescottishsoundschool.com/watch-and-listen" target="_blank">The Scottish Sound School</a>. You&#39;ll find a lot of videos and other content by language expert Gemma Archer there.&nbsp;</p>

<blockquote>
<p>Have you been to Scotland? Do you have favorite Scots words? What experience do you have of speaking to Scots English speakers? We&#39;d love to know.&nbsp;</p>
</blockquote>


Essential Scottish for English Language Learners: Common Phrases & Expressions

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<p><a href="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/attachments/5465/Ellii-WIDA-Alignment-Overview.pdf">Download the&nbsp;summary: How Ellii Supports WIDA-aligned K&ndash;12 English Language Programs (2026)</a><br />
<br />
<em>Updated&nbsp;May 7, 2026</em></p>

<blockquote>
<p>&quot;ESL Library (now Ellii) was founded in 2002 as a resource site for English teachers. The materials are designed to enhance, complement, or supplement curriculum. New materials are added every month. The lessons include relevant, thought-provoking materials that focus on real-world issues, historical events, and natural dialogues geared toward teens and adults. There are also kid-friendly lessons for young learners and middle schoolers as well as lessons for literacy classrooms.&quot;</p>

<p class="attribution">&mdash;<a href="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/attachments/2448/ESLLibrary__1__2.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">WIDA PRIME Correlator</a></p>
</blockquote>

<p>Does your school follow the <a href="https://wida.wisc.edu/">WIDA Standards Framework</a>? If yes, you may be wondering if Ellii (formerly ESL Library) is a good fit for your school.</p>

<p>WIDA uses a special correlation process called PRIME, which stands for Protocol for Review of Instructional Materials for ELLs. The main purpose of PRIME is to help educators in the K&ndash;12 space understand the relevance of materials that are available for their language programs.</p>

<p>In early 2021, a WIDA&nbsp;PRIME&nbsp;V2 correlator spent a week reviewing Ellii&#39;s (formerly ESL&nbsp;Library&#39;s) offerings. They looked at our&nbsp;correlation to WIDA&#39;s Standard Framework as well as connections to the ELD Standards.</p>

<p>You can view the full <a href="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/attachments/2448/ESLLibrary__1__2.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">WIDA Correlation for ESL&nbsp;Library</a> on WIDA&#39;s PRIME inventory page (with referenced examples taken from a variety of materials and sections on&nbsp;our site).* Here is an abridged&nbsp;summary:</p>

<ul class="resources">
	<li class="correct">Materials are asset-based.</li>
	<li class="correct">Materials feature academic language.</li>
	<li class="correct">Materials address language features appropriately and consistently at the discourse dimension for all proficiency&nbsp;levels.</li>
	<li class="correct">Materials address language features appropriately and consistently at the sentence dimension for all proficiency&nbsp;levels.</li>
	<li class="correct">Materials address language features appropriately and consistently at the word/phrase dimension for all proficiency&nbsp;levels.</li>
	<li class="correct">Differentiation of language is addressed throughout the materials and is developmentally and linguistically appropriate for the proficiency&nbsp;levels.</li>
	<li class="correct">The four language domains are targeted and integrated throughout the&nbsp;materials.</li>
	<li class="correct">Social and instructional language are&nbsp;included in the&nbsp;materials.</li>
	<li class="correct">Materials encourage language learners to engage in higher-thinking skills at all&nbsp;levels.</li>
	<li class="correct">Materials cover a range of language functions that are incorporated into a communicative&nbsp;goal.</li>
</ul>

<p><img alt="WIDA PRIME V2 Correlation Seal" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/1731/content_WIDA-PRIME-v2-seal-TM.png" /></p>

<p>As you review the official <a href="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/attachments/2448/ESLLibrary__1__2.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">WIDA Correlation</a>, please note that Ellii (formerly ESL&nbsp;Library) is not currently licensing WIDA terminology, which means we cannot explicitly reference WIDA standards and descriptors in our materials.</p>

<h2>2021&nbsp;Updates</h2>

<p>We&#39;re always striving to make improvements! A new Young Learner filter has been added to the site since WIDA&#39;s correlation. Other <a href="https://ellii.com/blog/feature-updates-2021">recent developments</a> include teacher discretion labels, digital speaking tasks, and <a href="https://ellii.com/collections">collections</a>. Ellii&#39;s (formerly ESL&nbsp;Library&#39;s) new collections make it easier for teachers to sort and filter relevant content by theme, function, and academic subject&nbsp;as well as by age-appropriateness and proficiency level. Finally, our new <a href="https://ellii.com/folders/published">Ellii Folders</a>, curated by the publishing team, support the progression of language development and have been popular with our K⁠&ndash;⁠12&nbsp;teachers.</p>

<p>Teachers can also change their account settings to display ELD proficiency levels and grade band settings.&nbsp;</p>

<p>A special thank you to the folks at WIDA for your careful consideration of our materials and&nbsp;site!</p>

<p>*If the link does not open a PDF, please visit <a href="https://www.widaprime.org/correlated-instructional-materials">WIDA&#39;s PRIME inventory</a> and type ESL Library as a search term.</p>

