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

Conferences

<h2>St. Augustine&nbsp;Superlatives</h2>

If you&#39;re ever looking for a real-world setting&nbsp;for teaching&nbsp;superlatives, 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!

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;

<img alt="oldest masonry fort in St. Augustine" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/5552/content_oldest-fort.JPG" />

Castillo de San Marcos, a 17th-century fortress built by the Spanish

St. Augustine is formally referred to as&nbsp;the oldest&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.

<img alt="oldest school house st. augustine" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/5544/content_oldest-school.jpeg" />

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; 
 
St. Augustine Superlatives:

<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>

At the rooftop patio, we also had the most scrumptious lobster&nbsp;flatbread served by&nbsp;the wittiest 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">Fountain of Youth</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;the best beach for shell collecting (Vilano Beach).&nbsp;

<img alt="Old Senator in St. Augustine" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/5551/content_oldest-oak.JPG" />

Old Senator in St. Augustine, located at Villa 1565

<h2>Adult Ed in Florida</h2>

At the ACE symposium, vendors exhibit in the same room where all the sessions take place. This is the most effective&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.

<img alt="" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/5547/content_ACE-2026.JPG" />

<h2>ACE Takeaways</h2>

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;

<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>
&quot;When we invest in adult learner upskilling to improve economic &amp; career mobility, everybody wins.&quot;

~2026 ACE of Florida Summer Symposium
</blockquote>

Interestingly, the day I returned back to my office, the savviest 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!

<h2>Ellii + Ventures</h2>

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 the wisest 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 the most practical partnership in adult ed&nbsp;(<a href="https://ellii.com/ventures" target="_blank">Ellii + Ventures</a>), please reach out. We are all excited for the upcoming release of the Ventures 4th edition books and related Ellii collections.&nbsp;

<h2>The Embassy Suites &amp; Attendees</h2>

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 the prettiest Florida sunrise.&nbsp;

<img alt="" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/5548/content_sunrise-st-augustine.JPG" />

Embassy Suites, St. Augustine

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 most productive 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.

<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" />

Karla Galleguillos, National Program Specialist, and Pamela Jo Wilson, Case Manager, Palm Beach County School District

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;

<img alt="Tara Benwell VP of Publishing Ellii" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/5550/content_bike-courier.JPG" />

Tara Benwell, VP of Publishing at Ellii

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!

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! 
 
~ Tara 
 
PS. As a Canadian, I have to admit that the juiciest 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!

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

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

Announcements

<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> 
 
Updated&nbsp;May 7, 2026

<blockquote>
&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;

&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>
</blockquote>

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.

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.

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.

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:

<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>

<img alt="WIDA PRIME V2 Correlation Seal" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/1731/content_WIDA-PRIME-v2-seal-TM.png" />

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.

<h2>2021&nbsp;Updates</h2>

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.

Teachers can also change their account settings to display ELD proficiency levels and grade band settings.&nbsp;

A special thank you to the folks at WIDA for your careful consideration of our materials and&nbsp;site!

*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.

<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 

https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/post/title_image/2022/Tara_WIDA-Prime-V2-Correlation_Banner.png

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

Teaching with Ellii

At Ellii, we have a variety of lessons, resources, courses, and visuals that you can use in your classes to explore career pathways.

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.

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.

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;

<h2>What&#39;s new?&nbsp;</h2>

In addition to adding dozens of new digital lessons to this section, we&#39;ve added one-page printable career summaries&nbsp;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.

<h3>Where teachers include the PDF version (and where students can find it)</h3>

<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" /> 
<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" /> 
 
Here is what the career summaries look like.&nbsp;

<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" />

Below are some suggested activities that you can do with these additional handouts either before or after you work through the related lesson.

<h2>Warm-ups</h2>

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:

<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>

The classroom setting is ideal for exploring these summaries further. Here are some activity ideas:

Jigsaw Expert: 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.

Speed Dating: Each student gets a different career chart to ask and answer questions about for a short, timed exchange.

Mock Interviews: Distribute a variety of career summary charts and place students in pairs to role-play as interviewer and interviewee for the career they receive.

<h2>Writing &amp; research</h2>

Paragraph Summary: Invite students to write a paragraph summarizing the information from the chart.

Job Ads: Have students write a short job ad for the career based on information from the chart and the reading.

Compare &amp; Contrast: Encourage students to compare this career to another one you&#39;ve already covered. Provide some useful sentence stems to support the writing.

One More Thing: 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?

Is This Career for Me?: 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.

<blockquote>
What ideas do you have for using these career summaries in a classroom setting?
</blockquote>

How to Use Ellii's Career Summary Charts

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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).

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.

<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" />

At the Ellii booth with editor Ann and teacher trainer Christine and some COABE attendees

<img alt="Kylie and a former student" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/5386/content_image-5.jpg" />

Teacher trainer&nbsp;Kylie with a former student

<h2>#ELT Trending Topics at COABE 2026</h2>

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.

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.

Some of the most common themes included:

<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>

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;

<img alt="Ellii Booth COABE 2026" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/5387/content_image-7.jpg" />

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.

Here are three sessions that stood out above the others at COABE 2026:

<h3>#1 &ndash; The Gift of the Gab: Empowering Adult ESL Students&nbsp;to Speak</h3>

Presenter: Claudette Session

Focus: low-anxiety activities to get ELLs talking and building oral proficiency

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.

<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>
Milk it! 
 
~ Claudette Session on getting the most out of an activity or task
</blockquote>

<h3>Ellii Takeaways about Speaking</h3>

This session gave me some great ideas for a new <a href="https://ellii.com/lessons/photo-prompts" target="_blank">Photo Prompts</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">Speaking&nbsp;in English</a> section too. Claudette definitely has the gift of the gab and would be a great speaker to invite to our next ElliiCon!&nbsp;

<hr />
<h3>#2 The English Language Proficiency Standards: Cracking the Code</h3>

Presenters: Jenny Siegfried &amp; Catherine Porter

Focus: discovering key concepts and skills in the standards;&nbsp;enhancing ESOL lessons for ELPS alignment

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;

<h3>Ellii Takeaways about the ELPS</h3>

It is time to add the&nbsp;English Language Proficiency Standards to Ellii&#39;s interactive activities (Ellii Polls &amp; Dilemmas). 
 
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;

<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>

<img alt="ELPS Coabe" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/5390/content_ELPS-coabe_2026.jpg" />

<hr />
<h3>#3 Skillful Living Now: Developing a Soft Skills Course for Adult Learners</h3>

Presenter: Ray Agliata

Focus: tools to help adult learners develop critical soft skills for today&#39;s workforce, including&nbsp;communication, adaptability, and leadership

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.

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.

<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>

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!

<blockquote>
&quot;Don&#39;t do it on your lunch hour. That&#39;s ridiculous!&quot;&nbsp; 
~ Ray Agliata on creating your own courses
</blockquote>

He reminded us that adult learners need learning to be relevant, achievable, and applicable. I&#39;d say this is also the case for conference session attendees! I found this session to be all of the above.&nbsp;

<h3>Ellii Takeaways about Soft Skills</h3>

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.)

<blockquote>
&quot;I believe you are one choice away from a different life.&quot;&nbsp; 
~ Kyle&nbsp;Quilausing, pro golfer, turned Hawaii&#39;s most wanted, turned GED graduate,&nbsp;turned motivational&nbsp;speaker at&nbsp;COABE 2026
</blockquote>

<hr />
<h3>Recommended Resources at COABE 2026</h3>

Here are some more resources we learned about at COABE 2026 that you may want to check out:

<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>

There&rsquo;s always plenty of book talk when you&rsquo;re surrounded by language lovers. I finished the classic Man&rsquo;s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl on my short flight from Detroit to Indianapolis and picked up Theo of Golden&nbsp;by Allen Levi for the trip home.

Ann, Kylie, and I also discovered we&rsquo;d all recently read (and loved) The Correspondent 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.

Here are a few books recommended by COABE attendees:

<ul>
	<li>The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt&nbsp;</li>
	<li>The Names by Florence Knapp (fiction)</li>
	<li>Skillful Living Now: Lead Human: Leadership in an AI World&nbsp;by Ray Agliata&nbsp;</li>
</ul>

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;

<img alt="43 celebrated Hoosiers, mural in Indianapolis" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/5391/content_image-4.jpg" />

Indianapolis&rsquo;s bicentennial mural, 43 Hoosiers

See you next year in New Orleans! 
 
Tara &amp; Team Ellii&nbsp;

<img alt="Kylie, Christine, Ann, Tara " src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/5392/content_image-8.jpg" />

Kylie, Christine, Ann, and Tara closing out&nbsp;COABE 2026

On Track in Indianapolis: Key Takeaways from COABE 2026

https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/post/title_image/2814/Tara_On-Track-in-Indianapolis-Key-Takeaways-from-COABE-2026_Banner.png

<h1>We&#39;re unwrapping another year of content at Ellii...</h1>

<h2>🎶 Sing it with me!&nbsp;🎶</h2>

<h1><a href="https://ellii.com/collections/new-content/new-in-2025" target="_blank">New in 2025</a></h1>

<hr />
<h2>January</h2>

🎶 In the first month of 2025, Ellii brought to me...

<ul>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/lessons/casas-test-preparation" target="_blank">CASAS Reading STEPS Level D</a></li>
</ul>

<img alt="CASAS STEPS Practice Tests on Ellii" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/5082/content_month-1.png" />

<h2>February</h2>

🎶 In the second month of 2025, Ellii brought to me...

<ul>
	<li>a <a href="https://ellii.com/lessons/famous-people/5306-ayrton-senna" target="_blank">lesson request</a> from our Brazilian CTO (who could say no?)&nbsp;&nbsp;</li>
</ul>

We added lots of new content about famous Brazilians this year as well as two Study Packs!

<img alt="lessons on famous Brazilians on Ellii" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/5083/content_month-2.png" />

<h2>March</h2>

🎶 In the third month of 2025, Ellii brought to me...

<ul>
	<li>a historic&nbsp;lesson in <a href="https://ellii.com/lessons/that-s-news-to-me" target="_blank">That&#39;s News to Me</a>&nbsp;(Canada&#39;s Next Prime Minster)</li>
</ul>

We added new lessons to this section every week, using content from our media partner, The Associated Press. We also added current events&nbsp;<a href="https://ellii.com/media/videos/current-events" target="_blank">videos</a> and <a href="https://ellii.com/lessons/photo-prompts">photo prompts</a>!

<img alt="That's News to Me lessons including Canada's New Prime Minister" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/5084/content_month-3.png" />

<h2>April</h2>

🎶 In the fourth month of 2025, Ellii brought to me...