<h2>Related</h2>

<ul class="resources">
	<li class="collection"><a href="https://ellii.com/collections/academic-subjects">Academic Subjects Collection</a></li>
	<li class="blog-post"><a href="https://ellii.com/blog/wida-conference-2018">WIDA Conference 2018: Highlights &amp; Takeaways</a></li>
	<li class="external-link"><a href="https://www.casas.org/qs/Publisher/Show/805" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">CASAS Quick Search</a> (New CASAS Collections coming soon!)</li>
</ul>


WIDA Correlation: A Seal for Ellii 

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<p>Even though English is global, it is spoken differently in many parts of the world. American and British English are probably the most commonly taught in language classrooms. Ellii, for example, is a<a href="https://ellii.com/blog/spelling-variations-in-ellii-materials"> </a>Canadian company, but it offers language learning content in American, Canadian, and British English.&nbsp;</p>

<p>Around the world, about 75 countries have English as an officical language. Countries like&nbsp;Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, and South Africa are the obvious ones. There&#39;s also&nbsp;Nigeria, Singapore, India, Philllipines, and many others.&nbsp;</p>

<p>On a recent trip to Australia, I learned that Scottish English and Australian English have many differences. I had to use my communication skills to help me understand and be understood.&nbsp;</p>

<p>It was an excellent reminder that even so-called &quot;native&quot; speakers can misunderstand each other!</p>

<h2>How can we communicate across many different Englishes?&nbsp;</h2>

<p>Different countries use different words, pronounce things in different ways, and&nbsp;have different grammar. For example, Scotland and Australia have different words for many things and use&nbsp;different vowel sounds.&nbsp;</p>

<p>In order to be understood, I used my communication skills:&nbsp;</p>

<ul>
	<li>I slowed down.</li>
	<li>I left&nbsp;spaces between my&nbsp;words.</li>
	<li>I asked people to rephrase or repeat what they said.</li>
	<li>I asked questions to check I&nbsp;(and they) understood.</li>
	<li>I tried using different words or saying things in different ways.</li>
	<li>I pronounced consonsant sounds clearly and changed the vowel sounds in some of my words.</li>
	<li>I avoided using Scottish words and learned some Australian ones to use instead.</li>
</ul>

<p>In this blog post, I want to tell the world that we<strong> all</strong> have to change how we communicate&nbsp;in order to be understood.&nbsp;</p>

<p>I also want to tell language learners that even people who speak English very well can misunderstand each other.&nbsp;</p>

<p>And I want to share some Australian English that helped me understand the people&nbsp;I met. I still speak English my own way, but I do occasionally use some of these words to be understood.&nbsp;</p>

<h2>Australians shorten words with &quot;y&quot; or &quot;o&quot;&nbsp;</h2>

<p>In Australia, people like to shorten words. They do this by adding &quot;o&quot;&nbsp;or &quot;y/ie/ies.&quot; They do this even with friends&#39; names. For example:&nbsp;</p>

<h3>-y/ie/ies:</h3>

<ul>
	<li>Mel (popular girl&#39;s name) &gt; Melly</li>
	<li>Australian &gt; Aussie</li>
	<li>volunteer &gt; vollie</li>
	<li>schnitzel (popular dish of crumbed meat) &gt; schnitie</li>
	<li>parmigiana (schnitzel topping of ham and tomato sauce) &gt; parmi</li>
</ul>

<h3>o:&nbsp;</h3>

<ul>
	<li>Damien &gt; Damo&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;</li>
	<li>Dave &gt; Davo</li>
	<li>service station &nbsp;&gt; servo&nbsp;(US: gas station, UK: petrol station)</li>
</ul>

<h2>Heaps</h2>

<p>In Australia, it is more common to say &quot;heaps&quot; instead of &quot;lots&quot;&nbsp;or &quot;loads.&quot; For example:&nbsp;</p>

<p>A: How many lollies are there?&nbsp;</p>

<p>B: There are heaps of lollies.&nbsp;</p>

<h2>Lollies are not lollipops!</h2>

<p>In the UK, lollies come on a stick. Most commonly, they are a boiled sweet on a paper stick, but they may also be frozen &quot;ice lollies&quot;&nbsp;on a wooden stick.&nbsp;</p>

<p>In Australia, lollies are any sweet (or candy, if you use American English)&mdash;boiled, chewy, on a stick, or in a wrapper. If it&#39;s made with <em>heaps</em> of sugar, it&#39;s a lolly!</p>

<p>My nephews and nieces introduced me to the idea of a &quot;long way lolly.&quot; In the&nbsp;UK, this would be a &quot;car sweet.&quot;&nbsp;I&#39;m not sure if this phrase is used across Australia&nbsp;or just by nephews and nieces to make their auntie buy them sweets! Either way, we were driving a long way, so we bought heaps of lollies to keep us going!</p>

<h2>How you going?&nbsp;</h2>

<p>This greeting was perhaps what surprised me the most about Australian English. Instead of asking &quot;How are you?,&quot; &quot;How are you doing?,&quot; or &quot;How&#39;s things?,&quot; Aussies will say &quot;How you going?&quot;&nbsp;</p>

<p>The answers remain the same. &quot;Good,&quot; &quot;Well,&quot; &quot;Alright.&quot; Much like in British English, no one really wants to hear a long answer or a sad, negative reply!&nbsp;</p>

<h2>G&#39;day, mate!</h2>

<p>To say &quot;hello&quot;&nbsp;to someone, Aussies often use &quot;hi,&quot; &quot;hey,&quot;&nbsp;and &quot;How you going?,&quot;&nbsp;but they&#39;ll also use the more stereotypically Aussie &quot;G&#39;day, mate!,&quot; shortened from &quot;Good day, mate!&quot;</p>

<p>Many of the people who said &quot;G&#39;day, mate!&quot;&nbsp;to me had never met me before. In Australia, &quot;mate&quot;&nbsp;is a friendly greeting as much as it means &quot;friends.&quot;</p>

<p>Hearing this reminded me a lot of Scotland. We like to say &quot;Alright, pal!&quot; to people we have never met before.&nbsp;</p>

<h2>Other random words</h2>

<p>I could write&nbsp;forever about the words and phrases I&#39;ve learned in Australia. But I need to stop and start summarizing somewhere.&nbsp;</p>

<p>Here are some more interesting differences:&nbsp;</p>

<ul>
	<li>fairy floss (Aus) - cotton candy (US) - candy floss (UK)</li>
	<li>paddock (Aus) - field (US/UK)</li>
	<li>thongs (Aus) - flip-flops (US/UK)</li>
	<li>op shop:&nbsp;opportunity&nbsp;shop&nbsp;(Aus) - thrift store (US) - charity shop (UK)</li>
	<li>gum tree (Aus) - eucalyptus tree (US &amp; UK)</li>
	<li>rug (Aus) - blanket (UK)</li>
	<li>pathway (Aus) - pavement (UK) - sidewalk (US)</li>
</ul>

<blockquote>
<p>What experience do you have with Australian English or other Englishes? We&#39;d love to know. Please share your experiences with us so we can learn more!</p>
</blockquote>

<p>Here are some other posts, lessons, and collections&nbsp;that we think you&#39;ll like:&nbsp;</p>

<p><a href="https://ellii.com/blog/english-belongs-to-everyone-here-s-how-to-own-your-english">English Belongs to Everyone: Here&#39;s How to Own Your English!</a></p>

<p><a href="https://ellii.com/lesson/1889">Australia Day</a></p>

<p><a href="https://ellii.com/lesson/2601">Kangaroos</a></p>

<p><a href="https://ellii.com/collections/nations-regions/oceania">Oceania</a></p>

<p>&nbsp;</p>

<p>&nbsp;</p>

<p>&nbsp;</p>

<p>&nbsp;</p>

<p>&nbsp;</p>

<p>&nbsp;</p>

<p>&nbsp;</p>

<p>&nbsp;</p>

<p>&nbsp;</p>

<p>&nbsp;</p>


Australian English for ESL Learners: Common Phrases & Expressions for Clear Communication

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Learn how to make the most of your Ellii subscription with tips from our publishing team.

Teaching with Ellii

<p>At Ellii, we have a variety of lessons, resources, courses, and visuals that you can use in your classes to explore career pathways.</p>

<p>If your students are not quite ready for full workplace courses, our&nbsp;<a href="https://ellii.com/lessons/career-pathways" target="_blank">Career Pathways</a>&nbsp;lesson section offers simple lessons on a variety of jobs categorized by career cluster.</p>

<p>These exploratory digital lessons are intended for high-beginner to low-intermediate learners. At Ellii, we understand that digital literacy is an essential skill to explore with your students.</p>

<p>If you haven&#39;t tried assigning digital lessons with your adult learners, this is a great section to start with. The digital lessons in this section follow a simple, familiar template. We use straightforward instructions and a consistent lesson flow to help your students become comfortable with our most common digital task types: vocabulary, reading and listening, comprehension, and quiz. You can also use these lessons with higher-level students by incorporating extra communicative tasks&mdash;ideas we&#39;ll be sharing in this post.&nbsp;</p>

<h2>What&#39;s new?&nbsp;</h2>

<p>In addition to adding dozens of new digital lessons to this section, we&#39;ve added <strong>one-page printable career summaries&nbsp;</strong>to each Career Pathways lesson. This handout gives students something physical to hold on to and take notes on as they work through the digital lesson. You can print these summaries out or present and annotate them on a whiteboard. By default, your students will receive the PDF in their assignment when you add it to a class (unless you uncheck the PDF box&mdash;see below). You can add a note if you want students to use or print the PDF. Please show your students exactly where to find the PDF handout on their student dashboard.</p>

<h3>Where teachers include the PDF version (and where students can find it)</h3>

<p><img alt="How to add a note and include the PDF in your assignment on Ellii" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/5423/content_teacher-pdf-note.png" /><br />
<img alt="where a student can find the PDF in an Ellii assignment" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/5422/content_student-pdf.png" /><br />
<br />
Here is what the career summaries look like.&nbsp;</p>

<p><img alt="career summary chart for construction workers" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/5420/content_Screenshot_2026-04-29_at_11.13.02_AM.png" /></p>

<p>Below are some suggested activities that you can do with these additional handouts either before or after you work through the related lesson.</p>

<h2>Warm-ups</h2>

<p>Before doing or assigning the full lesson, present the summary chart and give students a chance to write down anything they know or want to know about the profession. Ask for a show of hands to find out:</p>