<ul>
	<li>a lesson on&nbsp;<a href="https://ellii.com/lessons/discussion-starters/5429-cryptocurrency" target="_blank">Cryptocurrency!</a>&nbsp;(followed by many more <a href="https://ellii.com/lessons/discussion-starters" target="_blank">Discussion Starters</a> lessons and warm-up videos by our newest Publishing team members)</li>
</ul>

<img alt="Discussion Starters lessons on Ellii, such as cryptocurrency" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/5085/content_month-4.png" />

<h2>May</h2>

🎶 In the fifth month of 2025, Ellii brought to me...

<ul>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/packs/soft-skills-for-hospitality-workers" target="_blank">Soft Skills for Hospitality</a>!</li>
</ul>

Search &quot;soft skills&quot; for all of the new content we added on our &quot;theme of the year&quot; for 2025.

<img alt="Soft Skills for Hospitality on Ellii" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/5086/content_month-5.png" />

<h2>June</h2>

🎶 In the sixth month of 2025, Ellii brought to me...

<ul>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/packs/conversation-phrases-course" target="_blank">Conversation Phrases with Lise</a>&nbsp;</li>
</ul>

Ellii&#39;s video team focused on &quot;speaking&quot; content for&nbsp;2025.

<img alt="Conversation Phrases course on Ellii" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/5087/content_month-6.png" />

<h2>July&nbsp;</h2>

🎶 In the seventh month of 2025, Ellii brought to me...

<ul>
	<li>a new section for Adult Literacy (<a href="https://ellii.com/lessons/first-five" target="_blank">First Five</a>)&nbsp;</li>
</ul>

We added 29 new lessons to this section as well as&nbsp;several Language Ladder packs!

<img alt="Adult Literacy section on Ellii" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/5088/content_month-7.png" />

<h2>August</h2>

🎶 In the eighth month of 2025, Ellii brought to me...

<ul>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/lessons/picture-stories" target="_blank">Young Learner stories</a> with Benji!</li>
</ul>

New Benji lessons this year were about Benji&#39;s&nbsp;<a href="https://ellii.com/lesson/5653-workday" target="_blank">Workday</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://ellii.com/lesson/5866-vacation">Vacation</a>!

<img alt="young learner picture stories on Ellii" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/5089/content_month-8.png" />

<h2>September</h2>

🎶 In the ninth month of 2025, Ellii brought to me...

<ul>
	<li>a print-based course that took our whole team&#39;s&nbsp;energy!</li>
</ul>

Due to popular demand, we have started making printable versions of our workplace courses, starting with&nbsp;<a href="https://ellii.com/packs/nursing-assistants">English for Nursing Assistants</a>&nbsp;and moving on with four more in 2025.

<img alt="printable workplace courses on Ellii" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/5090/content_month-9.png" />

<h2>October</h2>

🎶 In the tenth month of 2025, Ellii brought to me...

<ul>
	<li>Ellii Up E! (the latest course in our ready-made <a href="https://ellii.com/packs?page=1&amp;level=&amp;material=&amp;category=43" target="_blank">General English</a> curriculum)</li>
</ul>

More General English courses coming throughout 2026!

<img alt="General English courses" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/5093/content_month-10.png" />

<h2>November</h2>

🎶 In the eleventh month of 2025, Ellii brought to me...

<ul>
	<li>Videos on <a href="https://ellii.com/media/videos/us-civics-test-prep" target="_blank">US history</a> (Study Packs too!)</li>
</ul>

More US civics and test prep content coming throughout 2026.

<img alt="US Civics Test Prep on Ellii" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/5091/content_month-11.png" />

<h2>December</h2>

🎶 In the twelfth month of 2025, Ellii brought to me...

<ul>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/gather/dilemmas" target="_blank">Ellii Dilemmas</a> like <a href="https://ellii.com/gather/dilemmas/the-pet-policy" target="_blank">The Pet Policy</a>!</li>
</ul>

We&#39;ve also added lots of new beginner-level <a href="https://ellii.com/gather/polls" target="_blank">Ellii Polls</a>. A big request from teachers in 2025!

<img alt="Ellii Dilemmas" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/5092/content_month-12.png" />

<h2>Who&#39;s counting?&nbsp;</h2>

We are! Here&#39;s <a href="https://ellii.com/collections/new-content/new-in-2025" target="_blank">everything</a> we added to Ellii&#39;s content library in 2025. Subscribers have access to all of this content, plus everything else we&#39;ve added to Ellii in&nbsp;the last 20+ years.

<blockquote>
<ul>
	<li>253 lessons &amp; resources</li>
	<li>60+ Ellii original videos</li>
	<li>70+ AP videos &amp; silent clips</li>
	<li>9 flashcard categories (46 new flashcards)</li>
	<li>45 study packs</li>
	<li>14 courses</li>
	<li>44 polls &amp; dilemmas</li>
	<li>40 blog posts&nbsp;</li>
</ul>
</blockquote>

<h2>Who makes all of this content at Ellii?&nbsp;</h2>

Humans,&nbsp;of course! At Ellii, we have a small but mighty team of real-life materials writers, editors, proofreaders, designers, artists, producers, and other helpers (including our own daughters who offer summer help)!&nbsp;We also have a partnership with The Associated Press and owe a little shout-out to our AI assistant, aka &quot;ElliiBot,&quot;&nbsp;this year. 
 
Here&nbsp;is Ellii&#39;s&nbsp;2025 content and marketing team, including staff and contractors! A huge thank-you to all of our contributors.

<blockquote>
Tanya, Head of Video Production

Ann, Head Editor

Saori, Lead Designer

Lula, Motion Graphics Designer

Alison, Content Support Specialist

Zara, Materials Writer

Steve, Illustrator

Laura, Course Writer

Felicia, Materials Writer

Kate, Assistant Editor

Lise, Video Content Producer / Marketing Lead

Sarah, Designer&nbsp;

David, British English Editor

Emily, Blogger

Jaksyn, Jr. Materials Writer

Sofia, Jr. Publishing Assistant

Tara, VP of Publishing
</blockquote>

That&#39;s a wrap. If you think this is awesome, you should see what Ellii&#39;s Product team was up to this year. Stay tuned! 
 
~ Tara&nbsp;

<a href="https://ellii.com/lessons/warm-ups-fillers/2221-how-to-make-a-paper-snowflake" target="_blank"><img alt="How to Make a Snowflake lesson" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/5101/content_IMG_8151.jpeg" style="width: 300px; height: 400px;" /></a>

Ellii&#39;s VP of Publishing (Tara Benwell) on winter break at Blue Mountain, featured with 3-D snowflakes from our <a href="https://ellii.com/lessons/warm-ups-fillers/2221-how-to-make-a-paper-snowflake" target="_blank">How to Make a Snowflake</a> lesson.

<blockquote>
Did you enjoy using Ellii&#39;s content this year? Please leave&nbsp;us a love&nbsp;note below that we can add to our <a href="http://ellii.com/tour/testimonials">Testimonials</a> page.&nbsp;
</blockquote>

The 12 Months of Ellii (in 2025)

https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/post/title_image/2764/Tara_The-12-Months-of-Ellii_Banner.png

Fall conference season is officially underway, and the Ellii team is buzzing—attending eight conferences this month alone, including BRAZ-TESOL, TESL Ontario, MITESOL, VATESOL, and more. Throughout the season, different members of our team step away from their desks to share Ellii’s newest content and features and to chat with teachers and administrators about whether <a href="https://ellii.com/" target="_blank">Ellii</a> might be a good fit for their English language programs.

Conferences also offer something just as valuable: the chance to learn. Hearing from speakers, teachers, and publishers helps us better understand the evolving needs of today’s English language learners and inspires new ideas for improving the Ellii experience for classrooms around the world.

<h2>MITESOL 2025 – Elevate, Motivate, Unite</h2>

The 2025 MITESOL conference took place on November 8, 2025, in the Student Center at Eastern Michigan University (EMU). The venue inspired this year's clever theme: Elevate, Motivate, Unite. The date itself was also significant! Michigan's governor, Gretchen Whitmar, officially declared November 8 as <a href="https://www.michigan.gov/whitmer/news/proclamations/2025/11/08/november-8-2025-english-language-educators-recognition-day" target="_blank">English Language Educators Recognition Day</a> to honor the dedication of teachers who support English language learners and to acknowledge the value that these learners bring to Michigan.  

Though I live in Windsor, Ontario, Michigan is my closest neighbor, so I was excited to attend, exhibit, and present at MITESOL on this monumental day!

<img alt="Anne Damiecka, Alexandra Covell, Tara Benwell at the Cambridge Ventures + Ellii booth at MITESOL 2025" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/5000/content_MITESOL-2025.jpg" style="height: 526px; width: 500px;">

Anne Damiecka (ESOL Specialist and Territory Manager, Cambridge University Press &amp; Assessment), Alexandra Covell (MITESOL President &amp; 2025 Conference Chair), Tara Benwell (VP of Publishing at Ellii) at MITESOL 2025

<h2>Morning Keynote </h2>

I knew it was going to be a worthwhile keynote when Dr. Raichle (Rai) Farrelly, a professor at the University of Colorado Boulder, began the first session by talking about how she likes to "bookend" her classes with stories.

In her keynote titled Mapping Knowledge and Language for a Change Agent Mindset, Dr. Rai used personal experiences, videos, and pictures to highlight why stories matter in our classrooms. Key takeaways were:

<ul>
	<li>stories drive connection</li>
	<li>stories are advocacy tools</li>
	<li>stories tell our history</li>
	<li>stories convey world views</li>
</ul>

Dr. Rai also shared strategies to foster curiosity, build knowledge, and inspire meaningful action to transform English classrooms into "spaces for equity, connection, and global impact."

She illustrated the power of student agency by sharing a compelling story about young learners who launched a campaign to help school cleaners regain respect and dignity in their workplace. The young students developed an entire campaign to help change how cleaners were treated. They used this Design for Change model:

<ul>
	<li>
Feel: What bothers you about the world?</li>
	<li>
Imagine: Imagine ways to make the situation better.</li>
	<li>
Do: Go out and put your ideas into action.</li>
	<li>
Share: Inspire others with your act of change.</li>
</ul>

Dr. Rai also taught us about the <a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-031-54677-8_4" target="_blank">Care-Know-Do</a> pedagogical framework:

<ol>
	<li>Social Emotional Learning</li>
	<li>Meaningful Learning</li>
	<li>Mastery Learning</li>
	<li>Critical Socioconstructivism</li>
	<li>Inquiry-Based Learning</li>
	<li>Experiential Learning</li>
</ol>

Dr. Rai left us with these inspiring parting words from the late <a href="https://app.ellii.com/lesson/3531-jane-goodall" target="_blank">Jane Goodall</a>. 