<ul>
	<li>if students are interested in doing this type of work</li>
	<li>why students might or might not be drawn to this career</li>
	<li>what related jobs there might be</li>
	<li>if they know anyone who does this work&mdash;and if so, what that person likes or doesn&#39;t like about their job</li>
	<li>how this job compares to another career you&#39;ve been discussing in class</li>
</ul>

<h2>Pair &amp; group activities</h2>

<p>The classroom setting is ideal for exploring these summaries further. Here are some activity ideas:</p>

<p><strong>Jigsaw Expert:</strong> Give each student a different career to summarize and then put students in groups to share what they&#39;ve learned. Encourage students to jot down notes from the discussion onto their chart.</p>

<p><strong>Speed Dating: </strong>Each student gets a different career chart to ask and answer questions about for a short, timed exchange.</p>

<p><strong>Mock Interviews: </strong>Distribute a variety of career summary charts and place students in pairs to role-play as interviewer and interviewee for the career they receive.</p>

<h2>Writing &amp; research</h2>

<p><strong>Paragraph Summary</strong>: Invite students to write a paragraph summarizing the information from the chart.</p>

<p><strong>Job Ads:</strong> Have students write a short job ad for the career based on information from the chart and the reading.</p>

<p><strong>Compare &amp; Contrast:</strong> Encourage students to compare this career to another one you&#39;ve already covered. Provide some useful sentence stems to support the writing.</p>

<p><strong>One More Thing:</strong> After completing the lesson, have students add one thing they learned from the reading that isn&#39;t already on the chart. Take it a step further by encouraging them to do a little research of their own&mdash;what&#39;s one thing they could teach someone else about this career that wasn&#39;t covered in class?</p>

<p><strong>Is This Career for Me?:</strong> Encourage students to journal informally about the careers you explore. Is this a career worth considering? Why or why not? This&nbsp;is also an optional speaking task in each lesson.</p>

<blockquote>
<p>What ideas do you have for using these career summaries in a classroom setting?</p>
</blockquote>


How to Use Ellii's Career Summary Charts

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Ellii & the English Language Proficiency Standards (ELPS) for Adult Education

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<h1>A new way to check in on your students</h1>

<p>We know how much time teachers spend clicking through assignments to piece together how a student is doing,&nbsp;so we built something to help. We&#39;ve added a new <strong>Activity</strong> tab right inside the class page&nbsp;so you can now look at results student by student across all their assignments&nbsp;instead of having to go assignment by assignment. It&#39;s a small addition, but it makes a big difference when you&#39;re trying to get a sense of how an individual learner is progressing.</p>

<h2>We call this new feature Student Activity Reports</h2>

<p>The navigation works like flipping through a stack of pages. Click on any student, then a lesson, and then a task, and each view layers on top of the last. The edge of the previous sheet stays visible&nbsp;so you can quickly flip back to it.</p>

<p>We also put a lot of thought into making the navigation feel predictable. Moving between students and assignments, you&#39;ll always know where you are and how to get back. No unexpected dead ends mid session.</p>

<p>We hope you like it. Give it a try and let us know what you think. And stay tuned for more enhancements to our reporting tools coming soon!</p>

<div style="position: relative; padding-bottom: 99.26470588235296%; height: 0;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" mozallowfullscreen="" src="https://www.loom.com/embed/6801f95d4c154a2d808653a3c4f1e616" style="position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%;" webkitallowfullscreen=""></iframe></div>

<p>&nbsp;</p>


Introducing Student Activity Reports

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Posts describing lessons or activities for the ESL classroom.

Activities

<p>[<em>Listen to the full post.</em>]</p>

<div class="ckeditor-html5-audio" style="text-align: center;">
<audio controls="controls" controlslist="nodownload" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/attachments/5399/Heteronyms_Full_Post.mp3">&nbsp;</audio>
</div>

<p>Recently on Instagram, @imgur posted a column titled &ldquo;Why English Is So Hard to Learn&rdquo; from an undated, unnamed newspaper. In the column, writer Marlene Davis uses 20 sentences to illustrate how English can be rather tricky.</p>

<p>Quite a few Instagram users disagreed with Davis&rsquo;s premise that English is indeed a difficult language. One user referred to English as &ldquo;the fast food of languages,&rdquo; while another lamented that &ldquo;literally no one aside from native English speakers thinks that English is hard.&rdquo; Nonetheless, Davis has chosen an interesting linguistic feature to consider. Her focus is on <strong>heteronyms</strong>.</p>

<p>In this post, I&rsquo;m going to explain what heteronyms are and list Davis&rsquo;s sentences. I&rsquo;ll also suggest a few activities you can use with advanced ELLs.</p>

<h2>Defining heteronyms</h2>

<p>Oxford Languages defines heteronyms as follows: </p>

<blockquote>
<p>each of two or more words that are&nbsp;spelled&nbsp;identically&nbsp;but have different sounds and meanings, such as&nbsp;tear meaning &ldquo;rip&rdquo; and&nbsp;tear meaning &ldquo;liquid from the eye&rdquo;</p>
</blockquote>

<p>The key to this definition is that, unlike homophones (think &ldquo;bat&rdquo; as in a nocturnal flying mammal and &ldquo;bat&rdquo; as in a piece of metal or wood used to hit a baseball), heteronyms have <strong>different pronunciations</strong> in addition to having <strong>different meanings</strong>.</p>

<h2>Davis&rsquo;s examples</h2>

<p>Though you may not often find a set of heteronyms in the same sentence in the real world, Davis&rsquo;s examples do not sound entirely unnatural. Here&rsquo;s her complete list:<br />
<br />
<em>[Listen to just the list. Right click to save.]</em></p>

<div class="ckeditor-html5-audio" style="text-align: center;">
<audio controls="controls" controlslist="nodownload" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/attachments/5401/Heteronyms_List_Only.mp3">&nbsp;</audio>
</div>

<ol>
	<li>The bandage was wound around the wound.</li>
	<li>The farm was cultivated to produce produce.</li>
	<li>The dump was so full that the workers had to refuse more refuse.</li>
	<li>We must polish the Polish furniture shown at the store.</li>
	<li>He could lead if he would get the lead out.</li>
	<li>The soldier decided to desert his tasty dessert in the desert.</li>
	<li>Since there is no time like the present, he thought it was time to present the present to his girlfriend.</li>
	<li>A bass was painted on the head of the bass drum.</li>
	<li>When shot at, the dove dove into the bushes.</li>
	<li>I did not object to the object which he showed me.</li>
	<li>The insurance was invalid for the invalid in his hospital bed.</li>
	<li>There was a row among the oarsmen about who would row.</li>
	<li>They were too close to the door to close it.</li>
	<li>The buck does funny things when the does (females) are present.</li>
	<li>A seamstress and a sewer fell down into a sewer line.</li>
	<li>To help with planting, the farmer taught his sow to sow.</li>
	<li>The wind was too strong to wind the sail around the mast.</li>
	<li>Upon seeing the tear in her painting, she shed a tear.</li>
	<li>I had to subject the subject to a series of tests.</li>
	<li>How can I intimate this to my most intimate friend?</li>
</ol>

<p><img alt="" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/5400/content_why-english-is-so-hard-to-learn.png" /></p>

<h2>Suggested activities</h2>

<ol>
	<li>Read Davis&rsquo;s sentences out loud as students write them down. Then have students circle the heteronyms in each one. See if they can figure out the meanings and then write two new sentences that clearly show what each heteronym means.</li>
	<li>If you choose not to do the first activity, give students a copy of the sentences or write them on&nbsp;the board. Have students identify the part of speech of each heteronym.</li>
	<li>Ask students to work out the stress pattern for the two-syllable nouns and verbs in Sentences 2, 3, 6, 10, and 19. (If the word is a noun, the stress falls on the first syllable. If the word is a verb, the stress falls on the second syllable.)</li>
	<li>Have students look up the following heteronyms and make note of their pronunciation, part of speech, and definition: resume, minute,&nbsp;live, bow, windy, convict, record, excuse, sake, appropriate.</li>
	<li>Allow students to choose three or four of the heteronym pairs in activity #4 and write a sentence for each set.</li>
	<li>Have students dictate their sentences to a partner. Then have the partner read the sentences back.</li>
</ol>

<p></p>

<p></p>

Using Heteronyms to Challenge Advanced ELLs

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<p>Join Anna and Sh&eacute; on the latest episode of&nbsp;<a href="https://www.teacherthinkaloud.com/" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">The Teacher Think-Aloud Podcast</a>&nbsp;as they explore a practical and research-informed approach to grammar instruction with ESL teacher and founder of&nbsp;<a href="https://www.eslgrammargallery.com/" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">The ESL Grammar Gallery</a>, Audrea Gold. Together they unpack the NUFU framework&mdash;Noticing, Understanding, Forming, and Using&mdash;and what it offers teachers who want to move beyond rule-based grammar teaching toward more meaningful, communicative practice.</p>

<p>This conversation challenges the idea that grammar should be taught as isolated structures to memorize, instead positioning it as a tool for meaning-making and expression. Audrea walks listeners through each stage of the NUFU framework, showing how intentional sequencing&mdash;from exposure to application&mdash;can help learners not only understand grammar, but actually use it with confidence.&nbsp;</p>

<blockquote>&ldquo;The NUFU framework asks how we can put less of the onus on teachers and more on the students so that they take more responsibility for their learning and are more engaged as a result.&rdquo; &mdash; Audrea Gold</blockquote>

<p>Through concrete examples, reflective insights, and classroom-ready ideas, this episode invites educators to rethink how grammar is introduced, practiced, and applied&mdash;offering a clear pathway toward instruction that truly sticks.</p>

<div class="videoWrapper"><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Abv-cwwCP9Q?si=6rrKUZ80PZ8rNNNL" title="YouTube video player" width="640"></iframe></div>

<p>🎙️&nbsp;<strong>Listen now on your favorite platform:</strong></p>

<ul>
	<li><a href="https://www.teacherthinkaloud.com/episodes" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">The Teacher Think-Aloud Podcast</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://www.youtube.com/@thinkaloud_pod" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">YouTube</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/2zv5mVNpSqkDNiNbQlnm7B" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">Spotify</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/the-teacher-think-aloud-podcast/id1629819608" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">Apple Podcasts</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;</li>
</ul>

<p>🔗&nbsp;<strong>Follow The Teacher Think-Aloud Podcast on social media for more updates:</strong></p>