<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/lfLKHY52ERc?si=hRdMrXzexjZaIzLo" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe></div>

<h2>Ellii Presentation</h2>

After spending some time chatting with teachers at the Ellii booth—where we were exhibiting next to our new publishing partner, Cambridge (Ventures)—I took a few steps down the hall to the Kiva Room, a cozy space with tiered bench seating. I was delighted to spend the hour with several teachers who were not yet familiar with Ellii (along with a few who were) during my session, Develop Oral Communication Skills in ESL Classrooms by Implementing Ellii’s Game-Based Tools.

As a content creator, the workshop was an excellent opportunity to showcase <a href="https://app.ellii.com/gather/polls" target="_blank">Ellii Polls</a> and <a href="https://app.ellii.com/gather/dilemmas" target="_blank">Ellii Dilemmas</a> and get a feel for how engaged participants were in the activities. In her keynote, Dr. Rai emphasized three essential components to any student advocacy project. I was able to demonstrate how students can develop and build these very skills with Ellii’s interactive activities:

<ul>
	<li>critical thinking</li>
	<li>meaningful communication</li>
	<li>academic language</li>
</ul>

<a href="https://app.ellii.com/gather/polls/names" target="_blank"><img alt="Ellii Poll Names" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/5005/content_ellii-polls-names.png" style="width: 500px; height: 299px;"></a>

After students submit answers to a poll or dilemma, the class is prompted to look up at the teacher's screen to review and discuss the results, vocabulary, and questions in pairs or as a group. The activities are carefully scaffolded and useful language and sentence stems are provided. In addition to participating in the activity, attendees shared lots of ways that they would use these activities in their own classrooms.

<a href="https://app.ellii.com/gather/polls/names" target="_blank"><img alt="Tara Benwell, VP of Publishing at Ellii, demonstrates Ellii Polls in the Kiva Room at Eastern Michigan University, MITESOL 2025" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/4999/content_MITESL-2025-Ellii-Polls.jpg" style="height: 453px; width: 500px;"></a>

This is the first time I have seen this result. 100% of participants polled said they liked their <a href="https://app.ellii.com/gather/polls/names" target="_blank">names</a>!

If you missed this session at any recent conferences and want to learn more about Ellii's FREE interactive, game-based activities, check out these posts and videos: 

<ul>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/blog/ellii-polls" target="_blank">Introducing Ellii Polls</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/blog/announcing-ellii-dilemmas" target="_blank">Announcing Ellii Dilemmas</a></li>
</ul>

<a href="https://app.ellii.com/gather/dilemmas/the-crooked-coworker" target="_blank"><img alt="Ellii Dilemmas" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/5007/content_ellii-dilemma-crooked-coworker.png" style="width: 500px; height: 299px;"></a>

If you missed the session, watch an interview with <a href="https://www.teacherthinkaloud.com/episodes/episode/1a443540/e77-ellii-dilemmas-sparking-real-dialogue-in-the-elt-classroom-with-ben-buckwold-and-tara-benwell" target="_blank">The Teacher Think-Aloud</a> podcast that just came out this week, featuring the story behind the development of this "tech-enabled" tool that encourages students to look up, listen, and speak.

<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/JNk03oadJgI?si=ZvyC5Tga2YG8Gkgs" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe></div>

After a lively morning of sessions and conversations, it was time to break for lunch—and another inspiring keynote.

<h2>Lunch Keynote </h2>

The exhibit hall was closed during the luncheon, giving exhibitors a chance to mingle with attendees and enjoy a delicious meal (falafel, chicken, and cookies!) along with a wonderful keynote.  
 
Dr. Katie Welch—who has presented twice at <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wA53ad4GloU" target="_blank">#ElliiCon</a>—spoke about social-emotional health for teachers in her talk, From Fatigue to Flourishing: Supporting Teacher Well-Being in Tough Times. She shared a range of practical ideas for educators, including an “extension request form” designed to help teachers reclaim their time. Katie also recommended the <a href="https://truthforteachers.com/podcast/" target="_blank">Truth for Teachers</a> podcast.

One of my favorite moments of the conference was a story Katie told about teachers advocating for fair pay in their small Texas community. She described how one teacher refused to take no for an answer and rallied others to use their voices and advocate for themselves.

Back at the booth, Katie and I spoke with an MA student who admitted it’s a challenging time to be preparing for a teaching career amid so much negativity surrounding the profession. She thanked Katie for offering hope. 

<h2>
Ventures 4e (+ Ellii) </h2>

Another bonus of attending the MITESOL conference was learning all about <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/ca/cambridgeenglish/catalog/adult-courses/ventures-4th-edition" target="_blank">Ventures 4th Edition</a>, set to launch in summer 2026. Now that Ellii can be bundled with Ventures, you’ll often find us side by side in exhibit halls. It was a pleasure getting to know CUPA district manager Anne Damiecka and discussing Adult Literacy needs in Michigan.

I also attended Anne and Katie's session and learned about the exciting updates coming to Ventures 4e—especially the new Lesson G, which will focus on workplace themes.

<img alt="Anne Damiecka sharing Ventures 4th edition at MITESOL 2025" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/4998/content_MITESOL-2025-Ventures.jpg" style="height: 438px; width: 500px;">

Anne Damiecka speaking during the Meeting the Needs of Adult Learners in Michigan session, presented with Dr. Katie Welch 

Ellii will be developing new Ventures collections to go with the 4th edition before the updated coursebook series is released next summer.

<a href="https://ellii.com/ventures" target="_blank"><img alt="Ellii + Ventures" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/5009/content_ellii-ventures.png" style="width: 500px; height: 305px;"></a>

<h2>Gratitude</h2>

MITESOL 2025 was a day filled with inspiration, community, and meaningful conversations. I returned to Canada feeling grateful for the educators who continue to elevate, motivate, and unite English language learners wherever their classrooms may be.

As we head into a season of gratitude, I want to extend a special thank-you to Alexandra and the entire MITESOL team for organizing such a productive conference and for helping Ellii feel right at home. And to Ashley, Ellii’s conference coordinator extraordinaire—thank you for planning every detail and keeping us perfectly on track during each and every busy conference season!

English Language Educators Recognition Day Announced at MITESOL 2025

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This post answers frequently asked questions about Ellii&#39;s Placement Tests. For general questions about Ellii&#39;s assessment content, view this related post: <a href="https://ellii.com/blog/ellii-assessments" target="_blank">How to Find Assessments on Ellii</a>

<h2>Ellii&#39;s Placement Test (Autograded)</h2>

The <a href="https://app.ellii.com/lesson/5606-ellii-placement-test-autograded" target="_blank">Ellii Placement Test </a>(autograded) is designed to help teachers or administrators&nbsp;determine the Ellii level of a new English language student. This short, autograded test does not include writing and speaking tasks.&nbsp;Students have&nbsp;30 minutes&nbsp;to complete the Ellii Placement Test. There is also a printable version with downloadable audio available if schools prefer this method.

The Ellii Placement Test (autograded) has 30 multiple-choice questions and is divided into 3 sections:

<blockquote>
Part 1: Listening (3 recordings, 9 questions) 
Part 2: Grammar (12 questions) 
Part 3: Reading (3 readings, 9 questions)
</blockquote>

For the most accurate scoring, teachers should encourage&nbsp;students to skip questions they can&#39;t answer rather than guessing.

<blockquote>
Score Range = Ellii Level 
 
0-3% = Pre Beg 
4&ndash;17% = Low Beg 
18-40% = High Beg 
41-63% = Low Int 
64-83% = High Int 
84-97% = High Int &ndash; Adv 
98-100% = Adv
</blockquote>

After completing the assessment, students are assigned a score and suggested a level placement. This helps teachers decide which Ellii materials to use with their students. 
 
The type of level teachers&nbsp;see is based on the settings they have selected on their Account page (Ellii, CLB, CEFR, ELD, NRS). A percentage score will also be shown.

<hr />
<h2>Ellii&#39;s Placement Test (Speaking &amp; Writing)</h2>

The<a href="https://app.ellii.com/lesson/4226-ellii-placement-test-writing-speaking" target="_blank"> Ellii Placement Test (Writing &amp; Speaking)</a> assesses all four skills and is designed to help teachers determine the Ellii level of a new English language student. Teachers can also consult our&nbsp;<a href="https://ellii.com/equivalencies">Equivalency Scale</a>&nbsp;to determine which materials are best suited for their&nbsp;students based on their level preference.

We recommend giving students a time limit of&nbsp;60 minutes&nbsp;to complete this test in order to get the most accurate level placement. If assigning the digital version, teachers can include this guideline as a note: &quot;Please use a maximum of 60 minutes to take this test. I will see the time taken after you submit your answers.&quot;

A printable version with suggested rubrics for the speaking and writing portion is available in the Teacher PDF. If students are taking the digital version, teachers may want to share expectations so students understand what they will be looking for in a response. There is also an <a href="https://app.ellii.com/lesson/4798-ellii-placement-test-ireland">Irish version</a> of this test.&nbsp;

This test is divided into 5 sections:

<blockquote>
Part 1: Listening (6 recordings, 12 questions, 20%) 
Part 2: Grammar (16 questions, 27%) 
Part 3: Reading (3 readings, 9 questions, 15%) 
Part 4: Writing (3 short answers, 1 long answer, 22%) 
Part 5: Speaking (1 long answer, 16%)
</blockquote>

For the most accurate scoring, students should be encouraged to skip questions they can&#39;t answer rather than guessing. Here is the suggested level placement for the full test with speaking and writing portions.

<blockquote>
Score Range = Ellii Level 
 
0-3% = Pre Beg 
4&ndash;17% = Low Beg 
18-40% = High Beg 
41-63% = Low Int 
64-83% = High Int 
84-97% = High Int &ndash; Adv 
98-100% = Adv
</blockquote>

The score and suggested level will help teachers decide which Ellii materials to use with their students. The type of level teachers see is&nbsp;based on the settings they have set up on their Account page (Ellii, CLB, CEFR, ELD, NRS). A percentage score will also be shown.&nbsp;

<hr />
<h2>Ellii&#39;s Exit Test</h2>

To assess students&#39; gains since they took the autograded <a href="https://app.ellii.com/lesson/5606-ellii-placement-test-autograded" target="_blank">Ellii Placement Test</a> or to use an alternative version of the autograded Ellii Placement Test, teachers can assign the&nbsp;<a href="https://app.ellii.com/lesson/5607-ellii-exit-test-autograded">Ellii Exit Test</a>.&nbsp;This is an additional autograded proficiency test with different questions at the same difficulty and with the same number of questions as the autograded Ellii Placement Test. Some teachers also use it to deter cheating or to offer extra practice taking assessments. Students have 30 minutes to complete the test.&nbsp;

<hr />
<h2>Ellii&#39;s Proficiency Level Account Settings</h2>

Under Account settings (top right on Ellii), teachers can adjust their level preferences to the ones they want to see on the materials. Teachers choose the&nbsp;generic&nbsp;Ellii level (Pre Beg &ndash; Adv) with the option to add one of the following level systems:&nbsp; 
&nbsp;

<blockquote>
Canadian Language Benchmarks: CLB 1&ndash;12 
Common European Framework: CEFR A0&ndash;C2 
English Language Development:&nbsp;&nbsp;ELD 1&ndash;6 
National Reporting System: NRS 1&ndash;6
</blockquote>

<a href="https://ellii.com/equivalencies" target="_blank"><img alt="" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/4927/content_Screen_Shot_2025-09-18_at_1.54.43_PM.png" /></a>

<hr />
<h2>Ellii&#39;s Equivalency Scale</h2>

If you want to know more about Ellii&#39;s levels, consider reviewing our <a href="https://ellii.com/equivalencies" target="_blank">Equivalency Scale</a>. You can find this comparison scale on the footer of the site.&nbsp;

<hr />
<h2>Ellii Solo</h2>

If your school has <a href="https://ellii.com/solo" target="_blank">Ellii Solo</a>, Ellii&#39;s self-study solution designed for pre-enrollment learning paths, computer lab programs, and independent learning initiatives, students will take the Ellii Placement Test when they first begin the program. This test is the same autograded test that teachers assign on Ellii. After taking the test, students will be directed to ready-made pathways of self-study packs and courses most appropriate for their level. The proficiency level will be displayed the way the administrator has chosen (e.g., Ellii + CLB). 
 
<img alt="Ellii Solo Level" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/4928/content_Screen_Shot_2025-09-18_at_3.25.40_PM.png" /> 
Students must complete a pathway or retake the placement test in order to unlock higher-level pathways.&nbsp; 
<img alt="Ellii Solo Pathways" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/4929/content_Screen_Shot_2025-09-18_at_3.35.56_PM.png" />

Students using Ellii Solo can also access the&nbsp;Library if they choose to explore courses, packs, and videos&nbsp;without using the guided pathways.

<img alt="Ellii Solo Navigation bar" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/4930/content_Screen_Shot_2025-09-18_at_3.37.18_PM.png" />We hope <a href="https://ellii.com/resources/assessment-tools" target="_blank">Ellii&#39;s diagnostic assessments</a> help you and your learners find the content and courseware you need to ensure proficiency success!

All about the Ellii Placement Test

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<h1>The Happiest Conference</h1>

You may have seen that Disneyland was celebrating its 70th year, but did you know that CASAS was busy marking&nbsp;its own milestone just a few blocks away? 
 
<a href="https://www.casas.org/" target="_blank">CASAS</a> (Comprehensive Adult Student Assessment Systems) is used to measure the basic skills of adult learners in the US.&nbsp;CASAS assessments help adult educators identify skill gaps, place students into appropriate programs, and monitor progress of employment-related competencies.

The annual CASAS Summer Institute conference was held in Garden Grove last week. Over 1,000&nbsp;attendees gathered to learn, network,&nbsp;and celebrate its 45th year. Ellii was excited to take part!

<img alt="Yacht Rocks" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/4728/content_boat.jpeg" />

Not a boat! Ellii team (Tara, Marta, and Wendy) and friends at the CASAS networking social, Yacht Rock!, in the driveway&nbsp;at Hyatt Regency.

Despite&nbsp;<a href="https://app.ellii.com/lesson/5548-trump-deploys-troops-to-la-immigration-protests" target="_blank">tension in LA</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;hazy skies that locals described as&nbsp;June Gloom,&nbsp;our week in Garden Grove was filled with&nbsp;energy, hope, and camaraderie.

Here are some highlights and takeaways.

<h2>Learning</h2>

Ellii sponsored, presented at, and attended the CASAS Summer Institute (SI) this year, and it was fun to be a first-timer!&nbsp;&nbsp;As head of Ellii&#39;s content team, I&nbsp;spent my time soaking up information at the sessions, focusing on&nbsp;research about the following hot topics in US adult ed:&nbsp;

<ul>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/collections/el-civics" target="_blank">EL Civics (COAAPS)</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/collections/us-civics" target="_blank">Citizenship Preparation</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/packs/?category=6&amp;page=1" target="_blank">IET Programs</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/blog/the-multi-modal-multi-sensory-multi-cultural-power-of-multi-literacy-learning" target="_blank">Multiple Literacies</a>&nbsp;</li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/resources/casas-test-preparation" target="_blank">CASAS STEPS</a>&nbsp;</li>
</ul>

<h2>Best practices road trip</h2>

It was refreshing to attend an education conference&nbsp;where there were several sessions that barely touched on AI. Every session I attended at CASAS SI was informative and useful for the Ellii team;&nbsp;however, the one I enjoyed the most was a&nbsp;CASAS session titled&nbsp;Best Practices Road Trip by Laura Fetter and Astrid Robitaille. Throughout the session, educational specialists were invited&nbsp;up to speak about special programs and initiatives that teachers and administrators had implemented in&nbsp;their state.

Educators touched on a variety of topics from assessment to orientation. One popular tip everyone appreciated was the idea of&nbsp;waiting until Day 2 to assign the CASAS test, which agencies found resulted&nbsp;in fewer students dropping out before they even get started.&nbsp;

After the mini-presentations, Laura and Astrid&nbsp;summarized the highlights by reading out postcards, sometimes even attempting to mimic the state&#39;s English accents! The session had all of the essentials of <a href="https://ellii.com/blog/speaking-at-an-elt-conference-top-tips-for-successful-presentations" target="_blank">a successful ELT presentation</a>.

<img alt="CASAS best practice road trip session and postcard from CASAS" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/4740/content_postcard-road-trip.jpg" />

<h2>Resources</h2>

Ellii received several shout-outs at the sessions, and it was great to hear this enthusiasm in California.&nbsp;Here are some other resources that were shared in the sessions:

<ul>
	<li><a href="https://www.youtube.com/user/CASASAssessment">CASAS YouTube Channel</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://elcivics.otan.us/" target="_blank">EL Civics Exchange</a> (Contact elcivicsATcasas.org to get on the email list)</li>
	<li><a href="https://www.uscis.gov/citizenship" target="_blank">USCIS Resource Center</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://www.youtube.com/@uscis" target="_blank">USCIS YouTube Channel</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://usahello.org/" target="_blank">USA Hello</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://www.usalearns.org/" target="_blank">USA Learns</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://www.cambridge.org/us/esl/venturesadulted/venturesarcade/" target="_blank">Ventures Arcade</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://www.crowded.worlded.org/skillblox" target="_blank">SkillBlox</a></li>
</ul>

We are now prioritizing a long list of actionables related to content and features, rewriting our own road map&nbsp;to ensure we are providing just what adult educators need. This includes finding out which civics objectives&nbsp;our subscribers are focusing on next year, adding more high-beginner civics content, amping up our Citizenship Prep content,&nbsp;and continuing to build new exploratory&nbsp;IET courses that are in high demand.&nbsp;

<h2>Presenting</h2>

Wendy Klatt, our education specialist, delivered two&nbsp;presentations at the conference&nbsp;and also managed the booth and poster area where attendees could stop in anytime for live demos, Q&amp;As, and merch! 
 
In the first presentation, Wendy walked teachers and administrators through Supporting CASAS STEPS Success with Ellii, sharing our <a href="https://ellii.com/collections/casas-competencies">CASAS collections</a> and NEW <a href="https://ellii.com/resources/casas-test-preparation" target="_blank">CASAS Test&nbsp;Preparation</a> section, which has a digital/printable practice test for every level of the Reading STEPS and Listening STEPS tests.&nbsp; 
 
Ellii was honored to have Ventures author Donna Price join&nbsp;Wendy for a session on Connecting Engaging Lessons and Games to the English Language Proficiency Standards.&nbsp;

<img alt="Wendy Klatt and Donna Price, enthusiastic attendees at Ellii session at CASAS SI 2025" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/4741/content_wendy-donna-audience-ellii.jpg" />

<h2>Networking</h2>

What was different about the CASAS conference from other recent conferences I&#39;ve attended? The CASAS team set the vibe! Even though it was a large conference and it was my first time attending, it had a small, close-knit feeling. People chatted over breakfast, in the elevators, and on the nice breaks between sessions. You saw speakers and attendees more than once. There were scheduled social events, including morning fitness opportunities.

Perhaps most importantly, this conference did not feel rushed. It helped being able to pop up into our rooms whenever we needed to reflect or refresh.

<img alt="Kevin and Deb" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/4729/content_Kevin-debra.jpeg" />

At breakfast, we met Kevin and Deb (above) from Dinuba Adult School. They manage a small adult school outside of Fresno and spoke so highly of their ESL instructor (who they likened to Mary Poppins) whose students come to class even on prep days and feel lost without her when school is not in session.&nbsp;We all felt&nbsp;a renewed sense of gratitude for being in this industry where we can experience a strong sense of purpose at work every day.&nbsp; 
&nbsp;

<img alt="Marta Solodun (Ellii COO) and Donna Price (Ventures author)" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/4743/content_donna-marta.jpeg" />

Marta Solodun (Ellii COO) and Donna Price (Ventures author and VIP guest) at the CASAS luncheon

At the booth, I met Lauren, an Ellii super user who has been using our new <a href="https://ellii.com/resources/casas-test-preparation" target="_blank">CASAS Practice Tests,</a> which she described as &quot;more rigorous&quot; than our competitors.&nbsp;We took in the keynote together and chatted about multiple literacies, including financial literacy, AI literacy, and even driver&#39;s literacy. Lauren shared an interesting life-skills&nbsp;learning opportunity that happend&nbsp;in her class when two students bumped into each other in their cars. She brought the class out to the parking lot as they exchanged information and took photos of the scene. The entire class learned language and practical tips to use at the&nbsp;scene of an accident.

<h2>Food &amp; fun</h2>

We did not go hungry at this conference, unlike many others I have attended over the years.&nbsp;

A full breakfast was served each day, and&nbsp;coffee&nbsp;and water were widely available. CASAS and its sponsors also provided a luncheon and an outdoor dinner party with food and dancing. In the evenings, friends of Ellii joined us at some&nbsp;local eateries:&nbsp;Nova Kitchen &amp; Bar for sushi and mochi and&nbsp;Puesto Anaheim for tacos and cocktails. I also enjoyed a 5K run&nbsp;to Downtown Disneyland, where I indulged in a kid&#39;s meal at Ballast Point Brewing. We even caught the Disney fireworks from our hotel parking lot!