<ul>
	<li><a href="https://www.facebook.com/teacherthinkaloud" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">Facebook</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://www.instagram.com/thinkaloud_pod/" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">Instagram</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://bsky.app/profile/thinkaloudpod.bsky.social" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">Bluesky</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@thinkaloud_pod" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">TikTok</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/teacher-think-aloud/" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">LinkedIn</a></li>
</ul>


Rethinking Grammar Instruction with the NUFU Framework

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<p>The Ellii team is back from another spring conference&mdash;<a href="https://www.coabe.org/coabe-2026" target="_blank">COABE 2026</a> in Indianapolis. This year, five of us made the trip, some racing in from other trips to&nbsp;<a href="https://ellii.com/blog/celebrating-60-years-of-tesol-in-salt-lake-city-utah" target="_blank">TESOL</a> and Japan! We gathered&nbsp;from various states and provinces:&nbsp;Columbus, Ohio (Teacher Trainer Christine), the San Francisco&nbsp;Bay Area (Teacher Trainer Kylie), Richmond, Virginia (Editor Ann), Windsor, Ontario (VP of Publishing Tara), and Winnipeg, Manitoba (CEO &amp; Founder Ben).</p>

<p>As a remote team, it was the first time some of us met in person. For me, finally connecting face-to-face with our new(ish) teacher trainers who joined us at COABE for the first time was the standout memory of the trip.</p>

<p><img alt="The Ellii booth with Ann and Christine and some COABE attendees" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/5385/content_image-1.jpg" /></p>

<p class="caption">At the Ellii booth with editor Ann and teacher trainer Christine and some COABE attendees</p>

<p><img alt="Kylie and a former student" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/5386/content_image-5.jpg" /></p>

<p class="caption">Teacher trainer&nbsp;Kylie with a former student</p>

<h2>#ELT Trending Topics at COABE 2026</h2>

<p>At Ellii, spring conference season is one of our busiest times of year.&nbsp;Whether large or small, conferences often have a standout theme or &ldquo;hot topic&rdquo;&mdash;the kind that fills sessions to standing room only.&nbsp;In recent years, we&rsquo;ve seen trends emerge around <a href="https://ellii.com/packs?page=1&amp;level=&amp;material=&amp;category=45">civics and citizenship</a>, <a href="https://ellii.com/packs?page=1&amp;level=&amp;material=&amp;category=44" target="_blank">family literacy</a>, <a href="https://ellii.com/collections/english-foundations/adult-literacy" target="_blank">SLIFE</a>, and, of course, AI.</p>

<p>This year, however, felt a little less focused&nbsp;on AI and what it can and can&#39;t do. In fact, as our editor Ann pointed out, COABE 2026 didn&rsquo;t seem to have one clear overarching theme at all, and I&rsquo;d agree. Beyond the expected focus on <a href="https://ellii.com/packs?page=1&amp;level=&amp;material=&amp;category=6" target="_blank">workplace</a> in adult education, a range of topics surfaced across sessions.</p>

<p>Some of the most common themes included:</p>

<ul>
	<li>Career pathways</li>
	<li>Digital literacy (Ellii&#39;s theme of the year for 2026)</li>
	<li>Soft skills&nbsp;(Ellii&#39;s theme of the year for 2025)</li>
	<li>Financial literacy</li>
	<li>Assessment</li>
	<li>Speaking</li>
	<li>Differentiation</li>
</ul>

<h2>Top Speakers &amp; Sessions</h2>

<p>Ellii always sponsors, exhibits, and presents at conferences like COABE. This year, Christine did&nbsp;a&nbsp;demo of <a href="https://ellii.com/blog/ellii-polls" target="_blank">Ellii Polls</a> &amp; <a href="https://ellii.com/blog/announcing-ellii-dilemmas" target="_blank">Dilemmas</a>, and had some fun talks with attendees about <a href="https://ellii.com/gather/polls/tipping" target="_blank">tipping</a> and <a href="https://ellii.com/gather/dilemmas/the-dinner-bill" target="_blank">splitting the bill</a>. Kylie talked about <a href="https://ellii.com/collections/english-foundations/adult-literacy" target="_blank">Adult Literacy</a> and showcased our <a href="https://ellii.com/lessons/first-five" target="_blank">First Five</a> section. In my role as head of publishing, my primary focus was attending sessions and learning from teachers, administrators, and fellow publishers to ensure we&rsquo;re on the right track. Our head editor Ann was busy doing important research too!&nbsp;</p>

<p><img alt="Ellii Booth COABE 2026" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/5387/content_image-7.jpg" /></p>

<p>These conferences play a key role in helping the Publishing team plan and refine our offerings for the year ahead, and we rely heavily on the insights we gather at COABE. Writing an annual reflection also gives me something to revisit the following year. I like to highlight a few of my favorite sessions&mdash;both for those who couldn&rsquo;t attend and as a way to consider how these ideas can be applied to my work at Ellii.</p>

<p>Here are three sessions that stood out above the others at COABE 2026:</p>

<h3>#1 &ndash; The Gift of the Gab: Empowering Adult ESL Students&nbsp;to Speak</h3>

<p><strong>Presenter:</strong> Claudette Session</p>

<p><strong>Focus:</strong> low-anxiety activities to get ELLs talking and building oral proficiency</p>