<img alt="sushi restaurant Garden Grove" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/4731/content_sushi.jpeg" />

Nova Kitchen &amp; Bar with Tara Benwell (Ellii VP of Publishing), Marta Solodun (Ellii COO), Donna Price (Ventures author), Wendy Klatt (Ellii Education Specialist), and Alisa Takeushi (OTAN)

<h2>Adult ed acronyms</h2>

As Canadians who are often traveling to the US for adult ed conferences, we are constantly learning new acronyms. Here are some that came up often at the CASAS conference last week and might be useful for anyone who is new to this industry or market.

<blockquote>
ABE: Adult Basic Education

AEFLA: Adult Education and Family Literacy Act

CAEP:&nbsp;Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation (a nonprofit organization that accredits educator preparation programs)

CASAS:&nbsp;Comprehensive Adult Student Assessment Systems (assessments that measure the basic skills of adult learners in the US)

CCR: College and Career Readiness Standards

COAAPS:&nbsp;Civic Objectives and Additional Assessment Plans (pre-approved objectives and assessment plans designed to help adult learners develop civic knowledge and skills in California)

ELA: English Language Acquisition

ELP: English Language Proficiency standards

IELCE:&nbsp;Integrated English Literacy and Civics Education (education services provided to the English language learners who are adults&nbsp;to help them achieve competency in English language and acquire skills needed to function effectively as parents, workers, and citizens in the US)

IET:&nbsp;Integrated Education and Training (blends adult ed/ESL with workforce training and preparation)

N-400: application for naturalization in the US

NRS: National Report System for adult education (the accountability system for federally funded adult ed&nbsp;programs in the US)

OTAN:&nbsp;Outreach and Technical Assistance Network (provides support for instructional technology and distance learning to literacy and adult educators&nbsp;in California)

STEPS: CASAS&#39;s Student Test of English Progress and Success&nbsp;

USCIS:&nbsp;United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (government agency that processes immigration applications in the US)

WIOA:&nbsp;Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (to help job seekers access employment, education, training, and support services)
</blockquote>

Thank you to CASAS organizers and friends Jane, Jennifer, and Karla for making us feel welcome and putting on an outstanding conference. We hope to see you next year for CASAS Summer Institute 2026!&nbsp;

PS. If you haven&#39;t tried Ellii&#39;s NEW&nbsp;<a href="https://ellii.com/resources/casas-test-preparation" target="_blank">CASAS Practice Tests</a>, we hope you&#39;ll check them out and send us some feedback.

&nbsp;

CASAS Summer Institute 2025: Reflections & Takeaways

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<h2>Let&#39;s start with an intention</h2>

At the beginning of my <a href="https://app.ellii.com/lesson/1990-yoga" target="_blank">yoga</a> class every Tuesday, my favorite teacher, Leanne, invites us to start with an intention. I am always amazed what a difference this can make to my practice.&nbsp;

Heading to Long Beach, California, from Windsor, Ontario,&nbsp;for TESOL this year, I felt like I needed to set myself up for success in an intentional way.&nbsp; 
 
The first thing I did was buy a book at the Detroit airport.&nbsp;Inciting Joy by Ross Gay jumped out as if to say &quot;pick me,&quot; so I did. The bookseller smiled and said, &quot;Great choice. The world needs more of this right now.&quot; Yes, I thought to myself, my TESOL 2025 intention is joy.

<blockquote>
&quot;My hunch is that joy is an ember for or precursor to wild and predictable and transgressive and unboundaried solidarity. And that solidarity might incite further joy...and...noticing what we love in common, and studying that, might help us survive.&quot; 
 
~ Ross Gay, Inciting Joy
</blockquote>

<img alt="inciting joy Detroit airport" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/4466/content_TESOL-giraffe-chandelier-book-inciting-joy.png" />

I had been thinking about The Joy of TESOL after a&nbsp;sneak peek of the presidential keynote via <a href="https://www.teacherthinkaloud.com/episodes/episode/20e6a4a0/e65-the-world-comes-to-tesol-with-dr-debra-suarez" target="_blank">The Teacher Think-Aloud Podcast</a>. In Episode 65, Debra Suarez reflects on&nbsp;walking into TESOL for the very first time&mdash;a&nbsp;sea of&nbsp;flags from all over the world taking her breath away&mdash;and how she felt she had finally found her place in the world. A place where like-minded people share a passion for teaching and language learning.&nbsp;

Meanwhile, back in Canada, Ellii&#39;s CEO, Ben Buckwold, seemed to be tuning in to the same sentiment.&nbsp;Before leaving Winnipeg, Ben picked up a box of US-Canada pins to share with any TESOL attendees who wanted to express solidarity.&nbsp;

Below are 10+ joyful highlights from my 15th year at TESOL.

<h2>Delightful sessions</h2>

Regrettably, I missed Tuesday&#39;s opening keynote about&nbsp;<a href="https://app.ellii.com/lesson/1467-hip-hop-rap" target="_blank">Hip-Hop</a>, so Missy Testerman&#39;s keynote on Wednesday morning was the true start of TESOL 2025 for me.&nbsp;

Missy, from Tennessee, was the&nbsp;2024 National Teacher of the Year.&nbsp;Her sunshiny voice lit up the room and her stories about her young ELs and their families were touching and uplifting, setting conference attendees&nbsp;up for an inspiring day. She talked about little Adrian (11 going on 37), who is eager to get married after learning about&nbsp;tax codes, and of her teacher&#39;s pet, Anna, who loves school so much she dreams of stealing the&nbsp;flip chart. Missy reminded us&nbsp;that English teachers often&nbsp;spark a language learning journey for&nbsp;an entire&nbsp;family, especially the moms working in the&nbsp;home.&nbsp;

<blockquote>
&quot;Teaching is the only career that guarantees every other profession.&quot;

~&nbsp;Missy Testerman, TESOL 2025
</blockquote>

It is always a joy when you attend a session full of useful tips and ideas that relate to your own work in ELT.&nbsp;This year we attended sessions on:

<ul>
	<li>CASAS eWorks</li>
	<li>teaching literacy (Google the&nbsp;&quot;flyswatter&nbsp;vocabulary&nbsp;game&quot; for some fun)</li>
	<li>inquiry-based learning&nbsp;</li>
	<li>service learning</li>
	<li>job skills of the future</li>
	<li>AI for personalized learning</li>
</ul>

One noteable session was&nbsp;a talk on Positive Education by George Kokolas. The speaker shared simple, yet powerful reminders about the impact of positivity in the classroom. If&nbsp;we don&#39;t feel positive ourselves, we can&#39;t expect our students to arrive ready and eager to learn. He focused on the importance of developing&nbsp;character strengths and suggested creating &quot;inner-strength&quot; groups to help students develop their strongest skills.&nbsp;

<blockquote>
&quot;Decide to be a positive educator and embody it. Positive education is not taught, it&#39;s caught.&quot;

&ndash; George Kokolas
</blockquote>

Another excellent session was Techniques and Materials to Teach Basic Literacy Level ESL Learners by Gretchen Bitterlin. This session was full of useful tips for using the Early Production Technique and gave us some inspiration&nbsp;for growing our <a href="https://ellii.com/lessons/english-basics" target="_blank">English Basics</a> section.

We learned three words in Mandarin and got a&nbsp;feel for how much repetition is needed to own a new word (an average of 20&nbsp;passes&nbsp;for recognition and 60&nbsp;for production). She recommended following this formula when introducing new vocabulary:

<ol>
	<li>nonverbal statements (Show me the pencil.)</li>
	<li>yes/no questions (Is this a pencil?)</li>
	<li>or questions (Is this a pencil or a ruler?)</li>
	<li>wh- questions (What is this?)</li>
</ol>

Gretchen also recommended focusing&nbsp;on listening, pointing to research&nbsp;suggesting that listening without oral repetition in the earliest language learning stage actually improves an EL&#39;s pronunciation over time.&nbsp;

At a session called&nbsp;AI in Materials Development, Brent Warner shared the publishing statistic that&nbsp;it takes about 6&ndash;8 years to publish a course book. He walked us through a fun way&nbsp;of using AI to generate personalized stories that started with surveying ELs about their favorite celebrities and activities.&nbsp; 
 
In an NGL session titled Future-Ready Skills for the Global Workplace, Caitlin Thomas, a dynamic speaker,&nbsp;talked about AI fluency being the new digital literacy. During the talk, I jumped over to Basecamp to share&nbsp;this thought-provoking quote with Ellii&#39;s creative Publishing team.&nbsp;

<blockquote>
&quot;AI won&#39;t replace humans, but humans who use AI will replace those who don&#39;t.&quot; 
 
~ Caitlin Thomas, National Geographic Learning 
&nbsp;
</blockquote>

Ellii&#39;s CEO, Ben Buckwold, also gave three presentations that were well attended, including a session on&nbsp;<a href="https://ellii.com/blog/ellii-polls" target="_blank">Ellii Polls</a>, our FREE interactive feature. We enjoyed hearing fun stories about <a href="https://app.ellii.com/gather/ellii-polls/names" target="_blank">names</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://app.ellii.com/gather/ellii-polls/parenting-styles" target="_blank">parenting styles</a>, and <a href="https://app.ellii.com/gather/ellii-polls/tipping" target="_blank">tipping</a>,&nbsp;and were thrilled to see how our interactive feature could inspire&nbsp;so much conversation with just a few questions.

<h2> 
Our happy place (the Ellii booth)</h2>

Back at the booth, the Ellii team was impressing teachers with&nbsp;ready-made, breaking-news, multilevel lessons about the NASA astronauts that had been stuck in space for nine months.&nbsp;

It was impossible not to to feel happy as our team&nbsp;handed out chocolate and T-shirts, especially to anyone who popped in to see what&#39;s new or&nbsp;who said the magic words (I Love Ellii). Ellii sponsored TESOL&#39;s Day 1 coffee hour in the Expo Hall, delivering some liquid life&nbsp;to a long line of thirsty TESOLers!&nbsp;

<img alt="Ellii coffee cart TESOL 2025" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/4460/content_Ellii-tesol-coffee-cart-tshirts.png" />

As they gathered up stickers, pens, and more&nbsp;fun swag, Ellii subscribers shared what they are excited about this year,&nbsp;including:&nbsp;

<ul>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/resources/casas-test-preparation" target="_blank">our NEW CASAS practice tests</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/media/videos/pronunciation" target="_blank">our Pronunciation videos</a>&nbsp;(Lise was there in person and felt like a celebrity!)</li>
	<li><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rtLIzmA29Xw&amp;t=3s">AI feedback tools</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/blog/ellii-polls">Ellii Polls</a></li>
	<li>Ellii&#39;s upcoming partnership with Cambridge University Press &mdash;Ventures (more info coming soon)</li>
</ul>

<h2>Lovely Long Beach&nbsp;&nbsp;</h2>

It was my first time in Long Beach, and even though it was slightly warmer at&nbsp;home&nbsp;in Canada,&nbsp;the sun was shining most of the week! Getting a chance to run on the beach at the crack of dawn&nbsp;with a new colleague was a joyful way to start each day.

Our team had a lovely stay at the Hyatt and enjoyed local sushi, Greek, and Thai food. Besides the orange cranberry muffins that tasted like creamsicles, the&nbsp;food that brought me the most happiness was a loaf of olive bread on the patio at Sevilla!&nbsp; 
&nbsp;

<img alt="Team Ellii at TESOL 2025" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/4461/content_Ellii-team-TESOL-2025.png" />

Wendy, Ann, Lise, Ashley, and Tara from Ellii at TESOL 2025 in Long Beach, California

<h2>Exciting announcements</h2>

Just like every year, our team arrived at TESOL with some exciting announcements. 
 
On Thursday, we celebrated the release of <a href="https://www.englishapp.com/" target="_blank">English App by Ellii</a>, our new language learning app for students available in the App Store and on Google Play! After months of building, curating, and designing in preparation for this exciting launch, it was almost hard to be away from Ellii HQ that day!&nbsp; 
 
<img alt="English App released" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/4462/content_Ellii-englishapp-cambridge-ventures.png" />

On Friday, Ben, Wendy, and I shared more exciting news at&nbsp;a TESOL session focused on an upcoming partnership&nbsp;between Ellii and&nbsp;Cambridge University Press.&nbsp;Over the years, we have learned that many Ellii subscribers use Ventures as their core text, and we&#39;re excited to offer some supplementary support for this popular CUP series.&nbsp;More on this development coming soon!

<h2>Real-time requests</h2>

You know what else brings me joy as the head of an agile publishing team? Requests from teachers! Last year at TESOL, attendees asked for many items that we have since checked off! Here are a few:

<ul>
	<li>an additional <a href="https://app.ellii.com/lesson/5227-how-to-cite-a-source-apa" target="_blank">How to Cite a Source</a>&nbsp;in English&nbsp;lesson that focuses on&nbsp;APA&nbsp;✓</li>
	<li>higher-level <a href="https://ellii.com/collections/grammar" target="_blank">grammar</a> lessons&nbsp;✓</li>
	<li>more lower-level <a href="https://ellii.com/lessons/that-s-news-to-me" target="_blank">That&#39;s News to Me</a> lessons&nbsp;&nbsp;✓</li>
	<li>the ability for administrators to create their own <a href="https://ellii.com/packs?page=1" target="_blank">Study Packs</a>&nbsp;✓</li>
	<li>more accented voices in our audio and video&nbsp;✓</li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/resources/casas-test-preparation">test prep content</a>&nbsp;✓</li>
</ul>

This year we had a few new requests that I hope we can tackle before Salt Lake City:&nbsp;

<ul>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/lessons/pronunciation" target="_blank">pronunciation lessons</a> and <a href="https://ellii.com/media/videos/pronunciation" target="_blank">videos</a> that go beyond the vowel and consant sounds (suprasegmentals)</li>
	<li>more <a href="https://ellii.com/lessons/phonics-stories" target="_blank">Phonics Stories</a></li>
	<li>the ability to create your own <a href="https://app.ellii.com/gather/ellii-polls" target="_blank">Ellii Polls</a></li>
	<li>lower-level, shorter Ellii Polls that can be done faster</li>
	<li>other fun activities like Ellii Polls</li>
	<li>work-related videos with real people in real-life scenarios</li>
	<li>more <a href="https://ellii.com/lessons/real-world-reading">Real-World Readings</a></li>
	<li>even more <a href="https://ellii.com/lessons/grammar-stories" target="_blank">Grammar Stories</a></li>
</ul>

Wherever we go these days, we always get a lot of love and requests for our videos! As one&nbsp;speaker&nbsp;mentioned, students light up when you put a video on, especially when they are in a class with a no-cellphone rule and seem to be starving for screen time.&nbsp;

<a href="https://ellii.com/media/videos" target="_blank"><img alt="Ellii Videos" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/4456/content_cute-kitty-video-TESOL-2025.jpg" /></a>

I&#39;m more of a giraffe chandelier gal than a cat person,&nbsp;but still, whenever this video came on at the Ellii booth, it brought me so much joy.

<h2>Friends of Ellii</h2>

Last year at TESOL, we got to meet Shey and Anna from our favorite ELT podcast,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.teacherthinkaloud.com/" target="_blank">The Teacher Think-Aloud Podcast</a>. This year we got to hang with&nbsp;them again and also celebrate being their podcast sponsor! We can&#39;t wait for their TESOL 2025 recap.

<img alt="Anna and Shé from the Teacher Think-Aloud Podcast with Tara Benwell and Ben Buckwold from Ellii at TESOL 2025" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/4463/content_friends-of-Ellii-TESOL2025.png" />

Speaking of sponsorship, you&nbsp;may remember Diego from coffee talks with TESOL experts&nbsp;or from our very own Ellii Con coffee talk about AI (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPg8qkpwBWk&amp;t=149s" target="_blank">How Fast Is IT Moving?</a>). Ellii sponsored Diego&#39;s time at TESOL this year, and, at the booth, Diego and I did a deep dive into Ellii&#39;s new AI feedback settings. We looked at&nbsp;<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rtLIzmA29Xw&amp;t=3s" target="_blank">Ellii&#39;s new Grade Feed</a> and how Ellii Bot&nbsp;was leaving feedback for&nbsp;his students. I helped Diego switch his settings to the recommended middle ground so that he could review and adjust the AI ratings and feedback before submitting it to his students. An interested teacher passed by to listen to our conversation and instantly wanted to learn more about why teachers love Ellii. There&#39;s nothing better than live&nbsp;<a href="https://ellii.com/tour/testimonials" target="_blank">testimonials</a> and demos by real Ellii users at the booth. Thank you, Diego!

<blockquote>
Did you attend TESOL 2025 or a recent conference or webinar? What brought you joy?
</blockquote>

Next week, we will be off to Dallas, Texas, for COABE 2025. We hope to see some of you there for a little more joy! 
 
~ Tara &amp;&nbsp;Team Ellii

<img alt="Tara Benwell in a fuzzy egg chair at TESOL 2025" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/4464/content_Tara-egg-chair-tesol.png" />

Fuzzy egg chair to relax in before a presentation? Pure joy!

Inciting Joy at TESOL 2025 in Long Beach, California

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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

<h2>Happy New Year!</h2>

This year, Ellii will be sponsoring&nbsp;<a href="https://www.teacherthinkaloud.com/" target="_blank">The Teacher Think-Aloud Podcast</a>! As&nbsp;founding fans of this #ELT podcast&nbsp;and&nbsp;firm believers in the power of reflection, we are confident this will be a great fit for Ellii.&nbsp;

In addition to enjoying&nbsp;many&nbsp;episodes and meeting up with this friendly podcast duo in person at the TESOL convention in 2024,&nbsp;Ben and I made an appearance on The Teacher Think-Aloud Podcast last year for <a href="https://ellii.com/blog/ellii-talks-materials-writing-teacher-think-aloud-podcast" target="_blank">Episode 60</a>. We loved talking about materials writing and sharing Ellii&#39;s (formerly ESL Library&#39;s) origin story with Shey and Anna.&nbsp; 
 
If you are unfamiliar with this podcast and are looking to start the year with some fresh and friendly professional development, we encourage you to browse past episodes of The Teacher Think-Aloud Podcast. If you like what you hear, be&nbsp;sure to subscribe so you don&#39;t miss all of the new shows.

In their<a href="https://www.teacherthinkaloud.com/episodes/episode/26cb7c6b/e63-2024-end-of-year-reflection" target="_blank"> 2024 End-of-Year Reflection</a> episode, Shey and Anna discussed&nbsp;some of the themes they are considering for&nbsp;2025:&nbsp;

<ul>
	<li>Ready-to-use teaching tips</li>
	<li>Career advice</li>
	<li>Broader TESOL trends</li>
	<li>Emerging ELT topics</li>
	<li>The intersection of personal and professional lives (finding balance in&nbsp;both worlds)</li>
</ul>

Find The Teacher Think-Aloud podcast in all of your favorite places:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.teacherthinkaloud.com/" target="_blank">www.teacherthinkaloud.com</a>

<ul>
	<li><a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/2zv5mVNpSqkDNiNbQlnm7B" target="_blank">Spotify</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://www.youtube.com/@thinkaloud_pod" target="_blank">YouTube</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/e60-from-teaching-to-materials-writing-a-chat-with/id1629819608?i=1000670852097" target="_blank">Apple Podcasts</a></li>
</ul>

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/shorts/tBD4sc4TzB0" target="_blank"><img alt="" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/4207/content_Ellii-Think-aloud-podcast-2025.png" /></a> 
Happy listening!

New Year, New Reflections & a Partnership with The Teacher Think-Aloud Podcast

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Posts describing lessons or activities for the ESL classroom.

Activities

Ellii&#39;s new <a href="https://ellii.com/packs/?category=6&amp;page=1" target="_self">career-specific courses</a> were initially designed to be used as self-study solutions for English learners looking to explore a variety of career pathways. While some students are waiting patiently to get into English language classes, others are looking for specialized content that meets their specific needs outside of a General English class.&nbsp;

Teachers or administers can assign a course, and&nbsp;ELs&nbsp;can work their way independently&nbsp;through the digital-only units on their laptops or mobile devices. All tasks and assessments are autoscored; however, we hope that teachers are&nbsp;monitoring students&#39; results and progress and helping as much as they can along the way.&nbsp; 
 
But what if you want to teach Ellii&#39;s workplace&nbsp;courses in a group setting? We know now that many teachers are previewing these ready-made courses with this question in mind.