<p>This was the first session I attended, and it set a fantastic tone for the conference. Claudette packed it with practical ideas, all centered on engaging speaking activities.</p>

<h3>Core Speaking Skills</h3>

<ul>
	<li>requesting</li>
	<li>expressing</li>
	<li>explaining&nbsp;</li>
	<li>directing</li>
	<li>offering</li>
	<li>describing&nbsp;</li>
</ul>

<h3>Tips from Claudette</h3>

<ul>
	<li>ELLs are more engaged when talking about topics they enjoy.</li>
	<li>Familiar topics help build confidence and fluency.</li>
	<li>Teachers should provide lots of practice with third-person forms (e.g., reporting what someone said or did).</li>
	<li>Using visuals&mdash;especially candid photos&mdash;is an effective and safe conversation starter.</li>
	<li>Teachers should set clear speaking expectations early. Meet with students individually if possible, allowing shy learners extra time while still encouraging full participation.</li>
	<li>Teachers should try recasting errors instead of directly correcting students in a classroom setting.</li>
	<li>Tracking common errors during class allows teachers to&nbsp;address problems in short review lessons rather than singling out students.</li>
	<li>Establish simple visual cues (like Claudette&#39;s&nbsp;&ldquo;do&rdquo; stick) to remind&nbsp;students when they are making a common error (such as forgetting &quot;do&quot; in a sentence).</li>
</ul>

<h3>Speaking Activities</h3>

<ul>
	<li>Guess the Photo: students have to ask Yes/No or information questions until they can guess a picture that only a teacher (or one student) can see</li>
	<li>Fast Stories: students retell something&nbsp;three times, getting faster each time (can also be done for reading fluency)</li>
	<li>Story in a Bag: students receive&nbsp;five items (or photos of the items) and have to create the story</li>
	<li>Foodie Talk: students post pictures of something that has been in their fridge too long and describe it</li>
	<li>One-Minute Podcasts: students record how to do something, such as how to get rid of the hiccups</li>
</ul>

<blockquote>
<p>Milk it!<br />
<br />
~ Claudette Session on getting the most out of an activity or task</p>
</blockquote>

<h3>Ellii Takeaways about Speaking</h3>

<p>This session gave me some great ideas for a new <a href="https://ellii.com/lessons/photo-prompts" target="_blank"><strong>Photo Prompts</strong></a> series featuring candid photos. I would also like to add some How-To prompts in our <a href="https://ellii.com/lessons/speaking-in-english"><strong>Speaking&nbsp;in English</strong></a> section too. Claudette definitely has the gift of the gab and would be a great speaker to invite to our next ElliiCon!&nbsp;</p>

<hr />
<h3>#2 The English Language Proficiency Standards: Cracking the Code</h3>

<p><strong>Presenters:</strong> Jenny Siegfried &amp; Catherine Porter</p>

<p><strong>Focus:</strong> discovering key concepts and skills in the standards;&nbsp;enhancing ESOL lessons for ELPS alignment</p>

<p>In this session, the speakers helped crack the code behind the English Language Proficiency Standards, challenging attendees to come up with one word or phrase for each of the standards. This was a practical lesson for me&nbsp;since we&#39;ve been adding these standards to all of our content at the section level&nbsp;and tweaking them at the lesson level. Being able to associate each standard to one word or phrase is super helpful for tagging content.&nbsp;</p>

<h3>Ellii Takeaways about the ELPS</h3>

<p>It is time to add the&nbsp;English Language Proficiency Standards to Ellii&#39;s interactive activities (Ellii Polls &amp; Dilemmas).<br />
<br />
Here are the ELPS that apply to <a href="https://ellii.com/gather/polls" target="_blank">Ellii Polls</a> &amp; <a href="https://ellii.com/gather/dilemmas" target="_blank">Dilemmas</a>:&nbsp;</p>

<ul>
	<li>ELP 2 (two-way communication)</li>
	<li>ELP 4 (claims &amp; evidence)</li>
	<li>ELP 6 (evaluate &amp; reasoning)</li>
	<li>ELP 7 (register / adapt language)</li>
	<li>ELP 8 (understanding vocabulary)</li>
	<li>ELP 9 (coherence)</li>
	<li>ELP 10 (grammatical conventions)</li>
</ul>

<p><img alt="ELPS Coabe" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/5390/content_ELPS-coabe_2026.jpg" /></p>

<hr />
<h3>#3 Skillful Living Now: Developing a Soft Skills Course for Adult Learners</h3>

<p><strong>Presenter:</strong> Ray Agliata</p>

<p><strong>Focus: </strong>tools to help adult learners develop critical soft skills for today&#39;s workforce, including&nbsp;communication, adaptability, and leadership</p>

<p>Soft skills was Ellii&#39;s theme of the year for 2025, so I was eager to attend this session to find out how our <a href="https://ellii.com/packs/soft-skills-for-hospitality-workers" target="_blank">Soft Skills for Hospitality Workers</a>&nbsp;course measured up.</p>

<p>Ray Agliata, an author, shared a statistic that 89% of the reasons people don&rsquo;t succeed in the workplace are related to soft skills.</p>