Here are some ideas for adding speaking, writing, and other group activities into a classroom setting. Please share your own activity suggestions and feedback in the comments below!&nbsp;

<h2>Exploit the dialogues in pairs&nbsp;</h2>

Each unit in a career-specific course at Ellii&nbsp;centers around one dialogue with two or three speakers. As a self-study task, students can read and listen to the dialogues and review vocabulary in context. As a class, you can play the audio and students can follow along. Students can also take turns reading the dialogue out loud. But what else can you do in class with ready-made dialogues? Here are some ideas:

<ul>
	<li>Read the dialogues&nbsp;out loud as a pair&nbsp;and then swap roles</li>
	<li>Peform the dialogues for the teacher and work on pronunciation and intonation</li>
	<li>Swap out a set number of words or expressions and perform a new dialogue&nbsp;</li>
	<li>Write an entirely new dialogue using the key vocabulary and expressions&nbsp;</li>
	<li>Role-play what happened before</li>
	<li>Role-play what happens next</li>
</ul>

<h2>Have a class discussion after&nbsp;each scenario</h2>

<ul>
	<li>What was the dialogue mainly about?&nbsp;</li>
	<li>What went wrong?&nbsp;</li>
	<li>What went right?&nbsp;</li>
	<li>Do you think this scenario would happen&nbsp;on a daily basis? If not, how often?</li>
	<li>Is this a scenario that you could see yourself excelling in? Why or why not?</li>
	<li>Are you still interested in this career after studying this scenario? Why or why not?&nbsp;</li>
	<li>What else do you want to know about this type of scenario?</li>
</ul>

<h2>Help the new vocabulary become more sticky</h2>

Here are a bunch of activity ideas we have shared in the past about reviewing vocabulary with ELLs. We also recommend using these blank&nbsp;<a href="https://app.ellii.com/lesson/2966-vocabulary-cards" target="_self">Vocabulary Cards</a>.

<ul>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/blog/how-to-remember-vocabulary" target="_self">How to Remember Vocabulary</a>&nbsp;(Share the URGE&nbsp;method with your learners)</li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/blog/4-activities-for-reviewing-vocabulary" target="_self">4 Activities for Reviewing Vocabulary</a> (Hot Seat, Matchup, Concentration A &amp; B)</li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/blog/one-to-one-vocab-review" target="_self">One-to-One Vocabulary Review Ideas</a>&nbsp;(Wh-questions;&nbsp;Reduce, Reuse, Recyle; Speed Sort; Word Soup; and more!)</li>
</ul>

In addition, we&nbsp;hope you have already discovered the places to find related flashcards and silent clips&nbsp;(and how to use them) in this&nbsp;post: <a href="https://ellii.com/blog/career-pathways-for-newcomers" target="_self">Career Pathways for Newcomers</a>.

<h2>Have students quiz each other&nbsp;before assigning the assessments</h2>

Each workplace course has two assessments&mdash;a mid-course and a final assessment. Your students can work in pairs&nbsp;to quiz each other on the vocabulary and scenarios&nbsp;using the Review task from each unit. Alternatively, ask each student to come up with five questions and then pull them out of a box and quiz the class as a group.&nbsp;Students can raise their hands or approach the board to answer. Examples of question types include drawing, spelling, or defining&nbsp;words. Encourage students to also ask&nbsp;main idea or detail&nbsp;questions about the scenarios.&nbsp;

<ul>
	<li>Draw a call button for me.</li>
	<li>When would a nursing assistant use an ear thermometer?</li>
	<li>How does a pharmacist technician verify a person&#39;s ID?</li>
	<li>How do you spell autoclave?</li>
	<li>What kind of questions does an EMT ask when arriving at the scene of an accident?</li>
</ul>

<h2>Create your own additional units together</h2>

<ul>
	<li>Put students in pairs or groups of three.&nbsp;</li>
	<li>Have groups come up with a new scenario involving the worker (e.g., nursing assistant) and a colleague or patient/customer from the course.</li>
	<li>Encourage students to research their new scenarios. (They may want to try to use AI for this task, but make sure that they fact-check the results!)</li>
	<li>After writing a new short dialogue, encourage students to choose about 6&ndash;10 keywords that they want to teach from it. (Alternatively, encourage them to&nbsp;recycle vocabulary they learned in&nbsp;the course.)</li>
	<li>After writing their new dialogues, have students work together to peer-edit each other&#39;s work (try our <a href="https://app.ellii.com/lesson/2218-writing-correction-key" target="_self">Writing Correction Key</a>). Where would the new scenario fit best into the course?</li>
	<li>Students can then try to create other tasks to build out their lesson (matching, dialogue, vocabulary review, comprension, review), using the template that Ellii has used in the course.</li>
</ul>

<h2>Interview a professional</h2>

To build these courses, Ellii collaborated with people in the field, including nursing assistants, phlebotmists, and others. Your students could do this as well!

Do you or any of your friends, colleagues, or even students know someone who works in this field? Would they be willing to come into your class to talk to the students or even call in via speaker phone?

Have your students prepare&nbsp;some questions for a professional whether you find someone to ask or not. If you can&#39;t find someone to answer the questions live for you, consider putting students to work researching the answers to their own questions.

<h2>Reflect on the course</h2>

We hope you and your learners always take the time to reflect on the content you use at Ellii. We have plenty of reflection tools that you can use in our Assesment Tools area. Some of these tools may be useful for you to use alongside these courses. You could even have students share comments on this blog post!

<ul>
	<li><a href="https://app.ellii.com/lesson/2557-3-2-1-reflection" target="_self">3-2-1 Reflection</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://app.ellii.com/lesson/2228-exit-slips" target="_self">Exit Slips</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://app.ellii.com/lesson/3085-wrap-up" target="_self">Wrap-Up</a></li>
</ul>

<h2> 
Help Ellii design a printable workplace course template</h2>

If you are&nbsp;hoping to use paper-based versions of Ellii&#39;s workplace courses, we would love to hear from you!

<ul>
	<li>Which tasks and activites would you like to see in a paper-based version of Ellii&#39;s courses?&nbsp;Would you use an abridged printout that has the dialogue and comprehension questions, or are you looking for a full printable lesson with all of the tasks from the digital version (i.e.,&nbsp;similar to an Everyday Dialogues PDF)?</li>
	<li>Would you be using the printable version in a group or one-to-one setting?</li>
	<li>Is there a reason the digital version is not currently meeting your classroom needs?</li>
</ul>

Any suggestions or feedback you have will help as we explore how to reverse-engineer our courses for your printable needs in 2025. Thank you for your requests!

<blockquote>
What ideas do you have for adding&nbsp;engaging classroom activities to self-study materials.
</blockquote>

Transform Self-Study Workplace Courses into Engaging Group-Learning Experiences

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Every week, our Customer Support team answers dozens of questions from Ellii subscribers. The Support team&nbsp;passes some of these questions on to our Publishing and Product teams in order to:&nbsp; 
 
1. gather specialized tips and suggestions that will benefit teachers&nbsp; 
2. push for features, updates, and content that subscribers request 
 
Frequently asked questions&nbsp;often turn into full-length blog posts (e.g., <a href="https://ellii.com/blog/categories/grammar-usage" target="_parent">grammar questions</a>), Help Docs (e.g., <a href="https://help.ellii.com/" target="_parent">step-by-step instructions</a>), or videos (e.g., in-depth feature <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2HAIBUNgKo&amp;list=PLP0N5nuiA3aM_OP18M7G9XSYjXigIuunA" target="_parent">explainers</a>).&nbsp;Reflecting on questions like these&nbsp;also helps us think about what we can do to improve the user experience for teachers, students, and administrators.

Here is a question the Customer Support team passed on to the Publishing team this week.

<blockquote>
I was wondering which lessons already have built-in assessments. For example, your <a href="https://app.ellii.com/lesson/1754-making-requests" target="_parent">Making Requests</a> lesson, found in the <a href="https://ellii.com/lessons/functional-english" target="_parent">Functional English</a> section, already has a ready-made assessment included with it.
</blockquote>

For 20+ years, Ellii (formerly ESL Library) has been creating materials&nbsp;focused primarly on helping students learn, practice, and use&nbsp;real and relevant English.

We began incorporating formative and summative assessments into our ready-made lessons and courses several&nbsp;years ago when teacher&nbsp;requests for ready-made assessments&nbsp;began to pour in.&nbsp;

With so many different types of lesson sections and resources available at Ellii, we did not take&nbsp;a standardized approach when it came to adding assessments. For example, we added multiple-choice quizzes to our&nbsp;foundational sections that focus on grammar and vocabulary. For sections focusing on life skills, we added assessments more aligned with&nbsp;real-world tasks with ready-made tools for grading and offering feedback.&nbsp;

While some teachers appreciated our ready-made rubrics, other preferred editable ones that they could customize. To answer this need, we developed an Evaluation resource category in our&nbsp;<a href="https://ellii.com/resources/assessment-tools" target="_parent">Assessment Tools</a> section and added generic forms that could be used with a variety of lessons.

<h1>Index of assessments on Ellii</h1>

As we work on improving how teachers can find suitable assessments on Ellii, we&nbsp;hope the index below&nbsp;will give you a better idea of what types of assessments you will find in sections that have built-in assessments.

We also have several sections that were designed to focus on skill using, and we do not have plans to add assessments to these. If you come across a lesson or section that you think would benefit from the addition of&nbsp;built-in assessments, please let us know!&nbsp; Note that some of our older lessons in the sections below may be missing a printable or digital&nbsp;assessment.

<h2><a href="https://ellii.com/resources/assessment-tools" target="_parent">Diagnostics</a></h2>

The following tests are available to help you get a better idea of your students&#39; proficiency levels. This can then help you determine which level of Ellii you should set your filters to when browsing lessons for these students.

<ul class="resources">
	<li class="lesson"><a href="https://app.ellii.com/lesson/4226-ellii-placement-test" target="_self">Ellii Placement Test (Speaking &amp; Writing)</a>&nbsp;(Multiple-Choice and Open Answer: Grammar, Listening, Reading, Writing, Speaking)</li>
	<li class="lesson"><a href="https://app.ellii.com/lesson/4164-ellii-placement-quiz" target="_self">Ellii Placement Test (Autograded)</a> (Multiple-Choice: Grammar, Listening, Reading)</li>
	<li class="lesson"><a href="https://app.ellii.com/lesson/5607-ellii-exit-test-autograded">Ellii Exit Test (Autograded)</a>&nbsp;(Multiple-Choice: Grammar, Listening, Reading)</li>
	<li class="lesson"><a href="https://app.ellii.com/lesson/2448-grammar-test-1" target="_self">Grammar Test 1</a></li>
	<li class="lesson"><a href="https://app.ellii.com/lesson/2449-grammar-test-2" target="_self">Grammar Test 2</a></li>
	<li class="lesson"><a href="https://app.ellii.com/lesson/2450-grammar-test-3" target="_self">Grammar Test 3</a></li>
	<li class="lesson"><a href="https://app.ellii.com/lesson/2451-grammar-test-4" target="_self">Grammar Test 4</a></li>
</ul>

<img alt="speaking task placement test" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/4100/content_Ellii_placement-test-speaking.png" />

A sample speaking question from Ellii&#39;s Placement Test.

<h2><img alt="grammar test 2 writing" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/4099/content_Ellii-Grammar-Test-2-Writing.png" /></h2>

A sample index of questions and a sample writing question from the digital version of Ellii&#39;s Placement Test.

<h2><a href="https://ellii.com/resources/casas-test-preparation" target="_blank">CASAS Test Preparation</a></h2>

In this section, you will find ready-made practice tests for all levels of the CASAS STEPS Reading and Listening tests. These tests are modeled after the CASAS STEPS tests and will give your students practice and help them become familiar with the types of questions they will encounter on the real tests. The amount of time students have and the number of times they can listen to the audio is identical to the real tests.

<a href="https://ellii.com/resources/casas-test-preparation" target="_blank"><img alt="" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/4925/content_Screen_Shot_2025-09-17_at_2.01.13_PM.png" /></a>

To use the tests in practice mode during class time, you can click on the left menu and launch the questions in a Task player. Otherwise, assign a test to your students and they will see it in the same way as you do when you click the Launch assessment button.

<a href="https://ellii.com/resources/casas-test-preparation" target="_blank"><img alt="practice task or test mode" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/4926/content_Screen_Shot_2025-09-17_at_2.03.43_PM.png" /></a>

&nbsp;

<h2><a href="https://ellii.com/lessons/grammar-practice-worksheets" target="_parent">Grammar Practice Worksheets</a></h2>

This is our most popular grammar section. A suggested teaching order is available.&nbsp;

<ul>
	<li>printable quizzes</li>
	<li>digital quizzes</li>
</ul>

Note: We&#39;ve had some requests to offer assessments in our companion grammar section for young learners (<a href="https://ellii.com/lessons/fun-grammar-lessons" target="_parent">Fun Grammar Lessons</a>). If this is something you would like to see on Ellii, be sure to let us know.

<img alt="grammar assessment printable" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/4071/content_Grammar-printable-quiz.png" />

A sample assessment from a printable lesson in&nbsp;Grammar Practice Worksheets.

<h2 class="caption"><a href="https://ellii.com/lessons/super-simple-grammar" target="_parent">Super Simple Grammar</a></h2>

This section offers verb basic grammar drills focused on a single target.&nbsp;

<ul>
	<li>printable quizzes</li>
	<li>digital quizzes&nbsp;</li>
</ul>

<h2><a href="https://ellii.com/lessons/functional-english" target="_parent">Functional English</a></h2>

This life skills section centers around real-world dialogues. It focuses on teaching everyday vocabulary and expressions used in daily&nbsp;interactions.&nbsp;Each lesson includes&nbsp;a few short dialogues.

<ul>
	<li>printable review tasks for assessment purposes with ready-made rubrics</li>
	<li>digital assessment tasks (some include videos)</li>
</ul>

<img alt="functional english assessment" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/4074/content_Functional-english-assessment.png" />

A sample ready-made rubric from the&nbsp;Functional English section.&nbsp;&nbsp;

<h2><a href="https://ellii.com/lessons/english-basics" target="_parent">English Basics</a></h2>

This section offers&nbsp;lessons for newcomers with very low-literacy skills.

<ul>
	<li>printable assessment with ready-made rubrics</li>
	<li>digital assessment (check)</li>
</ul>

<img alt="money assessment tool b" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/4092/content_money-assessment-tool-ellii.png" />

A sample assessment&nbsp;and rubric from the English Basics section.&nbsp;&nbsp;

<h2><a href="https://ellii.com/lessons/everyday-dialogues" target="_parent">Everyday Dialogues</a></h2>

This life skills section centers around real-world dialogues. It focuses on teaching everyday vocabulary and expressions used in English-speaking communities and&nbsp;workplaces. Each lesson introduces one main dialogue. Assessments may introduce new dialogues while reviewing targeted language. Role-plays that can be used for assessment purposes are available in each lesson. A generic <a href="https://app.ellii.com/lesson/2771-role-play-assessment-tool" target="_parent">assessment tool</a> is also available.

<ul>
	<li>printable review tasks that can be used for assessment purposes&nbsp;</li>
	<li>role-plays that can be used for assessment purposes</li>
</ul>

<img alt="everyday dialogues sample assessment" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/4082/content_Screen_Shot_2024-11-05_at_11.39.31_AM.png" />

<h2><a href="https://ellii.com/lessons/real-world-reading" target="_parent">Real-World Reading</a></h2>

This life skills section centers around real-world reading and vocabulary. Each lesson features&nbsp;materials with&nbsp;authentic formats, such as receipts, maps, posters, and emails. These materials help prepare adult ed students to answer reading questions on&nbsp;standardized proficiency tests.

<ul>
	<li>printable assessment with ready-made rubrics</li>
	<li>digital assessment</li>
</ul>

<img alt="real-world reading digital assessment" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/4101/content_Ellii-digital-assessment-sample.png" />

A sample digital assessment from&nbsp;the Real-World Reading section.

<h2><a href="https://ellii.com/lessons/reading-in-english" target="_parent">Reading in English</a></h2>

This academic English&nbsp;section centers around reading strategies. It focuses on reading skills that are useful for improving comprehension.&nbsp;Each lesson is based on&nbsp;one main reading skill.

<ul>
	<li>printable assessment with ready-made rubrics</li>
	<li>digital assessment (check)</li>
</ul>

<h2><a href="https://ellii.com/lessons/writing-in-english" target="_parent">Writing in English</a></h2>

This academic English&nbsp;section centers around writing&nbsp;strategies. It focuses on writing&nbsp;skills that are useful for academic and workplace purposes.&nbsp;Each lesson hones in&nbsp;on&nbsp;one main writing skill.

<ul>
	<li>printable writing challenge</li>
	<li>digital writing challenge&nbsp;</li>
</ul>

<img alt="digital writing challenge" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/4102/content_Ellii-sample-writing-assessment.png" />

A sample writing assessment from the digital version or a Writing in English lesson.&nbsp;

<h2><a href="https://ellii.com/lessons/career-pathways" target="_parent">Career Pathways</a></h2>

This digital-only workplace section focuses on career exploration with an emphasis on vocabulary and reading comprehension. Each lesson introduces one possible career pathway.&nbsp;

<ul>
	<li>digital quiz</li>
</ul>

<h2><a href="https://ellii.com/lessons/super-simple-questions" target="_parent">Super Simple Questions</a></h2>

This life skills section centers around very short&nbsp;real-world dialogues for absolute beginners.&nbsp;

<ul>
	<li>printable assessment suggestions&nbsp;in answer key</li>
	<li>digital assessments</li>
</ul>

<img alt="Assessment suggestions in Answer Key" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/4084/content_Assessment-in-akey.png" />

A sample answer key excerpt with suggested tasks a teacher could use for assessment.

<h2><a href="https://ellii.com/packs/?category=43&amp;page=1" target="_parent">General English courses</a>&nbsp;</h2>

These Ellii Up courses are designed for teachers who do not use a coursebook or do not want to build their own curriculum. They&nbsp;offer a sequence of lessons from multiple sections on Ellii&nbsp;at a single proficiency level. Students can progress through the levels and take assessments as they go.

In addition to the course assessments, some lessons within each course&nbsp;have their own assessments within them.

<ul>
	<li>mid-course assessment</li>
	<li>final assessment</li>
</ul>

<h2><a href="https://ellii.com/packs/?category=3&amp;material=courses&amp;page=1" target="_parent">Grammar courses</a></h2>

These courses are designed for teachers who do not use a coursebook or do not want to build their own curriculum. They&nbsp;offer a sequence of grammar-focused lessons from multiple sections on Ellii&nbsp;at a single proficiency level. Students can progress through the levels and take assessments as they go.

<ul>
	<li>final digital assessment</li>
</ul>

<h2><a href="https://ellii.com/packs/?category=6&amp;material=courses&amp;page=1" target="_parent">Workplace&nbsp;courses</a></h2>

These ready-made courses focus on business English or career-specific English.&nbsp;They&nbsp;offer a sequence of lessons at a&nbsp;proficiency level with two main assessments. These are ideal for self-study.

<ul>
	<li>mid-course assessment</li>
	<li>final assessment</li>
</ul>

<img alt="final assessment sample workplace course on Ellii" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/4083/content_Screen_Shot_2024-11-05_at_11.44.52_AM.png" />

A sample vocabulary question from a final assessment in an Ellii workplace course.

<h2><a href="https://ellii.com/packs/?category=2&amp;material=courses&amp;page=1" target="_parent">Serials</a></h2>

These ready-made courses focus on informal English.&nbsp; They&nbsp;offer a sequence of lessons at a&nbsp;proficiency level with assessments throughout.&nbsp;

<ul>
	<li>3-4 assessments (printable/digital) per course&nbsp;</li>
</ul>

<h2><a href="https://ellii.com/resources/assessment-tools" target="_blank">Generic evaluation &amp; reflection tools</a></h2>

Ready-made printable rubrics and forms to use for a variety of purposes when assessing language learners. Below are 10 examples. Many more are available in our <a href="https://ellii.com/resources/assessment-tools" target="_parent">Assessment Tools</a> section.

<ol>
	<li><a href="https://app.ellii.com/lesson/2832-english-questionnaire" target="_parent">English Questionnaire</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://app.ellii.com/lesson/2132-reading-task-assessment-form" target="_parent">Reading Task Assessment Form</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://app.ellii.com/lesson/2131-writing-task-assessment-form" target="_parent">Writing Task Assessment Form</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://app.ellii.com/lesson/2129-speaking-task-assessment-form" target="_parent">Speaking Task Assessment Form</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://app.ellii.com/lesson/2130-listening-task-assessment-form" target="_parent">Listening Task Assessment Form</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://app.ellii.com/lesson/2326-advanced-reading-comprehension" target="_parent">Advanced Reading Comprehension</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://app.ellii.com/lesson/2383-personal-opinion-assessment-tools" target="_parent">Personal Opinion Assessment Tools</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://app.ellii.com/lesson/2126-self-evaluation-form" target="_parent">Self-Evaluation Form</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://app.ellii.com/lesson/2228-exit-slips" target="_parent">Exit Slips</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://app.ellii.com/lesson/2557-3-2-1-reflection" target="_parent">3-2-1 Reflection</a></li>
</ol>

<h1>A Note on Grading</h1>

If you&#39;re interested in learning more about Ellii&#39;s Grade Feed, please watch this video. Note that important updates are in the works, including expanding on our use of AI for grading open-ended writing and speaking responses.&nbsp;

<div class="videoWrapper"><iframe allow="autoplay; fullscreen" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/lk1zLa3MGU0?si=UxvrrU74VSMcEXEy" width="640"></iframe></div>

<blockquote>Which Ellii assessments have you used? Which tests are your students preparing for? Share thoughts and feedback about assessment in the comments. Be sure to share your feedback on&nbsp;Ellii&#39;s new CASAS practice tests!</blockquote>

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Tara Benwell