<h3>10 Soft Skills Hiring Managers Are Looking for in 2026</h3>

<ol>
	<li>Attitude</li>
	<li>Attendance</li>
	<li>Appearance</li>
	<li>Confidence</li>
	<li>Leadership</li>
	<li>Communication</li>
	<li>Work Ethic &amp; Self-Motivation</li>
	<li>Flexibility &amp; Adaptability</li>
	<li>Teamwork</li>
	<li>Problem-Solving</li>
</ol>

<p>After sharing notes about these top skills, Ray&nbsp;walked attendees through how to build their own soft skills courses. His #1 design tip was to think like TikTok, creating small bits of information that can be consumed quickly.&nbsp;He also suggested using real, exceptional people that you know in your own life to be a source of inspiration for your materials. Ray talked about using Keri Mandell, his friend, in his course. She&nbsp;completed seven marathons in seven days in seven continents. That must have taken all 10 soft skills!</p>

<blockquote>
<p>&quot;Don&#39;t do it on your lunch hour. That&#39;s ridiculous!&quot;&nbsp;<br />
~ Ray Agliata on creating your own courses</p>
</blockquote>

<p>He reminded us that adult learners need learning to be <em>relevant</em>, <em>achievable</em>, and <em>applicable</em>. I&#39;d say this is also the case for conference session attendees! I found this session to be all of the above.&nbsp;</p>

<h3>Ellii Takeaways about Soft Skills</h3>

<p>In this session, there was a question about how to help students showcase their soft skills in an interview. I noted this as something that&nbsp;would make a great lesson on Ellii.&nbsp;I also learned about a baseball player that we should add to our <a href="https://ellii.com/lessons/easy-readers" target="_blank">Easy Reader</a> or <a href="https://ellii.com/lessons/famous-people" target="_blank">Famous People</a> section.&nbsp;Mariano Rivera, a New York Yankee, used soft skills to progress&nbsp;from being an ESL learner to closer to Baseball Hall of Famer. I also hope to&nbsp;invite Ray Agliata to speak at our&nbsp;next ElliiCon! (Find his book listed at the end of the post.)</p>

<blockquote>
<p>&quot;I believe you are one choice away from a different life.&quot;&nbsp;<br />
~ Kyle&nbsp;Quilausing, pro golfer, turned Hawaii&#39;s most wanted, turned GED graduate,&nbsp;turned motivational&nbsp;speaker at&nbsp;COABE 2026</p>
</blockquote>

<hr />
<h3>Recommended Resources at COABE 2026</h3>

<p>Here are some more resources we learned about at COABE 2026 that you may want to check out:</p>

<ul>
	<li>Marshall Adult Readers</li>
	<li>Skillblox</li>
	<li>Tabetest.com</li>
	<li>TABE Edge</li>
	<li>Notebook LM</li>
	<li>Vids (Google tool)</li>
	<li>Digital Inclusion Library</li>
	<li>Ready for Industry (workforce app)</li>
	<li>GED &amp; Me</li>
</ul>

<h3>Book Recommendations + a Final Note&nbsp;</h3>

<p>There&rsquo;s always plenty of book talk when you&rsquo;re surrounded by language lovers. I finished the classic <em>Man&rsquo;s Search for Meaning </em>by Viktor Frankl on my short flight from Detroit to Indianapolis and picked up <em>Theo of Golden</em>&nbsp;by Allen Levi for the trip home.</p>

<p>Ann, Kylie, and I also discovered we&rsquo;d all recently read (and loved) <em>The Correspondent</em> by Virginia Evans, which turned into a mini book club at our final lunch. Ann challenged us&nbsp;to write and send a letter to someone by the end of May! Coincidentally, an email I scheduled five years ago to my father, who was in the hospital during the pandemic, got sent this week and it was a fun surprise and exercise to receive a letter back. Did you know you can schedule gmail up to 49 years ahead? This could be a fun time-capsule exercise to try with your students.</p>

<p>Here are a few books recommended by COABE attendees:</p>

<ul>
	<li><em>The Anxious Generation</em> by Jonathan Haidt&nbsp;</li>
	<li><em>The Names</em> by Florence Knapp (fiction)</li>
	<li><em>Skillful Living Now: Lead Human: Leadership in an AI World</em>&nbsp;by Ray Agliata&nbsp;</li>
</ul>

<p>Lastly, some of the best advice&mdash;and always the best stories&mdash;the Ellii team takes away from conferences come from time spent with our founder and leader, Ben. This year, Ben shared a video he had once shown his daughter&mdash;and one I&rsquo;ll now be sharing with mine as she heads off to graduate school. Its message is simple but powerful: if you want to change the world,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sBAqF00gBGk" target="_blank">start by making your bed</a>.&nbsp;</p>

<p><img alt="43 celebrated Hoosiers, mural in Indianapolis" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/5391/content_image-4.jpg" /></p>

<p class="caption">Indianapolis&rsquo;s bicentennial mural, 43 Hoosiers</p>

<p>See you next year in New Orleans!<br />
<br />
Tara &amp; Team Ellii&nbsp;</p>

<p><img alt="Kylie, Christine, Ann, Tara " src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/5392/content_image-8.jpg" /></p>

<p class="caption">Kylie, Christine, Ann, and Tara closing out&nbsp;COABE 2026</p>
